Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science & Technology

Featured on the New York Times Book Review’s Paperback Row


“O’Gieblyn’s loosely linked and rigorously thoughtful meditations on technology, humanity and religion mount a convincing and occasionally moving apologia for that ineliminable wrench in the system, the element that not only browses and buys but feels: the embattled, anachronistic and indispensable self. God, Human, Animal, Machine is a hybrid beast, a remarkably erudite work of history, criticism and philosophy, but it is also, crucially, a memoir.” -- Becca Rothfeld

“Meghan O’Gieblyn’s essays are 'personal' in that they are portraits of the private thoughts, curiosities, and uncertainties that thrive in O’Gieblyn’s mind about selfhood, meaning, moral responsibility, and faith. There's nowhere her avid intellect won't go in its quest to find, if not 'meaning,' then the available modern tools we might use, today, as humans, to create it. O’Gieblyn is a brilliant and humble philosopher, and her book is an explosively thought-provoking, candidly personal ride I wished never to end. This book is such an original synthesis of ideas and disclosures. It introduces what will soon be called the O’Gieblyn genre of essay writing.” -- Heidi Julavits

"A fascinating exploration of our enchantment with technology." -- Eula Biss

“Having abandoned Christian fundamentalism, the author of this investigation of human-machine interactions embarks on a search for meaning…She finds that consciousness ‘was not some substance in the brain but rather emerged from the complex relationships between the subject and the world.’” -- The New Yorker

"A deeply researched work of history, criticism and philosophy, God Human Animal Machine...show[s] that religion isn’t a subject matter you can simply move on from, nor does O’Gieblyn expect to outgrow her former vantage point as a believer. Instead, [the book] probes the uneasy coexistence between what’s enchanted and what’s disenchanted.” -- The Point

"One of the strongest essayists to emerge recently on the scene has written a strong and subtle rumination of what it means to be human. At times personal, at times philosophical, with a bracing mixture of openness and skepticism, it speaks thoughtfully and articulately to the most crucial issues awaiting our future." -- Phillip Lopate 

"Brilliant." -- Melissa Febos