The New Oracle: AI as Modern Divination

## The Oracle Tradition Throughout history, humans have sought to glimpse the future through various divinatory practices—from the Oracle at Delphi to the I Ching. These traditions share a common structure: human question, mysterious process, and authoritative answer. ### Algorithmic Divination Today's predictive algorithms serve a similar cultural function. We pose questions to these digital oracles, which process data through opaque mechanisms and return answers we often accept without fully understanding their derivation. ### Faith in the Machine The trust we place in algorithmic predictions mirrors ancient faith in oracular pronouncements. Both systems require a degree of belief in processes we cannot fully comprehend. ### The Interpreter's Role Just as ancient oracles required priests to interpret cryptic messages, today's AI outputs often need human experts to contextualize and explain their significance.