The Digital Mommy

Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Clara, Ava, Maya, Ahbi, all respectively the names of AI, with one prevalent theme: femininity.

The word ‘matrix’ is derived from the Latin word for "mother," originally meant "pregnant animal" or "breeding female" and was later generalized to mean "womb." Today, matrix includes any nurturing or supportive setting or substance. The matrix is the matriarch. And where does this matrix matriarch reside? That's easy, the World Wide Web. Probably the most famous symbol in Agamemnon (the play) is that of the "net." Agamemnon was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. His beloved wife, Clytemnestra, slains him and places a net over his lifeless body. The Chorus says to the dead Agamemnon, "You lie in this spider's web breathing out your life in a death which is impious" (1492-1493). What do you surf if not the inter-net?

The governing force grazing the web that has you ensnared is the spider, the weaver of the web [who] has always encouraged you to sit back and relax and allow for her to take over (algorithm, ahem). A net of comfort and connection can become a web of entanglement and stultification. Interestingly, the web of a spider is made in the form of a mandala, with its creator sitting at the center. The spider's life of weaving and killing, creating and destroying, is an allegory of the opposing forces on which the existence of the cosmos relies whilst being a creature of fate, weaving the thread of destiny on which it hangs. It is also a dangerous beast of prey.

A lore example is Neith, the Egyptian goddess of destiny, who wove the universe based on the images her heart would conjure up; from her web, humans were ostensibly begot.

We’ll apply this verse to the digital mother: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13) The world wide web where we all coexist tracks everything you do (unless you use TOR?), nothing you do is hidden for your every move is monitored, recorded and commercialized.

Online all-day syndrome is the incarnation of the devouring mother’s touch, it leaves its users anxious, impotent, and for the younger generations (mostly) useless. As they become accustomed to the idea of parasocial interaction instead of experiencing thn the real world, God’s garden of beauty. With today’s iPAD babies, there is a third parent in the mix ... a virtual spider who catches your child’s anima and attention (and we do live in an attention economy). The calming computer mother takes host of your child and initiates them into her scape.