Tech Agnostic by Greg Epstein - ISBN: 9780262049207
Hardcover
Questioning tech worship: choose human connection over blind faith.

Tech Agnostic

How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation

$52.78

  • Hardcover

    360 pages

  • Release Date

    26 November 2024

Check Delivery Options

Summary

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 of Good without God.

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. Encouragi…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780262049207
ISBN-10:0262049201
Author:Greg Epstein
Publisher:MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:MIT Press
Format:Hardcover
Number of Pages:360
Release Date:26 November 2024
Weight:567g
Dimensions:229mm x 152mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Longlisted for the 2024 Porchlight Business Book Awards in the Big Ideas and New Perspectives category

Featured in TIME, Publishers Weekly, the Next Big Idea Club, the Boston Globe, Politico, the Guardian, PBS’s Closer to Truth, and more



“A wide-ranging, provocative, and energetic deep dive into the role that technology plays in our lives.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“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…He hopes to provide readers with the confidence to be skeptical of magical claims from those selling social media, artificial intelligence, or cryptocurrency.”
—The Boston Globe

“In his new book, Tech Agnostic, Greg Epstein explores the idea that “tech”, by which he means modern digital technology, is a new global religion, with messianic leaders, dutiful followers, daily rituals of worship, and an inescapable influence on all facets of life.”
—The Observer/The Guardian

“Epstein spent the past several years examining the rising power of tech through the lens of faith and came away with the belief that tech is now ‘the world’s most powerful religion’ — and all of us its unwitting congregants. ‘We need a reformation,’ he argues.”
Politico

“Greg Epstein’s Tech Agnostic is a prophetic call to a better relationship with tech, a society and economy where people matter more than profits.”
—Public Books

“Mr. 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

“[A] disturbing trend is exposed in Greg Epstein’s Tech Agnostic. He argues that the major religion of our times is now to be found in the world of technology. 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

“Greg M. Epstein, the humanist rabbi who serves as a chaplain at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has long focused on the ethical questions surrounding technology and our dependence on it. And his new book, Tech Agnostic, explores how our devotion to tech became a religious faith, what the implications of that belief are for the way we live today, and what a reformation might look like — a questioning, agnostic movement that might turn the powerful tools of technology to the service of humanity rather than capital.”
—The Ink


“Epstein may well be our 21st-century Luther pounding on the digital Wittenberg door.”
The Presbyterian Outlook

About The Author

Greg Epstein

Greg M. Epstein serves as Humanist Chaplain at Harvard & 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, The Washington Post, and Newsweek.

Returns

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.