Podcast — Tech Agnostic: Greg Epstein on CBC The Current
The podcast
Mark Kelly interviews Greg Epstein author of a new book, Tech Agnostic.
Technology taking the place of religion in our lives; and a pioneer of artisan breadmaking | CBC.ca
The transcript
Thursday, December 26, 2024 Episode Transcript | CBC Radio
[https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/thursday-december-26-2024-episode-transcript-1.7419094]
Study version for members
Selected key points
Technology as religion. Epstein claims that it has its own prophets, rituals, hopes, dreams of utopia/heaven, and sense of salvation.
Need for agnosticism. He claims there is a need for overt agnosticism and skepticism as a push-back against the excessive claims and general uncritical awareness of the pervasive influence, unexamined assumptions, and general faith in the narrative. He sees it also as open to abuse by manipulators.
Epstein is employed as a humanist chaplain at Harvard University. His idea of agnosticism is rooted in his commitments to humanism.
Epstein quotes from the interview
Meaning of religion.
[Religion is] a narrative story that shapes people’s lives and helps them to derive meaning in life, a set of practices and rituals that help connect them to who they think they are, who they’re trying to be to their community and then community institutions, even congregations that bind people together and give them a shared sense of meaning.
On how technology functions as a religion.
I was taught that religion is the most powerful social technology in the world and that that could be a real positive if it was harnessed for people like me, atheists, agnostics, non-religious people. But, you know, I noticed that tech was in fact playing that role in most people’s lives.
…
AI is actually positioned as a God by a lot of ostensibly serious people, as an actual God that we should be literally worshiping.
On need for a reformation
I don’t have a problem with religion per say. It’s really important to emphasize I like reformed religions where people, leaders, communities know how to respond honestly to criticism and work to try to do better when they make mistakes. You know, Christians who know how to criticize Christian hegemony, Jews and Israelis that know how to criticize the Israeli occupation and violence, Muslims who know how to criticize, you know, Muslim terrorism and such, right?
So the last third to almost half of Tech Agnostic is about the Reformation. It’s about what I would call the positive alternative to tech worship. And so there are people who essentially are tech heretics, apostates, you know, people who are willing to take on these incredibly powerful multi-billion, multi-trillion dollar companies and industries and say, you know, no, you don’t get to disrupt entire communities of people just because it will drive more profits to your shareholders.
Agnosticism as Secular Humanism.
So agnosticism is a way of saying we don’t need to know every aspect of what is to come. We don’t need to know how to, you know, build the perfect society, live the perfect life. What we do need is a sense of confidence in our compassion for one another. We need a sense that we’re committed to loving one another, caring for one another, building a better world for all.
And that, you know, the idea that we have to have this perfect technological method of doing so and only that can save us, that is faith. And it’s a kind of extreme faith that I’m arguing we need to question….
Related…
By Epstein:
Mentioned in podcast
Extracted Wisdom: Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimism Manifesto | Daniel Miessler
Other
Amazon.com: Tech Won’t Save Us : Paris Marx: Books
Some MCN Reflections
Reflections on Views of Greg Epstein on Tech as Religion
This page by: Ron Richmond
First published: 2024/12/27
Latest revision: 2024/12/28