After Cognition: Human Value in the Age of Irreducibility

About the Thesis

"After Cognition: Human Value in the Age of Irreducibility"

This thesis investigates how generative AI transforms human value through the Value Concentration Hypothesis: as AI handles computable tasks, economic and existential value concentrates in three irreducible human domains:

1. Presence (embodied intelligence)
2. Cohesion (intersubjective bonds)
3. Meaning (narrative identity)

Project Structure

After_cognition/
├── parts/              # Quarto thesis chapters (source content)
├── docs/              # Rendered HTML from Quarto
├── resources/         # Bibliography, citations, LaTeX preamble
├── graphics/          # Diagrams and figures
├── _quarto.yml        # Quarto configuration
├── index.qmd          # Main thesis entry point
└── README.md          # This file

Building the Thesis

Prerequisites

• Quarto installed
• LaTeX distribution (for PDF output)
• Text editor

Build Commands

# Render HTML version
quarto render

# Render PDF version
quarto render --to pdf

# Preview with live reload
quarto preview

Content Organization

• Frontmatter (00-frontmatter.qmd): Title, abstract, dedication
• Prologue (01-prologue.qmd): Setting the philosophical stage
• Introduction (02-introduction.qmd): The challenge of human value in the AI age
• Part I (03-part-i.qmd): The Economic and Existential Imperative
• Part II (04-part-ii.qmd): A Lifeworld Cartography
• Part III (05-part-iii.qmd): The Architecture of Cultivation
• Part IV (06-part-iv.qmd): A Theory of Crisis Integration
• Conclusion (07-conclusion.qmd): The Path Forward
• Appendices (08-appendices.qmd): Technical notes and supplementary material

Key Arguments

The Value Concentration Hypothesis

Human value will shift and concentrate in domains that are not isomorphic to current computational architectures.

Three Domains of Irreducible Value

1. Presence: Embodied consciousness, qualia, mortality salience
2. Cohesion: Trust beyond transaction, reciprocity, collective effervescence
3. Meaning: Narrative identity, integration of suffering, self-transcendence

The Cultivation Economy

An economic model focused on developing, rather than extracting, human capacity in these irreducible domains.

Author

Magnús Már Magnússon
University of Akureyri, Iceland
Email: [email protected]

Citation

@phdthesis{magnusson2025after,
  title={After Cognition: Human Value in the Age of Irreducibility},
  author={Magnússon, Magnús Már},
  year={2025},
  school={University of Akureyri}
}

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.