Blind fortune-teller Song Oh-soon speaks at her small practice in the “Mia-ri fortune-telling village” in Seoul. Clients have drifted away from Song Oh-soon's fortune-telling village on the edge of Seoul, preferring online AI-powered divination to the centuries-old prophesying tradition still practised there.
Seoul, South Korea - Clients have drifted away from Song Oh-soon's fortune-telling village on the edge of Seoul, preferring online AI-powered divination to the centuries-old prophesying tradition still practised there.
At 86, Song is one of the last members of a community of visually-impaired practitioners that drew generations of South Koreans seeking answers and advice about everything from illness and money to love and fate.
In one of the world's most AI-connected societies, the village's greatest challenge is not fading belief in fortune-telling, but the way it is consumed.
Song remains adamantly offline, relying on the "Four Pillars of Destiny" astrology in braille and on her four decades of experience in careful listening -- a skill her automated competition cannot match.
