Tomorrow's Troubles: Risk, Anxiety, and Prudence in an Age of Algorithmic Governance

by Paul J Scherz

The first examination of predictive technology from the perspective of Catholic theology

Probabilistic predictions of future risk govern much of society. In business and politics alike, institutional structures manage risk by controlling the behavior of consumers and citizens. New technologies comb through past data to predict and shape future action. Choosing between possible future paths can cause anxiety as every decision becomes a calculation to achieve the most optimal outcome.

Tomorrow’s Troubles is the first book to use virtue ethics to analyze these pressing issues. Paul Scherz uses a theological analysis of risk and practical reason to show how risk-based decision theory reorients our relationships to the future through knowledge of possible dangers and foregone opportunities―and fosters a deceptive hope for total security. Scherz presents this view of temporality as problematic because it encourages a desire for stability through one’s own efforts instead of reliance on God. He also argues that the largest problem with predictive models is that they do not address individual reason and free will. Instead of dwelling on a future, we cannot control, we can use our past experiences and the Christian tradition to focus on discerning God’s will in the present.

Tomorrow’s Troubles offers a thoughtful new framework that will help Christians benefit from the positive aspects of predictive technologies while recognizing God’s role in our lives and our futures.

280 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2022

Reviews

[Catheryne]

To be fair, I knew nothing of decision theory before reading this, but I found Scherz to be so insightful and thorough. He answered questions as they came up for me, and he spoke about qualitative risk analysis with appropriate and even generous nuance. It is a joy to find such interest in a new-to-me field of study. Part 3 (chapters 9-11) was my fav

“To exercise agency effectively we must consider the time we occupy, formed by what we have learned to love, following what has been achieved for us, yet hearing and making answer now, in this new and instant moment”

[Mariele Courtois]

A brilliant work of scholarship by one of the best theologians of the century.