From divine curse to technological salvation: the human quest for liberation from toil

Historically, within Western frameworks, the burden of labor has been contextualized through a theological narrative: labor as a form of ontological toil rooted in the biblical curse of Genesis 3:17. This paradigm established work as a divinely ordained existential endurance demanding moral submission. However, successive scientific revolutions disrupted this narrative, giving rise to modern technology as an ideological means of seeking mastery over nature. This paper analyzes the dialectical tension between the existential parameters of biblical labor and the mechanistic assertions of contemporary technological systems—a phenomenon Neil Postman conceptualizes as Technopoly. I argue that contemporary technological systems have transcended mere utility, operating as a surrogate technical deity that renders the biblical curse of labor obsolete. By offering a secularized salvation predicated on efficiency and automation, Technopoly repositions itself as the ultimate agent of material redemption. This promise culminates in the vision of the “End of Work,” reframing liberation not as a deferred spiritual afterlife, but as an immanent technological reality—the realization of a modern, earthly heaven. Engaging critically with thinkers from John Paul II and Bulgakov to Postman, Francis, and Stiegler, this paper maps the positive virtues of this post-work heaven, its existential boundaries, and the enduring ontological question of whether an automated paradise can truly satisfy humanity’s historic longing for the Transcendent or render it entirely obsolete.