ABSTRACT
The worldwide spread of information and communication technology, for example, the Smartphone in everybody’s hands, is a part of an unforeseen Cultural Revolution and Involution. On the one hand, this has opened immense new dimensions in the development of information, communication and technology. On the other hand, in its shadow, it creates vicious circles, with antisocial effects, health problems, addiction phenomena and a kind of collective anesthesia regarding reality, for example, regarding global disasters in ecology. Your smartphone provides you with a kind of an illusionary connection to higher intelligence while the tools of a supposed solution create their own problems.
The well-known Jewish myth about a dangerous artificial helper, the Golem, an artificial man made out of clay, can be thought of as a prototype of artificial intelligence. This chapter looks at this story and its disastrous ending in the context of the current crisis in the collective unconscious, in the era of global warming and apocalyptic fears, where information technology becomes a part of the problem, triggering illusions and fears.
