TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information
March 2025 Book Club Discussion Thread
Babel 2.0 and AI Utopianism
The goal of technology is to extract all the mystery from existence and dole a pittance back out to us as a compensation for serving it. Communication mediums have a hybrid nature that merges the technological with the cultural in a way that transcends the created material and its structure. In a sense, technology embodies an immaterial nature of mind and meaning imposed by its users.
Drawing from Marshall McLuhan, Erik Davis frames technology as a "gnostic civilization of the mind”—an extension of man with an intertwining of gnostic aspiration and utopian vision actualized in the modern world. Although Davis wrote TechGnosis in 1998, his insights into the mystical dimensions of technology resonate even more profoundly now, as we grapple with the prevalence of transhumanism and the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence.
This is a total abstraction of language, a linguistic transmutation of what it means to be human. It is the merging of sci-fi utopian delusions with reality where machines are ascribed uniquely human properties, blurring the distinctions between algorithmic chaos and God’s created order. As our modern vernacular becomes entangled with a mess of cybernetic wiring, it creates a linguistic Babel of post-humanity where technology becomes not only an extension of man, but man himself.
With the acceleration of AI development, we can see this intersection of anthropomorphic language becoming increasingly inseparable from artificial “intelligence,” a term that in itself distorts the unique nature of human consciousness. The latest Grok development is described as their “most advanced model yet, blending superior reasoning with extensive pretraining knowledge.” The name Grok brings to light another notable reference Davis makes in his book, which is the utopian influence of science fiction with techno-gnosticism.
The Science Fiction Mythos of Techno-Futurism
Elon derived Grok from Robert Heinlein’s 1961 sci-fi novel Stranger in a Strange Land, which portrays a boy raised by aliens on Mars who then comes to Earth and challenges customs relating to sex, death, religion, and money. He introduces the people of earth to the martian term “grok,” which literally means “to drink,” or "to understand profoundly and intuitively,” reflecting the Martian practice of merging with water as a symbol of interconnectedness and unity. This reflects the transhumanist vision of merging information with human biomatter. It is more than merely acquiring new information, it is the material convergence with the essence of things in a way that transcends human comprehension: the observer becomes part of the observed.
This sci-fi religious consciousness is described by Fr. Seraphim Rose in his book Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future:
In Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End, the new race of humans has the appearance of children but faces devoid of personality; they are about to be guided into yet higher “evolutionary” transformations, on the way to becoming absorbed in the impersonal “Overmind.” In general the literature of science fiction — in direct contrast to Christianity, but exactly in accordance with some schools of Eastern thought — sees “evolutionary advancement” and “spirituality” in terms of increased impersonality.
The future world and humanity are seen by science fiction ostensibly in terms of “projections” from present-day scientific discoveries; in actuality, however, these “projections” correspond quite remarkably to the everyday reality of occult and overtly demonic experience throughout the ages. Among the characteristics of the “highly evolved” creatures of the future are: communication by mental telepathy, ability to fly, materialize and dematerialize, transform the appearances of things or create illusionary scenes and creatures by “pure thought,” travel at speeds far beyond any modern technology, to take possession of the bodies of earthmen; and the expounding of a “spiritual” philosophy which is “beyond all religions” and holds promise of a state where “advanced intelligences” will no longer be dependent on matter.
The Spiritual Cyborg and Digital Alchemy
Interestingly, Davis relates the intertwining of psychedelics with digital technology in his chapter The Spiritual Cyborg, explaining how psychedelics themselves are a communication medium. Again we see the subtlety in the human-centric rhetoric around AI when these models produce inaccurate outputs, described not a mere bug, rather the AI is experiencing a “hallucination”. McLuhan describes psychedelics as “chemical stimulations of electric environment” that enable its users to achieve empathy. Similarly, Alan Watts observes “psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones” (p.154). As I covered in a recent article titled Techno-Pagan Cults in the AI Accelerationist Utopia, the Burning Man festival has remained a common meeting place among technocratic elites since the 1960s.
Timothy Leary expounds upon the notion of both psychedelics and electronics being an alchemical fire, which he famously called his followers to “tune in and turn on”. In his essay Load and Run High-tech Paganism-Digital Polytheism, written a decade prior to TechGnosis, Leary refers to cyberpunks as modern alchemists and electro-shamans, a term Davis ascribes to the New Age spiritualist tendencies of early tech pioneers.
In Leary’s vision of transhumanism, the digital alchemist would be an information entity, completely fluid and ready to advance the next phase of human evolution with digital information as the continually running engine of evolutionary progress. In his seemingly prophetic insight, McLuhan stated:
“In this electronic age we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of information, moving toward the technological extension of consciousness.”
Similarly, Davis notes how The New Hackers Dictionary “drips with loose references to spellcraft,” giving definitions for “deep magic,” “heavy wizardy,” “incantation,” “voodoo programming,” and “casting the runes.” He continues:
Using an elaborate andhighly coded system of theurgic magic, the Elizabethan court astrologer John Dee also sought “the company and information of Angels of God.”
Digital Spirit vs Analog Soul
Davis acknowledges the darker aspects of technological progress, including social isolation and spiritual alienation. This concern is amplified in the age of surveillance technology. The same AI systems that promise to enhance our lives also enable unprecedented levels of monitoring and control. Our digital footprints are constantly tracked, analyzed, and potentially used against us. The promise of transcendence through technology risks becoming a gilded cage, where we trade our privacy and autonomy for the illusion of connectivity and progress. Davis's exploration of the "primacy of knowledge" takes on a sinister tone when we consider how this knowledge can be weaponized for manipulation and control.
TechGnosis doesn’t advocate for rejecting technology, but for developing a more mindful relationship with it. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into our lives, this call is more urgent than ever. This requires a conscious effort to resist the allure of technological utopianism and to ground our innovations in Orthodox principles. It also demands a critical examination of our own motivations and desires. Digital technologies are programmed with powerful addictive forces beyond our human control.
In an increasingly digital age of consumption it is increasingly important to find balance by returning to analog mediums. I am reminded of what Davis wrote in his introduction, borrowing from McLuhan’s distinction between “warm” and “cool” mediums as the analog soul vs the digital spirit:
The analog world sticks to the grooves of soul—warm, undulating, worn with the pops and scratches of material history. The digital world boots up the cool matrix of the spirit: luminous, abstract, more code than corporeality. The analog soul runs on the analogies between things; the digital spirit divides the world between clay and information.
Conlcusion
TechGnosis is an incredibly dense yet valuable text to say the least. There is so much Davis covers that deeply interconnects with the recurring themes I cover in my own work that I will continually refer back to my notes for many years to come, likely alongside several readings of the book.
Some members of the book club have asked why I chose this particular book and my hope is that the answer made itself obvious throughout this challenging reading. For those who stuggled with this book, consider the struggle we face every day in the digital world which aggressively diminishes our attention spans. While we have scheduled monthly readings, this does not in any way assume we should be able to process each book within 30 days. TechGnosis is a timeless book that you should keep in mind as technology further advances the mystical reshaping of our modern world.
Below you can find a recording from one of our early discussions on TechGnosis along with a wonderful review was published by the anon book club member known as Smeagol, who expresses an honest take on the challenges of reading this text.