These two videos popped up in my feeds. I saw the first one many years ago, and thought that I’d already posted about it, but apparently I didn’t. I wonder if I didn’t post because it was one of those videos that makes you think but one cannot begin to imagine what it might mean or at least one might be cautious to not pontificate on someone else’s art. 

Having spent the past year rekindling my exploration into ancient religious literature and the last few months specifically re-examining the Old Testament, I feel a bit more comfortable appreciating this meditation on miracles, being alert when something isn’t right in your presence and our age-long and foolish attempt to imagine that we can control the manifestations of a larger reality. 

The pregnant nun knows that she cannot hide from her circumstances and recognizes that the church is not the shelter she needs. Somehow her desire to comfort the stray cow sends it and her touch across time. I love what the West Texas clerk begins with, contemplating that us humans never shut up our monkey brains long enough to hear whatever god might be wanting to say to us. Then there’s the government men in the hazmat suits extinguishing the “burning bush” and the priest in the big car saying that miracles are not meant for nobodies, like the gas station clerk and the others. Makes you wonder at all the miracles out there that we don’t see because we’re too busy, too inside of our own stories and social expectations. Makes you wonder if friends of the biblical Moses didn’t ask the town doctor to check him because he was a little “off.”

The second video explores the human capacity to make connections with others and recognize ourselves in others and how strong this trait is with children and dogs, even when the human is synthetic.

I love how the children brought out the emotions in Ash and how she reflected on her experiences with the stray dog, the little girl taking a dance lesson, helping the gentleman get into his car and her choice to not return to the home of the deceased father. She learned and she learned to navigate through the world outside her house. I’ve written about synthetic “humans” and the difference it makes how we treat them and what that means about us. There’s so much there that isn’t a “Terminator” story. It really is all about what it means to be human and how we treat each other and those just a little different from us. Enjoy. JBB

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Tags: AI, god among us, miracles, video Mondays, what it means to be human

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