Oxford Press Book on Digital Age Spirituality Argues Second Life Provides Platform For Innovative Religious Thinking

The ultra-prestigious Oxford University just published a book devoted to theology in the digital age: Apocalyptic AI Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality. It's written by Manhattan College professor Robert Geraci, known in Second Life as Soren Ferlinghetti (pictured), and unsurprisingly, a whole chapter is devoted to Second Life, and conversations with several well-known Extropians (sometimes called transhumanists), who often see Second Life as a means for transcending the human body. "Interviews with Sophrosyne Stenvaag and Giulio Perhaps appear in this book, along with other data from the published work of folks like Extropia Dasilva and comments made at public discussions of religion that I hosted myself when i was running a site called the virtual temple," he tells me. It also features some survey data on religion and SL previously covered in New World Notes.

His chief insight on spirituality in Second Life? "I suppose the most meaningful thing I've learned through my time in Second Life is just how innovative our religious instincts are... we can both engage traditional religious hopes in startlingly new ways and reconfigure them into new modes of thought and practice that bridge the gap between the ancient and modern worlds. I'm perpetually fascinated by the ways in which Second Life provides a platform for religious thinking that provides religious options that would have been extremely limited in their distribution prior to the Internet."

Comments

[Csteph Submariner]

Just to clear it up Oxford University Press != Oxford University. It's just a private company now and a publication by them shouldn't be assumed to have the backing of the academics of the University itself.

[John Branch]

First a comment quibble: I'm not sure Csteph Submariner's comment is correct. The "About" page on the website for the American branch of the press says, "Oxford University Press, Inc. (OUP USA) is linked to Oxford University Press in Oxford, England (OUP UK), which is a department of Oxford University and is the oldest and largest continuously operating university press in the world."

Main point: The book sounds fascinating, and not only for its SL views. Its official publication date is March 5 in the US, and I'll be looking for reviews. For now, anyone else who wants to know more can check the book's Amazon entry, which quotes (what look like) blurbs for the book plus the publisher's description. Also, Google Books apparently allows some peeks into the contents. Thanks for the post!

[Giulio Prisco]

My review:

http://giulioprisco.blogspot.com/2010/03/book-review-apocalyptic-ai-visions-of.html

[moncler outlets]

So fun article is! I know more from it.

[Moncler Outlet]

Road is the foot, history is written out. People's every move in writing their own history