(Feb 23, 2024 – L. M. Sacasas) Secularization Comes for the Religion of Technology: Or, how to make sense of techno-optimist manifestos, the Open Ai/Altman affair, EA/e-acc movements, and the general sense of cultural stagnation
https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/secularization-comes-for-the-religion
- Charles Taylor’s account in A Secular Age (2007).
- The “religion of technology” is a term coined by David Noble in his book bearing the same title.
- While Noble insists that the religion of technology has not “become a new (secular) religion in and of itself,” I’ll argue that something close to that has happened to the degree that the technological element superseded the religious in important ways.
- American Technological Sublime, David Nye
- (Note: that is small-r republican, as in the political philosophy, not capital-R Republican, as in the political party. I know you know this, I always feel compelled to clarify.)
- 5. The religion of technology peaked in 1939: New York World’s Fair
- 6. Secularization comes for the religion of technology
- “Whatever you may think of the religion of technology in its ascendent form, its consumerist turn amounted to a diminishment of its cultural power.”
KF: the laicization of technology
The moment it became an end in itself, that is to say, the moment technology became the dominant partner in the religion of technology and took up the role of civil religion, at that moment our present moment became inevitable.
Sacasas, 2024
KF: The “consumerist turn” Sacasas mentions just before the quote above got my attention. In effect, he is arguing that it was the laicization of technology – where the “mystery/sanctity” of it all was removed – that undermined the religion of technology.
I immediately think of the decision by the Second Vatican Council to allow a partial replacement of Latin by vernacular languages. Suddenly, the ‘word of God’ became intelligible to the masses (in the same way that the printing press provided access to that word), dispelling some of the “mystery/sanctity” of the mass itself.
The same might be said of the “mystery/sanctity” of technology being removed when everyone today has Godlike powers to spread their own word/message. We’re all prophets [/profits] now