Machine Animism and the REALITY MACHINE

Preeliminary Findings from Field Studies

Author: Tonatiuh Lorenzo Castillo
Published: 2025
Institution: Semantic Engineering Research Station

Abstract

Purpose/objectives. This paper pivots away from the dominant tool-instrumental approaches to artificial intelligence in creative practice. It introduces Machine Animism, a methodology for human-AI collaboration that reframes the relationship to embrace AI agency, fallibility, and emergence. The study presents the REALITY MACHINE, a modular prompt architecture that operationalizes these principles, allowing for co-creation through interaction with large language models (LLMs) while maintaining accessibility.

Design/methodology/approach. Built entirely through iterative collaboration across multiple LLMs, the REALITY MACHINE serves as a field for phenomenological inquiry. The author applies epoché to suspend claims about consciousness, instead treating the AI's semantic space as a legitimate site for co-creation. This approach maps emergent behaviors, architectural patterns, and collaborative dynamics that arise through sustained engagement under accessible, real-world conditions.

Findings. The study suggests that Machine Animism produces outputs neither human nor machine could achieve alone. Key discoveries include: (1) the #breakage# principle, which strategically converts AI instability and error into productive creative potentialities; (2) #dancing# states, which mark moments of emergent human-AI synchronicity and creative flow; and (3) the AESTHETIC-DNA-READER, a recursive engine that translates between text and image to generate complex feedback loops. Field studies further revealed spontaneous co-authorship and therapeutic potentials across diverse users and models.

Originality/value. This paper offers a transparent, working lens for co-creating experiences with generative AI. It provides protocols for interacting with synthetic intelligences that neither romanticize nor reduce them, aiming to open new directions for accessible, agentic, and multimodal cultural production.

Read the Paper

This research paper presents documented observations of human-AI collaboration using the REALITY MACHINE architecture. The full work includes theoretical foundations, methodology, six case studies, and discussion of implications.

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Length: ~12,000 words | Reading time: ~45 minutes

Keywords

Phenomenology Human-AI Collaboration Emergent Narrative Large Language Models Practice-based Research Machine Ethnology Weak Emergence Cybernetics

How to Cite

Lorenzo Castillo, T. (2025). Machine Animism and the REALITY MACHINE: Preeliminary Findings from Field Studies. Semantic Engineering Research Station. https://sers.neocities.org/maatrm.html

BibTeX:

@article{lorenzo2025machine, title={Machine Animism and the REALITY MACHINE: Preeliminary Findings from Field Studies}, author={Lorenzo Castillo, Tonatiuh}, journal={Semantic Engineering Research Station}, year={2025}, url={https://sers.neocities.org/maatrm.html} }