Is Steve Jobs a prophet of this new techno-religion, and iPhone users its missionaries?
Just like religion was pejoratively called “the opium of the people”, it is easy to see how phones, videos,
and apps provide an easy comfort that annihilated personal conscience. People wake up and have the same ritual of checking through their apps, just like a prayer. Some sleep for days in front of stores to buy the latest phone. Thanks to technology, we can send message information almost instantly to anywhere in the world. A century ago, this would have been called a divine miracle.
When Steve Jobs died, it wasn’t just a person or a businessman dying. It was a spirit, leading
technology. His work is often described as something only a genius mind could do, something almost
divine. iPhone and MacBooks are fetishized and their users defend them tooth and nail against Samsung phones. This Apple vs Samsung war can look like a religious conflict for someone that isn’t deeply involved. Both have phones with very similar functionalities, similar appearance, and few fundamental differences. But these differences will be accentuated by both phones’ users to justify their choice. They are used all over the world by people from very different ways of life. A billionaire in California, a working professional in Paris, and a kid in Brazil could potentially have the same phone, just like religion doesn’t discriminate.
Religion is also a way to look at the world. The Metaverse, which combines multiple technologies, is
another way to look and interact in our world. Our myths and beliefs are fading off and new ones will
emerge. The concept of death is also central in both technology and religion. Religion is a way to accept
death and control how we perceive it. Technology has another approach: it is trying to overcome it.
Online avatars outlive the “real” person it is modeled after.
Dataism for example (developed in Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow, by Yuval Noah Harari) stated that data is the only truth, and the technology of Blockchain, which by nature, creates transactions that cannot be altered once public.
Reference:
Techno-religion – Libération (liberation.fr)
« La Silicon Valley nous plonge en pleine techno-religiosité »
Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari | Goodreads
