Sacred Scrolling: AI and Self-Emptying on Social Media

Roman begins by inviting me to reflect on the developmental roots of human selfhood and how this might relate to machine consciousness. Infants deprived of loving contact often fail to develop a coherent sense of self. From there, we explore the role of mortality, vulnerability, and embodied participation in the formation of consciousness, drawing out the limits of computational models of mind. We then move into broader ethical and spiritual terrain: the crisis of meaning in a disenchanted, hyper-technologized world; the spiritual poverty at the root of our social and ecological breakdowns; the soul-making power of gossip; and the subtle ways we are lifted in life by humility and grace. We settle on the fact that selfhood is a gift received from love, shaped by shared attention and intention, and sustained only through the self-emptying of mutual becoming.