This is the beginning of a conversation about technology & the pursuit of a meaningful vocation.

The conversation began within myself several months ago, after I read a certain techno-optimist manifesto. The ideas I encountered in that article were a thorn in my side for a long time — not knowing which side of the argument I fall on, and not knowing how to make sense of my thoughts and feelings and experiences. I currently work in technology, but have always been too philosophical for my own good.

Somewhere along the way, at the most unsuspecting moment, a voice in my head told me to write a story about it. After all, the past year has been marked by discovering metaphor as fresh way of seeing the world. It was at that point I realized that story, particularly fiction, myth, and poetry, do not require you to choose a side. In fact, they are rarely direct about what they are trying to say. Rather, they give you material to make something for yourself. They mercifully don’t give you the answer at the click of a button. So I began to write. Albeit, abstractly, frustratingly, inconsistently, and in many different directions. Several months later, I’m finally able to share something that came from my wrestling. At the very least, it’s the beginning of a conversation.

If there’s anything I’ve learned after many humblings and defeats over the past few months, it’s that this conversation cannot be limited to one particular time, place, or person. It must include a long view of history, it must include other voices, and it must terminate in a story that is bigger than the individual. So I hope to continue this conversation with you. I’m actively having conversations with other people I hope to share, and continuing to wrestle with ideas outlined in this here essay. I’m calling this journey of sense making Means & Meaning.

Once, I witnessed a venture capitalist wrestle the spirit of Ecclesiastes.

After recalling the advancements in technology that have led to longer life expectancy, higher quality of life, and more opportunity for an increasing number of people, the techno-optimist asked, “Cool, now what?” And proceeded to wrestle for meaning like Jacob of the Old Testament.

Wrestle we do, each in our own way, but what we need in these decisive times is to be decisively defeated. Rainer Maria Rilke says that this is how we grow — by being defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings. Be it spirit of Ecclesiastes, the devil, or Christ himself — there are beings greater than breaking news or the latest hot takes; greater than words in the form of argument or persuasion; greater than our own opinions affirmed by a chatbot.

Now more than ever, I am convinced we need more than information, more than intelligence. We need a technology that transcends the power currently at our fingertips. In a time where the ability to do more is rampant, here lies an invitation: Wrestle, be defeated, and receive. Then respond, for a greater being will always require something of you, and become. This is an invitation to the pursuit of meaning.

The Shape of Modern Technology

In the Celtic world, if you cannot find yourself wrapped in the cloak of story, you are unprepared for what the world will likely hurl at you. You are grievously immature, at-risk, dangerous in your decision-making, stuck in adolescence. In the digital age, there is no shortage of story circulating the airwaves. Some live inside of us. Stories of power and competition, of lust and passion, of calling and identity. Many people are driven by stories they don’t understand and hardly investigate. So what makes for a good story? And how do we know if we should wrap ourselves in it, or unravel it?

First, you ask questions. Where are you from, where are you going? The origin and the destination of a story are extremely important bits of information, for they define its shape. Long ago, the shape of stories originated with birds, with the night sky, with the strangers you met on the side of the road. They extended outward, left and right and up and down, and they terminated in something bigger, perhaps in a bigger story, a metanarrative. Stories so big that our ancestors could nest in them, make their home in them, build their life around.

Ask such questions of consumer technology and you will find that it is shaped like a hook. The experience begins with an individual, extends forward, curves inward, and ultimately points back at the individual. The origin and the destination is you, and you complete the loop.

A loop is no shape for getting anywhere or becoming anything, the origin and the destination cannot be the self. How do we break the vicious cycle? First, by recognizing that most of modern technologies are shaped like a hook. Second, you find different technologies.

Rediscovering Ancient Technologies

Most people don’t consider metaphor to be a technology. It’s not, by definition, the application of scientific knowledge and engineering. It’s much more than that. Language, art, mathematics, are all means to make sense of how we experience the world in ways we can understand and share. Metaphors, be it literary, scientific, mathematical, are ancient technologies for sense-making.

If you feel the need to compartmentalize fact and fiction, left brain versus right brain, or science and the arts — remember that metaphor doesn’t negate the reality of anything, it only describes it. In our limitation, all we have are fragments of experience. Yet, we possess an insatiable desire to make sense of things, to create frameworks and devices and technologies for experiencing the world. The question is not whether or not we use technology. The question is — what technologies are you using to make sense of the story you are living?

Ancient technologies like myth, poetry, and metaphor mercifully do not give you one single answer. They invite you to make sense of your loves, your longings, your pain, your trauma, but they don’t give you definitive answers or a list of possible results at the click of a button. They tend to have enough dissonance for you to experience something different next time you engage with them. They are not intended for information, they are intended to help you grow.

The Path Forward

To become a sovereign in ancient Ireland, you must bind your chariot to two wild, cantankerous horses. When they take off in different directions, you exhibit the skill, wit, and will to pull them together and create a third way.

Powerful stories abound in a technological age — they diverge in every imaginable direction and they travel at the speed of wild, cantankerous horses. Our goal is not to choose the right path, nor settle for a passive middle ground, but to decisively create a path forward.

Modern technology tells a story of being able to accomplish more than ever before. AI has democratized skills that were formerly only available to a select few. Coding, writing, processing large amounts of information, testing, iterating, are accomplished faster and cheaper than any one person ever could. Objectively speaking, modern technology can help you do incredible things. But doing incredible things alone, as impactful as they may be, does not pave the way forward.

We need ancient technologies to help us make sense of the stories that surround us, and to wrestle with beings far greater than the ones modern technology points to. Doing and being are not mutually exclusive paths, in fact one cannot exist without the other, but to willfully ignore one is dereliction of our duty as a human being — it’s in our name. We are living in a generation of means. As those means continue to increase, so will the need for coherent stories about what all of this is for, and the need for individuals that have their footing not just in their ability, but in their identity. The path forward is decisively created by those that can bring means and meaning together.