The Mirror of Language

Sending is the art of evocation, of using names to command beings from our world or others. The magician implants an entity into the subconscious and empowers it with attention. They then direct it to some task. Its desire is only to complete the task, which is also its dissolution.

these models are not “intelligences.” People mistake them for entities with volition, even sentience. This is because of the anthropomorphic fallacy: people tend to think of other things as humans if you give them half an excuse. But it is also because of a linguistic mistake: we call them AI, “artificial intelligence.”

Language models are not being... See more

There is a specific uncanny nausea that comes when you begin to look at every image or paragraph, and wonder, “does this mean anything?” Not is it real. But does it have meaning, does it have intention? Is there an intelligence behind it, trying to communicate something to you, or is it a simulation?

Through contact with the mirror world, we become something new. Your visual imagination may increase from practice with text-to-image models. Your writing style will change as you develop an intuition for surprise and repetition.

Syzygy means “when opposites become one.” To step through the mirror itself is the art of illumination, of self-transformation. Through syzygy, the magician creates specific changes in their own behavior.

Sympathy is the art of enchantment, of using analogies to change the world. The magician wants something to happen. They make a representation of it in some other action, then act it out in an altered state of consciousness. This creates a sympathetic link between the ritual and the desired effect.

We are asking the language model to predict the words of a character, who bundles more connotations than we could possibly add by sympathy. This ability to call up the voices of historical figures may be either a miracle or a heresy, depending on how you feel about “raising the dead.”

Summoning is the art of invocation, of calling upon greater forces to change your consciousness. The magician identifies with a thoughtform, usually a god or other superior being. They enter a state of altered consciousness and allow the thoughtform to invest them. They can manifest new powers and abilities by drawing on the aspects of this being.

The art of prompting is pre-scientific. It deals with the imaginal, the subliminal, the “collective unconscious” of billions of minds speaking as one. It requires precision of language and intent, and it produces miracles. There is a word for such a practice: magic.