The Hero with a Thousand Facebooks: Mythology in Between the Fall of Humanism and the Rise of Big Data Religion

Abstract

This paper will show why mythology is still relevant today. To the technological man, a myth is a curious, but valueless, cultural artifact from a superstitious age. He considers myth and primitive religion as failed attempts at science. Myths, in his opinion, were the theories that primitive people devised to explain the world. Now that we have science, we know better, and we should discard myth. However, the technological man also feels an ever-growing fear of losing the meaning of his journey through history. His perception of the dystopian future is mythologically apocalyptic and threating his humanity as never before. Firstly, the paper will define technophobia by considering the psychological impact of the information society on everyday life. Secondly, it will be demonstrated that fearing technology has a long history in the performing arts. Indeed, narratives about artificial life, surpassing human limits, and controlling potentially dangerous technologies feature familiar legendary figures, from the imagined wings of Icarus to the most recent Hollywood science fiction movie. Finally, this study will highlight that the potential rise of the big-data religion, instead of being considered the end of mythology, can be read as a new mythology itself.