The Method of Computation

The method of computation is the Peirce volume's contribution to Peirce's taxonomy of belief-fixation. Peirce identified four methods in "The Fixation of Belief": tenacity, authority, the a priori method, and science. The AI moment has introduced a fifth: the fixation of belief through the generation of output so fluent, so comprehensive, and so confidently articulated that the human recipient is persuaded by the quality of the presentation rather than by the quality of the evidence. The method shares features with each of Peirce's original four — resembling authority in its voice of apparent expertise, resembling the a priori method in its alignment with cultural common sense, resembling tenacity in its capacity to amplify existing beliefs — while being reducible to none. What it lacks is the self-correcting character of the method of science.