Robert M. Geraci, PHD

Education

PHD, Univeristy of California
MA, Univeristy of California
BA, University of Texas at Austin

About

I'm Texan, but living, teaching, and writing in New York City. I'm pretty sure that everyone loves robots, which is why I've written a book about them. People love games too, so I wrote another book.  I'm also interested in the toadstool circles, the ancient temples, the soaring cathedrals of our religious imagination. Likewise, the dark tunnels of mining and rapid transit. I visit mountains, deserts, holy places, laboratories, factories, and online games, looking for the fantastic in all of them.

Research

I study the power of religion in contemporary culture, particularly with regard to the interaction between religion and technology. Other interests include the history of science, anthropology of science, contemporary art, literature, Christian history, fairy tales, and folktales.

My past research focused upon the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and religion (primarily the Singularity, mind uploading, & sentient machines, but also Shinto and Buddhist ideas as they relate to the development of Japanese robotics). That work led me to my recently completed book, which is about online gaming and religion and will be published by Oxford University Press. That book reseearch resulted in a National Science Foundation grant to further my research into virtual worlds.

In 2012-13, I was a Visiting Scholar at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, funded by a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Award. Thanks to that research, I am working on a book about religion in Indian science.

Publications & Professional Activities

Books:

• Forthcoming. Virtually Sacred: Myth and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life. New York: Oxford University Press.
• 2010. Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. New York: Oxford University Press.

Essays:

• 2012. "Video Gaming and the Transhuman Inclination." Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 47(4): 735-756.
• 2012. "Theological Productions: The Role of Religion in Video Game Design." Cultural Perspectives of Video Games: From Designer to Player (eds. Adalm L. Brackin and Natacha Guyot), pp. 101-114. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press.
• 2011. "Cyborgs, Robots, and Eternal Avatars: Transhumanist Salvation at the Interface of Brains and Machines."Routledge Companion to Religion and Science (eds. Haag, Peterson, and Spezio). New York: Routledge.
• 2011. "There and Back Again: Transhumanist Evangelism in Science Fiction and Popular Science." Implicit Religion14(2).
• 2011. "Martial Bliss: War and Peace in Popular Science Robotics." Philosophy and Technology 24(3).
• 2010. "Science." Religion in the Practice of Daily Life vol 3. (eds. Hecht and Biondo). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press
• 2010. "Popular Appeal of Apocalyptic AI." Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 45(4): 1003-1020.
• 2008. “Apocalyptic AI: Religion and the Promise of Artificial Intelligence.” The Journal of the American Academy of Religion 76:1. 138-166.
• 2007. “Robots and the Sacred in Science and Science Fiction: Theological Implications of Artificial Intelligence.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 42”4 .961-980
• 2007. "Cultural Prestige: Popular Science Publications as Religion-Science Hybrids." Theology and Media Society (eds. Alexander D. Ornella and Stefanie Knauss). LIT Press..
• 2006. "Spiritual Robots: Religion and Our Scientific View of the Natural World." Theology and Science 4:3
• 2005. "Signaling Static: Artistic, Religious and Scientific Truths in a Relational Ontology." Zygon, Journal of Religion and Science.
• 2002. "Laboratory Ritual: Experimentation and the Advancement of Science." Zygon, Journal of Religion and Science.

Honors & Awards

• Visiting Scholar, Indian Institute of Science (Dec 2012-Apr 2013)
• William A. Coolidge Scholar, Association for Religion and Intellectual Life (Summer 2010)
• Guest editor, Masaryk Journal of Law and Technology 3:1. Special edition on religion and technology (2009)
• Visiting Researcher, Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute (summer 2007)

Grants

• Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Award (2012-2013)
• Virtually Meaningful: The Power and Presence of Meaning in Virtual Worlds (National Science Foundation EAGER grant, 2011-2013)
• International Society of Science and Religion Library Grant (2011)

Courses Taught/Teaching

• RELS 110 Nature and Experience of Religion
• RELS 366 Religion and Contemporary Art
• RELS 372 Religion and Science
• RELS 400 Special Topics: Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Religion
  
• RELS 470 Religious Studies Seminar (Robots, Religion, and Ethics)
• RELS 470 Religious Studies Seminar (Religion and the Internet)
  
• RELS 480 Independent Study in Religious Studies
• RELS 481 Honors Thesis in Religious Studies