Chapter Fifteen: Phantoms of the Future

After providing a brief history of digital distress, this chapter delves into contemporary stimulations of intuition that justify optimism about society catching up on humanity and its potential (instead of the long-hailed opposite). Chwezi spirit possession evocatively magnifies what conscious perception does every day, to materialize the invisible. Like other animals, humans specialize in sensory modes, the exteroceptive, interoceptive and proprioceptive. The Y2K craze, the 9/11 aftermath and collective imaginaries about aliens tap into our ‘ulteroceptive’ senses. Are these a universal way to humanize a system? Can we leave spirituality out of the picture if validity of claims about the world is our aim?