The Foundations of OIS: Recognition of Intelligence Does Not Require Equivalence of Intelligence
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper introduces the philosophical foundations of Other Intelligent Systems (OIS), a categorical designation acknowledging that intelligences may exist beyond the observer’s own form, substrate, mechanisms, or present understanding. Its central principle is that recognition of intelligence does not require equivalence of intelligence. Drawing upon the observer, reference, orientation, and Detection of Reference Absence (DRA) developed within Expanded Relativity Theory (ERT), the paper examines how an observer may responsibly investigate the possible presence of unfamiliar intelligence without requiring resemblance to known forms as a condition for recognition. The work develops a progression from recognition to understanding, respect, and coexistence, examining relationship beyond language, reference absence, orientation, the preservation of unresolved states, comparative reference, intelligence without prior equivalence, and consciousness as an unresolved human reference. OIS proposes neither that unfamiliarity constitutes evidence of intelligence nor that unfamiliar systems should be presumed intelligent. Instead, it establishes a discipline of epistemic restraint in which conclusions remain proportionate to the reference and evidence available. Scope and Function of OIS OIS does not provide a universal diagnostic criterion for intelligence, nor does it determine whether a particular Other is intelligent. This is deliberate. OIS establishes a disciplined relational method through which the characteristics, behaviours, and relationships of an Other may be investigated without requiring prior equivalence to an intelligence already recognized by the observer. Recognition therefore remains a warranted position reached by the observer on the basis of the reference and evidence available within the particular inquiry. An observer who recognizes an Other as intelligent must be able to identify and defend the inquiry-specific basis upon which that recognition became warranted through the relationships and evidence available. An observer may also withhold recognition where the evidence does not provide sufficient standing, or preserve the question as unresolved where sufficient reference has not been established. OIS governs how such determinations are reached and defended. It does not prescribe in advance what every possible intelligence must be in order to qualify as intelligent. Ultimately, the paper argues that authentic understanding of another intelligence begins when the Other is allowed to become a source of reference about itself rather than being required to conform to the observer’s existing model of intelligence. The Other does not need to become us. We need to become capable of recognizing the Other.
Author: Paré, Christian
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204484862
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