Tech Agnostic is an urgently needed exploration of global technology worship, and a measured case for skepticism and agnosticism as a way of life
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 readers 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.
“Greg Epstein’s new barnburner of a book arrives at precisely the moment we need it most,” says Lee McIntyre, author of On Disinformation. “Tech Agnostic offers a thoughtful way forward as we stare down the specter of AI.”
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.
“If we can more clearly see and understand the beliefs and practices of our technological religion,” Epstein writes, “we will be more likely to believe in one another, and in ourselves.”
Tech Agnostic in the media
Epstein was interviewed for the Politico Tech podcast and for Politico’s Future in Five Questions newsletter.
Epstein also spoke about the book on the podcast Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast.
Tech Agnostic was included in WBUR’s fall books preview.
Epstein spoke to the Boston Globe for their “Story Behind the Book” series.
Kirkus Reviews called Tech Agnostic “wide-ranging, provocative, and energetic.”
Shelf Awareness covered Tech Agnostic, writing that “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.”
The Bookseller reviewed the book and wrote that it acts “as a warning and a means of discovering a way out.”