Fallen technology

This has important perpectives to put over. A recognition that technology carries it's own entail of presuppositions and habits [which can be critiqued by the likes of cultural studies people] -that there is a truth to the idea that 'the medium is the message'. Bill Wylie-Kellermann writes in part of his contribution to this dialogue "Technology is best counted among the fallen principalities and powers and hence moves with a life of its own. Human beings who wield these tools (be they PC owners or software kings) imagine they are in the driver's seat, granted greater control, but they are in fact driven. They are wielded by mechanisms of efficacy and speed. They are in the grip of and at the mercy of their own "tools." In the alienation of human beings from God, they are at once alienated from themselves, their social constructions, their own powers,"

Just so and so nice also to see a powers theology being used in the service of cultural critique.

I think my take on the point at issue in this dilogue -do we control or are we controled by technology is 'Yes' to both and 'no' to both. The real problem is that there is a dialogic relationship -no; a chaotic-emergent relationship where the feedback from the interrelating of the two elements creates a new and somewhat unpredictable situation. We both control and don't quite control technology. We can't reach clisure with it but we can try to use it and be prepared to critique our using of it and be prepared to notice when it takes on a life of its own and what ends that life serves.

I think that Dave Batstone in this is articulating something like my position when he says; "So what does it mean to be spiritually alert in an age of technology? It means being conscious of the choices that are before us and where they are likely to lead. It means charting how knowledge is distributed and how to access it. It means learning the ideas, skills, and strategies that enable success in a given location. It means learning how to use the resources of local communities to establish leverage against dominant elites. It means intentionally creating the kinds of community that allow us to live with dignity. It means learning how to take care of people, not just people learning how to take care of themselves."

Now my question falls back to: what of technology in worship [and that includes candles and pipe organs!]? And what of it in mission?