site.btaTechnologies Cannot Replace Prayer and Communion with God, Bulgarian Patriarch Says

Technologies are only a tool, they cannot replace prayer and communion with God, Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil said on Tuesday at the Second International Conference marking the 100th anniversary of Theology journal, held in Thessaloniki, Greece.

The development of robotics and the robotization of life creates the impression of a new world and a new human being, the post-human, he noted. The extremely rapid progress of what is commonly called artificial intelligence is moving in the same direction. “This totalizing effect of seemingly all-powerful technologies confronts us with a fundamental question that we all must answer as human beings involved in these global processes, and above all as Orthodox Christians and members of Christ’s Church,” Patriarch Daniil said.

Among the questions he raised were: Where do we stand? What is the role of the theology of the Church in this revolutionary situation of technologization and robotization of human existence? What are the boundaries of technology, and is there a limit beyond which humanity cannot continue to exist? What ethical safeguards and restrictions should govern its use and development? “Technologies undoubtedly have their limits, but when they reach their final limit, will there be anything left outside them, will there still be nature, humanity, a world beyond technologies?” the Patriarch asked.

At present these concerns sound more like science fiction, he said. “But what we as Orthodox Christians, as believers, must consider is another existential risk that seems to me far more immediate and serious: the risk of losing the sacred as a result of the penetration of technologies into every sphere of life. This is the technologization of life, in which there is no longer any place or need for the sacred, that is, for God and His grace,” Patriarch Daniil stressed.

According to him, the constant use of technology fragments human consciousness and hinders people’s ability to concentrate. The solution, he said, is not to flee from technologies, but to remember that they are only a means, not an end.