Chatbots of the gods

Mark Blythe, Elizabeth Buie

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

    32 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This paper reflects on the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI) with techno-spirituality and science fiction (SF). The paper considers science fiction treatments of spirituality, religion and "the numinous" --- a mysterious presence that evokes fascination, awe and sometimes dread --- as stimulus for exploring techno-spiritual design through "imaginary abstracts", a form of design fiction. It presents an imaginary abstract --- a summary of a paper that has not been written about a prototype that does not exist [6] --- to explore possible user reactions to an artificial intelligence system that provides spiritual advice drawn from diverse sacred texts as relevant to the user's question. The paper argues that SF is a valuable resource for creating design fiction and may help HCI build a vocabulary for techno-spiritual experiences.
    Original languageEnglish
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 26 Oct 2014
    EventNordiCHI '14 - Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction - Helsinki, Finland
    Duration: 26 Oct 2014 → …

    Conference

    ConferenceNordiCHI '14 - Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
    Period26/10/14 → …

    Keywords

    • Design fiction
    • Imaginary abstracts
    • Research through design
    • Science fiction
    • Techno-spirituality
    • User experience

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