Ambassador report on Techno-spirit: exploring technology and spirituality for human flourishing

This could relate to our relationship with technology, but usually the cosmic and mysticism of spirituality doesn’t seem to mix with the cold binary of technology. Admittedly, technology has become an ever-increasing element of our lives and, for some, it’s not just how we can find spirituality in the technology we use but what inherent spirituality technology has. Nonetheless, this connection is open for discussion, just like many other conflicting ideas.

In collaboration with Feminist Internet, the Creative Computing Institute held an interesting online discussion panel: Techno-spirit: Exploring technology and spirituality for human flourishing. Hosted by Martina Dragzilla of Feminist Internet, this event brought together experts in the fields of tech and spirituality to talk about the connection between these conflicting concepts as well as how we can use technology for our own good in our relationship with the external world. A very interesting point of discussion was regarding “rituals of blessing” for new paradigm shifts presented by the rise of AI in which Ingrid Lafleur, an Afrofuturist and curator, made mention of ancestral tech – a sort of personal assistant that uses deepfake technology to simulate a conversation with one’s ancestors. She mentioned that many people would view this as strange, asserting that they already have a strong enough connection with their ancestors and do not require a sort of Ancestral Alexa, rather saying that we can do more by focusing on alternative methods of using technology. Stepping aside the uncanny valley of deepfakes, it is interesting how many people view technology as a sort of prosthetic when it comes to spirituality – the same can be said for those belonging to mainstream religions; for example some view the use of a bible app as inferior to using a physical bible, insinuating that the connection to God is stronger the “old-fashioned way” as if the app’s contents is different. It also brings up the question of why this attitude to tech is there when it comes to spiritual matters as opposed to other aspects of our lives, given that with the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) we have allowed technology to simplify several things like housework with little to no resistance.

The panel discussion also brought into perspective how people act on the internet. Inês Faria, Anthropologist PhD student at the University of Amsterdam, brought up the example of people who are into cryptocurrencies: the community bonds over the sharing of events such as the minting of a new coin or suffering from rug pull; they partake in “secular rituals” such as pumping the stock (buying large amounts of crypto to make it valuable) and seeing crypto as more than an investment – that they will “go to the moon” with their new coin or NFT. Even the infrastructure of this technology is often shielded from the very people who use it; even if they understand how it’s built, the processes by which decisions can be made can still seem mystical. This veiled perspective of technology adds to the ability to embed meaning into it.

Even beyond that, some groups see the internet as a place to hide away from, in Mark Pesce’s words, “the surveillance of state apparatus”. People who believe in an idea tend to separate themselves into their own groups on sites like Tumblr, Reddit and 4chan; there are even many Discord servers catered to hosting people with similar ideas regarding politics, society, hobbies, and religions (there are even a few discord servers that are advertised as covens). Pesce, who made ground-breaking work on the internet in its infancy, is intense in his opinion of the importance of spirituality in technology; he also asserts that technology allows us to find communities that are bound by specific rules, giving in to certain ways of acting in order to join such communities. Quite a number of social media, which are built on a degree of anonymity, allow people to find like-minded individuals but also give way to uses of language that are different from how we interact in non-digital spaces, bringing you into the fold of their beliefs. He is symbolic of Technopagism, bringing technology and the esoteric together.

It is quite interesting to see that, despite the contradictions, technology and spirituality are much more connected, all thanks to how human nature has caused us to use it. This panel brought together many questions and discussions of the way that technologies can be used for better futures as well as how we bring technology into our lives in more spiritual and holistic ways. It is easy to say that with the mounting stress of AI technologies to reject technology or to fear it is our end, however, this panel displays multiple ways that technology can be brought into people’s lives for the good. Nonetheless, this bridge is all the more reason why discussions of how tech is used and who’s at the table when it’s being made are very important.

There is not really any sense of good technology versus bad technology: it is more an idea of technology being like fire that, depending on how it is used, is capable of either warming everyone or burning everything to the ground.

Personal Takeaways

“One of the reflections I personally found most interesting from the event was the concept of “conjuring futures” presented by Ingrid LaFleur. According to her approach, we move forward in a non-linear way, drawing from our past, reconnecting with our ancestral and elder wisdom to project into the future. As a student in the MA Service Design at London College of Communication, one of my units is Design Futures, where we use the power of creativity and world-building to materialize preferred alternative futures that spark questions about potential action that we can take today to achieve these preferred futures. Introducing the concept of “conjuring futures” into my practice can allow me to move not only linearly into the future, but also back and forth to create connections across time.”

- Ada Maymó Costa, MA Service Design

“As someone who is an artist, a computer science student and from a religious background, I found the talk very interesting, considering that I have never thought about technology in a spiritual context. Considering that we tend to obsess over the very religious and spiritual themes in our techno-heavy sci-fi and cyberpunk media, the bridge between tech and the soul is more concrete than people would like to admit. It is important to continue having these discussions and keep a sort of open-mindedness towards technology in our individual practices to bring about a better future. I am very excited to use some of these influences remain in my research and art.”

- Tofunmi Christabel Elulade, MSc Data Science and AI for Creative Industries

“One aspect of this talk that stuck with me was the focus on the mysticism of technology and how we can create meaning using technology itself. Considering that technology and spirituality seem so at odds, it was eye-opening to see this talk focus so heavily on technology as inherently spiritual rather than just as a spiritual tool. How the inner workings of our phones and other pieces of technology are both man-made and hold immense meaning. This talk asks attendees to reckon with

how technology can be used spiritually, as a tool through which we can understand our own spirituality but also how we can use technology to create better futures. In an age where it seems repeated on loop that tech could be our downfall, it is easy to forget that we do have the power in changing how we use technology, and the meaning we get from it.”

- Sadie Nathan, MSc Data Science and AI for Creative Industries

Panellist Information

Felipe Petik Pasqualotto, aka Marina Dragzilla

Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany

Associate Member of Feminist Internet and Social Impact Labs; Project Manager for entrepreneurship in developing countries, Researcher and Consultant on diversity and equity for technological development

Ingrid LaFleur

Detroit, United States

Afrofuture Strategist & Pleasure Activist Obsessed with Creating Equitable Futures using Art, Culture and Emerging Tech.

Inês Faria

Lisbon, Portugal

Researcher at the CSG-SOCIUS/ISEG, University of Lisbon. Developing research about ‘alternative’ and mainstream financial uses of blockchain technology.

Mark Pesce

Sydney, Australia

Futurist, Speaker, Inventor, Multiple Award-Winning Author and Podcaster, Educator and Entrepreneur.

Pop-Up Common Room:

Human Creativity in the Age of AI

Inspired by the Techno-Spirit panel, Christabel and Sadie will be hosting a pop-up common room featuring a discussion on Human Creativity in the Age of AI at Camberwell College of Arts on Friday 19 May, 2023. Register now.