309 - Jacob Howland - Technological Cannibalism

I had an amazing discussion with Jacob Howland about the fundamental question of technology. We investigate from both the Biblical and ancient Greek perspectives what technology is and its effects on the human spirit. We discuss the notion of memory and recollection, Plato’s Phaedrus, the Biblical notion of garments of skin, ChatGPT and AI, work and leisure, technology’s effects on human capabilities, paganism and idolatry, intelligence, and “the matrix”, the internet, intuition, and much more.Jacob Howland is the Provost and Director of the Intellectual Foundations Program at UATX, commonly known as the University of Austin.His latest book is Glaucon's Fate: History, Myth, and Character in Plato's Republic (Paul Dry Books, 2018): https://www.amazon.com/Glaucons-Fate-History-Character-Republic/dp/1589881346Jacob Howland’s website: https://www.jacobhowland.com/His articles on Unherd: https://unherd.com/author/jacob-howlandunherd-com/YouTube version of this podcast: https://youtu.be/o468OtytbVQTimestamps:00:00 - Coming up01:02 - Intro music01:28 - Introduction01:59 - Different narratives about technology04:09 - Technology from the Greek perspective05:01 - Plato's Phaedra - and fixing words08:16 - Egypt09:29 - Suppressing recollection11:13 - The garments of skin15:02 - Work - sorting chaos18:17 - Human capabilities diminishing19:53 - ChatGPT cannibalizes itself22:06 - A pagan god that feeds on humans23:52 - Human batteries26:03 - Intuition - direct access to reality28:49 - What do we mean by intelligence?30:47 - Understand AI as idolatry32:19 - The gold of the golden calf34:53 - The tabernacle35:33 - A body of power37:39 - card: Beasts in Revelation39:16 - Work and leisure47:45 - Monastic life and leisure49:18 - Not anti-technology50:54 - The Henry Adams curve56:56 - The Beast kills the whore1:00:17 - Plato's cave1:01:19 - There is no "solution"1:03:24 - Prometheus’ cycle of desire1:05:58 - The flip side of all of this1:10:15 - Paradise Lost1:11:09 - The need for transcendence1:12:26 - Re-engage at the human scale