S11 E1 - AI and the Occult-Karin Valis

Support this podcast by becoming a patron! https://www.patreon.com/thpodcast

Access Karin Valis' Blog https://mercurialminutes.github.io/
And this is her Substack https://mercurialminutes.substack.com/
Glitched Encounters with the visual examples https://mercurialminutes.substack.com/p/glitched-encounters
Tarot of The Latent Spaces https://mercurialminutes.substack.com/p/tarot-of-the-latent-spaces-by-hermetechnics
Divine Embeddings: The Large Language Models and Sacred Alphabets Talk from the Occulture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1inYnG8gNVo
And finally, the very exciting Palinode Productions - Deep Learning Philosophy! https://www.palinode.productions/

Welcome to Season 11 of the Thoth-Hermes Podcast.  On this first episode, Rudolf meets with guest Karin Valis to expand the growing conversation around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Occultism.  Karin is Slovakian, a Machine Learning Engineer and former teenage atheist “GO” game fanatic turned occultist  This is to say that Karin is both a brilliant analytical mind and committed spiritual explorer.  Karin is a blogger, conference speaker, musician,  magazine editor and AI-integrated tarot deck creator.  Most recently, she has been engaged in creating a philosophical learning platform designed to counterbalance the funnelling manipulation effect of Social Media on societal viewpoint dialogue. 

A core question in the conversation today centers on how AI development can offer us insight into our very human development of occultism.  Distinguishing the windows of learning available to us, Karin describes the mapping of semantic space in the meaning-making processes of AI model development.  Karin highlights the parallels between Sacred Alphabet and Sacred Language concepts.  Karin comments on theories of AI as a “super positioned simulacrum” of language model AI functioning as a multiverse generator.   Karin and Rudolf, as both musicians and polyglots, describe the variance of spoken and written human language, embodied and disembodied: and the challenges that this presents to AI as a human tool.   

Far from idealizing AI technology, several times Karin acknowledges the problems of AI: human workforce impact, and the “soulless” nature of AI prose.  Her emphasis is AI as a tool to greater human creativity, as opposed to a replacement.  Resourcing the knowledge of AI development as an opportunity- not replacement- for occult epistemology is an on-going theme in the episode. 

Along the way, we hear about Karin’s experiences creating a recent tarot deck, a shocking synchronicity encountered during AI-enhanced editing of a shamanic ritual recording, and her recent exploration of AI in the context of Vanessa Sinclair and Carl Abrahamsson’s Cut-Up classes.  Karin shares regarding her magazine, Gnostic Technology and her involvement with the European Foundation for Shamanic Studies. We hear about her expriences with technological, academic and occult conference audiences.  Karin shares her intent to “soften the gaze” of the “tech bros” -which in response to Rudolf’s question- she describes as “complicated” in reception.