I don't know who needs to hear this but tech's uses of the language of magic (e.g. "spells" and "grimoires") are gross cultural appropriation. Here's the latest example: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/now-is-the-time-for-grimoires
There have been and still are many people who believe in flavors of magic both old and new. If you must appropriate, I recommend taking from Disney by using The Force, light sabers, droids, etc.
(if you simply don't care whether you're rude then please feel free to ignore this toot)
@trevorflowers genuinely don't understand what the problem with the magical terminology is, if anything it's more accurate to how neural networks work than scientific terms
@technobaboo @trevorflowers Agree with Nova. as a practicing fan of the occult, magic thinking and metaphores intertwined with tech fit well with my practice at large. I think that Digital servitors are just a manifestation from the astral in the physical 🤷
@technobaboo This is a great example! You're using words that have a deep literature, history, and living practice and strip mining them as simplified names for tech. If you care, go look into the various branches of magic(k) (especially nom-Western) and I suspect you'll see that there's a whole context that you're stepping on from a place of privilege.
@mauve I, of course, am not saying what you can do with your beliefs and language. But, imagine the words are from a different branch, perhaps practiced by a traditionally marginalized group. Now imagine a tech bro using it without actually understanding it. That's cultural appropriation and rude in my book.
@trevorflowers yeah that's fair, defs not something to draw upon lightly and without context
@mauve @trevorflowers also neural networks ARE magic, they're not really typical emergent systems. Every single type of magic can be categorized better as a neural network than scientific.
Astrology? neural networks connecting stars and planets to you
Telepathy? literally connecting 2 neural networks with another (basically an auto-encoder)
harry potter style? neural networks applied to magic
transmogrification? latent space blending between 2 forms