Intro: Identifying the Techno-Moral Crisis

Review of the Forward (Habits of the High-Tech Heart) | Schultze Preface

After tearing down a few utopian rants,  Schultze identifies a central thesis:

The benefits of information technologies depend on how responsibly we understand, develop, and employ them in the service of venerable notions of the meaning and purpose of life.

Hard to argue that.  What he considers "venerable" may be up for debate.   I guess that debate will have to wait until we see what "meanings and purposes" he identifies,  and how these are affected by the use of online technologies.

Perhaps the most important question should be whether our cyber-practices are making us better persons and our society more civil and democratic. Given what is now occurring in cyberspace -- dishonesty, incivility, immorality, and foolishness of all kinds -- such progress is more hope than reality.

This argument bothers me,  because that says nothing about cyberspace that can't be said about the world as a whole,  a world in which the Church and all kinds of moral and civil people also live.  Is the prescence of evil an argument against the promise of what the Church holds? The prescence of the "fallen nature" in cyberspace merely reflects the world in which we live.  And I would add that nearly any kind of "promise" is more parts hope than reality.  Even the Christian vision of God's Kingdom is more hope than realization. 

Schultze goes on to identify the "values" of technology.   " Information technologies are not just tools but also valueladen techniques that we rely on increasingly to organize and understand nearly every aspect of our lives."  I agree that the widespread adoption of technology and its accompanying measures of "efficiency" have a value system all their own. But this is the business appropriation of technology.  It is the "business approach" which instills in business users the set of expectatons and "ways of doing things" that have been influenced by the expectations of businesses wielding the technologies.  The Church also has its value systems,  which should provide guidance for its appropriating of technologies.  Sadly,  many Churches have been quick to adopt business practices based upon "success" judgements.  If a particular business model is seen to have enjoyed success,  then various ways of "mimicking" these practices in a Church setting is undertaken.  Many times the lines have become blurred --- and the ethics of Churches and Church-run organizations resemble business practices rather than Christian ethics. 

It is very much a responsibility of the Church to constantly hold the use of technology up to the light of Christian ethic;  and to ask the moral questions about the furtherance of a Kingdom Ethic over and against a business ethic with which information technology is associated. 

Schultze then assesses the impact upon humane communication:

Today, we increasingly assume that doing things quickly and effectively is more important than doing them carefully, thoughtfully, and ethically. As a result, much of our daily communication slips into junk messaging-the informational equivalent of junk food. While we gain access to more information and speedier means of messaging, we also weaken the kinds of shared practices, such as neighborliness and hospitality, that we need to maintain our moral bearings. Our manner of informational living deflates our moral character.

I acknowledge the danger that business practices and the corresponding "technology expectations and values" can de-sensitize us to the human;  that we can allow ourselves to lose ourselves in our work, and that in the service of "getting things done" we can become insensitive to the effects of our frantic pace on others.  On the other hand,  it does not follow that there is a direct relationship between gaining more access and higher speed,  and the weakening of neighborliness and hospitality.  Could it not also be theorized that the gaining of higher access speed and bandwidth could "free up" time that was formerly spent in gaining access --- maybe and maybe not.   So does our manner of informational living "deflate our moral character?"  I suppose it could.   But so too can our "manner of carrying about ministry tasks", or "manner of directing Church business".  It always comes back to the responsibility of the person to be a good steward of the knowledge, resources,  and relationships God has given.

The idea that values accompany the use of technology is without question.  But here's where I have trouble:

Although the vast majority of people in the world lack access to computers, let alone to the Internet, information-rich elites and experts assume on behalf of others that efficiency and control are inherently good values that will necessarily improve society, enrich private lives, and empower individuals. They assume that a faith in technique is good, progressive, and beneficial for all.

Although I certainly can see those tendencies in much of the world of Information Technology,  it doesn't jibe with my experience.  And there are many deeply involved in "Cyberculture" who rebel against and embody lack of such rigidity.   The emergence of Weblogs is in itself a bit of a rebellion against control and efficiency;   a kind of a grassroots movement which eschews the notion of centralized authority and convntional media control.  The fact there is such a large constituency of such a sub-culture of rebellion in the high-tech sector suggests to me that the culture of control and efficiency is more a corporate culture reality than a high-tech culture attribute. 

We ought to face the fact that our cyber-innovations today are running far ahead of our moral sensibilities.

I think this happenswith every new technology becuase there are those who seek immediate profit by questionable means --- the printing press brought with it the dangers of indecent material as well as being perceived as a threat to the ruling classes if "regular people" were to get access to knowledge.  The pipe organ was originally seen as a "secular entertainment technology" and was shunned by the church as profane for generations.  It should come as no surprise that evil forces seek to accomodate whatever technology will help them achieve their ends.  It should also be realized that this does not free us from the responsibility to bring our ethical senses into the picture and continue to ask the questions Schultze has put before us. 

The point I feel he presses far too often is to call upon the "evils" and the "foolishness" one can find "out there".  Thus far,  he has yet to mention the people and organizations that are seeking to connect people and important movements,  to call for spiritual sensitivitity and community, and to make things more accessible to a greater amount of people.  That HAS happened.  Everyone is not "connected" yet.   But that is not license to stop the efforts,  or to seek to make more information and more education and more interaction available so that MORE of these "hopes" can become reality. 

© Copyright 2003 Dale Lature. Last update: 9/23/2003; 3:38:45 PM.