Are We All Cyborgs Now? Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine with Joshua Pauling

Updated:

Mar 24, 2026

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Published:

Mar 24, 2026

Are we all cyborgs now?

We’re not just building machines that act like humans. We’re becoming humans that act like machines.

In a world obsessed with whether AI can become human, far less attention is given to the way we are sacrificing our humanity at the altar of data, efficiency, and optimization.

This is not inevitable.

We can reclaim our humanity from the machine by making a commitment to reality—embracing our embodiment and the physical world around us.

Making a commitment to reality means being intentional and communal in our assessment of every new technological breakthrough—and how we incorporate it, or don’t, into our lives.

We must ask hard questions—and make even harder decisions.

Where do we draw the line?

On this episode of A Commitment to Reality, Joshua Pauling joins Dave Hanegraaff to discuss Are We All Cyborgs Now? Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine (co-authored with Robin Phillips), and what it means to remain human in an age increasingly defined by abstraction, efficiency, and disembodiment.

Because we weren’t made for “datafication”—but for deification—communion with creation and the Creator.

Thank you for joining A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality

(Timestamps below.)

0:00 — Intro / Have we made a technological deal with the devil?

3:30 — Forget the Turing test, what about humans choosing to live as machines?

5:50— The rapid pace of technological change

7:45 — How is digital technology different from past technologies?

10:45 — Why start a book on technology by writing about woodworking?

13:45 — Gnosticism—how did our body become the enemy of our lives?

18:15 — Personal Practices that help us live an embodied life

20:55 — Intentionality

23:25 — Will the Amish have the last laugh? (What we can learn from the Amish)

28:15 — The distinction between access and ownership

29:45 — Who were the Luddites and what can we learn from them?

31:45 — Monastic wisdom for our world today

35:45 — Should we be missionaries online?

38:30 — Can you go to church online?

40:30 — The problem with viewing church as education

45:30 — Does a memorial view of the sacraments make light of our embodiment?

46:45— We were made for deification not data processing and accumulation

50:45 — Where do we draw the line with technology?

54:30 —Human enhancement vs restoration—serious bioethical questions on the horizon

58:30—Tech realism, pessimism or optimism?

1:00:00 —The need for intentional, communal reaction and resistance to the machine
1:04:00 — What is the joy of thingness?

1:07:00—What is true leisure and how can it save us?

1:09:50—the importance of No Agenda togetherness

1:13:10 —Can hospitality save the world?

1:17:00—Lightning round questions about reality

We are living through one of the most disorienting periods in human history—leaving many to wonder: What is reality? As artificial intelligence accelerates and institutional trust erodes, our shared sense of what is real continues to crumble.

A commitment to reality is a dedication to discerning what is true and developing the discipline to live in alignment with that truth—with reality. This podcast is an apologetic for reality—each episode serving as an intentional act of grounding our existence together as we commit to what is beautiful, good, and true.

Subscribe to A Commitment to Reality on YouTube for the full episodes + clips, and follow wherever you get podcasts.

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