Context

Pareidolia is the tendency to infer deliberate design or symbolism on a random or natural stimulus. Pareidolia often occurs with visual stimuli, when a specific arrangement of natural or accidental shapes can assume the form of a recognizable figure. Though a completely normal human function, even primal, we still do not know why we experience pareidolia. Studies have suggested that our brains have evolved to facilitate social interactions and helped our ancestors survive a hostile world; when looking for camouflaged predators amongst the brush, or foreign humans who might pose a threat, it is almost always better to be safe than sorry. This shapes the way we see and interact with the world around us. When we look up at a cloud, are we seeing the cloud, or our perception of what the cloud might be? We might see a dragon, a wagon, or an ancient cannon. Any number of visual things might manifest in our mind. Perhaps the most common form of pareidolia, is the perception of a divine or religious symbol in otherwise innocuous circumstances. There have been countless encounters with Jesus, burnt onto a piece of toast. Fishing a Cheeto out that looks like the Pope. Even in the vastness of space, a photograph captured by the Hubble Space Research Institute found many devout seeing Jesus kneeling with his hands in prayer, dubbing it the “Jesus Nebula.”

Technology is quickly becoming more and more “human.” As technology develops, and artificial intelligence gains more human characteristics, robots will perform many tasks more quickly, accurately, and efficiently than a human would ever be capable of. In which case, why not replicate a digital form of religious pareidolia. The purpose of this AI would be to identify and catalog instances of pareidolia that could be misconstrued as divine intervention. This project is also seeking to exemplify and highlight how human biases shape emerging technologies, influenced by different communities of people for numerous different purposes.