Is Stanford a Religion?

Silicon Valley says it is building the future: artificial general intelligence, humans on Mars, extended lifespans, digital immortality. These promises sound a lot like salvation. Is the Valley's techno-optimism a new religion? And is Stanford, its intellectual home, its cradle? This course introduces the study of religion through a two-part question: What is a religion, and does Stanford qualify as one? We begin on campus, with origin stories, rituals, sacred spaces, and ghostly hauntings on the Farm, then move outward to the history and politics of Silicon Valley, from the railroad fortune that built the university, through Cold War cybernetics, to AI labs and space ventures. Topics include transhumanism, the Singularity, AI doom, and effective accelerationism. Using theories and methods from religious studies, we analyze how religion, power, and technology shape one another. We attend to the political and economic interests behind techno-utopian visions, and to those they leave out, from the land's Indigenous inhabitants to the workers who built the Valley. Students will better understand Stanford culture, why people are religious, and debates around religious and secular life. No prior knowledge required.