Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Greg Epstein, "Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation" (MIT Press, 2024)
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Greg Epstein, "Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation" (MIT Press, 2024)
Technology has surpassed religion as the central focus of our lives, from our dependence on smartphones to the way that tech has infused almost every aspect of our lives including our homes, our relationships, and even our bodies. Beyond these practical matters, Tech has become a religion with multiple sects who follow their own beliefs, practices, hierarchies, and visions of heaven and hell. There are zealous prophets and humble servants, messiahs and visions of a coming apocalypse.
In Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation (MIT Press, 2024), Harvard and MIT’s humanist chaplain Greg Epstein approaches Tech with the perspective of a critical thinker who is fascinated by technical innovation and also questions the worth of those advancements in human terms. He places the current faith in Tech in historical and personal context by examining the skeptics, mystics, heretics, and whistleblowers who embody the reform mindset he believes we desperately need.
Epstein argues for demanding that technology serve the development of human lives that are worth living rather than the extreme "up and to the right" transactional approach that is often rewarded in our current age of capitalism.
In this age of global technology worship, Greg Epstein presents the case for taking an agnostic view, one that can both appreciate the benefits of Tech and also remain skeptical about some of the more outlandish claims and seductive promises.
Author recommended reading:
Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein
Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff
Hosted by Meghan Cochran
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/technology
View all episodes
By New Books Network
5
22 ratings
Technology has surpassed religion as the central focus of our lives, from our dependence on smartphones to the way that tech has infused almost every aspect of our lives including our homes, our relationships, and even our bodies. Beyond these practical matters, Tech has become a religion with multiple sects who follow their own beliefs, practices, hierarchies, and visions of heaven and hell. There are zealous prophets and humble servants, messiahs and visions of a coming apocalypse.
In Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation (MIT Press, 2024), Harvard and MIT’s humanist chaplain Greg Epstein approaches Tech with the perspective of a critical thinker who is fascinated by technical innovation and also questions the worth of those advancements in human terms. He places the current faith in Tech in historical and personal context by examining the skeptics, mystics, heretics, and whistleblowers who embody the reform mindset he believes we desperately need.
Epstein argues for demanding that technology serve the development of human lives that are worth living rather than the extreme "up and to the right" transactional approach that is often rewarded in our current age of capitalism.
In this age of global technology worship, Greg Epstein presents the case for taking an agnostic view, one that can both appreciate the benefits of Tech and also remain skeptical about some of the more outlandish claims and seductive promises.
Author recommended reading:
Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein
Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff
Hosted by Meghan Cochran
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/technology
More shows like New Books in Technology
View all
This American Life
90,721 Listeners
Fresh Air
38,145 Listeners
New Books in History
206 Listeners
MSNBC Rachel Maddow (video)
12,807 Listeners
The Rachel Maddow Show
37,332 Listeners
New Books in Psychoanalysis
191 Listeners
New Books in Military History
161 Listeners
New Books in Economics
26 Listeners
New Books in African American Studies
161 Listeners
New Books in Political Science
62 Listeners
New Books in African Studies
41 Listeners
New Books in Philosophy
111 Listeners
New Books in World Affairs
24 Listeners
New Books in Critical Theory
143 Listeners
New Books in Intellectual History
61 Listeners
Intelligence Squared
773 Listeners
The Dig
1,508 Listeners
The Daily
111,187 Listeners
The Intelligence from The Economist
2,518 Listeners
What's Left of Philosophy
259 Listeners
The Ezra Klein Show
15,019 Listeners
The Sunday Show
28 Listeners
The Foreign Affairs Interview
408 Listeners