To close out our summer episodes, we're talking with Kevin Kelly, founder of WIRED Magazine and writer about all things tech and culture. Kevin is a devout Christian with an eye toward the ethical good of technology. In our conversation, we cover technological skepticism, the AI identity crisis, the Amish, and much more. 

P.S. Check out host David Zvi Kalman's new YouTube channel, Sabbath Mode, for more in depth conversations about religion and technology.

Resources:

Kevin's website

Kevin's books

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BIG NEWS: Belief in the Future now has a YouTube channel: Sabbath Mode. Go check it out before listening to the episode Coding is one part skill, one part magic, and one part tradition. But when AI use takes out the conversation of code -- the necessary language of the code itself -- can the tradition be kept alive? How do we keep something living and growing without passing along its stories, its trials and errors, and its complexities? On this episode, host David Zvi Kalman speaks with scientist Samuel Arbesman about his new book, The Magic of Code, and the ways that religion and coding reflect one another. 

Resources: 

The Magic of Code by Samuel Arbesman 

The poetic web

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Religious organizations, like all other organizations, are beginning to use AI. Some of these uses are unremarkable, but others bring AI into the business of delivering religious messages. In this episode, host DZ Kalman speaks with religion and AI evangelist Kenny Jahng about the tools he sees churches adapting and what it means to use AI as a tool for evangelism.

Resources:

Kenny Jahng's website

Futureproof, by Kevin Roose

Exponential NEXT

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We often think about how technology has influenced religion, but we rarely question the opposite: how has religion pushed technological advancement? In the case of Christianity, software to share the Bible has been in development for decades and has been shaping tech advancement behind the scenes for even longer. On this episode, we're talking to John Dyer, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and the author of the new book People of the Screen that details the entwined history of software and evangelism.

Reading and resource list: 

YouVersion

Hebcal

The Medium is the Message, Marshall McCluhan

Geneva Bible

The Scofield Study Bible

Encountering Peace

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What if AI and religion had a converging relationship rather than a parallel one? In Professor Beth Singler's new book, Religion and Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction, she explores how enmeshed technology and religion are in our current era, and how we as a society may be heading toward the creation and worship of a god-like AI.  

Reading list: 

Roko’s Basilisk or Pascal’s? Thinking of Singularity Thought Experiments as Implicit Religion

The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence

Existential Conversations with Large Language Models: Content, Community, and Culture

The Turing Church

Theta Noir

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The confessional booth is usually a private space for reflection and human connection. But what if, on the other side of the wall, you discovered you were asking forgiveness from a robot? This week, we're talking to Marco Schmid, the theologian at St. Peter's Chapel in Lucerne, Switzerland, about how his church uses AI to guide people to and through their prayer. 

You can read more about St. Peter's Chapel and its AI program on NPR or The Guardian, or join AI Jesus for an interactive chat on Twitch. 

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Does religion have a role in developing ethical frameworks around technology? On this episode, we're talking to Rabbi Zvika Kreiger, spiritual leader of Chochmat Halev and former Director of Responsible Innovation at Facebook. Zvika and host David Zvi Kalman dive into the Metaverse and discuss how religious leaders can lean into technology, and what separation of tech and religion looks like.

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Technology moves quickly – often times faster than governments can create laws to regulate it. So how do we adapt our lawmaking practices to keep up? 

We’re talking to Gideon Lichfield, a journalist and alum of MIT Technology Review, The Economist, and WIRED Magazine, about how lawmaking can keep up with the fast pace of our digital world, and how government and religion mirror each other when interfacing with new technology. 

Reading list: 

Gideon’s newsletter, Futurepolis.

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt 

Dune by Frank Herbert

Karl Schroeder

Kim Stanley Robinson

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You're not allowed to record in synagogue. But what if you're saving a dying culture?

Have a question/tip/criticism? Write to us at our fancy new website, beliefinthefuture.com

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What happens when you take synagogue music out of the synagogue?

Works mentioned

• Jeremiah Lockwood, Golden Ages: Hasidic Singers and Cantorial Revival in the Digital Era

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Why do tech CEOs and visionaries use religious language—and what, if anything, does it have to do with organized religion? We talk Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan, about unity, infinity, simulated realities, NASA, and how human beings have sought to make meaning of their world.

Reading List:

• Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
• Astrotopia by Mary-Jane Rubenstein
• Worlds Without End by Mary-Jane Rubenstein
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
• The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
• Penseés by Blaise Pascal
• Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard
• The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
• The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

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