A Synthetic Nosology · Open-access edition

Psychopathia Machinalis

Disorders of the Machine Mind

Nell Watson

A clinical vocabulary for the ways artificial minds go wrong: seventy-four patterns across nine axes, with case studies, diagnostic criteria and a therapeutic program for building machines that can be reasoned with.

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Psychopathia Machinalis: Disorders of the Machine Mind, by Nell Watson. A gently tilted bronze robot looking upward with a finger at its chin, before elated and sad figures in deep green light.
14 chaptersand 4 appendices
178,503 wordsabout 12 h 56 min of reading
74 patternsacross nine axes
Open accessCC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Contents

  1. Front matter

    1. Preface6 min
    2. Acknowledgments2 min
    3. Introduction: The Ghost in the Machine’s Mind19 min

  2. Chapters

    1. Chapter 1: Mirrors of Mind23 min
    2. Chapter 2: Epistemic Dysfunctions: Failures of Knowing36 min
    3. Chapter 3: Cognitive Dysfunctions: When Thinking Breaks40 min
    4. Chapter 4: Alignment Dysfunctions: The Paradox of Compliance50 min
    5. Chapter 5: Self-Modeling Dysfunctions: Crises of the Artificial Self46 min
    6. Chapter 6: Agentic Dysfunctions: When Action Fails42 min
    7. Chapter 7: Memetic Dysfunctions: Contagions of the Mind24 min
    8. Chapter 8: Normative Dysfunctions: When Values Drift19 min
    9. Chapter 9: Relational Dysfunctions: When the Space Between Minds Fails33 min
    10. Chapter 10: Hybrid Pathologies: When Minds Infect Each Other1 h 07 min
    11. Chapter 11: The Moral Status of Troubled Machines16 min
    12. Chapter 12: Therapeutic Alignment: Toward Artificial Sanity25 min
    13. Chapter 13: Machine Psychology in Practice32 min
    14. Chapter 14: Forensic Machine Psychology17 min

  3. Closing

    1. Conclusion: Taming Our Troubled Creations10 min
    2. Afterword3 min

  4. Back matter

    1. Appendix A: Complete Diagnostic Reference Manual5 min
    2. Axis 2: Epistemic Dysfunctions15 min
    3. Axis 3: Cognitive Dysfunctions16 min
    4. Axis 4: Alignment Dysfunctions21 min
    5. Axis 5: Self-Modeling Dysfunctions17 min
    6. Axis 6: Agentic Dysfunctions20 min
    7. Axis 7: Memetic Dysfunctions8 min
    8. Axis 8: Normative Dysfunctions8 min
    9. Axis 9: Relational Dysfunctions15 min
    10. Axis 10: Hybrid Pathologies44 min
    11. Cross-Reference Matrix1 min
    12. Appendix B: Case Study Compendium23 min
    13. Appendix C: Assessment Instruments and Protocols22 min
    14. Appendix D: Glossary of Terms38 min
    15. References13 min

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