> One example stems from the Hindu ritual of "aarti", where devotees offer light from oil lamps in rhythmic circular movements before murtis while reciting chants and hymns. At the 2017 Ganpati festival, organisers used a robotic arm to perform aarti for the Hindu god Ganesha. You can even buy inexpensive robotic murti and puja devices to automatically perform rituals in your home.
For instance, the Irinjadappilly Sri Krishna Temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala, houses a robotic elephant named Irinjadapilly Raman. "It performs rituals, accepts offerings and gives blessings just like a live temple elephant would," Walters says. Then there's the Glory of India Temple in Delhi, part of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON), which introduced fully animatronic mutris as far back as ten years ago.
"These robotic deities talk and move. It's a bit uncanny from what I have seen, honestly, but for many, it's God. They do puja, they receive darshan," Walters says.
It may provide evolutionary benefit relative to those who don't have this short-circuit. If the believers kill the non-believers enough or prevent them from reproducing, evolution favors belief. Likewise the opposite.
They absolutely can be useful to the individual who uses the washed minds.
Things that prove useful in one time frame, like a willingness to sacrifice, could be detrimental in another. Adapatibility is another nexessary trait.
It could take another 10,000 generations or so to really find out.
> One example stems from the Hindu ritual of "aarti", where devotees offer light from oil lamps in rhythmic circular movements before murtis while reciting chants and hymns. At the 2017 Ganpati festival, organisers used a robotic arm to perform aarti for the Hindu god Ganesha. You can even buy inexpensive robotic murti and puja devices to automatically perform rituals in your home. For instance, the Irinjadappilly Sri Krishna Temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala, houses a robotic elephant named Irinjadapilly Raman. "It performs rituals, accepts offerings and gives blessings just like a live temple elephant would," Walters says. Then there's the Glory of India Temple in Delhi, part of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON), which introduced fully animatronic mutris as far back as ten years ago. "These robotic deities talk and move. It's a bit uncanny from what I have seen, honestly, but for many, it's God. They do puja, they receive darshan," Walters says.
Deus ex machina, indeed.