Tech Agnostic by Greg M. Epstein

About this event

Why do so many people kneel at the altar of technology without asking serious questions about the god they are praying to? Plenty of us have wondered if the benefits of the various technologies in our lives outweigh the drawbacks, but as a whole, society keeps sprinting into tech adoption without hesitation. Big tech leaders are treated like prophets, and their faithful seem too far too trusting that these novel technologies are worth using daily and that nonbelievers are not worth listening to. It certainly has a religious smell to it, at the very least. In Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why it Desperately Needs a Reformation, MIT and Harvard chaplain Greg Epstein analyzes, from a critical and humanist point of view, our modern worship of technology as a religion. Please join us for the October meeting of the Technology and Society book club as we discuss Tech Agnostic by Greg M. Epstein. (Note: This is a book club. You should read the book, or have well-developed thoughts related to the book's topic, before attending. ) NOTE: We have hosted at the Starbucks listed in the past, but due to its early closing time, I am still looking for a suitable new venue. I will probably change the venue soon, so keep an eye out for that, but it will be somewhere in central Bangkok not too far from an MRT or BTS station. Description from Amazon: An urgently needed exploration of global technology worship, and a measured case for skepticism and agnosticism as a way of life, from the New York Times–bestselling author of Good without God. Today’s technology has overtaken religion as the chief influence on twenty-first century life and community. In Tech Agnostic, Harvard and MIT’s influential humanist chaplain Greg Epstein explores what it means to be a critical thinker with respect to this new faith. Encouraging readers to reassert their common humanity beyond the seductive sheen of “tech,” this book argues for tech agnosticism—not worship—as a way of life. Without suggesting we return to a mythical pre-tech past, Epstein shows why we must maintain a freethinking critical perspective toward innovation until it proves itself worthy of our faith or not. Epstein asks probing questions that center humanity at the heart of engineering: Who profits from an uncritical faith in technology? How can we remedy technology’s problems while retaining its benefits? Showing how unbelief has always served humanity, Epstein revisits the historical apostates, skeptics, mystics, Cassandras, heretics, and whistleblowers who embody the tech reformation we desperately need. He argues that we must learn how to collectively demand that technology serve our pursuit of human lives that are deeply worth living. In our tumultuous era of religious extremism and rampant capitalism, Tech Agnostic offers a new path forward, where we maintain enough critical distance to remember that all that glitters is not gold—nor is it God.