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ANIMISM_GIDGET

                                          August 31, 2022

Do the creations of human
beings have souls?
                                  I know, let's
                                  ask Siri.


Five papers on the subject which
use the digital world as examples:

    "Neo-Animism and Design A New Paradigm in Object Theory" (2015)
    Betti Marenko

    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175470814X14031924627185

        "This article argues that our apprehension of the world is
        increasingly colored by animistic connotations. Traces of
        animism-- the idea that objects and other nonhuman entities
        possess a soul, life force, and qualities of
        personhood-- are evident in the way we talk to our
        computers, cars, and smartphones, and in our expectations
        that they will reply more or less instantaneously. As the
        Internet of Things becomes more mainstream, the fact that
        our phone communicates with our thermostat, car, washing
        machine, or bathroom scale is no longer a future
        scenario; it is increasingly a shared reality. Our way of
        experiencing everyday objects is changing to accommodate
        their shifting nature, purpose, and agency."



    "Designed animism"
    Brenda Laurel

    https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1176617.1176619

       "...  When we embed what Rob Tow calls
        'perception-representation-action loops' in objects and
        spaces, we enter a realm that I call designed animism."

        "What are the poetics of this newly animistic world?
        And, does it have a soul."


                                  And, what about Naomi?

    "The Revenge of the Machines: On Modernity, Digital
     Technology and Animism" (2005)
     Stef Aupers

    https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789047416173/B9789047416173_s011.xml

        "This article is the result of an empirical study of the
        affinity between new technology and religion. I will
        limit myself to one specific manifestation of this
        relationship. In his book, TechGnosis: Myth, Magic and
        Mysticism in the Age of Information, Erik Davis (1998)
        writes about a group of Information and Communication
        Technology (ICT) experts who refer to themselves as
        'technopagans', 'technoshamans' and 'technowitches'."

     Not to mention techno DJs.


    "Technological Animism The Uncanny Personhood of Humanoid
    Machines in Social Analysis" (2016)
    Kathleen Richardson

    https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/social-analysis/60/1/sa600108.xml?rskey=5ydr1v&result=148&utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Social_Analysis_TrendMD_0

        "I propose the concept of ‘technological animism’ to
        explore how fiction and technoscience co-construct each
        other, with roboticists drawing inspiration from
        positive fictional models, as among Japanese scientists,
        or frequently rejecting such models, as among their
        North American colleagues."



    "Cybernetic animism Non-human personhood and the internet" (2018)
    Devin Proctor

    https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315107479-12/cybernetic-animism-devin-proctor


    "Similarly, internet use involves occupying space with both
    human and non-human others: 'bots' and self-replicating codes,
    exerting agency and acting in supposedly human ways. The author
    calls this experience cybernetic animism"

    "Paradoxically, we can uncover truths about our own
    technologically hyper-mediated selves by looking to the
    belief systems of small indigenous societies in Brazilian
    jungles and Siberian tundra."

    "Answers to this question lie with the Otherkin community--
    a group of people, primarily based on the internet, who
    identify as other-than-human. They recognize their bodies'
    biological humanity but argue that they also contain
    non-human aspects, manifesting in non-material forms such as
    bodily urges, dreams and memories. With their pagan/animist
    belief structure and reliance on technological mediation,
    the Otherkin epitomize cybernetic animism."


Oh, that's technological *mediation*.  I read that as "meditation".



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