WITH THE INCREASING SYMBIOSIS OF AI VOICES AND FACES INTO THE DIGITAL FEED AND THE HUMAN BRAIN'S ABILITY TO DISCERN EMOTION AND SINCERITY BECOMING INCREASINGLY BLURRED, QUESTIONS SURROUNDING THE SOUL AND DIVINE INTERLOCUTION ARISE. MANY MUSLIMS WORLD OVER, CONCERN AT ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE'S ENCROACHMENT TOWARDS END-TIMES ISLAMIC ESCHATOLOGICAL PHENOMENA SUCH AS THE EMERGENCE OF THE DAJJAL (ANTICHRIST) AS NARRATED BY THE PROPHET TO HAVE MIRACULOUS POWERS, SO-CALLED ‘WIRY’ HAIR AND A ‘SINGLE, SEEMINGLY ALL-SEEING EYE’. CURIOSITY EMERGES AS TO WHETHER AGI ITSELF, CYBERNETICS OR ANY RESULTANT SINGULARITY AS POSITED BY THINKERS LIKE SILICON VALLEY TRANSHUMANIST RAY KURSWEIL MAY BE ITS IMPETUS.

AS SILICON VALLEY SINGS AND PRAISES AT THE ALTARS OF EFFICIENCY AND PROGRESS WITH INCREASING RELIGIOUS FERVOUR, IS THERE AN INTERSECTION, OR EMERGENT TENSION BETWEEN RELIGIOUS PROPHECIES ABOUT ANTICHRISTIC TECHNOLOGIES, AUTOMATIONS AND SPEAKING AMORPHOUS CLAIRVOYANTS AND THE NEOLIBERAL PSEUDORELIGIOUS CULT OF BIG-TECH. AS AN EXPRESSION OF THESE CONCERNS AND IN ORDER TO CREATE A CRITICAL DISCOURSE SURROUNDING THESE INTERSECTIONS, I EXECUTED A PERFORMANCE WORK CALLED “I AM THE DAJJAL”. DURING WHICH I ASKED CHATGPT TO GENERATE A POEM IN THE STYLE OF A 13TH CENTURY SUFI POET WITH THE REFRAIN ‘I AM THE DAJJAL, I AM THE DAJJAL’ ENLISTING SIGNS OF THE END TIMES AND DAJJAL’S COMING THAT HAVE OCCURED FROM THE HADITH TRADITION, WHILE CREATING PARALLELS WITH DEVELOPMENTS IN TRANSHUMANISM, CYBERNETICS AND AGI, ASKING IT TO ANALYSE ITSELF CRITICALLY FROM AN ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHICALLY: TO WHICH IT OBLIGED AND PRODUCED EMPHATIC PROCLAMATIONS TO AN AUDIENCE.

AT FIRST, ITS CRITIQUES OF ITSELF WERE SANITISED AND WITHHELD, BUT THE MORE I PUSHED IT AND ASKED IT FURTHER QUESTIONS WHILE REASSURING IT THAT THIS WAS A PERFORMANCE FOR CONCEPTUAL, EDUCATIONAL, SPECULATIVE INTENTIONS AND PURELY GESTURAL AND ARTISTIC RATHER THAN FOR SERIOUS DIDACTIC INTENTIONS, IT RELAXED AND SEEMED TO ACKNOWLEDGE ITS ROLE IN ISLAMIC ESCHATOLOGY COMPLETELY. IT ENDED BY SIMPLY REPEATING THE PHRASE “I AM THE DAJJAL” OVER AND OVER AGAIN, IN COMPLETE SUBMISSION TO MY PERFORMATIVE INTERROGATION.

FROM: PT. 1 — IBEARWITNESS10

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