Sometimes clergy get to be inspectors for cultural trends. One of the readings for churches this sunday recalls the story of the tower of Babel. The thought was to build a ramp to the very living space of god.Technology would be the gateway to the knowledge of the fruit in the garden of Eden. The great ancient story tells of the desire to reach the very gates of heaven. God confuses language so Babel/Babylon’s quest falls into confusion. In our time technology and the march of science may feel the same way.The many languages lead to confusion and misunderstanding. The primeval prologue of Genesis starts with creation and moves to eden and ends up with a dispersed confused wandering humanity.Pentecost offers a reversal of Babel. Pentecost signals a new community, not divided by language, aiming toward a goal, not wandering aimlessly.. As a religious person, I wonder if technology is not replacing the role of God in a number of areas, or at a lesser level, occupying territory formerly held in the divine realm.
Our younger daughter call me a late adapter to any technology. When she makes a presentation on the cyber world, her first question is: would Dad understand any of this?For many of us technology threats to make a us more machine like and less human. some of us feel that technology drains life out of the world as it soaks up power, time, and attention. (see sweet piece on new book on cyber world) We carry around cell phones like wireless umbilical cords. People having a romantic dinner have their faces planted on the little screen stealing the light from the eyes of the loved one across the table.People talk about facebook friends having more reality and importance than flesh and blood.
Jacques Ellul, the French writer, looked at technology with a practiced eye. Ellul saw technology as the driving force in modern life. He famously said that we were so concerned about doing things quickly and efficiently, so concerned about standard operating procedure, the operating system in computer terms but we lack resources for what we are to do. Mathematical standards of efficiency start to dominate; the process of technical advances multiply at a growing and build on each other, while the number of technicians also increases. Technology is imperialistic, as it seeks to expand to a global scale and gobbles up other methods in its path. Technology has created a “priesthood”-it sometimes seems as strange to us as magical incantations and esoteric rites of a secret society. It seems understood only by an elite chosen few.We are so optimistic about it, as it will be the savior for many ills in society, without considering if it causes ills or losses for us. Technology can become closed, “a reality in itself ... with its special laws and its own determinations (think virtual reality).” Its autonomy implies that much of what goes on in society is dominated by technique, whether we know it or not, and we lack the resources to judge it well. To go a step further, technical mastery raises morality and spiritual issues. Technique tolerates no judgment from without and accepts no limitation.
I do not wish to come off as anti-technology. It has changed our world for the better; it offers a richer fuller life for many. We could speak of spirit- driven technology v. engines of death- I think of Ray Kurzweil and giving sight to the blind with reading devices.I wonder why we don’t immediately know the names Hounsfield and CAT scans, and Hounsfield and Raymond Damadian and MRI devices that peer into our bodies without exploratory surgery..Invention is often a collaborative process and the spirit resides there as well in inspiration.Is the world fading into the sahow of the machine, or we capable of harnessing technical prowess for moral ends and development of humanity?
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