Tech Agnostic, Greg M. Epstein
Tech Agnostic, Greg M. Epstein
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Tech Agnostic
How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation

Author: Greg M. Epstein

Narrator: Alex Boyles

Unabridged: 12 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/29/2024

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

An urgently needed exploration of global technology worship and a measured case for skepticism and agnosticism as a way of life, from the New York Times bestselling author.Today’s technology has overtaken religion as the chief influence on twenty-first century life and community. In Tech Agnostic, Harvard and MIT’s influential humanist chaplain Greg Epstein explores what it means to be a critical thinker with respect to this new faith Encouraging listeners to reassert their common humanity beyond the seductive sheen of “tech,” this book argues for tech agnosticism—not worship—as a way of life. Without suggesting we return to a mythical pre-tech past, Epstein shows why we must maintain a freethinking critical perspective toward innovation until it proves itself worthy of our faith or not.Epstein asks probing questions that center humanity at the heart of engineering: Who profits from an uncritical faith in technology? How can we remedy technology’s problems while retaining its benefits?Showing how unbelief has always served humanity, Epstein revisits the historical apostates, skeptics, mystics, Cassandras, heretics, and whistleblowers who embody the tech reformation we desperately need. He argues that we must learn how to collectively demand that technology serve our pursuit of human lives that are deeply worth living.In our tumultuous era of religious extremism and rampant capitalism, Tech Agnostic offers a new path forward, where we maintain enough critical distance to remember that all that glitters is not gold—nor is it God.

About Greg M. Epstein

Greg M. Epstein serves as Humanist Chaplain at Harvard and MIT, where he advises students, faculty, and staff members on ethical and existential concerns from a humanist perspective. He was TechCrunch’s first “ethicist in residence” and has been called “a symbol of the transition in how Americans relate to organized religion” (The Conversation). He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Good Without God and has also written for MIT Technology Review, CNN.com, the Boston Globe, Washington Post, and Newsweek.

About Alex Boyles

Alex Boyles has been acting pretty much his entire life. He got his BA in theater–acting/directing performance from CSU Long Beach and his MFA in acting performance from Ohio State University. He started narrating audiobooks in 2019 and hasn’t looked back!


Reviews

Goodreads review by Duncan on December 28, 2024

An interesting suggestion: understand the tech industry (IT, AI etc) as a new religion, with rituals, prophets, theology etc. Lots of stimulating ideas, evidence of how the tech sector functions like an organised religion, or even a cult, prioritising the interests and wellbeing of the elite. Little......more

Goodreads review by Nicholas on July 22, 2024

Paul Tillich famously wrote that faith is "the state of being ultimately concerned" with whatever we may be concerned with, and in this sense, faith is not only a religious matter. For Tillich, what does distinguish religious faith from other forms of ultimate concern (ultimate concern for an ethica......more

Goodreads review by Nick on December 31, 2024

It's an important book for anyone interested in changing the way we live in relation to technology. It spoke to me on many levels, as a Catholic-schooler who thought he was going to be a Religious Studies major thru his freshman year at Penn, as a researcher and writer on digital habits, and, appare......more

Goodreads review by N on January 12, 2025

This book offers an interesting thesis that the modern technology-business machine, “tech”, specifically the AI aspect, is meeting the conditions (dogma, hierarchy, eschatology…etc) to be considered as a modern religion. A religion to which the author is considering himself an agnostic- and yes, he......more

Goodreads review by Maruta on March 14, 2025

The book argues that society treats technology like a religion, with tech leaders acting like gods and their products sold as magical fixes. But these promises of a perfect future—especially with AI—often hide unfair systems that trap people in addiction and widen the inequality gaps between the ric......more


Quotes

“With a beautiful palette of tone, pacing, and phrasing tools….Alex Boyles is an outstanding and fun-to-hear interpreter of this astute analysis of technology, religion, culture, and social psychology. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” AudioFile

“Epstein is not anti-technology. He’s not even a tech minimalist. But he hopes the book will help people navigate and evaluate tech’s promises." Boston Globe

“Epstein is at his best when he brings religious scholarship to his research on tech to offer original analysis. His observations are intriguing and perceptive.” The Economist (London)

“We live in the church of the Wi-Fi connection, avows this interesting investigation…His call for putting the screens aside to build true contact is welcome.” Kirkus Reviews

“[A] disturbing trend is exposed…His book acts as a warning and a means of discovering a way out.” The Bookseller

“Those interested in not only how tech has become a superimposed structure over our society, but also how something might be done about it, will find a lot to meditate on in this book.” Shelf Awareness

“Epstein may well be our twenty–first–century Luther pounding on the digital Wittenberg door.” Presbyterian Outlook

“Written with warmth and wisdom, Tech Agnostic lays out an alternate path of humanism that keeps compassion at the heart of the digital revolution.” Robert Waldinger, professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, coauthor of The Good Life


Awards

  • AudioFile Earphones Award
  • Porchlight