Week 3 • Machine Simulations
Module Questions
- What does it mean to experience a simulation or illusion? How do we tell stories and simulations apart from reality?
- How do language and media shape the illusions we live in?
- How might AI-generated images change us?
- What do we humans want from machine-made images and language?
- Are we forever caught in our own projections? Or can art — human with AI — intervene, disrupt, and refresh our perception of reality?
To Do By Class
- Plato's Allegory of the Cave
- Animation Talk: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave - Alex Gendler
- "The Tale of Omega Team" by Max Tegmark (from Life 3.0)
- Journal Entry: Reflect on how much of your world view is "mediated" by the web, movies, social media, etc.
Prompt Strategies
Activity: Future Simulation — Social Media Post
In this activity, your group imagines a world 10–20 years in the future where machine simulations are everywhere. Then you’ll design a social media post for an event, experience, product, or service that anticipates what humans will want in that world.
Goal
Create a one-page style post (like for Instagram or Slack) that both attracts people and subtly shows the ethical tensions of life inside simulations.
Format of the Post
- Title
- Slogan or blurb
- 1–3 AI-generated images
- Two short paragraphs (120–150 words total)
Timing
- 15 minutes — Group discussion & plan (no AI yet). Imagine your future world: what do people crave? what’s gained, what’s lost?
- 10 minutes — Divide tasks: some generate images, some draft text. Iterate quickly.
- 5 minutes — Assemble into a single post: title, slogan, text, images.
- Post to Slack with your group name as header.
- 10 minutes — Share and discuss as a class. Which posts feel most persuasive? Most troubling?