First coined by Arnold Van Gennep in 1908, the concept of liminality or liminal personae (threshold people) was embraced by Victor Turner, which he used to frame the rituals and rites of passage, in his studies among the Ndembu of Zambia (1967). His research highlighted the importance of moments experienced by communities, that occur outside the daily routine, such as rites and rituals, and marginal moments of the individual that demarcate time and produce corporeal harmony, such waking moments, and moments of rest and reflection. These periods of societal time and space came under scrutiny and new technology shifted to daily lives being lived online for many during the Covid pandemic. How have we recreated liminal moments since then, and how prepared are we for the global investment in Artificial Intelligence, which is set to challenge central values and axioms of the culture where it occurs? If social order depends on rituals and ceremonial performances, how will we keep our technological lives human-centred, and our world humane?
