Techie Sunday

Today Shane Hipps spoke at church. He’s kind of an authority on technology and spirituality in church. I’ve heard before that technology has served to separate people from each other. Every technology. I’m not prepared to accept that every single example of technology makes it easier for people to ignore community, but it’s worth thinking about. The wheel? Um… with the advent of the wheel, people could move very heavy things all by themselves, without relying on others. See? Obviously mp3 players with headphones and Bluetooth thingies allow us to more seamlessly ignore our actual surroundings. But email and weblogs and cell phones do allow us to keep in touch with our loved ones, seamlessly, regardless of our actual surroundings. We can stay in touch without actually seeing our loved ones. But we should should SHOULD spend time actually with our family and friends. It’s super important.

So it was a good sermon. Shane is funny. And i'm reminded again of how important it is to actually be present for my cherished family. It's not good enough to be nearby, i must be present.

Yeah, i'm totally being not eloquent. It's because i'm busy installing Office and other programs on this other computer i'm working on. And i put the Honda up on Craigslist, and already got an offer for $150. Not sure if that's going to be my BEST offer... The car has seen one or two better days. One time i put a car for sale in the paper for $200, the guy offered $175, and i bargained him down further to $150. That car actually ran and drove. In fact, the guy test drove it even though it had a broken water pump and was running on three cylinders. I suppose that's a natural urge when you're going to buy a car; to test it out. I'll let you know if the guy (or girl? ya never know) tries to test drive the Accord.

Oh yeah, and today after we scanned two pictures that Houston drew, and colored them with The GIMP (Houston already knows Ctrl-Z for "undo" and some other GIMP hotkeys like Shift-E and P for erase and paintbrush -- he's going to be more of a Gimp guru than i am)... um, where was i? Okay. Houston GIMP'ed the pictures, and then ran over to the scanner all excited to take the picture out. When it was still the same picture he'd drawn, unaltered, he looked crestfallen. It was so cute. Poor kid thought there were, i dunno, actual markers which were actually coloring on his drawing somehow... through the glass of the flatbed scanner? It seems so real on the computer screen! But happily, he did the GIMPing while sitting on my lap and we were actually doing it TOGETHER.

Fortunately there’s always flintknapping—the one technology that brought (and still brings) people
together!!
-- cleetismorgan (Email) - 31 March '08 - 05:57

no-huh, because with an arrow or spear, a single man can take down a whole deer instead of… tackling it? With your bare hands? Rugby style? Can you do that???

I guess the whole point of tools is to make impossible or difficult tasks easier, thereby reducing the need for people to labor together. The first mention of technology in the Bible was Adam and Eve’s clothes, right? And they were used to hide their bodies from each other — they were acting more like separate individuals.

But yes, flintknapping and telephones and computers and cars and cameras all do much more to enhance our lives individually and in community. But i bet without any of those things, i’d know the names of the family who lives two doors down from me.
-- juanito - 31 March '08 - 09:16

yes, but the clothes covered the shame they felt as a result of their sin and allowed them to move on. God, provided the clothes so if that’s an act of “decommuning” then it’s his fault. also, doesn’t his original (and still binding) mandate for humans to be fruitful and multiply implictly involve discovering and developing technology? and one more thing, what about the technology of developing musical instruments? doesn’t that bring people together in many significant ways. anyway, just some thoughts.
-- travis (Email) (URL) - 06 April '08 - 01:57

You have to answer this silly question because it keeps spammers off my site:
What are the last three letters of Juanito's name?
What's the last three letters of Juanito's name?  

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