No more SMS from Jesus: ubicomp, religion and techno-spiritual practices

  • Authors:
  • Genevieve Bell

  • Affiliations:
  • Intel, Hillsboro, OR

  • Venue:
  • UbiComp'06 Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Ubiquitous Computing
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Over the last decade, new information and communication technologies have lived a secret life. For individuals and institutions around the world, this constellation of mobile phones, personal computers, the internet, software, games, and other computing objects have supported a complex set of religious and spiritual needs. In this paper, I offer a survey of emerging and emergent techno-spiritual practices, and the anxieties surrounding their uptake. I am interested in particular in the ways in which religious uses of technology represent not only a critique of dominant visions of technology's futures, but also suggest a very different path(s) for ubiquitous computing's technology envisioning and development.