The Measure of True Progress Reflections on Chapter Three of Humanitas Magnifica

Whether we are technology experts or simply trying to keep up in a rapidly changing world,Chapter Three of Magnifica Humanitas invites us to consider the question: What are we building? (90). As artificial intelligence and digital technologies become increasingly woven into our daily lives, Pope Leo challenges us to look beyond what technology can do, and ask what it is doing to us?

Technocratic Paradigm

One of the central themes of Chapter Three is the warning against what Pope Francis called the technocratic paradigm (92). When technology becomes the standard by which all things are judged, “it begins to dictate what matters and what can be discarded” (92). As a result, people can become valued more for what they produce than for who they are. 

Scientific and technological advances can greatly benefit people and help care for creation (93). The concern is that moral and spiritual growth does not always keep pace with technological progress. As Saint Paul VI warned, even remarkable scientific, technological, and economic achievements can ultimately harm humanity if they are not guided by authentic moral and social progress (94).

This warning is especially relevant today. We have instant access to information, rapid communication, and powerful technologies like artificial intelligence. Yet loneliness, anxiety, and division continue to grow. This chapter reminds us that having more does not necessarily mean being more. 

A Fundamental Difference

The discussion on artificial intelligence is thought-provoking. While AI can imitate certain human abilities and process information with remarkable speed, it is fundamentally different from a human person. AI does not experience life. It does not know joy or sorrow. It does not love, forgive, suffer, or hope. It cannot develop wisdom through relationships or learn from life's struggles in the way human beings do (99).

Concentration of Power

Chapter Three also raises concerns about the growing concentration of power in the digital world. Increasingly, a small number of corporations and technological actors control data, platforms, and the flow of information (95). This concentration of power can create new forms of inequality and exclusion. The Church's social teaching offers important principles for evaluating these developments, including human dignity, solidarity, justice, and the common good (96), which were discussed in detail in Part Two of my reflections (https://www.catholic-conversations.com/post/understanding-the-foundations-of-catholic-social-teaching-reflections-on-pope-leo-xiv-s-first).

Human Limitations

Perhaps one of the most deeply Christian insights of the chapter is its reflection on human limitations. In a culture that often sees weakness, aging, illness, and suffering as problems to be eliminated, Chapter Three offers a very different perspective. Pope Leo writes “Our relationship with life seems to be in crisis today.  Everything that appears as a “limit” – incapacity, illness, old age, suffering, vulnerability - tends to be seen primarily as a defect to be corrected, rather than as a reality through which our humanity matures and opens itself to relationship.  And yet we must remember that humanity flourishes not despite limitations, but often through them” (118). 

Transhumanism and Posthumanism

Some believe that technology can help us overcome human limitations and become something more than human. Chapter Three discusses the idea that technology could one day improve human beings (transhumanism) or even merge humans and machines (posthumanism) (115-117). The Church urges caution because this way of thinking can lead us to view people as projects to be upgraded rather than as persons created in God's image and worthy of love and dignity. The goal is not to escape our humanity, but to allow God to transform it through grace.

Role Models

Near the end of the chapter Pope Leo reflects on the countless individuals throughout history who have helped make the world more humane. The chapter points to saints, civil rights leaders, missionaries, caregivers, parents, nurses, volunteers, and ordinary people who quietly serve others every day (123-125). Their lives remind us that the true measure of progress is not technological achievement but the willingness to care for others.

The chapter concludes by presenting a choice. Saint Augustine described history as a struggle between two loves: the love of God and neighbor, and the love of self (130). Every generation must decide which love will guide its actions. The age of artificial intelligence is no different.