Anti-Modern or Pro-EnchantmentAnti-Modern or Pro-Enchantment
Kind Mind
the digital dustbowl and the slop-ocalypse
29:16•26 Aug 2026
Anti-Modern or Pro-Enchantment: Tech Anxiety, Meaning and the Soul
Episode Overview
- Modern stress is driven less by hardship and more by rapid change and deep uncertainty, which heavily strains the nervous system.
- Technology has shifted from extending the body outward to penetrating the psyche, contributing to anxiety and addiction-like behaviours.
- Hyper-material priorities, such as massive AI data centres, coexist with widespread financial fragility and lack of margin in everyday life.
- Religion’s classic questions about the universe, life’s purpose and how the story ends are now heavily influenced by AI and digital culture.
- Choosing to be "pro-enchantment" means staying soulful and present in a modern world, grounded in the belief that humans have a soul or spirit.
“The question is not: "Should we reject modern life?" The better question is: "How do we remain soulful, present, loving, and human inside a world that will not stop updating?"”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? Kind Mind’s "Anti-Modern or Pro-Enchantment" episode zooms in on modern tech stress and meaning-making in a way that speaks directly to anyone juggling recovery, mental health and everyday life. Michael Todd Fink reflects on why carrying "the library of Alexandria" in our pockets doesn’t feel like abundance, comparing it to eating too many chocolate bars – pleasure flipping into sickness and compulsion.
He traces how tools once extended our bodies outward, like hammers and wheels, but now extend inward into our psyche and nervous system through phones, social media and AI, feeding what he calls tech anxiety. You’ll hear how uncertainty, more than hardship, can overload the nervous system.
Fink cites research where people were most stressed at a 50–50 chance of receiving an electric shock, using this as a frame for modern questions such as "Is this technology helping me or replacing me?" and "Is this person ignoring me or just busy?" – questions that are familiar to anyone who’s ever waited on a message and spiralled.
The episode then links technology to religion’s classic themes: cosmology (what kind of universe we’re in), teleology (what life is for) and eschatology (how the story ends). From mega data centres consuming more water than towns, to a "digital dust bowl" of corporate platforms and bot traffic, Fink paints a picture of a hyper-material system that still leaves people financially fragile and emotionally worn out. Yet it’s not a doom-session.
He asks whether the aim is to be anti-modern or "pro-enchantment", and closes on a hopeful note: "86% of Americans believe humans have a soul or spirit in addition to the physical body." For anyone rebuilding life after addiction, that question of soul, meaning and enchantment inside a chaotic, updating world is front and centre. How might your own recovery feel different if you treated yourself as more than a cog in the machine?
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