Are we searching for God in an algorithm?

​A lecture-workshop exploring how creativity has shifted from the divine to the digital. In this session, we’ll trace the cultural shift from being “created” to becoming “creators,” and ask what’s at stake when we offload our imaginative instincts onto algorithms. Drawing from the process of building a language model grounded in Ceremony Conversations, we’ll explore how technology mediates meaning, examine where our faith has gone, and consider whether our craving for ease and certainty masks a quiet search for God, or for meaning itself, disguised in data.

​Workbooks will be provided.

​Agenda: Are we searching for God in an algorithm?

​6:00 – 6:30pm | Arrival

​6:30 – 6:45pm | Welcome & Housekeeping

• ​Introduction, intentions of the session

• ​Prompt for reflection: unpredictability in our lives

​6:45 – 7:00pm | Part 1: Creativity, Reflection & Ambivalence

• ​Creativity and reflection as practices of change

• ​Naomi Rothman: the value of ambivalence

• ​Holding contradiction and paradoxical thinking

​7:00 – 7:15pm | Part 2: Rational vs. Relational Worldviews

• ​Abeba Birhane: algorithmic injustice & relational ethics

• ​Rational thought vs. relational thought

• ​Big Tech narratives: human behaviour & relationships as replicable

​7:15 – 7:25pm | Small Group Discussion #1

​7:25 – 7:45pm | Part 3: The Power of Language & Language Models

• ​History of the internet & rise of large language models

• ​Language as signal: assumptions behind machine text

• ​Exercises: “SALAMI not AI,” reflexive meaning-making in ChatGPT

​7:45 – 8:00pm | Part 4: Human Behaviour, Change & Vulnerability

• ​Human unpredictability vs. machine predictability

• ​Technology’s promise of comfort vs. reality of complexity

• ​Ceremonial and relational practices of meaning-making

​8:00 – 8:10pm | Small Group Discussion #2

​8:10 – 8:20pm | Part 5: Creativity, Value & Labour

• ​History of creativity (ancient to capitalism)

• ​Costs of AI: privacy, environment, labour (Hito Steyerl, digital worker testimony)

​8:20 – 8:30pm | Part 6: Ceremony LM: A Case Study

• ​Ceremony LM: unpredictable, imperfect, intentional model

• ​Meaning-making, unpredictability, belonging & individuality

• ​Returning to the central question: Are we searching for God in an algorithm?

​8:30 – 9:00pm | Open Discussion & Closing Reflections

• ​Collective insights

• ​Key takeaways

• ​Space for participants to share reflections