For the warm-up activity of creating an abacus, I fashioned a base-3 abacus. Usually abaci are base-10, and computers are typically binary (base-2). A ternary (base-3) numerical system uses 0,1,2 to count.
Looking at the ‘Calculating Empires’ graphic, in pairs we looked at areas of intrigue to create a PDF prototype. Alexa and I looked at the Panopticon, phenakistoscopes, and nuclei, and thought about these as a metaphor for social media and AI. If our screens are the cells around the centre, what exactly is at the centre? Who is watching? The work of our own (as in humanity’s) hands? Is AI being treated as the Oracle, when it is the output of human minds?
The ancient line, “Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made” seems oddly applicable.
