Artificial Intelligence and the Conditions of Life
Tool, Oracle, Idol, Enclosure, or Commons?By Dr. Bichara Sahely
Length2h 14m
About this audiobook
Artificial Intelligence and the Conditions of Life asks whether AI will remain a bounded tool, become a seductive oracle, harden into a technological idol, expand as enclosure, or be governed as a life-serving commons. This audiobook edition explores AI as a powerful symbolic technology that can either serve life or replace the conditions of wisdom, care, responsibility, participation, and ecological accountability. At its center is a simple test: does this AI system help life continue, recover, and flourish? Dr. Bichara Sahely offers a life-coherent framework for keeping AI corrigible by life, so that power, code, data, and intelligence return to the real conditions of human and ecological flourishing.
Audiobook details
GenreTechnology, Politics and Government
Length2 hrs 14 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJun 8, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Chapter 1
2Listener Note
3Opening Summary
41. Introduction: AI as the Defining Test of Symbolic
5Chapter 2. From Symbolic Intelligence to Life-Capacity
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6Chapter 3. The Five Possible Roles of AI
73.1 AI as Tool
83.2 AI as Oracle
93.3 AI as Idol
103.4 AI as Enclosure
113.5 AI as Commons
123.6 The Governing Relation Among the Five Roles
13Chapter 4. The Inner Algorithms AI Scales
14Chapter 5. AI and the New Forms of Harm
155.1 Direct AI Harm
165.2 Structural AI Harm
175.3 Cultural AI Harm
185.4 Spiritual and Developmental AI Harm
195.5 The Four-Layer Harm Test
20Chapter 6. The Life-Capacity Test for AI
216.1 Continue: Does AI Protect Basic Life-Conditions?
226.2 Recover: Does AI Improve Feedback, Repair, and Redress?
236.3 Flourish: Does AI Develop Higher Capacities?
246.4 The Net Life-Capacity Question
256.5 Minimum Life-Coherent Requirements for AI Deployment
26Chapter 7. Beyond Alignment: Life-Alignment
277.1 The Limits of Preference Alignment
287.2 The Limits of Institutional Alignment
297.3 The Limits of Value Alignment
307.4 The Limits of Safety Without Life-Capacity
317.5 The Life-Alignment Standard
32Chapter 8. AI as Enclosure
338.1 Data Enclosure
348.2 Model Enclosure
358.3 Knowledge Enclosure
368.4 Attention Enclosure
378.5 Labor Enclosure
388.6 Cultural Enclosure
398.7 Governance Enclosure
408.8 AI Enclosure as World-Making Capture
41Chapter 9. AI as Commons
429.1 Commons Is Not Mere Access
439.2 Commons Requires Governance
449.3 Commons Supports Public Truth
459.4 Commons Supports Education and Learning
469.5 Commons Supports Care
479.6 Commons Supports Democratic Participation
489.7 Commons Supports Ecological Responsibility
499.8 Commons Supports Local Knowledge and Cultural Plurality
509.9 Principles of a Life-Coherent AI Commons
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