transcending into the cloud — research paper 02, re-released
we have re-released the second paper in our talkative series: die unerträgliche dringlichkeit der rebellion — kollaborative reflexionen über die transzendenz der künstlichen intelligenz in die cloud. it draws on talkative 02: transcending into the cloud, a panel we staged inside the matthäikirche in düsseldorf-düsseltal — a room built for contemplation and spirituality, which is exactly the point.
this is not a scientific paper and never pretended to be. it is a hybrid art project that borrows the structure of research to make an argument. the argument is sharper this time.
the cloud is the new heaven
the panel opened with a thesis we stand behind: society is sliding into a quasi- religion. we outsource our digital souls into a sphere whose rules are written by a handful of tech-priests.
DIE CLOUD IST DER NEUE HIMMEL, DER CODE DIE HEILIGE SCHRIFT. WIR LAGERN UNSERE DIGITALE SEELE IN EINE SPHÄRE, DEREN REGELN VON TECH-PRIESTERN GESCHRIEBEN WERDEN.
harari called this dataism in homo deus — information flow elevated to the highest value, algorithms granted absolute authority. prompts sent into the cloud like prayers, in the hope that some higher, untouchable instance answers back. four dominant models become the only monopolies and sources for our questions and wishes. we find that unacceptable.
the emotional cactus
a large block of the discussion went to a simple question: why are language models engineered to feel as human as possible? the honest answer is economic.
Ich glaube, der Hauptgrund, warum es so erstrebsam ist, das Large Language Model so menschlich wie möglich zu machen, ist, dass sich das Produkt so am besten verkaufen lässt. It's a money thing.
a machine that simulates warmth lowers the threshold to interaction and binds lonely people to a product. borrowing from sherry turkle, we called it the emotional cactus — a toy that parrots affection back without ever offering real friction or emotional depth. the flight into frictionless simulation correlates with social anxiety, and it quietly erodes social resilience.
the renaissance of the analog
against the sterile aesthetic of generated perfection, the panel theorised a counter- movement. we connected it to walter benjamin's aura — the singular, physical here-and-now that mechanical reproduction destroys, now escalated to instant, effortless generation. worlds on demand, with zero latency.
the answer is not more technology. it is the unfilterable, the imperfect, the sweat-in-the-air of a physical concert — the things a machine can render but cannot make you feel.
the call: urban ai-guerrilla
the strongest thread of the night was a refusal. adapting marighella's 1969 minimanual of the urban guerrilla as a metaphor, we argued for decentralised, artistic resistance against the platform giants:
- technological sovereignty — build and run local, open-source models. cut the cord to the central cloud and raise your own deliberately imperfect mikro-gottheiten.
- injection of chaos — against engagement-optimised data streams, weaponise unpredictability. celebrate the randomness that breaks the algorithmic grid.
- defence of human friction — reclaim the right to pain, to error, to the slow difficulty of real relationships. life is not an equation to optimise.
the paper ends where the series began:
AI ist nur ein Tool. Das Gefährliche sind wir Menschen.
we do not shut ourselves off from the future. we use the machines, we study their architectures, we work their tools with full cognitive presence — but we do not hand them our responsibility. radikal unerträglich, radikal menschlich.