The Ring of Tolkien: The Magnification of Power by Technology

Introduction: the Acceleration of Technology
- Its an American tradition
  - Americans have always been inventive
  - Colonials invented many safety and labor saving devices
  - Ben Franklin: bifocals; Franklin stove
  - Continues up to the present; but ...
  - we are unreflective
  - we tend not to consider the consequences until after the facts
  - technology is so much a part of our lives, we do not see technocracy
  - I submit that technocracy is at least one of the "demons" of the nihilists.
- Describe a spectacular change wrought by technology
- 100 years ago (1903)
  - most people rural; stayed close to home
  - information dissemination by newspaper and telegraph; a bit by telephone
  - automobiles just beginning
  - era of Kitty Hawk
  - machine gun; gunpowder for bombs
  - submarines just starting
  - no WMD
  - power in the hands of nations
- 200 years ago (1803)
  - no cars, no telegraph, no telephone
  - no machine guns
  - few newspapers
  - no aviation
  - power in the hands of nations
- today: transport, communication, information, medical, warfare
  - categoric changes
  - global reach
  - enormous power in the hands of individuals as well as nations
- God is speaking a work of Peace -- is anyone listening?
Our technocratic world -- technocracy
- the power of technology has led to technocracy
  1. not just a collection of inventions
  2. a way of living and perceiving life
  3. demands its own infrastructure of bureaucrats and supporters
  4. influences every aspect of life
- total and ubiquitous
  1. worldwide, global
  2. no one untouched by technology
  3. overwhelms traditional cultures
  4. marginalizes other truth sources
- the bifurcation of society and the "catch up" syndrome
  1. promises a technological utopia
  2. which is denied to most
  3. technical haves / have-nots
  4. technical capable / incapable
- technological imperative
  1. if it can be done, do it
  2. if it can be thought of, figure out how to do it
- consumerism fueled by technology
  1. more and more variety
  2. never enough
  3. economy signficantly affected/driven by technology
- issues:
  - what are some good power uses of technology?
  - what are some bad power uses of technology?
  1. transportation and communication
    - global reach
    - shortening of distances in time
    - "democratization" of travel and communication
    - global village
  2. information
    - biometric identification: fingerprints, face, iris in "smart" credentials
    - Total Information Awareness (TIA) [Wall]
      1. to identify suspicious patterns in credit-card use, bank data, medical records, pay-per-view movies, passport applications, prescription purchases, e-mail, telephone calls, court records (divorces, etc.), financial transactions, electronic shopping
      2. DoD: "to revolutionize the ability of the United States to detect, classify and identify foreign terrorists -- and decipher their plans -- and thereby enable the U.S. to take timely action to successfully preempt and defeat terrorists acts."
      3. will extensively mine government and commercial data banks
      4. uses a language identification program ("Babylon") to focus on people who speak Pashto, Dari, Arabic, and Mandarin.
      5. probably eventually Korean and Farsi
      6. will provide means to monitor anti-war activists
      7. 5-year goal of TIA: "total reinvention of technologies for storing and accessing information
  3. medical
    - eradication of smallpox almost: not finished to preserve some as WMD
    - cloning
    - stem cell research
    - bioengineering
    - accessibility of medical technology
  4. warfare
    - network-centric warfare (NCW)
    - nanotechnical uniforms [Brant]
      1. decades in the future
      2. rapidly change at the molecular level
      3. adaptable to the biological and chemical threats
      4. converts to an impermeable shield against anthrax (e.g.)
      5. morphs into splints or even artificial muscles
      6. nanosensors transmit a soldier's vital signs to medical teams
      7. infrared fibers in the uniform to identify friendly soldiers
    - battlefield laptops and e-mail [Gegax]
      1. color touch screen and rubber-coated keyboard
      2. red and blue icons pinpoint battlefield positions of enemies and "friendlies"
      3. yellow diamonds mark chemical and biological bomb-fallout zones
      4. green lines surround minfields
      5. dotted lines reveal safe "bridges" through minefields
      6. under attack? e-mail the commander, who will receive your coordinates and send in reenforcements.
      7. Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below (FBCB2)[Tactical Internet]
      8. beta tested in Bosnia in the 1990s
      9. now with Army divisions and select Marine units
      10. standard equipmeant in thousands of Humvees, tanks and helicopters ==> Iraq
      11. uses data from GPS sensors, aerial spycraft, roving Green Berets and CIA agents
      12. navigationg through hostile zones used to take 80% of a soldier's time
      13. "Now, I've got 80 percent of my time to talk about how I'm going to kill him instead of figuring out where he is."
      14. instantly pinpoint within a few feet a vehicle traveling 65 mph
      15. request for firepower reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes
      16. automatically rejects requests for fire into "friendly" zones
      17. problems:
        
        GPS backbone jammable by $35,000 Russian device
        overloading
        screen not harden
        operations sites vulnerable (12 miles behind the front)
      18. in two years, compact enough to carry
    - information warfare: Military Grade Enterprise [Marconi]
    - WMD
Tolkien's Vision [Shippey]
- the Ring: a symbol of technological evil
  1. the owners of the Ring do not abandon it; it abandons them [p. 113-114]
  2. assertions re the Ring
    - it is immensely powerful in the right or wrong hands
    - it will devour/possess its owners turning them to evil
    - it cannot be left unused; it must be destroyed
  3. the use of the ring is addictive [p. 119]: the totalitarianism of technology
    - each use tends to strengthen the desire for another
    - so one use not so bad
    - in time can't be broken by will power alone
    - zero use then no more hold than any other temptation
    - come to enjoy its power of having their intentions achieved
  4. "The Ring, being evil, cannot perpetuate or be used for Good ... This demonstrates how inapposite it is to suggest that the Ring is a symbol of the umbridled power of science or the power of the atom. Both can be beneficial for humanity. It is the use to which they are put which is important. The Ring has no such redeeming characteristic [Harvey, p1 §4.1.2]"
  5. technology is not evil, but like a drug must be carefully used
- Ringwraiths: symbol of the technocrat
  1. central image of evil [p. xxxi]
  2. neither dead nor alive [p. 122ff]
  3. neither material nor immaterial
  4. shadow, not shadow
  5. eaten up inside
  6. originally succombed with good intentions
  7. shadows [p. 128ff]
    - that which is not
    - cannot make, only mock
    - wraith: insubstantial & substantial like a shadow
    - caused by absence
    - absence becomes presence
- Saruman [p. 169ff]: a symbol of the technologist
  1. Saruman = mechanical ingenuity; engineer
  2. "a mind of metal and wheels" [Treebeard]
  3. gun powder at Helm's Deep
  4. naplam against the Ents
  5. start with intellectual curiosity [p. 171]
  6. develops an engineering skill
  7. turns into greed and desire to dominate
  8. corrupts further into a hatred and contempt for the natural world which goes beyond any rational desire to use it
  9. rules by the delusion of a technological paradise
  10. vice without name: restless ingenuity; skills without purpose; bulldozing for the sake of change
- evil:
  1. Boethian: evil is internal to us as a result of our sin and alienation from God
  2. the Ring amplifies our sin
  3. Manichean: evil is an outside force, such as Satan
  4. the Ring is sentient with power and urges of its own, imbrued by the outside force.
  5. similarly abused technology:
    - magnifies our own sin (e.g., WTC attack)
    - instrument of the power of evil (e.g., netted warfare)
  6. Frodo's resistence
    - compassion
    - courage
    - childlike-ness
Are we listening to God?
- technology is a gift
  1. call to be good stewards
  2. are we "stewarding" technology?
- its use shaped by our social context: Triumphant of the Lion, which has led to technocracy
  1. power and dominance
  2. tribal
  3. meritocracy
  4. greed and competition
  5. consumerist
- the Ring of Technology: unbridled technology => the marks of technocracy
  1. driven by our social "angel" of idolatrous power
  2. technology becomes the Ring of Tolkien
  3. our economic and political leaders become ringwraiths
  4. backed up by Sarumans/engineers/scientists
  5. technology has moved out of the garage lab to the government & government-contract lab
  6. instrumental; stripped of moral content
  7. it is additive: we are afraid of slowing down:
    - others overtake us
    - we will not realize the better life
    - but will we ever?
  8. our "ringwraiths" are on automatic
    - devoid of ethical consideration
    - myoptic to consequences [technology will fix any problems]
  9. our "Sarumans" are enslaved by the technological imperative
- corrective: Triumphant of the Dove and Turkey
  1. s. Triumphant of the Lamb: the Book of Revelations[Grimsrud]
    - by nonretaliatory love that refuses to get caught up in the cycle of evil begetting evil
    - In Revelation, evil is never resisted in kind, but only by the power of a love that does not bow the knee
    - Christians play NO role in the decisive defeat of evil.
    - Jesus has already defeated evil by dying and being resurrected!!!
    - However Evil's last hurrah is being played out in the world today
    - and Christians must remain faithful to Jesus' way of nonretalitory love
    - even in the face of terrorism and WMD
    - God alone defeats evil -- we cannot do it with our own means
  2. we need to "reclaim" technology for the will of God
    - reform our social "angel"
    - re-centered technology's teleos from consumerism and defense to being God-centered:
    - welfare of all individuals and communities with integrity
    - promote reconciliation
    - seek out God's reflection in creation
    - other principles?
  3. Triumphant of the Dove
    - technology in the service of peace/shalom/salaam
    - a willingness to slow down
    - moral critique
  4. Triumphant of the Turkey
    - technology in the service of well-being
    - benefits to the Other
    - "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." -- Dom Helder Camara
  5. how?
    1. speak out: make this a visible topic in the public forum
      - how many citizens know what an engineer does? how many even know they exist?
      - yet, their lives are significantly effected by these faceless technocrats
    2. establish oversite committees as we have done for bioethics, that include technical folks, ethicists, and lay folks.
      - transportation and communications (not the FCC!)
      - the Internet
      - ...
    3. a willingness to slow down
      - re-center our teleos towards the Beloved Community
      - not a rejection of technology
      - but a management of technology
    4. others?

References

Brant, Martha; Sci-Fi War Uniforms?; Newsweek; February 24, 2003
Gegax, T. Trent; Wired for Battle; Newsweek; March 3, 2003.
Wall, James M.; Eyes are on you; Christian Century; January 11, 2003.
The Military Grade Enterprise: Communications for the warfighter today; Marconi.