God from the Machine: Artificial Intelligence Models of Religious CognitionAltaMira Press, 2006 - 179 pages 'God from the machine' (deus ex machina) refers to an ancient dramatic device where a god was mechanically brought onto the stage to save the hero from a difficult situation. But here, William Sims Bainbridge uses the term in a strikingly different way. Instead of looking to a machine to deliver an already known god, he asks what a computing machine and its simulations might teach us about how religion and religious beliefs come to being. Bainbridge posits the virtual town of Cyburg, population 44,100. Then, using rules for individual and social behavior taken from the social sciences, he models a complex community where residents form groups, learn to trust or distrust each other, and develop religious faith. Bainbridge's straightforward arguments point to many more applications of computer simulation in the study of religion. God from the Machine will serve as an important text in any class with a social scientific approach to religion. |
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2-bond triads affiliation artificial intelligence average Axiom Balance Theory Baptists behavior beliefs Catholics chapter cheese Christian cognitive cognitive science communication complex computer simulation cooperation cult culture decision rule Differential Association Theory double-crossing energy errors exchange partners experience explanations faith false positive FIGURE Hathor hidden units human individual input interaction Islamic keep the bargain large numbers low-tension machine learning membership memory registers Methodists MIND mouse Nasty neighborhood neighbors neural nets neural networks Nice Random obnoxious outnumbered output Pavlov payoff person population PPPP PPPPP prejudice prisoner's dilemma Protestants random numbers recruit religious conversion religious groups religious movements religious pluralism residents of Cyburg round satisfied Scarpia sect segregation simulations described social bonds social influence social isolates social network society sociology solved the problem Stark and Bainbridge strategy supernatural Table theory of religion Tit-for-tat Tosca town turn Turn Turn Turn variance