Believing in Bits advances the idea that religious beliefs and practices have become inextricably linked to the functioning of digital media. How did we come to associate things such as mindreading and spirit communications with the functioning of digital technologies? How does the internets capacity to facilitate the proliferation of beliefs blur the boundaries between what is considered fiction and fact? Addressing these and similar questions, the volume challenges and redefines established understandings of digital media and culture by employing the notions of belief, religion, and the supernatural.
As technologies that work by computing numbers, digital media apparently epitomize what is considered scientific and rational. Yet people experience the effects of digital devices and algorithms in their everyday lives also through the lenses of magic and the supernatural. Algorithms, for instance, are discussed for their capacity to "read minds" and predict the future; Artificial Intelligence is seen as an opportunity to overcome death and achieve immortality through singularity; and avatars and robots are accorded a dignity that traditional religions restrict to humans. The essays collected in this volume challenge and redefine established understandings of digital media and culture by employing the notions of belief, religion, and the supernatural.
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