Monday, October 26, 2009
Friday, October 09, 2009
Technology and Religion
I'm quickly becoming the "technology guy" around here. I suppose that's what I signed up for.
To me, interesting technology stories aren't about what technology can do, but what people use it for. Technological gadgets and concepts are tools. That's it. They can't revolutionize anything without people willing to adopt them.
And once they do, what does technology do to the conventions and traditional concepts relating to the thing you use it for. There have always been romantic relationships; but when you throw technology in to them, how do these relationships change? Is that change good or bad?
That's the approach I took in researching an article on technology and religion.
I find there's all sorts of clarifications a writer has to make in talking about religion. For example, when you say "religion", do you mean the church as a business, do you mean the cultural institution, or do you mean faith in God or gods.
For the record, I mean that second one.
It's interesting how religious institutions feel the need to have an online presence in order to reach out to people. The Internet, inherently, is at odds with the conventions of the church. That is, the Internet is anonymous, individualistic, and lacking leadership. So how does the church use the Internet without falling victim to these things?
One thing I didn't cover in my piece is the philosophical idea of "technology AS religion". Journalism has a hard time with philosophy: it's often boring, the ideas are abstract, and for every philosophical argument that says one thing, there are two that say the opposite.
Still, technology starts to make sense as a religion if you think on it hard enough.
Have you ever "seen" the Internet? Touched it? How do we know it exists?
Is the Internet omnipresent? Omniscient? Or is it we, the ones who conceptualized the notion of the Internet, really the ones who allow it to exist?
What if everyone stopped believing in the Internet?
Or what about the laptop I'm pecking away at right now? I don't know how it works. I just know that it does. I can't see what the computer is doing under its plastic cover, all I can see is its effects. How do I know there isn't someone in there, pulling stings and urging me to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?
Have you ever anthropomorphized technology? "It's not cooperating with me." "I can't get it to work." "It ate my disk." And so on.
If technology is a god, what kind of god is it?
Probably a vengeful god.
What I can say for certain is once people start actively worshiping technology, (praying, sacrificing goats, etc,) it'll make one hell of a news story.
To me, interesting technology stories aren't about what technology can do, but what people use it for. Technological gadgets and concepts are tools. That's it. They can't revolutionize anything without people willing to adopt them.
And once they do, what does technology do to the conventions and traditional concepts relating to the thing you use it for. There have always been romantic relationships; but when you throw technology in to them, how do these relationships change? Is that change good or bad?
That's the approach I took in researching an article on technology and religion.
I find there's all sorts of clarifications a writer has to make in talking about religion. For example, when you say "religion", do you mean the church as a business, do you mean the cultural institution, or do you mean faith in God or gods.
For the record, I mean that second one.
It's interesting how religious institutions feel the need to have an online presence in order to reach out to people. The Internet, inherently, is at odds with the conventions of the church. That is, the Internet is anonymous, individualistic, and lacking leadership. So how does the church use the Internet without falling victim to these things?
One thing I didn't cover in my piece is the philosophical idea of "technology AS religion". Journalism has a hard time with philosophy: it's often boring, the ideas are abstract, and for every philosophical argument that says one thing, there are two that say the opposite.
Still, technology starts to make sense as a religion if you think on it hard enough.
Have you ever "seen" the Internet? Touched it? How do we know it exists?
Is the Internet omnipresent? Omniscient? Or is it we, the ones who conceptualized the notion of the Internet, really the ones who allow it to exist?
What if everyone stopped believing in the Internet?
Or what about the laptop I'm pecking away at right now? I don't know how it works. I just know that it does. I can't see what the computer is doing under its plastic cover, all I can see is its effects. How do I know there isn't someone in there, pulling stings and urging me to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?
Have you ever anthropomorphized technology? "It's not cooperating with me." "I can't get it to work." "It ate my disk." And so on.
If technology is a god, what kind of god is it?
Probably a vengeful god.
What I can say for certain is once people start actively worshiping technology, (praying, sacrificing goats, etc,) it'll make one hell of a news story.
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