How to Know What's Real: How to be Immortal Online
Jun 17, 2024
37:23
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Associate professor Hanna Reichel discusses the intersection of technology and theology, exploring the parallels between religious concepts and technological advancements. The podcast delves into right-to-be-forgotten laws, justice, mercy, and immortality online, and the intricate connections between religion, technology, and artificial intelligence.
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Quick takeaways
Tech mirrors theological debates about divine knowledge and human interaction.
Recreating deceased individuals digitally raises ethical concerns about blurring reality with simulated experiences.
Deep dives
The Ideometer Effect and Human Experience
Ouija boards work through the ideometer effect, where players unconsciously guide their movements, a metaphor for human influence in technology. The allure of such devices lies in their providing answers, reflecting human's craving for certainty and knowledge like the internet. While the web seems omniscient, glitches and biases expose its human origins, prompting reflections on human-tech faith dynamics.
The Theological Implications of Technology
The podcast delves into theologically examining tech's superhuman power implications on human freedom, mirroring long-standing theological questions about divine knowledge and human interaction. Metaphors of tech invoke ideas traditionally linked with deities, exploring parallels of creation between humans and technology.
AI and Spiritual Reflections
The discussion extends to the role of AI, chatbots, and digital beings in mimicking and potentially surpassing human interaction and thought processes. Religious and literary allusions highlight concerns about tech's autonomy, humanity's relationship with created technologies, and the potential consequences of uncontrolled advancements.
The Intersection of Ethics and Technology in Resurrecting the Past
The episode scrutinizes ethical considerations in recreating deceased individuals digitally through holograms and chatbots. Reflecting on preserving legacies and memories, it delves into the profound impact and uncertainties surrounding intertwining tech with human existence, emphasizing the need to clarify boundaries and acknowledge the repercussions of blurring reality with simulated experiences.
With digital spaces regularly evolving and updating, and the infinite scroll beckoning to us at all times, this episode questions if we have, as a culture, fully embraced the end of endings. Hanna Reichel, an associate professor of reformed theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, helps illuminate how the emergence of godlike AI and the rise of creator culture compare with the reformations and transformations through which people lived (and died) in the past.
Write to us at howtopodcast@theatlantic.com.
Music by Forever Sunset (“Spring Dance”), baegel (“Cyber Wham”), Etienne Roussel (“Twilight”), Dip Diet (“Sidelined”), Ben Elson (“Darkwave”), and Rob Smierciak (“Whistle Jazz”).