“Technology, then, is the means by which we transform the world as it is into the world we desire. What we often fail to notice is that it is not only the world that gets transformed by technology. We, too, are transformed….Indeed as John Culkin, a student of Marshall McLuhan, wrote, ‘We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us’” (pp. 35-36).
John opens this chapter with a discussion on imagination, in fact, that’s the title of this chapter. He goes on to make an earth shattering statement that, while a truth that many people know, it needs to be said. Essentially he states: Most adults don’t have an imagination. Some of adults really have no imagination to speak of; while others are ridiculously imaginative.
I’m reminded of my son (well he’s my wife’s son too, but this is my blog and you guys don’t know my wife) whose imagination allows him to be a shark swimming in the sea one minute and a cat looking for a ball of string the next. I too have an active imagination, but it differs from my son’s – I often see what could be…I see the world with a few new holes – just because someone tweeted about using a shovel (Confused? You can read the Imagination chapter and get a better understanding of what I’m talking about).
Dyer goes in to much more detail and discusses the transforming power of technology and does a wonderful job in this chapter but I want to stay right here – because this concept speaks volumes about what this blog is all about.
I hope you read this chapter…if you haven’t click here….go ahead, I’ll wait.
Did you read it?
Okay awesome….now that you’ve read it you should go and buy it (you can do that here).
I hope you bought it….if you didn’t and you REALLY want a copy…click on the Contact Me button on the left hand side of your screen and shoot me a quick message – and I will see what I can do for you.
The illustration of a shovel and the tool’s ability to transform not only the ground but also the worker – is what I want to discuss.
Love has that ability too. Love transforms both “the lover” (the person who is “doing” the loving) and “the lovee” (the person who is being loved on). See, when we redefine love (here’s the idea behind redefining love) from our own self-love to, what I’ll call, “other love” we start to see change. You will begin to notice a difference in your own life and in the lives of those around you. Thanks for that little indulgence – back to the book.
Then John goes Keanu Reeves on us…that’s right I’m talking about post-humanism.
“Our ultimate destiny, the post-humanists contend, is to transcend our weak biological bodies and be born again into eternal machines” (p 41).
But it’s the back story of The Matrix that I am most interested in. Humans create machines to do their work…eventually the machines start to wonder why they have to take orders from us….the next thing you know….apocalypse.
You might be looking at that going – that’s not what he’s talking about! Let me try to explain. Humans made an attempt to “better their lives” with technology – in essence technology to save them – only to realize that technology is/was not the answer to their salvation.
So does technology save us? No.
Does that mean that Christians should ignore it?
Demonize it?
Sell their house and move under a rock?
“If it is true that technology has the capacity to shape the world that God made, as well as shape our bodies, minds, and souls, then it seems we should care deeply about our tools. Moreover, if technology plays some role in the story of God redeeming his people, we should care all the more” (p 42).
Check out this post on ChurchMag by Wes Allen.
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