Optimism and Opportunity: Faithful Perspectives on Technological Advancement

Is it correct or even possible to be optimistic about our future given the rapid pace of technological change and all the challenges these developments bring? Along with technology, our modern society has reaped great abundance and stands to gain more, but Christians must also think about how to steward a materially abundant society. What could a radically abundant future look like, especially for our children, and how might it be achieved? How might Christians think about a future of radical abundance enabled by advances in AI, energy, and the policy and cultural frameworks that will enable these technologies? 

Rachel Barkley, President of RK Barkley Consulting, interviewed and discussed these topics with Taylor Barkley, Director of Public Policy at the Abundance Institute.

Taylor Barkley is the Director of Public Policy for the Abundance Institute. His hope is that the future will be so much better than today that we wouldn’t believe it if we saw it.

Taylor’s expertise is at the intersection of culture, technology, and innovation. His writing has been featured and published in outlets including IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Scientific American, and USA Today. Fox Business, Marketplace, and various talk radio and podcasts have featured him as a commentator on technology issues. He has extensive experience working with state-based technology policy projects and partners and most major federal technology policy topics.

Previously he was the Director of Technology and Innovation at the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University and before that, the Director of Technology and Innovation at Stand Together Trust and Stand Together. He was also the Government Affairs Manager at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Assistant Director of Outreach for Technology Policy at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is originally from southern California and a graduate of Taylor University in Indiana with a double major in history and political science. He and his family live in the Washington, DC area. For links to his professional and personal writing visit www.taylordbarkley.com.

The Abundance Institute is a mission-driven nonprofit focused on creating space for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and new energy generation methods to grow, thrive, and have a chance to reach their full potential. Focusing on the societal and policy barriers that emerging technologies face, the Institute seeks to eliminate those barriers by investing in talent development and talent assembly; supporting a community of optimists, founders, and innovators; and shaping public policies before emerging technologies go mainstream.

Rachel Barkley is an experienced coalition and community builder at the state and national level. She is the President of RK Barkley Consulting where she helps organizations move forward policies that advance freedom and promote human dignity through coalition building and policy strategy. She is the director of a disability policy reform project, Able Americans, and the executive director of the Alliance for Opportunity, a multi-state project to move 1 million people out of poverty into lives of flourishing. 

Previously, Rachel worked as External Relations Senior Advisor for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05), Director of Outreach for the U.S. House of Representatives Conference Chair, and as Director of Coalitions and State Outreach for the largest caucus in Congress.  Rachel got her start at a national non-profit for state policy think tanks, the State Policy Network (SPN). She served on the board for a DC charter school start-up and on the advisory council for Pepperdine University School of Public Policy’s American Project.

Taylor and Rachel Barkley have three young children and live and work in the Washington, DC, area. They have worked in a number of roles in think tanks and on Capitol Hill and write a newsletter called Radical Optimism. Five years ago their lives changed when Rachel was diagnosed with a rare spinal cord tumor that left Rachel paralyzed and mostly using a wheelchair to get around. They know first hand that life is hard. But hard does not mean bad. The world is and has always been full of difficulty, but we have a radical belief—- there is no reason to despair.