Historic co-determination helps monasteries navigate digital change

https://phys.org/news/2026-05-historic-monasteries-digital-countries.html

by indynz • 1 month ago

69 48 1 month ago

recurseP• 1 month ago

In my country most monasteries are becoming luxury hotels so yes, they are adapting remarkably well to these times.

Keirmot• 1 month ago

That is not a new phenomenon, per se. The hospitality industry was shaped by monasteries, based on the Rule of St. Benedict.

blackoil• 1 month ago

Religion is one of the best at marketing and fund-raising since millenias. Why is it surprising that they adapt to new tech? They have done it for printing press before that.

wartywhoa23• 1 month ago

Well, AI is the New Messiah, and very VC backed at this point, so no surprise.

teddyh• 1 month ago

“Si Dieu n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer.” (If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.)

— Voltaire

steve19772• 1 month ago

Religion was behind the spread of printed books, at least here in Europe, so this seems in line.

andrepd2• 1 month ago

It was also behind unspeakable acts of massive cultural destruction, so there's that.

forgetfreeman2• 1 month ago

So was the search for condiments.

otabdeveloper42• 1 month ago

Source? Proofs?

Do communism and secular humanism count as "religions" here?

johnp314• 1 month ago

Oh if religion wasn't responsible for "massive cultural destruction" then mankind would have invented something else to do it (whatever is meant by "massive cultural destruction").

steve19772• 1 month ago

I didn't judge. I just wanted to point out that religion has a tradition of using new technologies to help spread itself.

bxk76• 1 month ago

Whats is always interesting about monestic life and its emergence (minus light sabers) is that society across cultures has created spaces for people who dont fit. This need has been recognized and supported for thousands of years.

MrBuddyCasino• 1 month ago

And there hasn’t really been a replacement for that in modern times. This is a problem.

lukan• 1 month ago

There are still plenty of religious cults out there if that is your thing, probably more than have ever been. Otherwise the "misfits" are nowdays also organizing themself to indeed fit somewhere and don't just accept to be outcasts.

Sorry, but the whole concept of "place for people who don't fit" - is really not appropriate for monasteries in general. Because they have been very strict about who can fit. Only those who are fine with this special lifestyle and fixed rituals (and fixed hierachy and dogma). And most monks had to adopt to accept, whether they liked it or not, as the alternative was starving.

baxtr• 1 month ago

The place is called "the internet" today.

fhdkweig2• 1 month ago

There are still places like Slab City, California (the desert town with no laws). That kind of place is not for me though. I like neighbors who mind their own business, but I still need some amount of law and order.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_City,_California

riffraff• 1 month ago

FWIW, "lay monasteries" and hermitages exist, and there are some religious ones which are not strict about who wants to join, the Bose monastic community[0] comes to mind talking of christianity, but there's plenty for other religions.

[0] https://www.monasterodibose.it/en/

thih92• 1 month ago

Monasteries follow strict rules. Good for those who fit these rules but monasteries are far from a place for people who don’t fit.

I may have missed something though - I don’t see how is that related to the linked article.

nephihaha• 1 month ago

Fit into wider society. If someone has sensory issues, then a monastery would be a more peaceful place. Some people like set routine as well.

ChiMan• 1 month ago

The monks likely have the time to think about implementation, and feeling like they’re part of an institution that transcends them and that they value for its own sake, they likely have an incentive to invest effort into maintaining and improving it.

Both of these are unlike, say, corporate environments, where the core work uses up almost all available time and where most people are looking mostly to extract something from the organization.

fc417fc8022• 1 month ago

Your comment (and some others) have me imagining an alternate reality where the vatican runs the equivalent of github and all major FOSS infrastructure is maintained by religious orders. (There's probably a controversy where the catholic and islamic GPL equivalent licenses are incompatible for inane reasons.)

ajb3• 1 month ago

You joke, but, leaving religion out of it, it's plausible that if the want long lived infrastructure that's maintained with integrity, it may be that tithing of some description is part of the solution. Currently the closest we have is patron, but most of those are still part of hustle culture rather than the supporters feeling a long term obligation.

mrweasel• 1 month ago

That also sound a lot like the Amish. Take the time to think about implementation, advantages, disadvantages and the societal impact of a technology, before committing to it.

fhdkweig2• 1 month ago

They have a reputation as medieval peasants, but they are not afraid of technology. They are just extremely picky. They build furniture in factories and sell them on a website. If you want durable, it is well worth the extra price.

https://www.amishfurniturefactory.com/

awinter-py• 1 month ago

It's not everyone, but thoughtful managers do think beyond themselves.

They know they will outlast some of their reports, so they're incentivized to build memory and maintainability at the levels below them.

And good managers get promoted, i.e. leave the team but stay in the company, so there's a reputational incentive to leave things in a good place for whoever comes after you. (Though this is only true at good orgs -- at bad orgs, the next person will get fully blamed for a bad handoff).

The best leaders have values that transcend their bank account, and understand their legacy depends on being able to transition effectively.

Your career and relationships transcend any single gig, and there is a dignity that people recognize in departing well, and even in making the best of a bad job. Campground rule, leave things better than you found them.

throw0101a3• 1 month ago

The monks likely have the time to think about implementation

The core activities is praying and working, ora et labora:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ora_et_labora

The praying is done at fixed times:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgy_of_the_Hours

With work and other activities (meals) planned around them. Nuns have a similar framework:

* https://www.franciscansisterstor.org/about/daily-schedule

I'm sure you could find "time to think" in there, but the schedule is pretty packed.

nkurz• 1 month ago

Maybe I'm just slow this morning, but I had trouble figuring out what this story was about. The actual title on the linked article is "Historic co-determination helps monasteries navigate digital change across three countries". It's a press release for a recent paper by Danko and Ross of the University of Zurich "Dinosaurs of the organizational landscape facing technological disruption: Liability of aging and exaptation in monastic orders". It's about how old monasteries are coping with modern technology. The paper seems to be available in full here:

Abstract

Some organizations remain adaptable across centuries while others struggle to evolve and ultimately fade into irrelevance. Only a handful of theories can explain this extraordinary adaptability. We test two competing theoretical perspectives in imprinting research: Liability of aging suggests that older organizations are at greater risk of disruption by modern technologies, but older organizations can also repurpose their imprinted structures and processes to their advantage in a process termed exaptation. To resolve this contradiction, we analyze Catholic religious orders and their monasteries. They represent the oldest extant organizations, were founded in various historical eras, and are facing contemporary challenges posed by digitalization. Our quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that the orders with historically decentralized imprints show higher adaptability in embracing digital innovation. Our results confirm that long-term adaptability is increased in organizations whose imprinted decentralized logics provide a propensity for exaptation. However, these long-standing organizations are also more wary of the negative effects of digital disruption and appear to shield their organizational core more strongly. We contribute to imprinting research by shedding light on the intricate relationship between historically imprinted organizational logics and contemporary organizational practice and highlight the often-underappreciated importance of exaptation for long-term adaptability.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004873332...

Avicebron3• 1 month ago

Researchers discover that monks (who are actually human beings) can deliberate, adapt and problem solve. Together. Like adults. Crazy world we live in that this has been proven possible.

bloqs• 1 month ago

I can barely figure out what this article is about because the language is like molasses.

It stands to reason that disciplined, dopamine starved monks find modern engagement economy computers and software somewhat engaging, as they are probably like recreational drugs to enquiring bored minds

zhshshshs• 1 month ago

I’d bet on many of them being on the spectrum. Their lives are build around a heavy prescriptive set of rules and they love it.

throw0101a3• 1 month ago

In fact, forms of co-determination and decentralized responsibility that have developed over time are particularly resilient. In many monasteries, the "CEOs" are elected by the community and can be unelected at any time, and everyone is consulted on important decisions.

So do they have have a sort of executive officer for the week/month/year, with all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting, by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more important matters?

Historic co-determination helps monasteries navigate digital change

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