Does AI Even Exist? ...and why hype runs the show. With Dr Vassilis Galanos

Citation

Galanos V (2025) Does AI Even Exist? ...and why hype runs the show. With Dr Vassilis Galanos. YouTube [Video] 03.10.2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR7RU6v3nAs

Abstract
Digital sociologist and photographer, Dr Vassilis Galanos (University of Stirling) joins Inner Sense to share experiences from shamanic encounters in Siberia to the politics of AI, from DJ sets as ecstatic ritual to “hype as capital.” We explore his claim that “AI does not exist,” why intelligence is better seen as relational, and how tech hype operates like informal credit in modern economies. Along the way: Zen archery, spider webs, Bateson, Marx, the Gartner Hype Cycle, and the craft of responsible hype. 01:08 – Vassilis's background — Librarianship roots, photography, and early pull toward occult and magic. 04:25 – Music as practice — Rap/poetry, DJing, chanting, and the shamanic logic of the dancefloor. 06:19 – Tuva calling — Asian Dub Foundation, throat singing, a vow to visit Siberia’s shamanic heartland. 10:03 – Meeting “the real shaman” — A commercialised scene vs. an unexpected invitation; the electric touch. 16:50 – Hexagram insight — A shamanic reading of Eliphas Lévi: reflection, depth, and the world beneath the surface. 19:16 – New Orleans stories — Graveyard lore, a “cursed guide,” and the hazy edge of spirit vs. human. 23:46 – “AI does not exist” (why?) — Dissolving the artificial/natural binary; intelligence as extension of human collectives. 29:16 – Distributed cognition — From cybernetics (Shannon, Wiener, Ashby) to 4E metaphors: spider, web, and Zen archery. 36:51 – Hype Studies — Hype isn’t noise; it does things (mobilises money/decisions). Gartner cycles and self-fulfilling prophecies. 41:35 – Marx, money, and metaphors — From gold to credit: hype as informal credit backed by expectations and signals. 49:56 – When AI rebrands — Winters of disillusionment, “expert systems,” Web 2.0, algorithms, and the return of old AI ideas. 53:22 – From ‘right to be forgotten’ to Big Data — Waste -surplus -prediction -generation. The pipeline that fed GenAI. 56:40 – What is magic? — Imagination, ritual, spells as everyday practices; dissolving/combining (solve et coagula). 1:01:37 – Ritual, play, metaphor — Bateson’s double meanings; why we all need a little magic (and movies). 1:06:03 – Making (responsible) hype — Audience mapping, “magic words,” and whether hype can avoid co-optation. Vassilis's Music Channel / @fili-tis-petaloudas Vassilis's Academic Profile https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/2013529 Find out more about the Inner Sense project https://restoringbalance.life/inner-s... Ian Tennant - / ian-tennant-phd