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A review by lizshayne
God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning by Meghan O'Gieblyn
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Reading this in counterpoint with David Zvi Kalman's "Belief in the Future" podcast was definitely an interesting experience.
I loved the connections she drew between the theology with which she grew up (and, broadly speaking, theology as such) and the trends in tech-sector thinking these days. It's an extremely thoughtful memoir that is also a critique of how philosophies of technology end up recapitulating and serving the same roles as theologies.
There was also this one moment where she talks about the *I* in her writing and how she can't take herself out of it. Even acknowledging the non-existent view from nowhere, she writes and writes about writing in such a way that is deeply personal and makes the rest seem realer for it.
Also there was this one fantastically wild moment where she pointed out that, right around the time when computers started solving problems better than humans is when our definition of what makes us human flipped from the intellectual to the sensory. Which is absolutely wild.
I loved the connections she drew between the theology with which she grew up (and, broadly speaking, theology as such) and the trends in tech-sector thinking these days. It's an extremely thoughtful memoir that is also a critique of how philosophies of technology end up recapitulating and serving the same roles as theologies.
There was also this one moment where she talks about the *I* in her writing and how she can't take herself out of it. Even acknowledging the non-existent view from nowhere, she writes and writes about writing in such a way that is deeply personal and makes the rest seem realer for it.
Also there was this one fantastically wild moment where she pointed out that, right around the time when computers started solving problems better than humans is when our definition of what makes us human flipped from the intellectual to the sensory. Which is absolutely wild.