Brian Cantwell Smith, a philosopher at heart

While the late Professor Brian Cantwell Smith had bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees in computer science from MIT, he was a philosopher at heart, according to longtime colleagues and friends. Speaking on a Metaphysics panel at a “Festschrift” celebration held in honour of the former Faculty of Information Dean, panelists also noted that Smith was well ahead of his time in his philosophical work on how humans relate to machines and artificial intelligence. 

Panelist Güven Güzeldere, an Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness Researcher, who knew Smith from his time as a student at Stanford, where Smith was an adjunct professor, described him as “a truly interdisciplinary person,” with expertise in computer science, philosophy and religious studies.  

“He was not just any philosopher at heart,” said Güzeldere. “He was a metaphysicist at heart.”  

Smith’s concerns about AI were prescient, said Güzeldere as he displayed a recent New York Times headline announcing, “Humans Possess One Thing that AI Does Not? Judgment.” While Güzeldere did not suggest the article’s author knew of Smith’s work, he did say it was a good example of how Smith foresaw today’s conversation about AI in his 2019 book, The Promise of Artificial Intelligence: Reckoning and Judgment.  

“I don’t see LLMs as outrunning Brian’s critique, but rather fuflfilling it,” he said. 

Panelist Joel Walmsley, a former PhD student of Smith’s who is now a lecturer at University College Cork, recalled how Smith was known to discuss his work anytime, any place. He described a conversation he had with Smith while unloading a U-Haul of books. “There are only three questions in philosophy,” Smith, who held a cross-appointment with the U of T Department of Philosophy, told him. “What is there? How do you know? And why should you care?” 

During the question-and-answer period, there was a spirited discussion about the influence of religion on Smith’s work, a question that arose throughout the day. “Brian was a profoundly religious person,” said his good friend, Professor Henry S. Thompson of the University of Edinburgh. “He just didn’t have anything to do with organized churches.” 

Also on the panel was Joseph Rouse, Hedding Professor of Moral Science at Wesleyan University, who can be seen here in a 2022 discussion with Smith on “Inference in a Nonconceptual World” held by Yale University. 

During the discussion, there were multiple references to Smith’s website, Age of Significance website, as well as to his upcoming book, Computational Reflections, a critique of the philosophical foundations of computing.

Read a recap of the Festschrift and see videos of all three panels