Dr. Brian Kemple of the Lyceum Institute joins Anthony Alberino for a discussion on digital technology and its relation to the human soul. Together they reflect philosophically on:

• the nature of technology
• the way in which technology psychologically attunes and structures us
• the prevalence of conspiratorial thinking in the digital environment
• the technologically mediated fragmentation of the human soul
• the impact of artificial intelligence
• the way to resist the malformation of the human soul in the digital age

See related episodes here: - https://youtu.be/jM3Vm6apEPk - https://youtu.be/1GxM-MqL3og

Link to the Lyceum Institute: https://lyceum.institute

In this second episode of The Dangers of the Digital Age, we reflect philosophically on how digital technology poses a profound threat to our humanity. What does it mean to be human in an age when our perceptions, desires, and attention are absorbed by screens? To illuminate this question, we turn to one of the most powerful allegories in the history of philosophy: Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” By revisiting Plato’s image through the lens of our digital condition, we uncover how the modern technological environment is not merely like Plato’s cave—it is, in many ways, its technological embodiment. In the Digital Cave, we see how: - Screens replace sunlight as our source of illumination. - Algorithms act as unseen puppeteers shaping what we perceive. - Habit and addiction become the chains that bind our wills. - Shadows—digital representations—replace real human encounters. But Plato also shows us a way out: the liberation of the soul through true education—a turning away from the glow of illusion toward the light of the real, the true, and the good.

We are all participants—willing or not—in the greatest social experiment in human history. In this inaugural episode of The Dangers of the Digital Age, we explore how the rise of the digitally networked environment has radically reshaped what it means to be human. Once a tool for information and communication, the digital world has evolved into the place where we live, move, and have our being. From social media to AI, technology has begun to form our perceptions, appetites, and even our capacity for free will.

This episode traces three key phases of the Digital Age:

• The Information Phase (1990s–2005). The birth of the internet and desktop computing.
• The Social Media Phase (2005–2020). The rise of platforms, smartphones, and algorithmic governance.
• The AI Phase (2020–Present). The dawn of autonomous systems shaping human behavior.

As philosopher Jacques Ellul warned, when technology advances without regard for the human good, “what can be done, will be done.” The question we now face is not simply how to use technology—but how to remain human in its midst.