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#114 - Erik Davis | Technology’s Hidden Metaphysical Dimension (Techgnosis)

#114 - Erik Davis | Technology’s Hidden Metaphysical Dimension (Techgnosis)
Aug 13, 2018 · 39m 13s

Erik Davis is an author, podcaster, award-winning journalist, and popular speaker based in San Francisco. How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination? Erik Davis argues that...

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Erik Davis is an author, podcaster, award-winning journalist, and popular speaker based in San Francisco.

How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination?

Erik Davis argues that while the realms of the digital and the spiritual may seem worlds apart, esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication.

Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as electricity and alchemy; online roleplaying games and religious and occult practices; virtual reality and gnostic mythology; programming languages and Kabbalah.

The final chapters address the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and machine, nightmare, and fantasy.

Exploring the mystical impulses behind our obsession with information technology, TechGnosis presents a fascinating and passionately original perspective on technoculture.

Today we often assume that the triumph of technological rationality has condemned the spiritual imagination to the trash heap of history. But as Erik Davis explains, religious impulses and magical dreams permeate the history of technology. Ranging from the printing press to the telegraph, from radio to the Internet, David peels away the utilitarian shell of technology to reveal the mystical and millennialist fervor that attends each new communications breakthrough.

As he unveils the hidden history of techno-mysticism, Davis shows how the religious imagination continues to feed the utopian dreams, apocalyptic visions, and alien obsessions that populate today's technological unconscious.

In these pages, Davis offers a lucid, playful, and astonishingly erudite journey through our hyper-mediated environment. Anyone grappling with the morphing boundaries and terminal speed of our present moment will want to take the ride.

"TechGnosis is a dazzling, sweeping look at the metaphysical urges underlying our technological progress. From exploring the Singularity to positioning man as the “spiritual cyborg”, Erik Davis reveals our technological subconscious and writes with a flair that crackles the mind. I LOVE this book."

—Jason Silva

- https://techgnosis.com/

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