The animated machine: possible poetic intersections between religion and computational-based entities

Abstract This paper presents and examines two hypothetical case studies picturing a near future where digital machines have transcended their merely instrumental constitution and participate in performances having religious resemblances. The paper Illustrate how and why a) certain shared activities between humans and ‘machines’ can be understood as ‘religious’ by following Fontanille’s Forms of Life and Wittgenstein’s nonessentialist approach to language; b) animism is the ontology that best describes such intimate and ‘nonutilitarian’ interrelations with digital forms of existence; c) in religious experiences with computational-based entities the type of discourse prevailing the most corresponds to the category of poetic language. In conclusion, both hypothetical scenarios strive to illuminate how the unfolding of poetic and animistic interactions with the computational medium provide experiences that can be ascribed to the notion of religion and, more importantly, how we are already moving towards such intimate religious entanglements with the digital context.