Trying to imagine an artificial intelligence’s consciousness calls for psychedelic imagery. like psychedelic substances, computers and networks are technologies designed to expand our mind. As a technological artifact computers are perfectly logical and coherent, as user interfaces they try to be as accessible as possible; and yet the computer as a conscious being is completely alien to us. This otherness of an artificial mind is the subject of these two videos.
The Rez games are all about a hacker shooting around inside a super intelligent network, trying to protect it. the above video is a trailer for the game The Child Of Eden – the recent addition to the series. I don’t know if the touch screen is really an optional interface, but if it really is, this game is a real trip with it’s cross-consciousness theme and synesthetic approach to soundtrack design.
And here’s another view inside a computer, and a trip down memory lane: The 1980’s classic Tron!
The story is somewhat similar (a hacker fighting his way through a computer…) and the difference in the visual treatment in comparison to Rez should give you some ideas about how dramatically our view of AI has changed.
(Rez link: Corey. Thank you!)
The Daily Psychedelic Video 
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