Do Technology and Sacred Mindfulness Mix?

Walking into Wisdom 2.0—a conference where the Silicon Valley tech scene converges with a profoundly sacred mindfulness scene—is like entering an alternative reality. One minute, you might be trying on a BrainTap wearable headset to build your “brain fitness,” and the next, you’re sitting on a meditation cushion listening to a 77-year-old Buddhist monk.

It left me with a question: Do tech and sacred mindfulness truly mix? Or does the ubiquity of our modern technology actually prevent sacred mindfulness, religious integration, and spiritual growth?

In the 13 years since Soren Gordhamer (Wisdom 2.0 founder) had a crazy idea to pull together these two disparate entities, the Fetzer Institute has been a significant sponsor and supporter of this conference. It’s clear at this point that Wisdom 2.0 has played a major role in pulling together venture capitalists, tech designers, wisdom teachers, and some brilliant thinkers to reimagine the tech sector through the lens of something more, well, more mindful and centered on the sacred. The broad swath of technology being developed to enhance inner well-being is one major demonstration of the effect of supporting this movement.

Tristan Harris (founder of the Center for Humane Technology and the former Google employee in the gripping Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma) brought the house down in a harrowing presentation about just how quickly technology is developing—and how fast it’s already developed, all while you and I ate breakfast this morning. He posits that the gap between the complexity of our technological advances and the human brain’s literal inability to keep pace with it can be narrowed only by wisdom.

Harris is among the highest-profile thinkers on minimizing Big Tech’s harm to humanity in areas such as artificial intelligence, Web 3.0, and social media’s reality distortions. And what is his major conclusion after years of whistleblowing, research, and total immersion in the belly of the beast of the tech industry?

Wisdom.

And where does wisdom come from? How do we get it? How does it spread?

We turn to our most ancient religious and spiritual traditions to answer these questions. We turn to our lived life experiences. In navigating interpersonal relationships, we turn to the highest triumphs and the lowest pits of despair. We turn to the sacred mystery of life itself. That is where wisdom comes from.

To be deeply human is to apply sacred wisdom to the challenges of today’s time. We must continue to cherish and hold onto our religious and spiritual traditions—the ones that have always helped humans do this—as we continue to march into a future that feels, frankly, more than a little strange.

Can technology and sacred mindfulness mix to build a spiritual foundation for a more loving world? Stranger things have certainly happened.

If you’re interested in exploring this question further, check out the free recorded sessions and let us know your thoughts. I recommend these 25-minute treats (see below), or you can watch the whole conference with complete talks on day one and day two.

Sara Critchfield is Vice President of Global Outreach at the Fetzer Institute