I am very pleased this is now out – written as I needed to exorcise some linguistic semantic bugbears 🙂 In particular around some recent descriptions of the Longtermist worldview and Effective Altruism as Secular Religions:
Taking Bugbears Seriously: Why Does the “Secular Religion” vs. “Religion” Distinction Matter?
And here’s something entertaining on the matter by @HamishDoodles ❤
I am absolutely delighted to have been interviewed for this piece that covers so many of the details and issues around the deification of AI, which has been a subject I have been looking at, as an anthropologist, for a while now. Tony was a great interviewer and I am pleased to see so many of the ethical issues we discussed in the piece – even if our divergence into AI and D&D wasn’t covered (and I could talk about D&D for days! If you are interested in AI and D&D, you can also check out this older piece by me)
The Daily Beast – The Radical Movement to Worship AI as a New God
Some thoughts on the impact of AI, the first part of a new series I am writing for Swivel Secure as I bring anthropological insights to the #AI conversation.
“I contain multitudes”: Code-Switching in the Age of AI
As co-chair of the Emerging Technologies group at AAR I am very excited to share our call for papers for this year’s conference.
There are a few extra things to be aware of since we are still working towards program unit status. First, we do have a fairly tight deadline and ask that paper proposals for this year’s panel please be submitted no later than Friday, February 17th. Also, we are not yet able to accept proposals through AAR’s PAPERS system, so please e-mail your paper to Co-Chair Christopher Senn at cps5@rice.edu
AAR
Emerging Technologies
Call for Proposals
Theme: Religion and Emerging Technologies of the Self
Foucault spoke of technologies of the self as technologies that “permit individuals to effect by their own means, or with the help of others, a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection or immortality.”
How might scholars of religion theorize the way people use emerging technologies to rebel against and reinforce the intersecting imperatives to thrive and find meaning while navigating the economic and legal restriction of the tools they rely on to foster their life worlds?
The Religion and Emerging Technologies Group welcomes papers that examine how new, experimental, and theoretical electronic or digital technologies are being used to reshape our bodies, souls, or thoughts – through materiality, cultures, and discourse.
Examples of new technologies of the self could include, but are not limited to:
We also recognize the need to examine technologies of the self that involve emerging technologies. Emerging technologies may be those that we think we currently understand, those that are so nascent we do not yet fully comprehend their abilities, affordances, limitations, and possibilities, and those we think that we never will fully understand.
Submission Method
Please e-mail to Chris Senn at cps5@rice.edu
Deadline
February 17, 2023 at 11:59 PM
Review Process
Proposer names are visible to chairs but anonymous to steering committee members.
Co-Chairs
Chris Senn, Rice University, USA
Beth Singler, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Steering Committee Members
Jacob Boss, Indiana University, USA
Jordan Loewen-Colón, Queen’s University, Canada
Sarah Gallant, University of Toronto, Canada
Sharday Mosurinjohn, Queen’s University, Canada
Sharday.Mosurinjohn@queensu.ca
Victoria Lorrimar, University of Notre Dame, Australia
Website
Professor Beth Singler 