The city of god revisited: digitalism as a new technological religion Articles uri icon

publication date

  • February 2024

start page

  • 42

end page

  • 57

issue

  • 1

volume

  • 33

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0963-2719

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1752-7015

abstract

  • A Religion of Progress has taken shape over the last 21 centuries, from the Enlightenment to present times. It is quite simple to follow a thread from Hermeticism to today, however, several facts have altered its content, therefore, reformulating some of its promises and vision of the world. This paper attempts to evaluate how that Religion of Progress has become a sort of Techno-Hermeticism 2.0. Digital technologies have redefined old hermetic myths into a high-tech religion with dire environmental consequencies. Some of those myths are the resurrection of the bodies, the construction of the City of God, the Adamic universal language and so forth. Now religion must confront the upcoming collapse, however, it is unable to provide satisfactory answers. This goes for all the different churches, from accelerationists (Nick Land) to extinctionists and believers of digital solutionism.

keywords

  • religion of technology; progress; digitalism; accelerationism; collapse