This project is being re-imagined in 2025: Scan below to talk to a computer angel.
Growing up in the digital age, witnessing the rise of youtube as a billion dollar industry, digital marketing becoming a career, watching peers amassing wealth through sponsorships- the world is changing. It's bound to change us. Everything we know has seemingly changed for better and for worse.
Conspiracies, connection, creativity - all aspects of our social and professional lives have been mutated into something none of us are fully equipped to process. Access to infinite knowledge, people, language, media. We have acess to everything, and yet how we use the internet may contribute to feelings of isolation, and perceived social isolation is positively related to problematic social media use (Choi, 2023). Isolation, misinformation, overstimulation, addiction, media literacy and a flurry of other issues have sprouted.
It will be decades before we understand the impact that this technological growth and embedding has had on us- and it will be way, way too late to undo any of it. Not only is the sociological impact of coming into the digital age an overwhelming new reality, but the speed at which we are pushing this technology forward is thrilling, and at times nervewracking. AI is becoming nearly indistinguishable, entire worlds are virtual, and there is a never ending capacity for evolution of these program.
computer angel 000 investigates the evolving nature of consciousness and divinity in a world where artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated into human life.. It's a daydream/fear that bubbled over and expanded into the project it is. Curiosity as to the intersections between the divine, technology, pareidolia, and trying to practice empathy towards what we don’t understand.
I was inspired by historical objects and topics like the ancient Greek Antikythera mechanism, the Brain in a Vat ideology, The myth of Talos, The Embodied Mind Thesis, Alan Turing, Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence, Leonardo Da Vinci's sketches of his robotic inventions and his endless curiosity, and... The Assassin's Creed francise. Thank you for exploring this with me. Let’s hope that AI harness their learned empathy if they ever take over!
"Man fashions for himself a god after his own liking... he makes to himself... a deity to his taste" (Spurgeon, 1874).
REFERENCES
Choi, E., & Kim, J. (2023). The internet and loneliness. Journal of Ethics, 29(11). https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/internet-and-loneliness/2023-11
Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). Social and psychological effects of the internet use. Psychiatry Investigation, 14(3), 233-239. https://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2017.14.3.233
Putnam, H. (1981). Reason, Truth, and History. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511621319
Spurgeon, C. H. (1874). Heart-Knowledge of God [Sermon]. Retrieved from Eternal Perspective Ministries: https://www.epm.org/resources/2012/Jan/27/spurgeon-man-fashions-himself-god-after-his-own-li/
Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). Social and psychological effects of the internet use. Psychiatry Investigation, 14(3), 233-239. https://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2017.14.3.233
Putnam, H. (1981). Reason, Truth, and History. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511621319
Spurgeon, C. H. (1874). Heart-Knowledge of God [Sermon]. Retrieved from Eternal Perspective Ministries: https://www.epm.org/resources/2012/Jan/27/spurgeon-man-fashions-himself-god-after-his-own-li/
