The Digital Altar

I have been thinking about this quote from a reading:

"At the same time, we are hard at work constructing intimacy with algorithms,
from our willingness to play along with Siri to the things we type
into search bars when we think nobody is looking. We interact with search
interfaces in intensely private ways-a strange, occasionally grotesque confessionalism
at the altar of computation..."


The idea of an "altar of computation" stuck with me. This reading in particular drew a lot of connections between religious ideas and technology, comparing search engine algorithms to the mind of God.

An altar is defined a little differently across beliefs, but is generally a space to collect meaningful objects and perform meaningful ritual.

In a way, by scanning digital copies of real world objects, I feel that I am collecting them.