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Why is a 60-year-old AI argument going viral? Seymour Papert had thoughts.
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Hello Reader, A nearly 60-year-old paper highly skeptical of artificial intelligence is going viral on social media. Written in 1965 by MIT philosopher Hubert Dreyfus, Alchemy and Artificial Intelligence argued that the entire AI enterprise was built on a false assumption about how human minds work — and that no computer, no matter how powerful, would ever be able to replicate what makes human intelligence genuinely human. Dreyfus paid a steep professional price for saying so. According to legend, his colleagues at MIT refused to eat lunch with him. That paper's sudden resurrection reminded us that our friend, colleague, mentor, and the father of educational computing, Dr. Seymour Papert, authored a scathing repudiation of it in 1968. Papert's response, The Artificial Intelligence of Hubert L. Dreyfus: A Budget of Fallacies, named specific logical errors in Dreyfus' argument that are just as common in today's AI debates as they were sixty years ago. We wrote about why the Dreyfus paper is going viral, what it actually argues, what Papert got right in pushing back, and what both of them together have to offer anyone trying to think carefully about AI in schools. We hope you'll read it.
Educating is a Political Act"This is why I believe that today we must have the courage to affirm a seemingly simple, but deeply radical thesis: educating is a political, non-violent act of peace." "Every day, in schools, a silent but decisive job is done: we learn to listen, to collaborate, to respect, to discuss without destroying, to live between differences. They are apparently ordinary gestures.In reality they are the democratic antibodies of a society." The president of Fondazione Reggio Children, Francisco Profumo, wrote this newspaper editorial (translated into English). It was published mere weeks before our institute, The Language of Computation – Constructing Modern Knowledge in Reggio Emilia. Ciao dall'Italia!We have arrived in Italy and are getting ready for The Language of Computation - Constructing Modern Knowledge in Reggio Emilia next week! The stage is set for a fantastic five days of learning and collaborating. We can't wait to welcome participants from all around the world. Stay tuned and we will share some of our learning adventures! Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez |
Constructing Modern Knowledge
Join us for news, resources, and events for creative, progressive educators
Hello Reader, In between leading a lecture/workshop on computational making at Italy’s University of Padova and a forthcoming lecture at The University of Bologna, Gary and I have been hard at work planning for our institute, The Language of Computation – Constructing Modern Knowledge in Reggio Emilia (June 15-19, 2026). It is not too late to join us! Gary being introduced by Professor Emanuele Menegatti Who else is in Reggio Emilia? Do you know who else is excited to be learning about...
We're thrilled to announce a new book from CMK Press: History in Their Hands: Teaching Inquiry-Based United States History Through the Lens of Black Agency by Beth Krasemann. This book is wholly consistent with the CMK Press philosophy — trust students, empower teachers, expand opportunities for knowledge construction. The learning-by-making here just happens to be in U.S. history. Students are armed with primary sources — text, visuals, audio, and video — and challenged to socially construct...
Hello Reader, We both began programming computers around fifty years ago. What has recently become possible blows our minds. We are sharing two new pieces from Gary — an essay and a working paper — to inspire deeper computational making by learners of all ages, and by the educators who teach them. GARY'S NEW ESSAY AI Fuels My Imagination Forty years ago, Brian Silverman wrote a small Apple II program called The Phantom Fishtank that let learners explore cellular automata through play. Gary...