Prof. Dr. Beth Singler and Rev. Dr. Joshua K. Smith discuss digital religion, AI's impact on spirituality, perspective bias, anthropomorphism of AI, outsourcing decision making to AI, the reemergence of occult aesthetics, and the interconnectedness of secularization and AI.
The podcast discusses the trends in digital religion and the development of communities and ideas about technology online.
AI shapes and influences spiritual identity and religiosity, with the emergence of new religious movements and spiritualities online.
The conversation explores ethical concerns surrounding AI, including the role of corporations, perspective bias, and personal agency in AI decision making.
Deep dives
Trends in Digital Religion
The podcast episode discusses the trends in digital religion, highlighting the development of communities and ideas about technology online.
AI and Spiritual Identity
The podcast explores how AI shapes and influences spiritual identity and religiosity, looking at new religious movements and spiritualities that have emerged on the internet and social media.
Perspective Bias and Anthropomorphism of AI
The episode discusses the tendency for humans to anthropomorphize AI and the challenge of overcoming perspective bias in our understanding of AI and its capabilities.
Ethics, Corporations, and Personal Agency
The conversation delves into ethical concerns surrounding AI technologies, including the role of corporations and the need to consider personal agency in relation to AI decision making.
Nihilism, Apocalyptism, and Occult Aesthetic
The podcast explores the emergence of religious and cultural narratives related to apocalypticism, nihilism, and occult aesthetics in discussions about AI and technology.
Today, I'm joined by Prof. Dr. Beth Singler, Assistant Professor in Digital Religion(s) at the University of Zurich and Rev. Dr. Joshua K. Smith, Pastor and Theologian, to discuss digital religion, and our spiritual identity online.
This episode of The Future of You covers:
The trends in digital religion
How people are developing communities and ideas about technology online
How AI shapes and molds what we are doing spiritually.
Our perspective bias at the dawn of a new millennium
Anthropomorphism of AI
Whether AI can help us become better moral beings
Corporatist agency, personal agency, and AI politicians
The ongoing outsourcing of our own decision making to AI
Nihilism, apocalypticism, and the reemergence of the Satanic and occult aesthetic.