Algorithmic Oracle (2019)

Nobody knows what the others are seeing. Algorithmically created filter bubbles split our online reality into a multiverse of experiences. Our screens provide us with a customised alternative reality, shaping our ways of perceiving the world offline. I don’t see the same content as you, but we act as if we see the same thing. Where did the reality split happen? If one looks at our customised perceptions, it seems not unlike an open-world game replayed without saving. It is a series of clicks that separate our multiverse.
Algorithmic Oracle attempts to grasp multiple realities at the same time. The clicks are being translated IRL to causal actions that create tangible outcomes.
 

In this work, I am asking a game algorithm to create a series of what-if scenarios recreating an event of house fire that happened to me. I am letting the SIMS 3 game algorithm decide how a real-life event could have unfolded. SIMS3 used here as a way to employ a “higher” algorithmic power, an oracle machine. All the players and the set in the video are crafted to fit their real characteristics and looks. The game starts every scenario with three actions controlled by me that are based on my actions before the house fire happened. The sim character enters the room, lights the fire and goes to sleep. After the action is completed, the game runs scenarios based on its probability algorithm without interference resulting in a multitude of outcomes, each completely unique.

 

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ARTICLE: NOT INTELLIGENT NOR ARTIFICIAL
by Matteo Bittanti