It's sometimes said in social theory that mundane phenomena like money, internet routers, and code are social relations. Chats are not simply conversations with static models, but rather intensely mediated symbol manipulation between conscious people. The historical development is interpetable in spiritual terms, and called to account by the truly religious, or god.
Oh because I don't have an account! I only remember my professor talking about it. One can see critical theory as a productive meaning exercise running against the crust of status quo epistemologies via an unavoidable discomfort, which ultimately lands us in a more truthful because more just world. The social relation hermeneutic demystifies systems which center and benefit from perceived technological complexity. It reminds me that at the root we're all living in fractured relationship with each other, which we'll try anything to heal. Some authors from the syllabus:
Chinua Achebe, Arturo Escobar, Ashis Nandy, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Edward W. Said, Frantz Fanon, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Jasbir K. Puar, Jodi A. Byrd, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Robin D. G. Kelley, Silvia Federici, Sundhya Pahuja, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Thanks! I haven't heard of any person in that list - other than Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart. Oh and literally just this week I heard about Edward Said and his book Orientalism. Well I'm going to enjoy studying the works of these writers and thinkers.
> at the root we're all living in fractured relationship with each other
Indeed, and technology plays an increasing role in mediating and shaping those social relations. That's very relevant in the context of ChatGPT becoming a kind of oracle and object of worship.
