{"id":78152,"date":"2024-10-16T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/?p=78152"},"modified":"2024-12-17T16:14:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T22:14:23","slug":"greg-epstein-big-tech-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/greg-epstein-big-tech-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Big Tech Become a Religion?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At Harvard University\u2019s commencement ceremony this year, humanist chaplain Greg Epstein gave a blessing that was not religious in nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTake a deep breath, not because you earned it,\u201d said Epstein. \u201cYou never have to earn breath. You deserve it because you are human.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epstein\u2019s book, Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World\u2019s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation<\/em><\/a> <\/em>(MIT Press, October 2024) delivers a powerful argument for our collective indulgence in this faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The (civil) religion of technology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Technology is not the first secular institution that has been labeled as religious practice with all of the rites and rituals thereof. In 1967, religious scholar Robert N. Bellah coined the term \u201cAmerican civil religion<\/a>\u201d in an article where he noted that, \u201cthere actually exists alongside of and rather clearly differentiated from the churches an elaborate and well-institutionalized civil religion in America.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to argue a case for the existence of a \u201cCivil Religion of Silicon Valley\u201d in graduate school, I looked for a book like Epstein\u2019s for my research. Turns out, he was still working on it, and it came out two years too late for me to cite in my paper. Epstein\u2019s book has been years in the making. His exploration of the topic goes back 20 years, and he conducted over 100 interviews on the topic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt begins the year that I arrived at Harvard as a new young humanist chaplain and also a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School,\u201d says Epstein. \u201cAnd it’s the same year that Mark Zuckerberg is decamping from Harvard for Silicon Valley to run Facebook full time and grow it into the behemoth that it has become.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\"SUCCESS+<\/a>\n\n\n\n

Epstein realized that tech had become a world religion<\/a> at the same time that he was contemplating a way to create a global community that was secular in nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI realized, like, wow, that’s already been done,\u201d says Epstein. \u201cI started thinking about the mission and the vision of organizations like Facebook, now Meta. And realizing that not only had that phenomenon kind of not only outcompeted my congregational project, but it was outcompeting religion as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inverse of religious practice by robots <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Anna Puzio,<\/a> Ph.D., is a faculty member in the departments of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Twente. Her research focuses on the anthropology and ethics of technology, and one of her scholarly interests is religious practices by robots<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puzio says there are about 20 religious robots worldwide, and their practice is more prevalent in non-monotheistic religions. They are different from social robots, who are designed for social interactions (although you can add religious functions to some social robots, like the Pepper robot<\/a>, which is often used to support Buddhist funerals in Japan). But there are few scholars who focus on the practice of religion by robots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the literature we have on religious robots is very speculative, like thinking about robot souls,\u201d says Puzio. \u201cI wanted to talk to people and ask them whether they want to have religious robots. First, explain what they are, whether they want them and what ethical criteria should be there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puzio recalls bringing a robot out for her participants and the way that people found it entertaining and cute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was also a child in this workshop, and the child really liked the idea that a robot could be part of their religious education,\u201d says Puzio. \u201cThe child had the idea that the robot can show children how to kneel down or to pray because a robot can also be very funny and entertaining.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The religious practices of tech workers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s debatable, but there are certainly aspects of the way that we interact with our technology<\/a> that mirror religious practice and rituals. A 2023 study by Reviews.org<\/a> reported that Americans check their phones 144 times per day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her 2022 book, Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>UC Berkeley sociologist Carolyn Chen, Ph.D., argues that the act of working itself has become a religion in Silicon Valley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is definitely a culture of working yourself to death to flex your creativity and dedication to developing your product. Elon Musk has bragged about sleeping on the floor at Tesla and has been reported to have told Twitter staff to sleep in the office<\/a>, going so far as to install bedrooms in the company\u2019s San Francisco headquarters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is often said that Google\u2019s offices encourage innovation by connecting work and play<\/a>, but there may be more to it than that. When my dad worked at Google, my mother used to smile wryly and say, \u201cThey make the office a fun place to be so that you\u2019ll stay there longer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google itself has its own ceremonies and doctrines, from their motto of \u201cdon\u2019t be evil<\/a>\u201d to the Noogler hats<\/a> they send to their recently onboarded staff as a sort of baptism, or perhaps, ordination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chosen people of technology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When we think about the rituals and practices of tech workers, we also have to think about the support system, which includes the people who deliver food to the offices and the invisible \u201cghost workers\u201d who train the generative AI<\/a> that we love so much. Religion often assumes a sense of \u201cchosenness\u201d or a \u201cchosen people,\u201d which can also apply to big tech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epstein is a rabbi, which is often surprising to people given that he is a proclaimed atheist or agnostic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m ordained as a rabbi in a denomination of Judaism called humanistic Judaism that sets forth from the start that the notion of chosenness is a kind of human invention,\u201d says Epstein. \u201cIn my work as a chaplain at Harvard and MIT, I\u2019ve seen not only a lot of students, but a whole academic culture built around the idea that there is a kind of chosenness to being the sort of gifted and talented students who end up at a place like Harvard or MIT.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps Bellah, who referred to America as a \u201ccity on a hill\u201d would have argued today Silicon Valley is this city. And often, even when we extol the meritocracy of college dropouts like Mark Zuckerberg starting businesses like Facebook, it\u2019s important to note that even though Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard, he still enjoyed the privileges that come from having been there, even briefly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reforming the religion of technology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Epstein\u2019s ideas for a reform of the religion of technology are to create a sort of tech agnosticism, as his book is aptly titled. Applying the practice of humanism to technology can help us move away from worshiping technology and toward genuine innovations<\/a> to improve human existence. And he made a point to shout out to scholars like Meredith Broussard and Ruha Benjamin, who are working to both challenge technology and make it more equitable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are so many people in the world who are doing a kind of tech agnosticism and tech humanism,\u201d Epstein says. \u201cThe book is sort of centered in many cases on the stories of people from marginalized backgrounds who are leading the way to what I hope will be a better technological future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by shurkin_son\/Courtesy of Shutterstock<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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You can find her everywhere as @nianorriswrites"],"rich_editing":["true"],"syntax_highlighting":["true"],"comment_shortcuts":["false"],"admin_color":["fresh"],"use_ssl":["0"],"show_admin_bar_front":["true"],"locale":[""],"wp_capabilities":["a:1:{s:6:\"author\";b:1;}"],"wp_user_level":["0"],"_yoast_wpseo_profile_updated":["1751494141"],"wp_user_avatar":[""],"dismissed_wp_pointers":[""],"molongui_author_post_count":["28"],"molongui_author_page_count":["0"],"is_geuest_user":["32422"],"wp_elementor_enable_ai":["1"],"wpseo_metadesc":[""],"wpseo_title":[""],"wpseo_content_analysis_disable":[""],"wpseo_keyword_analysis_disable":[""],"wpseo_user_schema":["a:0:{}"],"molongui_author_phone":[""],"molongui_author_job":[""],"molongui_author_company":[""],"molongui_author_company_link":[""],"molongui_author_custom_link":[""],"molongui_author_box_display":["default"],"molongui_author_image_id":[""],"molongui_author_image_url":[""],"molongui_author_image_edit":[""],"advanced-ads-role":[""]}}]},"custom_post_content":"<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>At Harvard University\u2019s commencement ceremony this year, humanist chaplain Greg Epstein gave a blessing that was not religious in nature.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cTake a deep breath, not because you earned it,\u201d said Epstein. \u201cYou never have to earn breath. You deserve it because you are human.\u201d <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Epstein\u2019s book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/-\/zh_TW\/Greg-Epstein\/dp\/0262049201\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World\u2019s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>(MIT Press, October 2024) delivers a powerful argument for our collective indulgence in this faith. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-civil-religion-of-technology\">The (civil) religion of technology<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Technology is not the first secular institution that has been labeled as religious practice with all of the rites and rituals thereof. In 1967, religious scholar Robert N. Bellah coined the term \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.robertbellah.com\/articles_5.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">American civil religion<\/a>\u201d in an article where he noted that, \u201cthere actually exists alongside of and rather clearly differentiated from the churches an elaborate and well-institutionalized civil religion in America.\u201d <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>When I tried to argue a case for the existence of a \u201cCivil Religion of Silicon Valley\u201d in graduate school, I looked for a book like Epstein\u2019s for my research. Turns out, he was still working on it, and it came out two years too late for me to cite in my paper. Epstein\u2019s book has been years in the making. His exploration of the topic goes back 20 years, and he conducted over 100 interviews on the topic. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cIt begins the year that I arrived at Harvard as a new young humanist chaplain and also a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School,\u201d says Epstein. \u201cAnd it's the same year that Mark Zuckerberg is decamping from Harvard for Silicon Valley to run Facebook full time and grow it into the behemoth that it has become.\u201d <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Epstein realized that tech had become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.success.com\/what-i-learned-about-myself-after-sampling-6-religions\/\">world religion<\/a> at the same time that he was contemplating a way to create a global community that was secular in nature. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cI realized, like, wow, that's already been done,\u201d says Epstein. \u201cI started thinking about the mission and the vision of organizations like Facebook, now Meta. And realizing that not only had that phenomenon kind of not only outcompeted my congregational project, but it was outcompeting religion as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-inverse-of-religious-practice-by-robots-nbsp\">The inverse of religious practice by robots <\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.anna-puzio.com\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Anna Puzio,<\/a> Ph.D., is a faculty member in the departments of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Twente. Her research focuses on the anthropology and ethics of technology, and one of her scholarly interests is <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s00146-023-01812-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">religious practices by robots<\/a>. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Puzio says there are about 20 religious robots worldwide, and their practice is more prevalent in non-monotheistic religions. They are different from social robots, who are designed for social interactions (although you can add religious functions to some social robots, like the <a href=\"https:\/\/us.softbankrobotics.com\/pepper\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pepper robot<\/a>, which is often used to support Buddhist funerals in Japan). But there are few scholars who focus on the practice of religion by robots. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cAll the literature we have on religious robots is very speculative, like thinking about robot souls,\u201d says Puzio. \u201cI wanted to talk to people and ask them whether they want to have religious robots. First, explain what they are, whether they want them and what ethical criteria should be there.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Puzio recalls bringing a robot out for her participants and the way that people found it entertaining and cute.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cThere was also a child in this workshop, and the child really liked the idea that a robot could be part of their religious education,\u201d says Puzio. \u201cThe child had the idea that the robot can show children how to kneel down or to pray because a robot can also be very funny and entertaining.\u201d <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-religious-practices-of-tech-workers\">The religious practices of tech workers<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>That\u2019s debatable, but there are certainly aspects of the way that we <a href=\"https:\/\/www.success.com\/from-the-editor-ai-innovation\/\">interact with our technology<\/a> that mirror religious practice and rituals. A 2023 study by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reviews.org\/mobile\/cell-phone-addiction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reviews.org<\/a> reported that Americans check their phones 144 times per day. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In her 2022 book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Work-Pray-Code-Becomes-Religion\/dp\/0691219087\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>UC Berkeley sociologist Carolyn Chen, Ph.D., argues that the act of working itself has become a religion in Silicon Valley. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>There is definitely a culture of working yourself to death to flex your creativity and dedication to developing your product. Elon Musk has bragged about sleeping on the floor at Tesla and has been reported to have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2022\/dec\/07\/twitter-san-francisco-investigating-offices-converted-bedrooms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told Twitter staff to sleep in the office<\/a>, going so far as to install bedrooms in the company\u2019s San Francisco headquarters. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>It is often said that Google\u2019s offices encourage innovation by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.resourceondemand.com\/tech-cultures-playground\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">connecting work and play<\/a>, but there may be more to it than that. When my dad worked at Google, my mother used to smile wryly and say, \u201cThey make the office a fun place to be so that you\u2019ll stay there longer.\u201d <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Google itself has its own ceremonies and doctrines, from their motto of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/abc.xyz\/investor\/google-code-of-conduct\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">don\u2019t be evil<\/a>\u201d to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/photos\/google-noogler-hat-unboxing-31450.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Noogler hats<\/a> they send to their recently onboarded staff as a sort of baptism, or perhaps, ordination. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-chosen-people-of-technology\">The chosen people of technology<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>When we think about the rituals and practices of tech workers, we also have to think about the support system, which includes the people who deliver food to the offices and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghostwork.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">invisible \u201cghost workers\u201d who train the generative AI<\/a> that we love so much. Religion often assumes a sense of \u201cchosenness\u201d or a \u201cchosen people,\u201d which can also apply to big tech.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Epstein is a rabbi, which is often surprising to people given that he is a proclaimed atheist or agnostic. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cI'm ordained as a rabbi in a denomination of Judaism called humanistic Judaism that sets forth from the start that the notion of chosenness is a kind of human invention,\u201d says Epstein. \u201cIn my work as a chaplain at Harvard and MIT, I\u2019ve seen not only a lot of students, but a whole academic culture built around the idea that there is a kind of chosenness to being the sort of gifted and talented students who end up at a place like Harvard or MIT.\u201d <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Perhaps Bellah, who referred to America as a \u201ccity on a hill\u201d would have argued today Silicon Valley is this city. And often, even when we extol the meritocracy of college dropouts like Mark Zuckerberg starting businesses like Facebook, it\u2019s important to note that even though Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard, he still enjoyed the privileges that come from having been there, even briefly. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-reforming-the-religion-of-technology\">Reforming the religion of technology<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Epstein\u2019s ideas for a reform of the religion of technology are to create a sort of tech agnosticism, as his book is aptly titled. Applying the practice of humanism to technology can help us move away from worshiping technology and toward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.success.com\/most-innovative-companies-2024\/\">genuine innovations<\/a> to improve human existence. And he made a point to shout out to scholars like Meredith Broussard and Ruha Benjamin, who are working to both challenge technology and make it more equitable. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cThere are so many people in the world who are doing a kind of tech agnosticism and tech humanism,\u201d Epstein says. \u201cThe book is sort of centered in many cases on the stories of people from marginalized backgrounds who are leading the way to what I hope will be a better technological future.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"fontSize\":\"small\"} -->\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><strong><em>Photo by shurkin_son\/Courtesy of Shutterstock<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","tag_names":[],"post_attachment_urls":[],"author_email":"nnorris@mailinator.com","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}