<i>Sentient:</i> A social media environment as a conscious living system

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the internet has become a global survival strategy. As a result, the need for an online platform, where participants can connect with each other on a deeper level than is possible on existing social media, has acquired a fresh urgency. We have decided to call this platform Sentient. The interface design draws on Rupert Sheldrake's system of biological and social morphogenic fields, as well as Arthur Koestler’s theory of holarchy, among others. It will have the structure of a living body, possessing the seven processes vital to life, and holarchical systems ranging in scale from the subcellular to the whole organism. Users can create memes which evolve through conscious verbal and non-verbal interactions with other participants’ memes. Sentient’s live events are perceived as the ritualistic heart-beat that regularly generates the subtle body of the environment. Drawing on Roy Ascott’s theory of technoetics, as well as cyberperformance aesthetics, the live events, including all modes of activity and interchange, are being designed to have a transformative as well as therapeutic function through participation. Sentient is developed on the premise that telematic technology can be converted into a conscious living system, leading to a holistic worldview of human and planetary life.

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Lila Moore

Owen Fender

Conference

Publication date: July 2021

Publication date (Print): July 2021

Pages: 247-253

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[0001]Alef Trust

Somersby, Dibbinsdale Road

Wirral, United Kingdom

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.42

SO-VID: 094fe574-11df-4c7a-9777-51c3be011121

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2021

Conference acronym: EVA 2021

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Conference location: London

Conference date: 5th July – 9th July 2021

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

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Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] A. Abrahams (2014) Learn Together What it Means to Be Connected …, in A. Abrahams & V. H. Jamieson (eds.). CyPosium – The Book, Brescia: Link Editions, Montpellier: La Panacée, Centre de Culture, France.

[2] R. Ascott & A. E. Shanken(eds.). (2003) Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology and Consciousness. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[3] R. Ascott (1990) Is there love in the telematic embrace? Art Journal, 49, pp.241-47.

[4] R. Dawkins (1976) The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[5] C. Graves (1974) Summary Statement: The Emergent, Cyclical, Double-Helix Model of the Adult Human Biopsychosocial Systems. Boston. https://www.clarewgraves.com/articles_content/1981_handout/1981_summary.pdf (retrieved 15 March 2021).

[6] V. H. Jamieson (n.d.) Cyberperformance. https://www.creative-catalyst.com/cyberformance (retrieved 15 March 2021).

[7] E. Karoussos (2016) Theōria: The veneration of icons via the technoetic process. Doctoral dissertation, University of Plymouth.

[8] A. Koestler (1968) The Ghost in the Machine. New York: Macmillan.

[9] J. Lanier (2018) Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Picador. Kindle.

[10] Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016). [film] Directed by Werner Herzog. USA

[11] E. March (2019) Psychopathy, sadism, empathy, and the motivation to cause harm: New evidence confirms malevolent nature of the internet troll, Personality and Individual Differences, 141, pp. 133-137.

[12] L. Moore (2019) Tombs and reels of consciousness: The aesthetics that Interlinks ancient ritualistic artefacts and digital, augmented and virtual reality. In: J. Weinel, J.P. Bowen, G. Diprose, and N. Lambert (eds), EVA London 2019 (Electronic Visualisation and the Arts), UK, 11–13 July 2019, 155–161. BCS, London.

[13] L. Moore (2015) Fields of networked mind: ritual consciousness and the factor of communitas in networked rites of compassion, Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research,13, (3), pp. 331–339.

[14] Ofcom. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/196407/online-nation-2020-report.pdf (retrieved 14 March 2021).

[15] N. Sest & E. March (2017) Constructing the cyber-troll: Psychopathy, sadism, and empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 119, pp. 69-72.

[16] R. Sheldrake (2011) The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature. London: Icon Books. Kindle.

[17] V. D. Tansley (1984) The Subtle Body. New York: USA: Thames and Hudson.

[18] P Teilhard de Chardin. (1967) The Phenomenon of Man. London and Glasgow: Collins Sons & Co.

[19] The Social Dilemma (2020) [film] Directed by Jeff Orlowski. USA.

[20] T. Trickett (2021) New media art as a vehicle for research and innovation. In: J. Weinel, J.P. Bowen, A. Borda, and G. Diprose (eds), EVA London 2021 (Electronic Visualisation and the Arts), London, UK, 5–9 July 2021 BCS, London.

[21] K. Wilber (2001) A Theory of Everything. Boston: Shambala Publications.

[22] G. Youngblood (2013) Secession from the Broadcast, https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Secession_From_the_Broadcast (retrieved 16 March 2021).

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Sentient: A social media environment as a conscious living system