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BACKGROUND:
First deployed in 1993, the Automatic Confession Machine: A Catholic Turing Test Release 6.0.1 retains the look and
feel of the original graphical user interface, written in Hypercard. Now updated with SuperCard 4.5.2 the ACM software is OSX compatible and will soon be deployed on most mobile devices.
The inspiration for this installation can
be traced to the artist’s youthful memories of the Catholic Sacrament of Confession. The title also refers to the now famous
test for judging if computers can think as proposed by Alan Turing in his essay titled: Computer Machinery and Intelligence,
which appeared in the philosophical journal Mind in 1950.
In this paper Turing replaces the question “Can machines think” with another question:
“Are there imaginable digital computers which would do well in the imitation
game?” This shrewd maneuver changes an intractable philosophical conundrum into a simpler problem of engineering design.
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“Hence, I have no doubt but that every one is absolved from his secret sins when he has made confession, privately before any brother.”
Martin Luther
Babylonian Captivity of the Church 1520
This artwork should not be misunderstood as
an attack against religious faith. Rather this installation serves as a warning of the potential of technology to intrude into the most private and personal sphere of our being.
The doubting Thomas kneeling at this automated confessional must make a digital leap of faith and surrender to the belief in the power of silicon absolution. Thus the user/sinner can experience the ecstasy of forgiveness in a Manichean system governed by the binary logic of good and evil where quilt, shame, sin, and salvation are all input variables that determine the catechism of output: namely how many Hail Marys and Our Fathers must be said for redemption.
“The human speaker will, contribute much to clothe ELIZA's responses in vestments of plausibility.”
Joseph Weizenbaum
discussing ELIZA in 1966
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