Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information - Paperback

by Erik Davis (Author), Eugene Thacker (Foreword by)

TechGnosis is a cult classic of media studies that straddles the line between academic discourse and popular culture; it appeals to both those secular and spiritual, to fans of cyberpunk and hacker literature and culture as much as new-thought adherents and spiritual seekers

How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination? In TechGnosis--a cult classic now updated and reissued with a new afterword--Erik Davis argues that while the realms of the digital and the spiritual may seem worlds apart, esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication.

Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as electricity and alchemy; online roleplaying games and religious and occult practices; virtual reality and gnostic mythology; programming languages and Kabbalah. The final chapters address the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and machine, nightmare and fantasy.

Front Jacket

Exploring the mystical impulses behind our obsession with information technology, TechGnosis presents a fascinating and passionately original perspective on technoculture.
Today we often assume that the triumph of technological rationality has condemned the spiritual imagination to the trash heap of history. But as Erik Davis explains, religious impulses and magical dreams permeate the history of technology. Ranging from the printing press to the telegraph, from radio to the Internet, David peels away the utilitarian shell of technology to reveal the mystical and millennialist fervor that attends each new communications breakthrough. As he unveils the hidden history of techno-mysticism, Davis shows how the religious imagination continues to feed the utopian dreams, apocalyptic visions, and alien obsessions that populate today's technological unconscious.
In these pages, Davis offers a lucid, playful, and astonishingly erudite journey through our hyper-mediated environment. Anyone grappling with the morphing boundaries and terminal speed of our present moment will want to take the ride.

Author Biography

ERIK DAVIS is a scholar, journalist, and public speaker best known for his cultural analysis and creative explorations of esoteric mysticism. Davis has written about music, art, film, pop culture, and technology for Spin, Details, Rolling Stone, and Wired magazines. He is the author of Led Zeppelin IV (2005), The Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape (2006), and Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica (2010), and co-edited The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick (2011). Davis has appeared in a number of documentaries about technology and countercultural topics, including DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Electronic Awakening, and The Source. Along with Maja D'Aoust, he hosts a weekly podcast devoted to the cultures of consciousness called Expanding Mind, which is part of the Progressive Radio Network.