“From I-Ching to AI: Interrogating Digital Divination” presented by Davies
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Divination and Chance (full papers)
Presentation Title:
- From I-Ching to AI: Interrogating Digital Divination
Presentation Subtheme:
- Speculative practices
Presenter(s):
Abstract:
Divination denotes practices of mediation that aim to reveal hidden knowledge and sketch out speculative fu-tures before they come into being. Often employing crea-tive and playful methods, divinatory speculations wield ominous power, even when inaccurate. Today, this power is becoming concentrated within neoliberal coordinates following the professionalization of divination, most markedly through artificial intelligence (AI). Reviewing the literature of past and present divinatory practices to interrogate its methods from games to AI, this paper of-fers four key contributions: (1) it establishes divination as a media arts practice; (2) it traces transnational histories of this practice; (3) it unpacks the limitations and issues arising from AI divination, and (4) it presents strategies and tactics to confront them. Mapping the shifting power-relations and speculative practices of prediction, this paper reveals and critiques the unannounced spiritual mysticism surrounding contemporary AI and its increas-ing embrace within late-capitalist future forecasting.
