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This week on SHIFT
If you listen to how some technologists are talking about the AI they’re building you might hear some words that sound more religious than technical: transcendence, transformation, a new kind of being? That's not engineering vocabulary. Meanwhile, multiple religious traditions have developed sophisticated frameworks for thinking about what makes something conscious. So, while it’s been easy to assume that religion and technology don’t have much to say to each other, what if they actually do?
Like myself, DZ Kalman is a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Unlike me, he’s a historian of technology who works at the intersection of religion and AI, and he was in the room when Anthropic convened religious leaders earlier this year. I asked him what a tradition that moves in centuries can do about a technology that moves in hours.
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Three things to listen for
1. The Sabbath as a template for technology limits
When factories and electricity ended the natural rhythms of rest, a decision about not flipping light switches grew into a weekly day of tech moderation. Kalman's point: it only worked because the community was clear about what it wanted to preserve, and AI needs that same clarity about agency and work.
2. Kosher certification, but for AI
When food moved from local kitchens to factories, inspectors started visiting the plants and now a small symbol on the bag tells you what you’re getting. Kalman likes the idea of a consumer-facing certification for AI models as a way to hand people back some choice.
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