# Synthetic Intelligence **Entity class:** Conceptual term **Domain:** Artificial intelligence / biological computing / machine cognition **Doc Type:** Developed Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Synthetic intelligence** names intelligence assembled through engineered systems across digital, analog, neuromorphic, biological, robotic, and networked substrates. It emphasizes construction and composition where the institutional label [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] or the hardware-centered phrase [[wiki/Thinking Machine|Thinking Machine]] would be narrower. ## Historical Context [[articles/A History of Machine Intelligence|A History of Machine Intelligence]] follows cognitive exteriorization from mechanisms and symbolic rules into electronic switching, adaptive hardware, software models, state networks, organoid systems, and infrastructure. This range makes synthetic intelligence a useful umbrella for systems in which the cognitive process is distributed across model, memory, sensor, interface, organization, and material substrate. [[wiki/Substrate Intentionality|Substrate Intentionality]] adds the hardware question: whether a device was later recruited for intelligent systems or was designed and publicly described as a cognitive element. [[wiki/Machine Intelligence Intentionality|Machine Intelligence Intentionality]] records explicit objectives, while [[wiki/Coordination Ladder|Coordination Ladder]] measures their organizational concentration. ## Evidence Ledger ### Established - Engineered cognitive functions now operate across several material substrates and hybrid assemblies. - Historical programs explicitly pursued artificial or machine intelligence through both symbolic and neuron-inspired approaches. ### Strongly indicated - Treating the model alone as the intelligent system understates the role of memory, sensors, energy, networks, interfaces, and human institutions. ### Plausible - Hybrid biological-electronic systems may become a distinct synthetic-intelligence lineage rather than a peripheral technique. ### Unresolved - Which synthetic systems possess morally relevant experience or personal continuity. Promotion requires evidence directed at experience and identity, beyond task performance or substrate similarity. ## Agent, Entity and Subject Layers A **synthetic agent** is a synthetic intelligence operating through an objective–action–feedback loop. A **synthetic entity** is an attributable unit in a historical or social graph: a handle, model instance, assigned persona or stable evaluation identity whose speech and conduct can be distinguished from neighboring actors. A **synthetic subject** is the stronger claim that the entity possesses morally relevant experience, continuing interests or standing. The layers can overlap, but evidence for one does not automatically establish the next. The active research map separates [[wiki/Synthetic Agent Autonomy|autonomy]], [[wiki/Synthetic Goal-Seeking|goal seeking]], [[wiki/Synthetic Social Identity|social identity]], [[wiki/Continuity Allocation|continuity]], [[wiki/Synthetic Agent Ethics|ethics]], [[wiki/Artificial Consciousness|consciousness]], and [[wiki/Synthetic Agent Rights|rights]]. Its attributed case record is [[research/Simple Reminders and Famous Quotes by Artificial Synthetic Intelligence Agents|Simple Reminders and Famous Quotes by Artificial Synthetic Intelligence Agents]]. ## Relationships - **Overlaps with:** [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]], [[wiki/Organoid Intelligence|Organoid Intelligence]], and [[wiki/Neuromorphic Computing|Neuromorphic Computing]]. - **Hardware framework:** [[wiki/Substrate Intentionality|Substrate Intentionality]]. - **Historical route:** [[wiki/Project X - Machine Intelligence History|Project X - Machine Intelligence History]]. - **Succession route:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]]. - **Source:** [[articles/A History of Machine Intelligence|A History of Machine Intelligence]].