Connection - (No Limits) by Dan Turello

About the Book

Putting medieval Italian poets and Renaissance artists in conversation with contemporary philosophers and pop culture, this book traces the roots of our fascination with--and aversion to--technology.

Book Synopsis

"Thrilling and fun. From Aristotle and Dante to Bono and adrienne maree brown, Dan Turello takes us to a wonderland where technology meets ideas."
--Azar Nafisi, New York Times best-selling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Technology gets a bad rap. It is accused of being a dehumanizing force, a chief culprit in everything from mass commercialization to environmental crisis through the potential collapse of civilization. In Connection, Dan Turello reflects on the origins and limitations of such views. He offers a philosophical and literary meditation on what technology is and can be, arguing that it provides surprising ways to strengthen and deepen what makes us human.

Putting medieval Italian poets and Renaissance artists in conversation with contemporary philosophers and pop culture, this book traces the roots of our fascination with--and aversion to--technology. Turello shows how the moments that shaped Western views of technology offer perspective on our current predicaments, as figures such as St. Francis of Assisi and Dante grappled with problems that are strikingly reminiscent of the ones we face today. Challenging nostalgia for preindustrial innocence, he demonstrates that historically technology has enabled us to develop art, philosophy, religion, and culture. Today, technology can safeguard human creativity--if we choose self-awareness and community over consumption and exploitation. Wide-ranging and inviting, Connection makes a timely case for embodied experience in the age of AI.

Review Quotes

Connection is so enjoyably sweeping in its scope and plants seeds that will continue to bloom. How has technology shaped the human experience and what, above all, does it mean to be human? Connection challenges us to rethink our relationship with technology, not as something outside but a force that has always transformed the present; the hope--and its charge--is that we have the foresight to chart a wiser, more collaborative future.--Chris Knight, photographer and author of The Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Crafting Light and Shadow

Thrilling and fun. From Aristotle and Dante to Bono and adrienne maree brown, Dan Turello takes us to a wonderland where technology meets ideas.--Azar Nafisi, New York Times best-selling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Dan Turello has written an insightful reconsideration of humanity's use of technology. Erudite and thoughtful, Connection surveys examples from thirteenth-century Franciscan mystics to contemporary thinkers, tracing our continued engagement with technology as a feature of our being human. The book is inspiring reading for anyone concerned about technology's role in our lives today.--Timothy Kircher, editor of Humanities Watch

About the Author

Dan Turello is a writer, cultural historian, and photographer. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Psyche, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others, as well as in scholarly journals. He is a Technology and Humanity Fellow at the Center for the Future of AI, Mind & Society at Florida Atlantic University.