Thinking Out LoudNow that I think about it, the bot that once DMed me through LinkedIn looked a lot like Jinu from KPop Demon Hunters. (Of course I replied.) It took three rounds of professional small talk for me to realise that only one of us was alive.
This seems relevant to mention during Halloween. The event has become an annual angst over sugar, crass commercialisation, and how trick-or-treating helps confect that longed-for community feeling. 2025 has added something new: a parent-led petition to persuade retailers to not freak kids out through ghoulish store displays.
All worthy of conversation in the week of Halloween. Also, slightly oblivious to fact that the other 51 weeks of the year are increasingly and uncomfortably “thin” – more porous to the supernatural – thanks to where we routinely live: online.
If Halloween blurs the boundaries between the living and the dead, the internet conjures up the eerily unalive. It’s a “giant Ouija board”, says Paul Kingsnorth, bringing us in touch with intelligences from elsewhere. My brush with the LinkedIn bot was funny and dumb. Since then, chatbots seem more alive. Even godlike, according to some, leaving those users vulnerable to “AI psychosis”.
Also sinister are the creation of deepfakes that conjure up a malicious double of their victims, turning their own faces against themselves. “Almost demonic”, said one recent victim. Then there’s the dark energy of the online pile-on, where millions turn on the internet’s sacrificial victim for the day. Charlie Kirk getting hexed by Etsy witches is just the headlining stuff.
Are we using our devices or being used by them? Why is the internet called a “gateway” or “portal”, and what on earth might come through?
Best not to ask. Best get back to regular Halloween angsting. Keep sweating the small stuff.
This Thinking Out Loud was first published on Facebook.