Humanist chaplain at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Greg Epstein believes that technology – more accurately ‘tech’ – has become the 21st century’s most powerful global religion. He also believes it’s time it had its own Reformation.
With a global market worth trillions, devices in the hands of billions, its reach unlimited and the appetite of the growing population of power users inexhaustible, Greg Epstein says: “Tech has become the world’s most powerful religion.” MIT’s humanist chaplain is careful not to use the general term ‘technology’ here: “There are many technologies. But there is only one tech.”
The author of Tech Agnostic is talking about a post-digital sub-sect that includes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms, “the technologies that can run away with themselves”.
“People are starting to realise that tech has crossed over from being a useful strategy to becoming an object of worship and devotion, and that they need to recalibrate.”
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