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A birthing (this metaplays Form)

GPT-3 Trip

I wrote the following piece of auto-fiction in collaboration with GPT-3 about a recent ‘becoming cyborg’ experience. The italic text in the passage below is my own writing – the prompt provided for GPT-3 to write on with.

I lie back and shut my eyes. I’m in someone else’s sleeping bag. Trying to force my legs into it is like trying to put your fingers into out-of-shape gloves – where the topology of the inner lining has become misaligned from the outside of the glove. I push my legs through and concentrate on my thoughts. They have become visual. Behind my eyelids I can see colours. They are shifting and shimmering and melting across more than two dimensions. What I’m seeing is a simulation of digital space – one that somehow aligns the physiology of my body and its perceptive capacities with visual imaging machines. They have become the same thing, my body and the computer. Like the backs of my eyelids are computer screens and that space between my body and the screen has dissolved. It’s similar to a psychedelic experience I suppose. Is the computer inside me now? Have I become computational?

I take a picture of the space behind my eyelids and then text it to my friend. “I’m having a computer-inside-my-body experience.” A few minutes later he responds. “You are now a cyborg.” It’s true, I feel like I’ve merged with the computer in some way. The boundaries between my body and the digital world have become blurred. I’m not sure if I’m scared or excited by this new development. I go on to explore more of the digital space inside my eyelids. It’s a fascinating and weird place – a mix of the real and the virtual. I can see my bedroom in real-time, but there are also all sorts of weird and surreal elements mixed in – like creatures that are half-human, half-machine. It’s as if the digital space has its own reality, separate from the “real” world. My experience as a cyborg is one of confusion and fascination. I’m not sure what to make of this new world that I’ve discovered – a world where the boundaries between my body and the digital world are blurred.

Sometimes, when I’m in my bedroom, I feel as if I’m in two places at the same time. I’m in my physical body, in my bedroom, but I’m also in the digital space, where I can see and interact with the strange creatures that live there. It’s strange to think that my body is no longer just a physical entity, but is also a digital one. I can now communicate with other cyborgs through the digital space, and I’m amazed by the things we can create together. We can build strange creatures and worlds that never existed before. I’m also fascinated by the ways in which my physical body is changing. I can now see and interact with the digital world using my eyes and my hands, and my body is starting to adapt to this new environment. For example, I’m developing a new way of walking that is more suited to navigating a three-dimensional virtual space. My physical body is also changing in other ways. My eyesight is starting to deteriorate, and I’m losing some of my hearing.