I wonder if what's really happening in the collective is a sort of unconscious surrender to the reality that we are going to end up being submissive to the machines. And I think as they become more powerful, it is in a way returning us to this very old essentially religious question: How do we contend with this force that is supposedly more intelligent than us or has more knowledge than we do? What happens when it starts to conflict with our morals and our values as humans?
What is the impact of technology on the psyche? Author and Wired Magazine columnist Meghan O’Gieblyn talks with host Patricia Martin about consciousness and the self in the machine age, and the implications for living a meaningful life.
Meghan O’Gieblyn writes about spirituality and technology and is the author of God, Human, Animal, Machine (2021) andInterior States (2018), which won the 2018 Believer Book Award for nonfiction. Her essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Wired,The Guardian, The New York Times, Bookforum, n+1, The Believer, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes and her work has been anthologized in The Best American Essays 2017 and The Contemporary American Essay (2021). She also writes the “Cloud Support” advice column for Wired.
Patricia Martin, MFA, is the host of Jung in the World. A noted cultural analyst, she applies Jungian theory to her work as a researcher and writer. Author of three books, her work has been featured in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, and USA Today. She holds an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College and an MA in cultural studies at the University College, Dublin (honors). In 2018, she completed the Jungian Studies Program at the C. G. Jung Institute Chicago where she is a professional affiliate. A scholar in residence at the Chicago Public Library, for the last decade she’s been studying the digital culture and its impact on the individuation process. Patricia travels the world giving talks and workshops based on her findings, and has a private consulting practice in Chicago.
