Re: [-empyre-] Digital Spiritual

[David Fono <fono@cs.queensu.ca>]

I think tapping spirituality via a Computer, [capital C], is a very 
tricky proposition.

That's because a Computer is locked down in awfully particular 
metaphors and interaction styles -- we interact with Computers in a 
very limited, superficial way, which reduces most interactions to 
superficial manipulations. This is the cognitive dissonance that arises 
with many people when they try to converse with others over instant 
messaging -- they find it impossible to connect to the other person, as 
they normally would. They're in front of the screen, they're working on 
a virtual desktop, point 'n' click, drag 'n' drop, ad nauseum... using 
a Computer requires a suspension of disbelief, because you're 
communicating in a lexicon and within a context that has only abstract, 
academic bearing on real life. When you're using a Computer, it is very 
hard to forget that you're doing so. Thus, I think any attempt to use 
the Computer to speak to something as deep and soulful as spirituality, 
would reduce it to something very superficial as well. When you talk to 
your soul the same way you talk to Excel, it's hard to take it very 
seriously.

On the other hand, I think there is great potential in this realm for 
computers [lower case c]. The particularly peculiar demands exacted on 
us by Computers can and will be opened up, so we can interact with them 
more naturally, as Environment rather than Device. At that point, there 
will be much more of a chance to harness their informational power to 
explore something as nebulous and elusive as spirituality. This is 
actually one of the current overarching goals in the field of human 
computer interaction. One can explore these possibilities now, using 
experimental technology, and that's what a lot of the better 
technological installations do. I recently completed my first such 
effort, an Electric Confessional 
(http://www.exposedbrain.com/archives/000072.html), which uses neither 
a screen nor an input device -- and it just _feels_ so much more real, 
so much less contrived, and so much more accessible on one's own human 
terms.

Cheers,
Fono [long time lurker, first time poster]