309 - Jacob Howland - Technological Cannibalism

I had an amazing discussion with Jacob Howland about the fundamental question of technology. We investigate from both the Biblical and ancient Greek perspectives what technology is and its effects on the human spirit. We discuss the notion of memory and recollection, Plato’s Phaedrus, the Biblical notion of garments of skin, ChatGPT and AI, work and leisure, technology’s effects on human capabilities, paganism and idolatry, intelligence, and “the matrix”, the internet, intuition, and much more. Jacob Howland is the Provost and Director of the Intellectual Foundations Program at UATX, commonly known as the University of Austin. His latest book is Glaucon's Fate: History, Myth, and Character in Plato's Republic (Paul Dry Books, 2018): https://www.amazon.com/Glaucons-Fate-History-Character-Republic/dp/1589881346 Jacob Howland’s website: https://www.jacobhowland.com/ His articles on Unherd: https://unherd.com/author/jacob-howlandunherd-com/ Original YouTube version: https://youtu.be/o468OtytbVQ Timestamps: 00:00 - Coming up 01:02 - Intro music 01:28 - Introduction 01:59 - Different narratives about technology 04:09 - Technology from the Greek perspective 05:01 - Plato's Phaedra - and fixing words 08:16 - Egypt 09:29 - Suppressing recollection 11:13 - The garments of skin 15:02 - Work - sorting chaos 18:17 - Human capabilities diminishing 19:53 - ChatGPT cannibalizes itself 22:06 - A pagan god that feeds on humans 23:52 - Human batteries 26:03 - Intuition - direct access to reality 28:49 - What do we mean by intelligence? 30:47 - Understand AI as idolatry 32:19 - The gold of the golden calf 34:53 - The tabernacle 35:33 - A body of power 37:39 - card: Beasts in Revelation 39:16 - Work and leisure 47:45 - Monastic life and leisure 49:18 - Not anti-technology 50:54 - The Henry Adams curve 56:56 - The Beast kills the whore 1:00:17 - Plato's cave 1:01:19 - There is no "solution" 1:03:24 - Prometheus’ cycle of desire 1:05:58 - The flip side of all of this 1:10:15 - Paradise Lost 1:11:09 - The need for transcendence 1:12:26 - Re-engage at the human scale 💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com 🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jonathanpageau 🗣 Join The Symbolic World Community for discussions about symbolism: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe 🔒 BECOME A PATRON Website: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/pageauvideos 📱 SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheSymbolicWorld Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pageaujonathan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathan.pageau Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/ My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.