Posts Tagged

technology

The Most Godly Thing God Can Do is to Become Human and to Die: Kester Brewin, Temporary Autonomous Zones, and AI

”In a broad sense, the Old Testament [sic] can be read as the story of empire, and the inevitable corrupting harms that royal, religious power does to people. In this schema, the New Testament is God’s denouement: the most godly thing God can do is to become human and to die. In the Mass, in…

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Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Feelings, I think: Media Ecology, Feelings, and the Decline of Abstract Rational Thought

“Regardless of what is being depicted in a photograph, the form itself evokes in us a particular pattern of intuitive, holistic thinking and emotion—the exact opposite of the pattern evoked by printed works. We have all heard the cliché “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Implied in this sentiment is the idea that images…

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Tyranny and Centralized vs. Decentralized Power

“It was Montesquieu’s analysis that occasioned the great debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists in the United States in 1787 and 1788. As everyone understood at the time, the fledgling polity was far too large to qualify as a small republic. Federalism was the remedy suggested by Montesquieu. A loose confederation of republics could…

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Every Process Pushed Far Enough Tends to Reverse: Thoughts on Digital Technology and Distraction Sickness

“Every process pushed far enough tends to reverse or flip suddenly. Chiasmus – the reversal to process caused by increasing its speed, scope or size.” —Marshall McLuhan I finally got to read Andrew Sullivan’s latest article in NY Magazine about technology and distraction sickness. I remember Sullivan for notably becoming one of the first journalists…

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Everything is Shaping Everything ALL of The Time: Kester Brewin, Technology & False Promises

“Consciousness is not in the head. Consciousness is an emergent, symbiotic process that is planetary in extent.” I’m really curious to read Kester Brewin’s new book about technology and transcendence titled Getting High (due to be published soon I suppose), but I have to admit that I’m a little disappointed to pick up a technophobe/Luddite…

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Economic Bug Fixes – Jaron Lanier, Who Owns the Future?

You might, for example, want to design a tablet to be pristine and platonic, without any physical buttons, but only a touchscreen. Wouldn’t that be more perfect and true to the ideal? But you can’t ever quite do it. Some extra physical buttons, to turn the thing on, for instance, turn out to be indispensable….

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The Escapement – Unfolded Ep. 6

This is episode 6 of the Unfolded Podcast. You can listen to this episode on itunes, Stitcher or Homebrewed Christianity.  …  1320 A.D. Brother Ferdinand had been in the sanctuary since before daybreak, and the church was dark except for three flickering white candles. He enjoyed listening to the liquid flowing steadily into the vertical…

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The Sacred Geography of 21st Century

Imagine zooming out to geosynchronous orbit and watching a map of light points rippling like the chromataphores of a cuttlefish as the location of everyone feeling love/thinking about the future/playing jazz pops up, illuminating the cloud-hidden coastlines. Art and Science, both children of Magic, made love and gave birth to Creative Data Visualization, which makes…

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