Digital Revolution: The Death of Agency and Freedom in a Post-Human Future?

by JP Casey

Introduction: A Crisis of Freedom and Dignity

by CAPP-USA

This thoughtful and provocative paper by CAPP-UK coordinator JP Casey addresses one of the most urgent questions of our time: does the digital revolution enhance human freedom—or quietly erode it?

Grounded in a rich Christian anthropology, it explores how artificial intelligence, algorithms, and emerging technologies may be reshaping not only our behaviors but also the very foundations of human agency, dignity, and the moral life. It invites the reader to consider whether technological “progress” is truly serving the human person—or subtly redefining what it means to be human.

About the Presentation

Presented at Trinity Leeds University in June 2022 and subsequently published in the Conference Proceedings: The Trinity Conference 2022: A Catholic Response to the Digital Age. It was also presented at the annual conference of UNIAPAC at the Vatican in October 2022.

About the Author

JP Casey was appointed in June 2022 by Pope Francis to the first-ever Investment Committee of the Holy See, one of the first appointments made under Praedicate Evangelium, which overhauled the structure of the Roman Curia. He is also the U.K. Coordinator of the Vatican’s Centesimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation – a lay-led Vatican body created by Pope St John Paul II in 1993 to promulgate Catholic Social Teaching. JP is a Visiting Professor of Financial Regulation at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium; Founder and CEO of a fintech startup; and formerly a Managing Director and regional Head of Investments at JP Morgan, Edmond de Rothschild and Barclays. In each of these roles he was personally accountable for > $10 billion and at Rothschild he sat on the Global Investment Committee which allocated $100 billion. JP published the first comprehensive overview of the Church’s teachings on digital in 2017 with the Catholic Truth Society: Living in the Digital Age – A Christian recipe for Authentic Human Development.