Can Technology serve humanity?
It is not only that we often uncritically adopt technology, accepting it into our lives as a given improvement or necessity, but that we have fundamentally failed to understand what technology is. What we see—or what we fear—is an erosion of our humanity, a dissolution of ourselves.
This project aims to change that.
Essential to affecting such change is a restoration of technology to a properly human paradigm—that is, we must re-root technology in ποίησις (poiesis), which is to say, the properly creative vision which sees parts in subordinate relationship to wholes.
why this project?
the technological threat & opportunity
While few today live wholly unaware that technology often has negative impacts upon our lives, the depth to which we fall under its influence remains largely unnoticed. This deficient awareness follows from 1) vague definitions of technology; 2) the immediate comforts it provides us; and 3) fundamental misconceptions about our own human nature.
As such, our relationship with technology needs not only to improve, but to change in its very foundations.
major initiative: 2025 seminar
Building upon the success of our Difficulties of Technology seminar, held in the Fall of 2024, the Opportunities of Technology will seek to discover how we might integrate technology into our lives so as to aid the functions proper to human nature. Participants will be engaged in continual communal inquiry through selected readings and discussions, listening to brief lectures, and contributing their own thoughts through a variety of media. This seminar will attempt elucidation of the key opportunities of technology across the four major areas outlined above: psychology, biology and the built environment, cultural institutions, and communication.
opportunities
of technology
real
identity
Major Initiative: 2025 acpa Panel
We are subject to a technologically-mediated fragmentation of our very souls. This fracturing is caused by an extrinsic formal causality affecting our intentional habits away from discernment of the truth. The advent, development, and integration of LLM technologies exacerbates this fragmentation a thousandfold. But neither Luddite rejection nor quiescent capitulation will affect a reintegration of the soul. Through this panel, we aim at identifying the fundamental shifts which are necessary at both a use and a design level to reform our technological paradigm in a manner fitting to and therefore complementary to the nature of the human soul.
Notre Dame University
31 October 2025 | McKenna 207 | 4:15–6:00pm
major initiative: 2024 seminar
The first major initiative of the Humanitas Technica project is a collaborative online seminar to be conducted in the Fall of 2024. As with all Lyceum seminars, this will be conducted using Microsoft Teams and combine both asynchronous and synchronous participation. Participants will be engaged in continual communal inquiry through selected readings and discussions, listening to brief lectures, and contributing their own thoughts through a variety of media. This seminar will attempt elucidation of the key difficulties of technology across the four major areas outlined above: psychology, biology and the built environment, cultural institutions, and communication.
difficulties
of technology
digital
identity
Major Initiative: 2024 acpa Panel
Does digital technology alter our identities? Why (not)? How? And what can we do about it? Though a now-constant background to our existence, the nature and consequences of digital technology remains veiled, and lights are only beginning to shine through—giving us as yet an obscured and dim insight. Recent books have all provided some fruitful illumination. This panel aims to extend these explorations by asking specifically about the effects of digital technology on the development—or disintegration—of personal identity. In particular, we will focus on the questions of anonymity and pseudonymity, the (distortive) mirror of the digital environment and curated self-presentations, and the correspondent increase of divergent sexual attractions and gender identities.
14-17 November 2024 | Specific schedule pending.
overview
understanding technology
Humanitas Technica is a multifaceted project that aims to re-cast the conversation concerning technology: not only for those in academic inquiry, but for everyone who uses technology, and especially those who create it. This project includes seminars, the publication of journals, books, and multimedia productions: audio lectures, podcasts, and videos. If we succeed in spreading this re-conceptualization, we may affect a proper resolution of technology to human existence.
Timeline
Though it may extend indefinitely, the initial projection for Humanitas Technica is from 2024 August–September 2026.
Conversation
At the heart of the project is an on-going conversation in which participants share their insights and engage in fruitful discussion.
Initiatives
Structuring the project are major initiatives, such as the 2024 seminar and participation in conferences and workshops.
Philosophy
The project undertakes to integrate perennial philosophical wisdom with technological acumen and practice.
Apply
Participation in the Project is by invitation or application only (the 2024 seminar will allow for open registration). Fill out the form below to start your application.
