Topic: Teilhard, Technology and Technolatry: The Internet is Not the Noosphere

Presenters: Ernie Tamminga

Ernie Tamminga describes himself as a “planet empath.” He is a member of the board of the American Teilhard Association and has been reflecting on Teilhard’s vision for over 50 years. He earned his PhD at the University of California, Santa Barbara where, under the mentorship of Raimon Panikkar, his dissertation was an analysis and critique of Teilhard’s notion of a “privileged axis” of evolution. Ernie is a trained Spiritual Director, and a former member of the board and teaching faculty of Stillpoint: The Center for Christian Spirituality. In the 1960s and 1970s he was a board member of “The Phenomenon of Man Project,” a nonprofit that introduced thousands of people to Teilhard’s vision through illustrated lectures and retreats. For the past two years, Ernie has been convening a Learning Circle for the Cobb Institute, entitled “An Awakening Planet?” For the American Teilhard Association, he is currently offering an extended study of Teilhard’s magnum opus, “The Human Phenomenon.” Ernie and his wife Alison have, between them, 12 grandchildren and one great-grandson, a fact that intensifies his sense of urgency about what we are doing to our beloved planet.

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION: In The Human Phenomenon, Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) traces the evolution of reflective consciousness in the universe and on Planet Earth. He identifies major “thresholds” through which this process has unfolded so far, including the emergence of life, of consciousness, and of reflective consciousness. “Noosphere” is the word Teilhard uses to describe the “sphere of reflective consciousness” around the Earth. He posits a “Point Omega,” still ahead, where the Noosphere will become conscious of itself. In recent years, some voices in the “Teilhard community” have equated the Internet—and, more recently, AI—with the Noosphere, some even maintaining that through technology, the Noosphere is already aware of itself. In this regard, Ernie is a “Teilhardian contrarian,” insisting that the Internet/AI are not the Next Step in the evolution of human consciousness, but rather (and only) powerful tools for the kind of consciousness we (humans) already have and already are. Crucially, the fixation on technology has the effect of “defining-out” other-than-human forms of life on Earth. Echoing his late teacher Raimon Panikkar, Ernie says he is “holding out for a mutation,” for an emergent form of planetary consciousness that includes not only humans and machines but all life on this planet.

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