<i>Enchanting Technology</i>

Malefyt, Timothy de Waal

doi:10.1111/1467-8322.12333

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…And yet the enchantment that took place does not fit Gell's idea that the technology of enchantment is for social purposes, aimed at controlling the thoughts and actions of other people (Malefyt 2017). Rather, it is uniquely personal, involving individual people's idiosyncratic ways of using the technology in their cars.…”

Section: Scenario 6: Gps and The Enchantment Of Technologymentioning

confidence: 98%

Magical Capitalism

Moeran¹

2017

jba

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This essay looks at ways in which various branches of capitalist enterprise and their supporting mechanisms are often not as rational as they make themselves out to be, but operate instead according to magical premises. Magical thinking, as a mode of thought, creates or invokes extraordinary connections between things, people, organizations, and beliefs in order to understand, explain, influence, and occasionally predict, events. Magical practices involve magicians, magical rites, and magical representations -almost invariably working together to perform the overcoming of uncertainty. And uncertainty, in the sense of unpredictability, is what underpins government, business, and the economy. The essay makes use of seven scenarios -ranging from Davos and Brexit to GPS and Japanese manga -to illustrate how politicians, media, education, and various forms of cultural production make use of language, technologies, and images to perform magic in contemporary societies.

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Section: Scenario 6: Gps and The Enchantment Of Technologymentioning

confidence: 98%

Magical Capitalism

Moeran¹

2017

jba

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“…The perceptual mechanism of enchantment itself-the gap in understanding that disorients and captivates-often plays a significant role in the key ethical challenges associated with digital products, especially when powered by AI. On the one hand, people have higher chances of improperly calibrating trust in artificial agents [30] if the capabilities of this are enhanced through the language of magic. As Wolf and colleagues [126] argue: "Users 'enchanted' by deceptive machines are likely to make inappropriate decisions based on these deceptions".…”

Section: Perils Of Enchantmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Un)making AI Magic: A Design Taxonomy

Lupetti,

Murray-Rust

2024

Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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“…Somehow, this process is endowed with a teleological and post hoc nature, just like several forms of enchantment: faith in a combination of actions that leads to expectations from the audience, culminating in ecstasy, astonishment, and an expanded sense of power when it works (Belk et al, 1989;De Waal Malefyt, 2017;Douglas, 1984;Higgins and Hamilton, 2016;Rolfe, 2016).…”

Section: The Internal Digital Organsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The symbol, as proposed here, is justified given humankind's long-lasting fascination for achieving something beyond what is given by an Almighty divinity. In fact, the volitional cyborgization places humanity one step closer to its ancient dream of performing god-like miracles (Belk et al, 2020;Belk, 2017a;Davis, 2004;De Waal Malefyt, 2017;Gell, 2008;Mayor, 2018;Musiał, 2019). Although hubristic behavior is millenary, echoing along the ages with terrifying consequences, our ambivalent quest for transcendence makes us transgress by "eating ourselves", just as the snake and dragon do.…”

Section: Cyborg's Interactive Modes Of Existencementioning

confidence: 99%

Defying the Gods and the Odds: On Being a Cyborg

LIMA¹

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Humanity's fascination for achieving something beyond what is given by an Almighty divinity can be found in many episodes since ancient times. Our quest for creation, extension, and controlling different forms of life, such as gods do, has been semiotically echoed through religions, myths, SCI-FI productions, and, of course, science. From the magical creation of Homunculi to the Altered Carbon dystopian setting, several issues arise from this complex relationship, perhaps mainly because of the rebellious act of benevolence committed by Prometheus, the fire (technology)-bringer. Although prior studies investigated technology consumption from different perspectives, they mostly employed a Heideggerian approach to them and, thus, viewed the technological device as only a tool. Given the consumption of insideable technologies, the way that we have been experiencing the dissolving boundaries between humans and machines, and the emerging changes in the human ontological status, the ensuing consequences, remain overlooked. To explore this singular phenomenon, based on abductive reasoning, I developed my theorization on the Interactive Self, mostly based on Sartre's latter existential-phenomenology approach. To do so, I had a prolonged and intensive immersion in the biohacking context, specifically grinding (cyborgs), that began in 2017 with a combination of netnography, ethnography, phenomenological interviews, and autoethnography. To analyze the large collected dataset, I followed the French Semiotics postulates, especially taking into account the existentialphenomenological turn in the Parisian School of Semiotics. As a result of this inquiry, my theoretical claim is that the Interactive Self is sustained by the process of the externalization of the internal and the internalization of the external in dialectical and perpetual dynamics. To sustain this argument and answer my research questions, I present this novel concept in two ways: First, I describe the conceptual components for the ontological condition of being a cyborg by means of NFC microchip consumption. Subsequently, I promote an articulation of Sartre's modes of existence within the aspect of volitional cyborgization, which places PUC-Rio -Certificação Digital Nº 1711876/CA humanity one step closer in its ancient and ongoing dream of performing god-like miracles. In considering technology not as a mere tool to an end, as Heidegger would, I argue that it is a living, magical, and vibrant matter that has the power to change our ontological condition as human beings. In doing so, my research contributes to discussions on technology consumption, identity projects, and, tangentially, bioethics in consumer research within the context of Transhumanism.

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Enchanting Technology

Cited by 6 publications

References 8 publications

Magical Capitalism

Magical Capitalism

(Un)making AI Magic: A Design Taxonomy

Defying the Gods and the Odds: On Being a Cyborg

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