This week Razib sits down with author and tech entrepreneur Antonio Garcia Martinez to talk about some of the myriad ways in which technology and belief structures underpin and reinforce each other.  

Antonio discusses how his ongoing conversion to Judaism has broadened his lens and allowed him to gain perspective on how secular manifestations of Protestant Christianity have permeated our culture in strange and unexpected ways, including the “great awokening” of the 21st century and the dangers of injecting personality and politics into the workplace.   

They continue their discussion on the social consequences of belief and transmission of cultural memes, the not-so-subtle differences between orthodoxy and orthopraxy, and how the medium of information transmission effects not only the way information is transmitted and received – but how they affect the very thought processes themselves which underly them - by comparing orality to textual transmission. Anthony notes how certain tech platforms, such as Clubhouse, are reinvigorating orally transmitted information and how even. 

Finally, Anthony discusses how his brief stint with Apple led him to buy a Tesla and the future of autonomous and upgradeable technologies and why he remains optimistic about the technological future of the United States.

Related: The Pull Request, Antonio’s Substack.