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Start Date
18-9-2024 2:00 PM
End Date
18-9-2024 2:45 PM
Keywords
chatbots, ancient practice, facsimiles, incantation, confession
Description
Over the years, studies have shown that people are very comfortable disclosing personal secrets and worries to programmed chatbots, even before the recent advent of more realistic AI chatbots. This may seem like a symptom of our new era, but this practice has ancient roots: sharing our fears and worries with facsimiles that appear to listen parallels the ancient practice of magical curse tablets, where troubled people would petition the gods for help with love, success, and competition, completing the incantation by hiding their requests where no one could see them. Today, troubled people continue to seek to conceal their emotional burdens and settle for what only feels like relief. This presents both challenge and opportunity for the Church, which is grounded in confession and absolution, as well as prayer, as God’s real answer and balm to our human brokenness and the burdens of our hearts.
Submission Type
Bible Study; Lecture; Sermon Prep
Submission Audience
Laity; Ministers; Scholars
Submission Cost
Free
Signifying Nothing: Ancient Magic, AI Confessionals, and Spiritual Care in the Church
Over the years, studies have shown that people are very comfortable disclosing personal secrets and worries to programmed chatbots, even before the recent advent of more realistic AI chatbots. This may seem like a symptom of our new era, but this practice has ancient roots: sharing our fears and worries with facsimiles that appear to listen parallels the ancient practice of magical curse tablets, where troubled people would petition the gods for help with love, success, and competition, completing the incantation by hiding their requests where no one could see them. Today, troubled people continue to seek to conceal their emotional burdens and settle for what only feels like relief. This presents both challenge and opportunity for the Church, which is grounded in confession and absolution, as well as prayer, as God’s real answer and balm to our human brokenness and the burdens of our hearts.
