S10E3—Humility: Can Enhanced Humans Imitate Jesus?

Device & Virtue

Can we live humbly and still post that photo on Instagram? In the digital age, humility isn't so straightforward. With the smartphone at our fingertips, is pride just one selfie away?

Many of tech’s biggest names have been anything but humble. Tesla, Edison, Jobs, Zuckerberg, Musk. Does that mean their inventions will re-make us in their image? Or is there a way to hold humility in one hand and our smartphones in the other?

Drawing from Christian wisdom, Greek virtues, and modern theologians, Adam and Chris look for the borderland between pride and pusillanimity, between vainglory and self-abasement. And they explore how those borders are shifting thanks to social media, smartphones, and artificial intelligence.

IN THIS EPISODE

• The AC/DC battle between Tesla and Edison, and what Frank Lloyd Wright said under oath
• The many shades of pride: ambition, autonomy, conceit, domination, vanity, and more!
• Aristotle’s concept of magnanimity
• Why you can’t have humility without Christianity, Stanley Hauerwas says
• Newsfeeds and the vainglorious “love of novelty”
• Chris and Adam’s reflections on pride and humility in their own lives

LINKS

• We’re using the list of virtues from Stanley Hauerwas and his book, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson. Buy a copy and read along with us!
• Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics
• Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoung’s Glittering Vices
• More on Edison v Tesla
• “The Virtues of Pride and Humility: A Survey” - Robert C. Roberts
• “Beware Our Tower of Babel” by John Walton

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