I'm in month 5 of a 6-month self-gifted sabbatical from social media posting—but allowed myself a LinkedIn life update—I'm in a NYT article on "Techno-Religion" as NYT's Cade Metz calls it. 🎯 what my 📔 #TechAgnostic is about! Check out my post on LI & @bcmerchant.bsky.social's great writeup here.
Last year I went to an invite-only conference for AI researchers, rationalists, and doomers at Lighthaven, the hub of what the NYT described as a "new techno-religion" in a piece this week. It reminded me that I wrote up an account of the event but never pubbed it—better late than never, I figure:
AI disagreements
Inside a closed-door AI doomer conference with rationalists, tech executives, and the acolytes of Silicon Valley's "new religion"
www.bloodinthemachine.com
August 8, 2025 at 2:27 AM
I'm in month 5 of a 6-month self-gifted sabbatical from social media posting—but allowed myself a LinkedIn life update—I'm in a NYT article on "Techno-Religion" as NYT's Cade Metz calls it. 🎯 what my 📔 #TechAgnostic is about! Check out my post on LI & @bcmerchant.bsky.social's great writeup here.
I have a lot of life updates that I'm overdue to post here but none has produced a more, well, divine image than my episode of #SuperDataScience with Jon Krohn, which immediately brought 3 words to mind for me: "Oh. My. Gods."
February 6, 2025 at 10:48 PM
I have a lot of life updates that I'm overdue to post here but none has produced a more, well, divine image than my episode of #SuperDataScience with Jon Krohn, which immediately brought 3 words to mind for me: "Oh. My. Gods."
August 6, 2025 at 2:45 PM
They say art imitates life; I wrote a book on how Silicon Valley tech today imitates religion so effectively, it now outdoes the original as the most powerful, sometimes most fanatical form of worship in the world. So why *wouldn't* churches now try to imitate the imitation? #ImagoDei #TechAgnostic.
In the SF Bay Area, a local church has taken up the terminology & cultural ethos of technology companies, encouraging people to “start up” their faith.
“Dream, Design, Develop, Deploy.”
What it is they want you to deploy, I’m unsure!
“Dream, Design, Develop, Deploy.”
What it is they want you to deploy, I’m unsure!
December 28, 2024 at 1:12 AM
They say art imitates life; I wrote a book on how Silicon Valley tech today imitates religion so effectively, it now outdoes the original as the most powerful, sometimes most fanatical form of worship in the world. So why *wouldn't* churches now try to imitate the imitation? #ImagoDei #TechAgnostic.
#TechAgnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why it Desperately Needs a Reformation
Such a ride sharing this new book this month amid...everything, and when Elon Musk and others are making my point for me, a bit more forcefully than I wish they were.
Such a ride sharing this new book this month amid...everything, and when Elon Musk and others are making my point for me, a bit more forcefully than I wish they were.
November 17, 2024 at 8:04 PM
#TechAgnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why it Desperately Needs a Reformation
Such a ride sharing this new book this month amid...everything, and when Elon Musk and others are making my point for me, a bit more forcefully than I wish they were.
Such a ride sharing this new book this month amid...everything, and when Elon Musk and others are making my point for me, a bit more forcefully than I wish they were.
Always an honor to discuss my book #TechAgnostic w/the NYT, in a piece landing 2nd @nytimes.com no less. I'm just psyched this cites the book's whole subtitle. AND it involved an amazing debate w/a Pulitzer-winner over whether I believe Leo is "doing the Lord's work." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/t...
As A.I. Fever Rises in Silicon Valley, Pope Leo Has a Few Words
www.nytimes.com
May 25, 2026 at 3:47 PM
Always an honor to discuss my book #TechAgnostic w/the NYT, in a piece landing 2nd @nytimes.com no less. I'm just psyched this cites the book's whole subtitle. AND it involved an amazing debate w/a Pulitzer-winner over whether I believe Leo is "doing the Lord's work." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/t...
This is the 1st time I've felt 'at home' @bsky.app! As a very active dad of 2 young kids, I post sparingly on weekends. But ❤️d talking to @justinhendrix.bsky.social, whose @techpolicypress.bsky.social was a great source of intel for a chaplain on a 6-year deep dive into tech to write #TechAgnostic.
New podcast! I spoke to Greg Epstein, who drew on lessons from his vocation as a humanist chaplain at Harvard and MIT to write a new book, just out from MIT Press, called Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation.
Salvation, Abundance, Apocalypse: Is Technology the World's Most Powerful Religion? | TechPolicy.Press
A conversation with Greg Epstein, author of Tech Agnostic, a new book just out from MIT Press.
www.techpolicy.press
November 10, 2024 at 5:52 PM
This is the 1st time I've felt 'at home' @bsky.app! As a very active dad of 2 young kids, I post sparingly on weekends. But ❤️d talking to @justinhendrix.bsky.social, whose @techpolicypress.bsky.social was a great source of intel for a chaplain on a 6-year deep dive into tech to write #TechAgnostic.
Heck yeah I DID give a @bsky.app shoutout @ my MIT Museum #TechAgnostic book talk tonight! Thankful for the elders here giving me/us a social media site to feel kinda reasonably good about these days. 🙏🟦☁️
Here's @hypervisible.bsky.social at the Museum's 3D textile exhibit on data and redlining.
Here's @hypervisible.bsky.social at the Museum's 3D textile exhibit on data and redlining.
November 13, 2024 at 3:10 AM
Heck yeah I DID give a @bsky.app shoutout @ my MIT Museum #TechAgnostic book talk tonight! Thankful for the elders here giving me/us a social media site to feel kinda reasonably good about these days. 🙏🟦☁️
Here's @hypervisible.bsky.social at the Museum's 3D textile exhibit on data and redlining.
Here's @hypervisible.bsky.social at the Museum's 3D textile exhibit on data and redlining.
Just got really excited about how new writing is coming along for the first time since I finished working on #TechAgnostic. The new (related! but *also* a totally new direction for me!) book proposal is getting good...
November 7, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Just got really excited about how new writing is coming along for the first time since I finished working on #TechAgnostic. The new (related! but *also* a totally new direction for me!) book proposal is getting good...
Post 👇 (skeet?) in honor of @hypervisible.bsky.social. I'm honored he's flying from MI today to talk w/me @ MIT about my 📔 #TechAgnostic, esp. a chapter where he gives me a tour of his work on "luxury surveillance" in Detroit & we non-coincidentally end up interviewing Thanos's creator, Jim Starlin
In other news: Supervillain Thanos wins appeal against order to stop killing half the universe's population in order to please his lover, Death.
The gauntlet-toting villain had argued such restrictions would simply drive the opportunity for killings to other villains such as Darkseid and Dr. Doom.
The gauntlet-toting villain had argued such restrictions would simply drive the opportunity for killings to other villains such as Darkseid and Dr. Doom.
Shell wins appeal against order to cut greenhouse gas emissions
https://www.ft.com/content/f06e8b83-6366-40aa-a91d-ebbdf10a8798
https://www.ft.com/content/f06e8b83-6366-40aa-a91d-ebbdf10a8798
November 12, 2024 at 1:36 PM
Post 👇 (skeet?) in honor of @hypervisible.bsky.social. I'm honored he's flying from MI today to talk w/me @ MIT about my 📔 #TechAgnostic, esp. a chapter where he gives me a tour of his work on "luxury surveillance" in Detroit & we non-coincidentally end up interviewing Thanos's creator, Jim Starlin
👀👀 This @rns.org deep dive into Elon Musk's shallow dive into Christianity is so good. I'm...rejoicing?...to say that, beyond just the "Prophet in Chief" headline, I have like a whole sermon's worth of commentary in here, informed by my #TechAgnostic research 🚀👾⛪✝️
religionnews.com/2024/12/03/h...
religionnews.com/2024/12/03/h...
How Elon Musk became ‘prophet-in-chief’ of tech's Trump-leaning conservatism
(RNS) — Since becoming a Trump supporter, the tech billionaire has arrived at a new stage in his evolution from insisting science and religion cannot coexist.
religionnews.com
December 4, 2024 at 2:53 AM
👀👀 This @rns.org deep dive into Elon Musk's shallow dive into Christianity is so good. I'm...rejoicing?...to say that, beyond just the "Prophet in Chief" headline, I have like a whole sermon's worth of commentary in here, informed by my #TechAgnostic research 🚀👾⛪✝️
religionnews.com/2024/12/03/h...
religionnews.com/2024/12/03/h...
So for over a week I had no idea @rns.org named #TechAgnostic one of the Best Religion and Spirituality books of 2024! Hmmm...Porchlight also named it one of the best business books of '24. Can't imagine that's a frequent combo, especially for a book by an atheist?! religionnews.com/2024/12/24/t...
RNS picks for religion and spirituality books of 2024
(RNS) — This year’s selections confronted politically charged topics head-on, from immigration to artificial intelligence, Zionism and Christian nationalism.
religionnews.com
January 4, 2025 at 7:13 PM
So for over a week I had no idea @rns.org named #TechAgnostic one of the Best Religion and Spirituality books of 2024! Hmmm...Porchlight also named it one of the best business books of '24. Can't imagine that's a frequent combo, especially for a book by an atheist?! religionnews.com/2024/12/24/t...
This was such a fascinating conversation. Follow @kateoneill.bsky.social and put her in all the starter packs. #TechAgnostic #TechHumanist
Join me on #TheTechHumanistShow for a thought-provoking episode with Greg M. Epstein, @gregmepstein.bsky.social, author of "Tech Agnostic." We explore technology as a modern religion and discuss the urgent need for a humanistic reformation in tech.
www.thetechhumanist.com/2024/11/12/t...
www.thetechhumanist.com/2024/11/12/t...
Tech Agnostic: Rethinking Technology’s Role in Society with Greg M. Epstein – The Tech Humanist Show
www.thetechhumanist.com
November 12, 2024 at 5:43 PM
This was such a fascinating conversation. Follow @kateoneill.bsky.social and put her in all the starter packs. #TechAgnostic #TechHumanist
Flying during the Super Bowl! Important request: if any tech company commercial seems to state or imply that the tech Co is creating its own religion, please tag me and my book #TechAgnostic! Thank you and may the AI Gods bless you and make you immortal, with or without 200 immortality pills a day
February 8, 2026 at 11:05 PM
Flying during the Super Bowl! Important request: if any tech company commercial seems to state or imply that the tech Co is creating its own religion, please tag me and my book #TechAgnostic! Thank you and may the AI Gods bless you and make you immortal, with or without 200 immortality pills a day
@zitron.bsky.social I'd love to talk with you about it, and send you a book, with admiration for your work. But anyway, FYI the piece of #TechAgnostic with Hassan in it will be published as an excerpt, by MIT News, in the coming weeks.
November 2, 2024 at 2:58 AM
@zitron.bsky.social I'd love to talk with you about it, and send you a book, with admiration for your work. But anyway, FYI the piece of #TechAgnostic with Hassan in it will be published as an excerpt, by MIT News, in the coming weeks.
We don't have pets (allergies) so here's a non-faces, grainy (privacy) pic of my kids hugging in the woods. They're talking about the Silicon Valley religion and whether tech oligarchs are fulfilled. #TeamHuman #TechAgnostic www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/304...
November 20, 2024 at 3:49 PM
We don't have pets (allergies) so here's a non-faces, grainy (privacy) pic of my kids hugging in the woods. They're talking about the Silicon Valley religion and whether tech oligarchs are fulfilled. #TeamHuman #TechAgnostic www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/304...
Reintro: I'm an atheist/Humanist chaplain @ 2 little schools in Cambridge, MA. 2 📔s: #GoodWithoutGod, on the positive values of nonreligious people; #TechAgnostic on how tech has become a religion that needs reform. ✍️ @TIME & many others on tech...& staying human? Dad x2. ❤️s NYC. Roots 🇨🇺🇵🇱. Rabbi. 🇵🇸.
November 17, 2024 at 7:46 PM
Reintro: I'm an atheist/Humanist chaplain @ 2 little schools in Cambridge, MA. 2 📔s: #GoodWithoutGod, on the positive values of nonreligious people; #TechAgnostic on how tech has become a religion that needs reform. ✍️ @TIME & many others on tech...& staying human? Dad x2. ❤️s NYC. Roots 🇨🇺🇵🇱. Rabbi. 🇵🇸.
New potential AI-as-Religion feature just dropped: Meta patent to simulate immortality. File in "afterlife" section of my book #TechAgnostic.
As an author arguing Zuck & friends are creating today's largest religion—I so appreciate their support of my work 🙏
www.businessinsider.com/meta-granted...
As an author arguing Zuck & friends are creating today's largest religion—I so appreciate their support of my work 🙏
www.businessinsider.com/meta-granted...
Meta patented an AI that lets you keep posting after you die
Meta was recently granted a patent for tech to keep your social media accounts running using AI if you take a break or die.
www.businessinsider.com
March 12, 2026 at 6:04 PM
New potential AI-as-Religion feature just dropped: Meta patent to simulate immortality. File in "afterlife" section of my book #TechAgnostic.
As an author arguing Zuck & friends are creating today's largest religion—I so appreciate their support of my work 🙏
www.businessinsider.com/meta-granted...
As an author arguing Zuck & friends are creating today's largest religion—I so appreciate their support of my work 🙏
www.businessinsider.com/meta-granted...
Nothing like the day before the busiest travel day of the year for the EV you paid too much for— purely for climate conscience/green tech reasons—to die mysteriously. (Not a Tesla!! Subaru! Problem is EVs that affordably & reliably transport an entire family don't really exist.) #TechAgnostic #Sigh
November 26, 2024 at 7:18 PM
Nothing like the day before the busiest travel day of the year for the EV you paid too much for— purely for climate conscience/green tech reasons—to die mysteriously. (Not a Tesla!! Subaru! Problem is EVs that affordably & reliably transport an entire family don't really exist.) #TechAgnostic #Sigh
Why was that my first thought? I was talking with @juliaangwin.com for our recent @alltechishuman.bsky.social #TechAgnostic conversation, and when we got to discussing the many EA billionaires, I spontaneously blurted out, "some of them aren't even in jail yet!"
When I read @davidrovella.bsky.social's @bloomberg.com piece on the indictment of billionaire Gautam Adani, my 1st thought was: was Adani an Effective Altruist?? Unclear, maybe not, but he did get a B on EA's billionaire scorecard. Same grade as Elon Musk! forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wPz7iQ...
Brief evaluations of top-10 billionnaires — EA Forum
As part of my work with the Quantified Uncertainty Research Institute, I am experimenting with speculative evaluations that could be potentially scal…
forum.effectivealtruism.org
November 20, 2024 at 11:14 PM
Why was that my first thought? I was talking with @juliaangwin.com for our recent @alltechishuman.bsky.social #TechAgnostic conversation, and when we got to discussing the many EA billionaires, I spontaneously blurted out, "some of them aren't even in jail yet!"
As I was finishing my book #TechAgnostic several months ago, I realized I would need to make a prediction about what would happen tonight, since the book was slated for publication at the end of October.
Here's what I wrote:
Here's what I wrote:
November 6, 2024 at 5:30 AM
As I was finishing my book #TechAgnostic several months ago, I realized I would need to make a prediction about what would happen tonight, since the book was slated for publication at the end of October.
Here's what I wrote:
Here's what I wrote:
On LinkedIn @nytimes.com tech policy columnist @juliaangwin.com says—spoiler alert—tech IS the new religion. So...I can stop my #TechAgnostic book tour now? But I won't. Pictured: Julia asking "who is tech's Jesus?" The answer could determine SoftBank's next winner! www.linkedin.com/posts/julia-...
November 18, 2024 at 8:59 PM
On LinkedIn @nytimes.com tech policy columnist @juliaangwin.com says—spoiler alert—tech IS the new religion. So...I can stop my #TechAgnostic book tour now? But I won't. Pictured: Julia asking "who is tech's Jesus?" The answer could determine SoftBank's next winner! www.linkedin.com/posts/julia-...
Same, @mehdirhasan.bsky.social! People should subscribe & pay for @zeteonews.bsky.social: There's no interviewer like you, as I've experienced.
In my new 📔 #TechAgnostic I argue tech is now the world's most powerful religion. X=the Tower of Babel. This is more like a nice campus Interfaith center.
In my new 📔 #TechAgnostic I argue tech is now the world's most powerful religion. X=the Tower of Babel. This is more like a nice campus Interfaith center.
Alright Bluesky, due to developments in the news that some of you may have noticed, I’m back on this platform to give it another try and see if it can be a Twitter alternative 🤷🏽♂️
How’s everyone finding it so far? Who do I know here? 😉
How’s everyone finding it so far? Who do I know here? 😉
November 12, 2024 at 4:06 PM
Same, @mehdirhasan.bsky.social! People should subscribe & pay for @zeteonews.bsky.social: There's no interviewer like you, as I've experienced.
In my new 📔 #TechAgnostic I argue tech is now the world's most powerful religion. X=the Tower of Babel. This is more like a nice campus Interfaith center.
In my new 📔 #TechAgnostic I argue tech is now the world's most powerful religion. X=the Tower of Babel. This is more like a nice campus Interfaith center.
Printed @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social's post 👇 out on one of those ancient scrolls known as paper—to wave around and yell about at my launch events tonight, for my book #TechAgnostic. Trillion-dollar companies injecting absolute nonsense into countless millions of people's lives, at the WORST moment.
October 29, 2024 at 4:40 PM
Printed @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social's post 👇 out on one of those ancient scrolls known as paper—to wave around and yell about at my launch events tonight, for my book #TechAgnostic. Trillion-dollar companies injecting absolute nonsense into countless millions of people's lives, at the WORST moment.
Grateful to Douglas Rushkoff (@rushkoff.bsky.social) for hosting me on his #TeamHuman podcast this week. We discussed the religion of tech, and why it's especially important right now to grieve our losses and find the others. Life milestone moment. #TechAgnostic www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/304...
Greg Epstein: Tech Agnostic | Team Human
Ep. 304 Harvard & MIT Humanist Chaplain and Author of Tech Agnostic Greg Epstein helps us understand the Silicon Valley religion. In his monologue, Rushkoff reminds us about the importance of...
www.teamhuman.fm
November 20, 2024 at 3:25 PM
Grateful to Douglas Rushkoff (@rushkoff.bsky.social) for hosting me on his #TeamHuman podcast this week. We discussed the religion of tech, and why it's especially important right now to grieve our losses and find the others. Life milestone moment. #TechAgnostic www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/304...