10 - God, Golem, and Gadget Worshippers: Meaning of Life in the Digital Age

Summary

Meaning of life and technology are not normally theorized together. But once we realize that all human activity is always technologically mediated, we see that any acts in pursuit of personal significance, too, are so mediated. However, this point then opens the possibility that technology enters the quest for meaning the wrong way. This chapter explores what that possibility means and how to respond to it. I use as my starting point Nozick’s proposal for how to think about the meaning of life. Nozick’s account makes central the idea of “limited transcendence,” essentially folding the kind of transcendence normally involved in interaction with divinity into a finite life. Nozick’s high-altitude view does not make sufficiently clear how technology enters. But once we bring in additional ideas from Ihde and Arendt, we can see clearly how it does. Next, we turn to Wiener’s classic God & Golem. Wiener is concerned with “gadget worshippers,” people who surrender control over their lives to machines in ways that are not appropriate to what these machines can do. Working with this notion, we can throw light on how technology can enter into the quest for meaning the wrong way and offer advice for how to counterbalance this challenge.