Liturgy for Technology: A Reflection on Designing for Conquest or Liberation

One way in which contemporary churches and tech companies parallel each other is their earnest belief that they can make the world a better place while making eschatological, or ideological, claims. While they do not necessarily have the same ideas of what that future world would look like, they both build their collective faith through sacred artifacts and rituals, widespread evangelism, and real-world praxis. This piece juxtaposes excerpts from both theological and technological traditions organized in a liturgy, or the order of worship, for a Sunday church service. The service starts by highlighting how the remaking and rebuilding espoused by these traditions could reinforce hegemonic values such as settler colonialism and white supremacy. However, the selections then shift to highlight examples of resilience and liberation that also emerge from both. We hope to provide a space for those who build and research technology to contemplate their roles in either designing towards conquest or liberation.