Simone Natale

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About

Simone Natale is a leading scholar at the intersection of digital media, cultural history, and the supernatural. His research explores how belief systems—from religion to the paranormal—are reshaped by digital technologies, and how popular culture influences the design and perception of robots and artificial intelligence. In his highly cited work *Believing in Bits: Digital Media and the Supernatural* (2019, 18 citations), Natale argues that even the most rational, number-crunching digital environments give rise to new forms of spiritual and religious belief, challenging the assumption that technology and superstition are opposites. He further examines the reciprocal relationship between scientific robotics and their fictional counterparts in his chapter “Representing Robots in Popular Culture” (2024). Natale’s contributions illuminate how our cultural imaginaries—whether of ghosts in the machine or friendly automatons—actively shape technological development. His work is essential for students and researchers interested in media theory, the sociology of belief, and the cultural dimensions of AI, offering a provocative lens on why we so readily see the supernatural in the digital.