Tech Agnostic - by Greg Epstein (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Today's tech has overtaken religion as the chief shaper of 21st-century human lives and communities. In this book, Greg M. Epstein, the influential humanist chaplain at Harvard and MIT, explores what it means to be a critical thinker about this new faith, taking readers on a journey towards reasserting our common humanity"--

Book 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 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. 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.

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.

Review Quotes

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

"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 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.