Return to Saussure

Introduction: Inheriting the Paradox of Writing Artificial intelligence, particularly in its large language model form, presents an uncanny resemblance to the paradox of writing as described by Jacques Derrida in Of Grammatology . These systems process, rearrange, and reproduce language with astonishing fluency, yet without memory, intention, or understanding. They appear to think, but only simulate thought through traces left by others. This contradiction echoes a far older one—Plato’s myth of Theuth in the Phaedrus , where writing is both a tool for memory and a danger to it. Derrida identifies this dual nature with the term pharmakon : writing is both remedy and poison. In this essay, we explore how this ancient philosophical tension finds a modern analogue in artificial intelligence. We proceed through four interpretive layers: Plato’s suspicion of inscription, Derrida’s deconstruction of its metaphysical hierarchy, the functioning of intelligent algorithms, and the illusion of A...