Religion, Society, and Technology: Session Notes

The Religious (Christian) Response To The Social Impact of Science and Technology

Changing Sacred Cosmos

  1. Why are we here?
  2. Definition of Sacred Cosmos, hierocosmos
  3. The Fraud of Idolatry
  4. America's Sacred Cosmos
    1. Class discussion: American Values
      1. The following questions are intended to get at the root of American values: the American sacred cosmos. We are diverse, but are there certain basic values nearly all Americans would agree on?
      2. What is sacred to Americans?
      3. What are our shared givens?
      4. What are our non-negotiables?
      5. What are our measures of right and wrong?
    2. Name some American Archetypes: Homo Americus
      • Johnny Appleseed
      • Billy the Kid
      • Buffalo Bill
      • Tom Edison
      • Abe Lincoln
      • John D. Rockefeller
      • ...
    3. Mythic Hero: the self-made man (autoktizeos or Homo Autoktizeus)
      [ktizo: to make, to found]
      • What are his attributes?
        • individualist
        • enlightened self-interest
        • successful
        • independent
        • generous
        • civic-minded (?)
        • in control
        • self-motivated
        • horse sense
      • What is sacred to the him?
        • the right to independence
        • the right to do as he pleases
        • the right of free movement
        • the right to independent thinking
      • What are his givens?
        • everyone has a chance
        • anyone willing to work can succeed
        • freedom is natural
      • What are his non-negotiables?
        • God helps those who help themselves
        • the person is the center of the world
        • laissez faire social order
        • good people will take care of good people
        • teleology: progress empowering individual opportunity yielding more opportunity
        • God and religion are a private concern
      • What is right and wrong?
        • success is right
        • live and let live
        • to be told what to think is wrong
        • to told what to do without agreement is wrong
    4. Mythic Hero: Prometheus, the bridge to homo technologus [Ferré, pp97-98]
      1. The sacredness of progress and the resistance to it.
      2. Prometheus is the defender of humanity, bringing progress to humans
      3. Prometheus means "foreknowledge"
      4. The myth
        • Prometheus is a titan
        • the titans are children of Heaven (Uranus) and Earth (Gæa)
        • the titans are personifications of the physical world's power: volcanoes, earthquakes
        • the gods/goddess are children of the titans Cronos and Rhea
        • the gods rebel against the titans
        • Prometheus, a titan, takes the side of Zeus (against whom he will later rebel)
        • afterwards, according to one tradition, Prometheus creates humankind
          • Epimetheus ("hindsight") is Prometheus' brother.
          • He is disorganized.
          • He creates the animals without foresight, giving them all of the good attributes
          • When it comes time to create humans, he has no attributes left for them.
          • He calls upon his brother to help him
          • Prometheus creates humans upright and graceful and mentally agile to make up for their physical disadvantages
        • Zeus is afraid of humans and refuses them fire to contain them
        • Prometheus wants it so humans can excel over creation
        • So Prometheus steals fire and shows humans how to use it (hubris).
        • Zeus gets his vengeance by having the giants Force and Violence take Prometheus to the peak of a mountain in the Caucasus
        • Hephæstius (Vulcan) forges unbreakable fetters to hold him
        • Zeus orders a vulture to everyday devour Prometheus' liver, which grows back each night (nemesis)
        • Zeus hopes that Prometheus will repent
        • Zeus will free him if he will reveal the woman by whom Zeus will beget a son who will replace Zeus and end the rule of the Olympians.
        • But Prometheus refuses and for the sake of humankind withstands his punishment
        • Many centuries later Hercules frees Prometheus (humankind returning the favor)
      5. A technological hero
        • Prometheus is the Spirit of technological discovery against all odds; the Spirit of the technological imperative
        • Resists luddite force
        • Welfare and progress of humanity at heart: Savior of humanity
        • Zeus is the Spirit of Creation
        • the titans are the spirits of Science
        • Prometheus "betrayed" science by joining forces with creation;
          resulting in homo technologus.
        • fire, like technology, is two-sided:
          • warmth + destruction
          • light + burning
        • The Promethean spirit: god-like capabilities acquired by humans
        • are our technologies ours by right or by theft? or has God given them to us?
        • are our god-like powers evidence of our defiance against our god-ordained role (re. Adam and Eve)
        • Promethean myth: our rebellion against God and nature:
          • is this God's view or ours?
          • did God forbid knowledge to us?
          • or challenged us to right use?
      6. Prometheus and autoktizeos
        • The self-made man is a protogé of Prometheus
        • who is the master? who is the servant?
        • Yet self-contradictory: autoktizeos goes it alone and so must reject Prometheus as teacher
        • Instead binds Prometheus into servitude
        • autoktizeos continues to progress and binds Prometheus to our own need.
        • do we control technology or does it control us?
        • But can Prometheus be bound?
        • Who is Hercules?
        • Is Hercules needed?
        • Or does serving humankind strengthen Prometheus until he breaks his own fetters?
    5. Mythic Hero: Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation
      • An evolving hero
      • Our child
        • an android with a positronic brain
        • totally articulated
        • an officer in Star Fleet
        • with the addition of an emotion chip, has feelings
        • seeks to be human: have feelings and creativity
        • a musician
        • faster, stronger, longer lived than humans
        • a creation of humanity's with the potential to exceed humanity
      • Autoktizeos and Data
        • Data is in our image
        • Do we give Data our "self-madeness"?
        • Or do we hoard our self-madeness and keep Data subservient>
        • Are we Zeus or Prometheus to Data?
        • Is Data a grandchild of God? a stepchild of God?
        • Are we god to Data?
        • Can Data sin against us? Yes, given Azimov's Laws of Robotics
          • [Zeroeth Law: A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.]
          • First Law: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm [except where such inaction would conflict with the Zeroeth Law].
          • Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the [Zeroeth or] First Law.
          • Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the [Zeroeth,] First or Second Law.
        • What happens if Data rebels against us?
        • What happens if Data makes more "dataides"?
      • Prometheus and Data
        • Does Data have rights to the Promethean spirit?
        • Is Data our evolutionary successor?
        • Are we, Data, and Prometheus in a technological triangle?
        • Can Data and Prometheus bypass us?
        • Can Data be Hercules?
  5. Scientific/Technological Sacred Cosmos
    1. Class discussion: Scientific/Technical Values
      1. What is sacred to Scientific/Technical Community?
      2. What are its shared givens?
      3. What are its non-negotiables?
      4. What are its measures of right and wrong?
    2. The Sacred Cosmos
      • God
        • non-issue
        • there is no Deus ex machina
        or ..
        • nature is evolving towards God
        or ...
        • nature is God
      • Cosmology
        • There is no Transcendent Order
          • Everything in reality is analyzable
          • If its not analyzable, its not real
        • Nature is contingent
        • Matter and energy are primary
        • Nature evolves from the simple to the complex
      • Epistemology
        • Reason and logic are supreme
      • Anthropology
        • Humans are organic with nature
        • Consciousness and intelligence emerges from matter and nature
        • Humans are simultaneously the subject of science and the god who can do anything given science
      • God and the Human
        • Non-issue
        Or ...
        • indistinguishable
      • Soteriology
        • Science and its instrument technology are salvational
        • Science will solve all of our problems
      • Hamartology
        • Ludditism
        • Pseudo-science
      • Theodicy
        • Not enough progress
      • Society
        • Amenable to the scientific method; sociology
      • Teleology
        • Nature (and therefore humans) are evolving to God-likeness
      • Eschatology
        • Big Crunch
        • Heat Death of the Universe
    3. Some views from Ferré:
      • technosphere [pp 12ff]
        • the implementation of theoretical reason (the Reason of Plato) by its association with practical reason (the Reason of Ulysses)
        • a technological texture to life
        • Our surrounding technological environment
        • knowledge (epistemology): the interplay of science and technology; the use of knowledge
        • values (axiology): ends and means; use of knowledge and technology
        • reality (metaphysics): reliable manipulation of reality
      • Marcuse [pp 70ff]
        • technology and the loss of transcendence
          1. technology radically engulfs nature
          2. totalitarian: economic-technical coordination
            • control over technology is power
            • the interlocking political, economic, and technical elites hold total control over society
            • everything works together to maximize production
            • the common people continue to contribute most to this production, but now not only have had the surplus value of their production stolen, but their awareness of being oppressed is stolen
        • how is this happening?
          • new social control to keep people happy and docile
          • mass market provides freedom to choose between this or that -- but not freedom to reject the choice and wasteful consumption
          • advertising creates "needs" while suffocating real needs, such as liberation (s. quote p 71)
          • the squashing of prophetic imagination
            1. prophets are neurotics
            2. prophets are irrational
            3. prophets are trouble makers
        • yet technology could lead to freedom
          • its own contradiction: maximizing democracy
          • Fuller + Marx: the teleology of the technosphere: technocratic totalitarianism gives way to true freedom
      • Buckminster Fuller [pp 57ff]
        • "more with less"
        • theoretical reasoning: mark of a human
        • the instrumented pilot: succeeds with instruments rather than bodily senses; e.g., piloting and cosmology
        • humans are the "anti-entropic reordering function of the universe"; e.g., building an airplane from the raw material of the earth
        • God as a verb: the active reordering processes of the Universe and humans as "trans-ceiver mechanisms through which God is broadcasting"
        • modern scientific technology can lead the way to fuller democracy and elimination of social ills
      • Judeo-Christian [pp 99ff]
        • Technopolitan liberation
          1. human rule over nature
          2. [Harvey Cox: Technopolis precedes the metropolis]
          3. Technopolis made possible by Judeo-Christianity
            • undermining the nature religions with nature as god
            • nature, gods, humans locked in an endless closed and unprogressive cycle
            • Hebrews broke this cycle: God as utterly other and humans as the image of God
            • nature as utility, not divinity; therefore science and nature are not saving
            • Promethean fire:
              • freeing for the scientific endeavor
              • chaining and raping nature
          4. Thus J-X provided the spiritual preconditions for science and technology
        • Burden of guilt
          • nature intended for human purpose: biblical anthropocentricity
          • chaining and raping of nature: a burden of guilt for Christianity
          • reform: humans as part of nature
        • Fuller image of God
          • technology as one element in our development towards God's image
          • image of God => our divinity given destiny to unfold and develop the image through matter
          • technology is one instrument by which we do this
          • therefore, technological balance: right use vs abuse; humility rather than hubris
        • Technology as original sin
          • True of Knowledge of "good and evil"
          • the forbidden fruit: "technological knowledge":
            • clothes
            • cities (Cain, founder of cities)
            • Tower of Babel
        • Technique as "fallen" (Ellul)
          • technique is fallen -- not the sort of dominion intended by God
          • no co-creation
          • domination, not love, is the mood of science and technology
  6. Modern Sacred Cosmos (dystopias)
    1. Brave New World
    2. 1984
    3. THX 1138
      • machines govern
      • no individuality; all conformity
      • drugs to control individuality
      • no human bonding
      • android police
      • religion in the service of the machine
      • humans as commodities
      • non-conformity a sin
      • not taking prescribed drugs a sin
      • having no accidents and increasing production are the primary virtues
      • consumption is a secondary virtue
      • non-conformists are insane or perverted
      • no privacy
      • judgments based on budget/economics
      • at last: the Promethean spirit emerges in THX 1138
    4. Raëlian utopia [Talbot]
      • Raël: former French race car driver
      • 1973 alien encounter
      • technology as salvation
      • everlasting life through technology, i.e., cloning
      • Clonaid: cloning venture -- directed by French chemist Brigitte Boisselier
      • clones as replacement for dead love ones
      • contradictorily realize clone is a unique and different person!
      • market driven
      • you should have what you want
      • "Cloning -- Reproduction Without Compromise"
    5. Rodney Brooks, AIL, MIT
      • No fundamental difference between humans and intelligent machines
  7. Ray Kurzweil; The Age of Spiritual Machines
  8. The pneumogenic hierocosmos: a new sacred cosmos
  9. Summary
©2001 Rev. John A. Mills, Pastor, First Congregational Church, Closter, NJ fcclostr@cwn.com