Event Details - The Spiritual Life of Dolls: The Technological Quest for the Soul from Adam to Barbie to AI

In the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, God formed the first human from the dust of the earth, and then breathed life into the creature. Since that time, humans have attempted to do the same by fashioning raw materials into bodies that look like ours: dolls, automatons, figurines, puppets, marionettes, and robots. But it is not enough to make them look human, we also want them to behave like humans, and so we make these bodies walk and talk, move their arms and heads, and even pray. In recent years, as we create ever more artificially intelligent robots, we push them to answer questions and hold conversations. In so doing, we animate the figures through technological means. Technology is our breath, the animating force of Homo sapiens, and dolls are vital technological tools that find their way into our rituals, personal devotional lives, workplaces, and social spaces. By outlining a human history of engagement with dolls, Professor Plate provides a historical-religious framework to think through our cyborgian futures by showing how we have always been cyborgs, always merging with our technology. 

Sponsored by the Religious Studies Department with support from American Studies, Anthropology, Art History, Classics, Computer Science, History, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Sociology