Category: Theology
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Is Religion Any More Than a Jedi Mind-Trick?
Great story circulating at the moment about one Chris Jarvis ‘the Southend Jedi knight who refused to dehood in his jobcentre and has now received an apology from the manager for the lack of respect given to his “religion or beliefs”.‘ Jarvis says: “I am a Star Wars follower. It means following the Way of…
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Theological ‘Lock In’ | I Am Not A Gadget | Bad Faith [4]
[ Lock In [1] ] [ Lock In [2] ] [ Lock In [3] ] Our interaction with technologies does have an effect on our personhood. While we may not be gadgets, our tool-use is actually an important part of our personhood. It is one of the things that makes us human. The danger that Jaron…
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Theological ‘Lock In’ | I Am Not A Gadget | Bad Faith [3]
[ Lock In [1] ] [ Lock In [2] ] Finally got my hands on Lanier’s book. Been devouring it like a good doughnut. In the last post I explained how Sartre sets up this paradox: we are what we are, but precisely part of our being is that we are not simply what we are. Having…
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Theological ‘Lock In’ | I Am Not A Gadget | Bad Faith [2]
[ Lock In [1] ] In the previous post I raised the idea of technological developments giving rise to ‘lock in.’ Gadgets do not evolve in the organic sense ‘free’ that we might imagine: because of protocols and standardisation (think USB / railway gauges / HTML / Lego) their evolution is guided along particular lines.…
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Theological ‘Lock In’ | I Am Not A Gadget | Bad Faith [1]
One of my favourite podcasts is Material World – a science review from the BBC. In a recent episode, Jaron Lanier discussed his recently published manifesto: You Are Not A Gadget. I’ve ordered it, but not read it yet, but was very much taken by one line of thought he introduced in the interview –…