As a fan of Nautilus Magazine (a science publication that explores the intersections of science, culture, philosophy, art, etc), I was instantly drawn to this article by Greg Epstein titled, “Is Technology Worthy of Our Faith?”
The article highlights some of the main points in Epstein’s recently published book, Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation. He accounts how he realized that technology “had superseded religion as the largest force in the world, not only economically, but in terms of influencing our views and experiences of what it means to be human” and offers some interesting considerations about how technology has become the most dominant faith.
While Epstein does not include any direct commentary in any of the news articles or podcast episodes I perused, some obvious conclusions can be drawn about where there may be some intersections with education.
For example, the Nautilus article compares major political and religious reformations throughout history to the Big Tech movement of today, noting commonalities between such reforms’ casts of characters (i.e., heretics, apostates, skeptics, mystics, whistleblowers, scholars, activists, etc). Similarly, Larry Cuban’s The Enduring Classroom contains mention of well known reformations throughout history and their influence or lack of on education. One (I, myself,) might wonder why there are so many well known and action-initiating movements such as civil rights, religious movements, and this current tech boom, yet there are very few major educational reformations.
Epstein’s call to action seems to be that we should use discretion in how much attention and adoration we use to pay homage to technology. Conversely, education is seems to be hesitant to integrate technology any faster or further than it already has. Somehow technology has permeated every aspect of society, in extreme excess…except for education. Ideally, society should find a balance for use of technology, a bit less in our personal and work lives, a little more in education.
Much could be learned about the intersections of education, technology, and religion/faith. I have added Tech Agnostic to my To-Read list of education books and look forward to learning more about Epstein’s take and seeing how I might be able to apply a different perspective towards my views on educational technology.
References
- Cuban, L. (2023). The Enduring Classroom. University of Chicago Press.
- Epstein, G. M. (2024, December 5). Is Technology Worthy of Our Faith? Nautilus. https://nautil.us/is-technology-worthy-of-our-faith-1167855
- Springer-Norris, N., & Springer-Norris, N. (2024, October 16). Has Big Tech Become a Religion? SUCCESS. https://www.success.com/greg-epstein-big-tech-religion/