Bruce Charlton and William Wildblood have been considering Artificial Intelligence, in particular as a vessel for demonic intelligences. My own feeling is that everything physical has a spiritual (or non-physical but real) counterpart. There are also, I think, spiritual forces, e.g. the idea of a nation, which exist without an exact physical counterpart, but which nonetheless bear influence in the materium. Perhaps the pleasing grain and texture of certain physical objects is to do with this immaterial anchoring, a spiritual underpinning & echo.

So, a pen or a book or wristwatch has a “spirit”. Logically, it seems computers must too; and yet, while I have grown very fond of certain books – the particular physical book, not merely the arrangement of letters therein – I have never felt the slightest attachment to a smartphone, PC, DVD, or CD. When my old copy of Dante’s Inferno literally fell apart through a decade’s reading, I felt sad and would have much preferred to have it repaired than buy another; and when I inevitably bought a replacement, in the exact same edition, I nonetheless felt disappointed – this new book wasn’t mine, not the Inferno I knew and enjoyed. I ended up ripping the old edition’s pages out, and using them as decoration on my office walls, and as wrapping paper for gifts.

I never felt such loyalty to CDs, DVDs, the PC I’m using now, or my smartphone. Even my old dumbphone, which I quite liked, was merely a thing to me. Although I understand little, and like less, of technology, I think everyone feels this way – even the most impassioned Apple geek would, I imagine, be delighted if Apple offered him a brand new replacement for his 6-month-old Mac: he would not think, But this is my computer, I like it, we have a history. No, he would seize the opportunity to get a free replacement.

And so, if computers do have a spirit, it is presumably a cold and frictionless surface, to which human experience and loyalty will not cling. It is denatured and alienating. When a computer goes wrong, it feels, somehow, perverse: at best, an indifferent spirit has decided to stop working; at worst, a malevolent imp has decided to cast its hex upon our evening.

For this reason, I don’t foresee a straight-line trajectory for technology. I am, of course, unusual; but I am often harbinger and stormcrow of catastrophes to come.