One day, algorithms will know you better than you know yourself
Humans do everything to understand themselves and the world around us. In this installation I refer to our search for truth and our tendency to superstitious believes. Therefore I show a pile of 23 self help books and combine this with the 23 enigma; a superstitious belief in the significance of the number 23.
Hence also 5, since 2 plus 3 is 5.
“The 23 enigma can be viewed as an example of apophenia, selection bias, and confirmation bias. In interviews, Robert Anton Wilson acknowledged the self-fulfilling nature of the 23 enigma, implying that the real value of the Law of Fives and the 23 enigma is in their demonstration of the mind’s ability to perceive “truth” in nearly anything.”
The search for truth is one of these never ending quests of our species. How will we search for truth in the future when we tend to believe more and more the truth of the outcome of our computers and their apps? As Yuval Noah Harari explains in his book Sapiens: “If you have enough data, and enough computer power, then you can create an algorithm that understands humans better than they understand themselves.”
Could that be possible? or is it the truth already?
I am not finished with this piece, still working on it, still expanding.
Roots inside an old mirror cabinet and a pentagram from wire, a pile of 23 self help books, torn out page 23 and 23 pairs of chromosomes drawn on those pages, drawings of ink on paper; the pentagram, hand, foot, the 5 wounds of christ, the planetary angle at 23, the 23 invertebral discs, a sea star, a sea urchin, an embryo in week 5 growing a hart, plants showing pentamerisms like an apple, 5 fingers, 5 toes, size variable, 2015