Crude memes about attacking Iran hint at a deeper connection between video games and the desensitizing features of modern warfare.
Technology
Posted inNews
Peter Thiel brings his Antichrist lectures to the Vatican’s doorstep, and Catholic institutions back away
One of the hottest tickets in Rome these days is for a four-lecture series on the Antichrist being given by Silicon Valley tech billionaire Peter Thiel.
Posted inNews
First synod final reports published: on digital culture and seminary formation
The first report contains recommendations on navigating the Church’s presence in digital spaces; the second focuses on guidelines for the formation of future priests and includes a call for more women to play a role.
Posted inShort Take
How Gen Z Catholicism is growing in the digital age
Catholicism can thrive in internet spaces where opinions are regularly challenged, examined and assessed by diverse audiences.
Posted inShort Take
Catholics need a digital temperance movement to combat online hate
A digital temperance movement would seek to eliminate from our lives all the addictive technologies and platforms that stoke our anger.
Posted inShort Take
Talking to Claude: Why Anthropic treats its chatbot like a person—and not a tool
Claude works like a person because it was trained on what people have done. Its greatest source of danger is that it could amplify the most dangerous parts of us.
Posted inNews
Pope Leo gives stark warning on AI: We must ‘safeguard ourselves.’
The challenge from A.I., the pope said, “is not technological, but anthropological. Safeguarding faces and voices ultimately means safeguarding ourselves.”
Posted inShort Take
A.I. chatbots cannot replace the community of church
Chatbots may offer a verse in the middle of the night, but their chief purpose must be to point people to the living community of the church.
Posted inFaith in Focus
I can’t give up my phone. But I can work on doing one thing at a time.
My phone is like a needy infant that requires constant heightened attention, even when it is asleep; but unlike an infant, it never stops being hungry, and unlike an infant, it offers so very little compared to what it snatches away.
Posted inFaith in Focus
Five lessons learned as director of the Vatican Observatory
After a delightful 10 years in the post, Sept. 19 is my official retirement date as the director of the Vatican. As I depart, I thought I would pass along a few words of advice based on my experience.