The Silicon Valley Religion

A Team Human interview with Harvard Chaplain Greg Epstein

“The tragic irony of a lot of the prophets, the titans, the demigods of our tech religion is that they've had such extraordinary success, but just look at them for a little bit. Look at them and ask yourself, do they seem fulfilled? Do they seem genuinely comfortable with who they are?”

This week on Team Human, I go deep with Harvard and MIT Chaplain Greg Epstein about the way the values of Silicon Valley have been a religion, and how to recognize the way it informs our own approach to technology and one another. He just published a new book called Tech Agnostic, which both deconstructs this religion and offers an alternative, more critical frame for our tech faith.

Meanwhile, I also deliver a monologue about the election, the immigration/refugee crisis, and the way that AI and digital technologies may be “reverting us to the mean” of violence, intolerance, and nationalism. Maybe what we’re moving into is more normal - as far as western civilization goes - than the past few decades of relative calm? At least as experienced by middle class white Americans since World War II…

I also look at the problem of “scaling” solutions, especially if scale itself is the source of the problem.

Have a listen to this episode of Team Human right here.

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