Implications for the Theological Community
With all the attention being given to the rise
of Computer Communications Networks, and the rush of nearly every organization
and company to "get on the Net", there has been very little
attention given to this phenomenon in the religious/theological world.
Once again it seems that the churches are very slow to adopt a new media.
One may propose that there is too much identification of the Internet
and online communications with the wide coverage of "Cyberporn"
, and so the churches are hesitant to align themselves with the use of
such media.
Still others may suggest that it is because of the "impersonal",
"machine" , coldly technological feel of the medium is what
causes religious people to shy away from its widespread use.
The key questions, I believe, are found in looking beyond these initial
questions that seem to warn us away from the medium, or cause us to too
quickly wholeheartedly accept the medium in a utopian-like stupor.
In response to the first "porn" concern, there are many examples
of earlier media that made it easier to distribute questionable material.
Books themselves became a breeding ground for all types of material. The
telephone plays host to literally any kind of content. And television/video
media only continued the "spreading" of such material from one
form of media to another.
The second concern regarding the "cold"
and impersonal nature of computer communications is based , I feel , on
images derived from our media over years. These images include HAL the
computer in 2001, and the huge mainframe computers seen in techno-thrillers,
depicting some "inhuman" character of the machine. It is becoming
increasingly apparent that people are coming to the online world not because
they wish to gain some "cold, hard facts", but because of the
range of interaction that is possible with people from all over the country
and the world. The "Bulletin Board areas of the online services experience
tremendous growth, as have the Usenet News
Groups on the Internet. Usenet groups are generally available from
most Internet service providers and comprise some thousands of different
subjects from religion to sports.
The key issue for theological reflection
on the online world is how this medium enables and/or inhibits communication,
and thus human understanding. Somewhere between the hype of the promise
of equal access for all to all information, and the warnings sounded by
some who see dehumanizing trends in this new technology, lies some territory
largely unexplored by theological thinking.
David Lochhead
has been one of the earliest contributors to the theological task
of asking the right kinds of questions about the medium. I want to do
a wide sweep of what has been said by members of the theological community,
and what has been offered by others not explicitly
involved in theology, but are nonetheless exploring the issues as
they impact community building. (Among the latter group, I have found
the following contributors to ask some related questions:
Related researchers
I was sufficiently impressed with the article in WIRED Jan.1996 ("Is
Government Obsolete"?) by David Kline and Daniel Burnstein to go
out and buy "Road Warriors: Dreams and Nightmares Along The Information
Highway", and thus far in my reading, it is proving to be an excellent
middle ground book between the "Snubbites" and the "Cyber-utopians/Info-Superhighway
hypsters.
They pose some excellent questions which are all too far and few-between
in much of the articles and books about Cyberculture
On Dreams :
Dreams abound about the good the digital age will bring. To reiterate
just a few of these: New personal and corporate fortunes; greater convenience
in daily life; enhanced productivity; expanded knowledge and discoveries;
an increasing realization of human potential and a deeper sense of meaning
and purpose in life; virtual communities bringing back some of the values
of old-fashioned neighborhoods; a renaissance of self-expression and creativity;
heightened global awareness and interconnectedness; a return to the democracy
of the agora through electronic town halls, and a chance to cut the bloat
of bureaucracy with electronic bulletin boards and interactive tools;
work environments that become less alienating; and ultimately, a new economic
model that relies on knowledge, information, and creativity to produce
high, clean, sustainable growth on a continuous basis.
On Nightmares:
On the other side of the ledger, though, the nightmare scenarios
are as frightening as the dream scenarios are inspiring: Dehumanization
in the face of technology; over-dependence on systems and networks vulnerable
to hacker and terrorist attack -- or "only" to the vagaries
of software bugs, power outages, and squirrels chewing up fiber optic
lines; governments and corporations increasingly able to play Big Brother
in monitoring home activities; economic anarchy bred by a new order that
doesn't respect intellectual property rights and steals usable "bits"
at will; a society rendered irrational and illiterate by its infatuation
with the image and the soundbite; teledemocracy that turns into Rush Limbaugh-style
mob rule; global, generational, and class wars between Info- rich and
Info-poor.
Other quotables:
What does that future look like? For some -- the affluent, the
mobile, the educated -- it promises a wonderland of new choices and new
opportunities in work and leisure. But for others -- the unskilled, the
underclass, the unnecessary -- it may offer only banishment to a new,
techno-coated Dark Ages. No society can possibly sustain such a stark
dissonance of parallel futures for long. P.20
Spurred by the decentralizing and globalizing effects of computer
and communications technologies, mass society is exploding into a universe
of custom cultures, and the gravitational pull of large central institutions
is fragmenting into the mini-orbital fields of special interests and local
allegiances. P.20
And literally tens of millions of people are in effect disenfranchised,
confined to inner city warrens and cut off from any realistic hope of
playing a meaningful and productive role in society. P.19
Far more troublesome issues, however, lie below the surface, embedded
in the political and economic structure of our society. For no matter
what the promise of the Digital Revolution to revitalize society -- and
the potential here is enormous -- the reality is that this promise rests
upon the precarious edifice of an America that has already become dangerously
fractured and increasingly dysfunctional. P.19
In America, the prevailing cultural view of technology is that
it is some sort of autonomous, mythic force beyond the reach of human
control -- and devoid of political, economic and ideological influences.
Indeed, technology is viewed as something akin to the weather or God's
will. P.18
"We are not just consumers," he (Mitch Kapor) declared.
"We are also citizens." With all this talk about markets and
profits in the new digital world order, he said, perhaps it's time to
start thinking about what kind of world we want it to be! P.17
But Kapor's point was well taken. For all the industry seminars
and all the media coverage, there has been far too little discussion of
the implications of attempting to weave new technologies into an old and
badly frayed social fabric. P.17
The truth is that technological change comes to the world only
on the world's terms, constrained within the limits of human nature and
our political economy. To be sure, like a child in the womb, new technologies
reshape -- slowly, imperceptibly at first, and often in sometimes surprising
ways -- the lives of all around them. But to truly glimpse the shape and
direction of technological change, one must appreciate the myriad ways
in which economic cycles, financial markets, the exigencies of industrial
competition, the regulatory mood in Washington, the political climate
in the heartland, and trends in social taste and consumer spending all
affect the prospects for the commercialization of new technologies and
their long-term social uses and economic effects. This is Real World Futurism,
and it is the approach and methodology we have used in our exploration
of the Digital Revolution . . . p.6
The point, of course, is not to discount the enormous promise that
digital technology offers society, but rather to put that promise in context.
One can be very bullish on the Digital Revolution's prospects over the
long term, as are the authors, without losing sight of the fact that sound
business plans still depend upon an accurate assessment of current market
conditions, demographics, and revenue flows as well as upon marketing
strategies that take account of the evolutionary pace at which new markets
actually develop. P.5
It's time to see cyberspace for what it truly is: just one more
place in society where we can find not only examples of the erosion of
common values that once glued this nation together, but also signs that
concerned citizens and families are struggling to renew the American Dream
as well. (Debate page:Cyberporn)
|
