ABSTRACT
This chapter provides important historical context for the crises in digital media, including the economic, ideological, and cultural roots of Silicon Valley's moral catechism. The comparison between Camping and Kurzweil is fitting, since the comparison illustrates the complex historical ties between media and religion. The chapter shows that the current crisis in digital media must be understood within the context of US religious history. The foundation of the Telecom Act had been laid out in a manifesto called “A Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age”. It argues essentially that to obstruct the development of digital technologies would be “to resist the forces of history, nature, technology, and American destiny all at once.” The Founders would be aghast at our idolatrous worship of markets and technology. The First Amendment's protections for religious equality and freedom of the press encapsulate a unique vision of a religious economy based on competition between multiple sects within a diverse and thriving media system.
