Spirituality+AI: Building Beyond Individual Development (“The Relational Turn”)
Half of American adults are measurably lonely. Trust in institutions is at historic lows. The relational fabric that makes collective action possible on matters like climate, governance, and AI is fraying. The Surgeon General calls it an epidemic.
Modern technology has contributed to this separation we are experiencing from ourselves, each other, and the more-than-human world. And much of the tech industry's response—including at the intersection of spirituality, wellbeing, and AI—has been to optimize the individual’s experience: meditation apps, consciousness tools, personal awakening technology engineered to track my calm, my insight, my productivity, my awakening.
This work is real and important, but developmental research shows that as human beings develop, our capacity for relationship naturally deepens. The later stages of human development are characterized not only by greater individual autonomy but by the recognition that interconnection is primary. Deep spiritual practice accelerates this movement; the contemplative traditions have always known this and the most powerful spiritual tech is already deeply relational, yet the relational dimension still often remains implicit, under-resourced, and unmeasured.
All this causes us to wonder:
What would it look like to center the relational dimension, which is already present in the most powerful contemplative practice and spiritual technology, as an explicit design principle and measure of effectiveness for what we build next?
What would we build if we took seriously what developmental science and the contemplative traditions both point toward: that the arc of human development bends toward increased relational capacity?
How do we resource this work without reducing relationship to a product? How do we properly honor the wisdom traditions it draws from while building infrastructure that can sustain it?
What happens when we broaden our definition of "technology" to include the psychological, social, cultural, and linguistic technologies—like ritual, ceremony, circle process, somatic practice, governance—that software and hardware are often built to encode and scale?
What would it mean to name and resource this work—to build Relational Technology?
What to Expect
This event is designed to explore these questions, and the format is the message: structured connection, facilitated encounters across difference, and working sessions that produce real inputs. Rather than sitting in the audience, you will meet the people doing this work, who are also inside these questions, and you will be asked to contribute. The goal is to build the relational layer, not just talk about it.
Tentative Schedule
5:30 – 6:00 PM | Gathering and Builders Showcase.
Doors open for networking and hands-on time with builders working at the intersection of spirituality and technology. Doors close at 6:00 PM.6:00 – 6:15 PM | Opening and Grounding.
Setting the container and the intention for the evening.6:15 – 6:45 PM | Lightning Talks.
Short talks to frame the landscape: why the science of spirituality matters, what the current Spirituality x AI landscape looks like, and what foundational wisdom infrastructure is needed.6:45 – 7:00 PM | Structured Connection Exercise.
7:00 – 8:15 PM | Breakout Groups.
Small group discussions exploring: what is needed to move from shared intention to shared infrastructure to support builders in this field?8:15 – 8:45 PM | Harvesting Learnings and Closing the Container.
8:45 – 9:30 PM | Open Networking and Builders Showcase.
Who This Is For
Builders creating tools, platforms, and experiences designed for relational development, both digital and non-digital. If you're working on something that supports relational capacity building—i.e. supports people in transforming how they’re relating (measurable change over time), not just in being more connected, more calm, or more informed—this is your room.
Practitioners holding relational methodologies—somatic, contemplative, ceremonial, dialogic, restorative—who want to connect with builders and with each other. If you hold a practice tradition that explicitly supports relational capacity development as part of its aim and you're curious about how technology can serve, not replace, that work, this is your room.
Funders looking to resource spiritual development work and other work that extends beyond individual development and includes or centers relational development. If you're interested in what an investment thesis looks like when the unit of impact is relational, not just individual, this is your room.
Researchers working on relational measurement, intersubjectivity, human flourishing, contemplative science, or developmental psychology. If you're working on how to measure relational capacity or prove relational impact, this is your room. You are one of the most needed and least represented voices in this space.
Ecosystem builders working to cohere communities, build infrastructure, or connect people and projects across this landscape. If you see yourself as a steward of something larger than your own project, this is your room.
Wisdom keepers from any tradition who are engaged with questions of technology and finding right relationship. If your tradition holds deep knowledge about right relationship (or the equivalent of your tradition) and you want to be in conversation with the people building at this frontier—not to bless their work, but to challenge, inform, collaborate, and shape a future that is rapidly unfolding—this is your room.
Who This Is Not For
If you're looking for a general AI convening, a wellness event, or a networking mixer.
If you're interested in AI as a tool for individual spiritual optimization but not particularly interested in the relational dimension—you'll find other events during Human+Tech Week that are a better fit.
If you want to observe rather than participate—this event is designed for active engagement, and the format asks everyone in the room to contribute.
Why This, Why Now
We hold a specific position: the relational dimension is one of the most urgent and under-invested dimensions of human development work right now, and the one we’re explicitly centering in this conversation—not because other dimensions (transcendence, liberation, self-knowledge, embodiment) are any less real or relevant, but because the crises we face are inherently relational crises, and we are drastically under-resourcing the people and practices that address them. If that position interests you—whether you agree, disagree, or want to pressure-test it—you belong in this room.
We're exploring "Relational Technology" as a name for this frame, though this concept—tools and practices, ancient and emerging, that develop capacity for right relationship—is not new. We’re inviting contemplative dyadic practices, somatic methodologies, restorative circles, medicine ceremony, group immersive experiences, community coordination platforms, relational AI research, and much more into conversation with each other, and designing for generative conflict. Additionally, this conversation asks us to remember that technology isn't always digital; the oldest and most powerful technologies are often, including in this case, thousands of years old.
Finally, we're using "right relationship" here as an orienting concept and throughline. The phrase has roots in Quaker and Buddhist ethics, and resonates with Indigenous, ecological, and contemplative traditions—each of which holds its own understanding of what this means. It is an imperfect term approximating something ineffable, and we're using it not to claim a universal definition, but instead to name a shared inquiry that different traditions approach from different directions. Holding the tension between those approaches is part of the work.
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Co-Hosted by: Aligned • Compassion 2.0 • Developer Camp • Positive AI Labs • SOL • Spirit Tech Collective
This event is part of Human+Tech Week (May 11–15, San Francisco), a week-long program convening builders, investors, and leaders working at the intersection of human potential and AI.
By registering for this event, you agree to receive event-related communications from the organizers and Human+Tech Week. Registration information may be shared with Human+Tech Week and its official partners to support event coordination, communication, and reporting purposes. All information is handled responsibly in accordance with Luma’s privacy standards and Human+Tech Week’s data protection policies.
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References
Cook-Greuter, S. R. (2000). "Mature Ego Development: A Gateway to Ego Transcendence?" Journal of Adult Development, Vol. 7, No. 4
Klimecki, O. M. et al. (2014). "Differential pattern of functional brain plasticity after compassion and empathy training." Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(6)
U.S. Surgeon General (2023). "Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community."
"Historically Low Faith in U.S. Institutions Continues." Pew Research Center (2025). "Public Trust in Government: 1958-2025."
Thumbnail image: A still from the film "Tree of Life" (2011)