The Tower of Babel and "Big Data": A Narrative Exegesis of Genesis 11:1–9 on Global Technological Ambition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21729892Keywords:
big data, dataism, genesis 11, global technology, narratology, tower of babelAbstract
The story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) is often reductively interpreted as an etiology of language division or merely a punishment for pride. However, in the current digital landscape, the ancient narrative offers striking parallels to the Big Data phenomenon and the ideology of Dataism. This study aims to reinterpret the Babel story using a narrative criticism approach (narratology) to respond to the ambition of global technological unification. Through plot and rhetorical analysis, it is found that the Babel project was driven by three primal desires: uniformity ("one language"), centralization ("city"), and existential immortality ("making a name"). These desires resurface in the ambition of tech giants to unify all human data into a single universal algorithm. God's act of "coming down" and "confusing" the language is interpreted not as a destructive curse, but as a redemptive intervention to prevent totalitarianism. God desires decentralization and diversity as a bulwark for human dignity. The theological implication urges the church to be critical of algorithmic hegemony and to celebrate human diversity as the un-datafied image of God.
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