I guess this was inevitable. Every time we create a new type of technology, someone immediately wants to use it for some kind of magic or energy work. I'll let other people do the experimentation, thanks.
I was definitely among the early Internet technomagick expirementers. My first coven was a cybercoven, and we did Esbats and Sabbats via IRC. When I got my first Smartphone I went through all sorts of apps looking for magickal applications.
Some things worked better than others. For me, AI is much of all that old stuff rolled into a giant package, that includes the best and worst of everything.
So, I'm going to quibble with this a bit, "Suppose AI functions as a container generator and AI is fueled by nuclear power. In that case, you have far more than the minimum necessary for a spirit to exist on the material plane."
Whether the AI computers are powered by wind, solar, coal, nuclear, geothermal, or humans running on hamster wheels, electricity is electricity. The AI isn't running on nuclear power, though it does consume a phenomenal amount of electricity--which brings up the environmental questions of, is AI a responsible use of the finite and precious resource of electricity? The demand for more power is what caused Microsoft to resurrect a nuclear power plant, after all. A ouiji board or pendulum or tarot deck, meanwhile, has material and energetic costs (though it's one-time, until you break the item and replace it), so it's not like there's a 'perfect' environmental choice (outside of just going outside and waiting for an omen to happen, perhaps), but the electrical cost has me concerned, as the reported estimates for both training an AI and subsequently running it are huge.
I also don't know about lightbulbs and hungry ghosts. Before cheap lighting, people might run one candle or oil lamp, but they mostly did things in the dim and dark. I don't know that ghosts should be able to expect to consume huge amounts of energy to manifest, or that they need to, or that that was ever normal. Maybe things are going back to the way they were originally. Ghosts may be able to affect LEDs less than incandescents due to the electromagnetics involved, but I wouldn't conclude that we're now starving them as a result.
These are all solid thoughts and points. I concur that the reactivating of a nuclear generator is concerning. Do I think spirit communication is the best use of AI? No. There are multitudes of cultural traditions for spirit contact that come no batteries or nuclear generators required.
However, if people are going to do it, and some are, I would rather they do it right. Having more people having real experiences and knowing the difference between spiritual delusion and spiritual encounter is important to me, even if the encounter shows them that the occult is not for them.
As to my comments on ghosts and how they consume energy, not all spirits are ghosts (just to control for that, I know you know that) and it is true that not all ghosts take nutrition (for lack of a better word) the same way. As a person that can see them without going into altered states/medium modes, I am observing and encountering more ghosts going to town on light bulbs in more homes that previously never saw issues, directly asking for a food source if they are perceived, or straight up attaching to their living relatives' energy. In some ways those that are making an active choice to hang out on the material plane are making an impact on the power grid - and that impact on my clients' power bills has definitely not been minimal. Four different clients in the past year have seen a drop in their power bills they considered significant after I found their house ghosts new real estate or alternate power sources.
I acknowledge that most of my spirit world experience is of the extremes and outliers. So I may be percieving hungry ghosts (in the literal and not Chinese cultural sense) because my vocation gives me both skewed experience and perspective.
Yeah, I totally get why you had a "how to use AI for this" article (because I've already seen people doing it, might as well point out the dangers there) but this separate article feels like a step back to take a bigger a look at what's really going on under the hood and in context.
That's super interesting about your clients' power bills and I don't doubt the correlation you've found (adjusting for seasonal variation in power usage related to weather, like running the AC or fans), but I'm not sure how to correlate having ghosts feeding on lights or not with LED vs. incandescent use, I feel like I'm missing a throughline here... Are you finding that people switch to LEDs and get more ghost problems afterwards?
Yes, they are having more ghost problems where they go from passively draining the environment to a little more poltergeistish (or a lot more, Michigan ghosts are enthusiastic about their hauntings.)
I guess this was inevitable. Every time we create a new type of technology, someone immediately wants to use it for some kind of magic or energy work. I'll let other people do the experimentation, thanks.
I was definitely among the early Internet technomagick expirementers. My first coven was a cybercoven, and we did Esbats and Sabbats via IRC. When I got my first Smartphone I went through all sorts of apps looking for magickal applications.
Some things worked better than others. For me, AI is much of all that old stuff rolled into a giant package, that includes the best and worst of everything.
So, I'm going to quibble with this a bit, "Suppose AI functions as a container generator and AI is fueled by nuclear power. In that case, you have far more than the minimum necessary for a spirit to exist on the material plane."
Whether the AI computers are powered by wind, solar, coal, nuclear, geothermal, or humans running on hamster wheels, electricity is electricity. The AI isn't running on nuclear power, though it does consume a phenomenal amount of electricity--which brings up the environmental questions of, is AI a responsible use of the finite and precious resource of electricity? The demand for more power is what caused Microsoft to resurrect a nuclear power plant, after all. A ouiji board or pendulum or tarot deck, meanwhile, has material and energetic costs (though it's one-time, until you break the item and replace it), so it's not like there's a 'perfect' environmental choice (outside of just going outside and waiting for an omen to happen, perhaps), but the electrical cost has me concerned, as the reported estimates for both training an AI and subsequently running it are huge.
I also don't know about lightbulbs and hungry ghosts. Before cheap lighting, people might run one candle or oil lamp, but they mostly did things in the dim and dark. I don't know that ghosts should be able to expect to consume huge amounts of energy to manifest, or that they need to, or that that was ever normal. Maybe things are going back to the way they were originally. Ghosts may be able to affect LEDs less than incandescents due to the electromagnetics involved, but I wouldn't conclude that we're now starving them as a result.
These are all solid thoughts and points. I concur that the reactivating of a nuclear generator is concerning. Do I think spirit communication is the best use of AI? No. There are multitudes of cultural traditions for spirit contact that come no batteries or nuclear generators required.
However, if people are going to do it, and some are, I would rather they do it right. Having more people having real experiences and knowing the difference between spiritual delusion and spiritual encounter is important to me, even if the encounter shows them that the occult is not for them.
As to my comments on ghosts and how they consume energy, not all spirits are ghosts (just to control for that, I know you know that) and it is true that not all ghosts take nutrition (for lack of a better word) the same way. As a person that can see them without going into altered states/medium modes, I am observing and encountering more ghosts going to town on light bulbs in more homes that previously never saw issues, directly asking for a food source if they are perceived, or straight up attaching to their living relatives' energy. In some ways those that are making an active choice to hang out on the material plane are making an impact on the power grid - and that impact on my clients' power bills has definitely not been minimal. Four different clients in the past year have seen a drop in their power bills they considered significant after I found their house ghosts new real estate or alternate power sources.
I acknowledge that most of my spirit world experience is of the extremes and outliers. So I may be percieving hungry ghosts (in the literal and not Chinese cultural sense) because my vocation gives me both skewed experience and perspective.
To add, I did misspeak as no AI is nuclear powered YET. And the massive amount of fuel it tales to power AI is deeply concerning.
Yeah, I totally get why you had a "how to use AI for this" article (because I've already seen people doing it, might as well point out the dangers there) but this separate article feels like a step back to take a bigger a look at what's really going on under the hood and in context.
That's super interesting about your clients' power bills and I don't doubt the correlation you've found (adjusting for seasonal variation in power usage related to weather, like running the AC or fans), but I'm not sure how to correlate having ghosts feeding on lights or not with LED vs. incandescent use, I feel like I'm missing a throughline here... Are you finding that people switch to LEDs and get more ghost problems afterwards?
I am finding they can't get enough energy from an LED. I assumed they were eating photons, but maybe it is a wattage issue?
Yes, they are having more ghost problems where they go from passively draining the environment to a little more poltergeistish (or a lot more, Michigan ghosts are enthusiastic about their hauntings.)