(Online) Spelling the (Digital) Spell: Talking About Magic in the Digital Revolution.

The lexicon of religion has been widely used in the context of the social and cultural transformations associated with the 'digital revolution', whether in metaphoric (digital as religion) or in realistic terms (digital and religion or digitalised religions). The study of digital magic/magic in digital times, the other side of the coin of the Sacred 2.0, is still in its infancy. Yet, references to magic (in a loose and broad sense of the term) are made frequently in reflections about the rapid development of the digitalisation of society and culture, and they deserve more in-depth study. This paper tackles the issue of magic in and of new technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) devices. After a broad outline of the presence of magic in the digital ecosystem (websites, apps and other devices offering 'supernatural' services), this paper will focus on the lexical surface and semantic references to 'magical thinking', explore the underlying reasons for such references (apologetically or critically addressed) and unveil the regimes of existence for magic ('real', 'fictional', 'analogical'). Finally, the paper questions the role of language in the construction of a 'digital magic' and the transformations of the semantic category of magic as seen through the prism of a cultural revolution, that of the digitalisation of societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]