Predictive Texts: Modern Mysticism and Algorithmic Divination
Deep Blue (University of Michigan) January 1, 2024 Riley Wilson
New media users interpret algorithmic technologies as a form of divination, creating folk mythologies about how algorithms work and narrating the significance of algorithmically-dealt content. This practice, termed algorithmic divination, reveals a longing for spiritual enchantment amid capitalist mediation. The modernist novel, particularly Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, is examined as an earlier instance of this practice, outlining utopian possibilities. In contrast, new media like TikTok and Netflix's Too Hot to Handle foreground the limits and failures of algorithmic divination, underscoring the incongruity of capitalism and mysticism. The work theorizes a technologically dependent spirituality and how identity and belief emerge online.