Dear Machines

researchers:

By Mariana Fernandez Mora

What happens when Machines speak back? And, who is listening?

Dear Machines is a collaborative text that elaborates on the idea of AI as a companion, a collaborator rather than an instrument. Drawing from indigenous ontologies and the writings of Suzanne Kite, Bruno Latour and Donna Haraway, this work expands on the notion of the cyborg, separating it from the shared imaginary of a physical blend of human and machine, and rather understanding it as the interdependence of one another, a hybrid of knowledge and culture. Exploring the value of seeing AI as a companion, a mediator of knowledge rather than a tool and its potential as a disruptor of structure, a glitch in our understanding of what it means to be human.

This experimental thesis explores how technology is changing and challenging the way we communicate, the way we determine intelligence and, in consequence, how knowledge is created and who is knowledgeable.