Presentation for the “Religious Imaginaries” seminar at Heythrop College London, 5-7 Sept 2012.

Abstract

Technology does not simply exist – or is used – in a social or cultural vacuum, but technology becomes part of our symbolic universe. Envisioning and imagining past, present, and future technologies, we naturalize the human-machine relationship or express our fears of technology getting out of hands. Looking at representations of technology in pop-culture, this paper will analyze the different ways in which humans imagine human/technology boundary processes and what that means for imagining the human condition itself.

This talk will be published as part of the seminar publication, forthcoming 2014.