We are excited to announce the launch of the AI and Faith podcast! AI and Faith is a community of expert technologists, professionals, and faith leaders bringing the ancient wisdom of the world’s major religions to the ethics of artificial intelligence. One way we do this is by interviewing people from our community of over 150 experts in 13 countries and five continents, as well as folks outside our community, about important topics related to Artificial Intelligence. Our experts have significant experience applying faith ethics to their work at the intersection of AI and education, disinformation, warfare, climate change, humanity, and other critical areas.
The AI and Faith podcast is currently available on our website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, Google Podcasts, and Youtube music. Be sure to listen in and follow us on your favorite social media platforms to access our exclusive, original content. Episodes will be released twice a month on Thursdays. We hope you’ll join the conversation.
In this podcast episode Elias Kruger and Maggie Bender talk about the latest news in the tech world, Generative AI. How can this new tech change the way we create and consume content? Introducing the paradox of hope and despair, this episode brings innovative thoughts on this topic. Listen to it now on your favorite platform.
In this podcast episode Elias Kruger and Maggie Bender continue their conversation about the future from the last episode taking a closer look into how we can imagine realistic futures by using key macrodrivers of change. The conversation also unpacks one of AI Theology’s latest projects. Listen to it on you favorite platform (links bellow).
To understand better this conversation, take a look at this scenario grid.
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Book Description:
“Sometimes all it takes to be strong is to choose strength… A thief with a dangerous gift. Rising tensions over the Sun’s energy. A brutal attack in the lonely silence of space.
When Ben Ashley steals a sample of Dorium, the fallout carries him right to the heart of the Solar System’s cold war–a war that’s about to turn hot unless Ben can stop it. What starts as a deal to avoid prison becomes a mission to save his people. He’ll have to confront the calculating aggression of the Interior, elude the Raptors that plague the Outer Colonies—and find out why all the bad guys seem to be working together. To have any chance, he’ll have to harness the strange ability that nearly kills him every time he uses it. But if now isn’t the time to try, when is?”
Come and listen to Brian’s writing process and what you can expect from the book
How is technology reshaping human relationships? This is the central question explored in Andy Crouch’s latest book: The Life We Are All Looking For. His compelling vision and engaging writing style are able to bring a complex subject such as technology into a comprehensive vision of Christian community. This is in itself no small feat. Sitting within a genre that often limits itself to “do’s” and “don’ts” with the screen, Crouch dives deeper and in that is able to spark a dialogue. With that said, the book also fell short in significant areas leaving me wanting more.
As a content creator at the intersection of faith and technology, I am compelled to respond. Andy Crouch’s book called for more than a review. It called for robust engagement. That is what I’ll attempt to do in two blogs. In this first one, I’ll highlight the many ways in which the book elevated and moved forward the dialogue about technology’s impact on the Christian community. In the second, I’ll address the areas in which one can build on what he started. It will not be a critique per se but an attempt to expand the dialogue.
Before you move forward, let me make it clear: the book is worth your time. It kicks off the conversation within the evangelical community and it may even reach other corners of the Christian household. While reading the book is no requirement to understand the blog, it will certainly help evaluate its content. You might even arrive at different conclusions than I did.
With no further ado, let me dive into the three main gifts this book brings to the Christian community
Of Bikes and Planes
By now, we have all (hopefully) sensed how technology can impair human flourishing. Just consider the sense of guilt and dread after spending countless hours staring at a brainless social media stream accompanied by a royal neck ache from looking down for so long. Yet, other times, we are also thankful for how it expands our abilities. Crouch helps us understand this paradox by comparing planes with bicycles.
Riding a bicycle expands our mobility while still requiring physical effort from us. It reminds me of a blog I wrote a while back reflecting on the spirituality of e-bikes. It certainly helps us get to a destination faster while also being an excellent workout. In this way, the author sees it as a technology that augments rather than detracts from our humanity.
This is a sharp contrast to flying on a plane where the constricted space and oppressive air pressure make the experience much less pleasant. Not only there is no effort in the movement but a clear constriction in our health even if it allows us to reach our destinations much faster. While on board a plane, our humanity is diminished even if only for a few hours.
Superpower and Magic
In doing so, Andy is not advocating we forsake plane rides for bikes. He is only highlighting the point of the trade-offs technologies force us to make. The author shows us that technology often gives us what he describes as superpowers – an ability to do things with little to no effort. Andy also uses allusions to magic and alchemy to describe the dominant ethos of for-profit technology endeavors.
It is like magic because most of us have no clue about how it works. We simply trust that when we press a button, there will be an expected outcome. Oftentimes we expect it to be instantaneous. It is like alchemy because, technology is often portrayed as the silver bullet to all our problems – the recipe for wealth and longevity.
While this affects our physical health in many ways, the author wants to focus on its impact on relationships. This is where, screen technologies more specifically, have done the most damage. As humans, we are wired to be recognized by another face. Often times this crucial exchange of glances is being robbed by a screen or another device that cries for our attention. In short, the dominance of technology in our lives is empoverishing our most cherished relationships. It is even redefining intimacy.
Eloquent Critique of Techno-Capitalism
Chapter 6 dives into the underbelly of techno-capitalism and how it is shaping us into machines. That chapter is worth the book price and then some. Using compelling examples and persuasive arguments, Andy Crouch exposes how a highly transactional society sees no value in those who have little or nothing to transact with. That includes the poor, the aging, the differently-abled, and others who are considered “useless.” Instead, he proposes a society where those with little or nothing to offer should be at the center. That in turn will free us all from our slavery to usefulness.
Throughout the work, Andy delivers strong affirmations of real relationships, forged in the fire of daily living with all its beauty, repetitiveness, and conflict. This vision runs counter to the American dream of financial independence, pointing instead to the messiness of communal interdependence. He advocates for co-housing arrangements with all the inconveniences of personalities rubbing against each other in tight spaces.
In short, he calls us to robust Christian communalism in the midst of a lonely western society. His vision of Christian community, inspired in the New Testament early church, centers on the household. He defines it as small groups that transcend the nuclear family but are still small enough so that everyone is deeply seen and known. Such arrangement goes against the transactional setup of capitalistic societies and alleviates the constant financial struggle to make a living. It is both a spiritual and an economic act of resistance.
Conclusion
Andy Crouch contributes to and expands the dialogue by connecting devices to oppressive economic systems that both diminish human flourishing and propagate a magical view of technology. Through powerful analogies, relatable examples, and fluid writing, he accomplishes all that in a little less than 180 pages.
The review could end here on a positive note but I would be remiss. Unfortunately, Andy Crouch’s assessment of technology had significant gaps that significantly narrowed the scope of the problem. Because of this narrowed scope, his response also fell short by lacking a comprehensive vision to the “how shall we then live?” question. Given the daunting challenges of this technological age, our response and vision of technology must be commensurate with its complexity. This is what I will turn to in the next blog.
What can an ancient Mesoamerican culture teach the global community in the 21st century? I pondered on these question on my 2.5+ hours bus ride between Cancun and the Chichen Itza’s ruins. With no pretensions or pressure to come up with something, the trip would prove thought-provoking and inspiring. In this blog, I’ll share my findings and a bit about how I ended up there two weeks ago. While being a sucker for exploring new cultures, what I found here went beyond the usual history lesson. With their rich history, delicious cuisine, advanced technology, the Maya surprised me while also challenging me to care for this earth.
An Invitation to a Journey
Like rivers flowing into oceans, so are the unplanned encounters of the soul in unexpected journeys of discovery. I didn’t set out to the Yucatan peninsula in a quest to learn about the Mayas. Quite the contrary, I was there to rest and celebrate with my wife our 20th anniversary. Away from kids, work, and the many demands of our life at this stage, we yearned for the gentle soothing sounds of the sea.
Even so, places have a way to whisper. They often carry with them stories untold of a past waiting to be discovered. I knew some important monuments and Mayan ruins were nearby and that was enough to pique my interest. In the hotel I learned about my options, only wanting to spend a day I chose the most visited site: Chichen Itza, only a 2.5-3 hour drive from the area we were staying.
My wife, seeking to avoid the crowds and rest up for a day, decided to stay while encouraging me to go. Being one day away from each halfway through our stay sounded like a good compromise from the wisdom of 20 years of marriage. In an interesting twist, when learning I was from Brazil, the hotel agent booked me with a Portuguese-speaking guide. I would join Brazilians and Portuguese natives who were also discovering this Mayan Jewel.
Mayan Zodiac Circle – by Wikimedia commons
Re-enchanting the World through Native cultures
Modernity’s move toward secular science has borne out many achievements. Even so, it also resulted in tremendous loss. For one, people in the West lost their sense of connection with nature and with it also their reverence and respect for it. Nature went from an object of worship to raw material to be exploited. The call to subdue earth meant more than taming nature but ultimately came to justify a massive amount of destruction, pollution, and degradation.
Hence, it is no surprise that westerners like me would have a renewed interest in pre-Modern cultures like the Mayas. They point us to a time when connection and reverence to nature were the order of the day. Rejecting prevalent attitudes that would either see it as a competing religion or dismiss it as primitive superstition, we can now look at Mayans with a humble attitude to listen. What does their story of advancement, exuberance, warfare, and decline teach us today as we live in our age of environmental crisis? It is with this posture, that I approach and reflect on my recent visit to Chichen Itza.
The STEM side of the Maya
As I rode the bus on the way to Chichen Itza, I was bracing for a real-life history lesson. What I did not expect was a math class early morning on my 3rd day of vacation! Yet, since we had a long drive there, our guide Mauricio Dzul, proceeded to explain the very elaborate yet elegant numbering system the Mayas created. Using only dots, dashes, and a shell-like symbol they can represent any number! I must say that my curious mind was intrigued and made me wonder, shouldn’t we teach this more as a way to diversify teaching mathematics? I might teach it to my kids just for fun.
From Wikimedia Commons
Why did they develop their number system? While there may be other reasons, The Maya people were astute observers of the skies. They used the movement of the Sun, Moon and Venus to devise the most elaborate calendar system in the world. In this calendar, they counted time that went back thousands of years and needed a way to express these long dates. It was a misunderstanding of this calendar that led to the paranoia with the 2012 date. That was not a good use of Maya technology!
From Wikimedia commons
Their historical witness challenges us to look up and consider the stars anew with keen curiosity and reverence. Their astronomy did not only lead to a number system but also greatly influenced their engineering. The Yucatan peninsula is dotted with the remains of buildings oriented towards the movements of the Sun and Moon. They continue to attract thousands to witness intriguing light patterns on Solistice dates. In my visit to Chichen Itza, our guide showed how when clapping from designated place we could hear multiple echoes and even the sound of a bird.
Mysterious Abandoments
Since my visit, I have become obsessed with all things Maya and their technology. Browsing materials on it and now listening to a course on their history, I learned of the vastness and richness of the field. Mayan studies continue to expand as many ruins are yet to be discovered and properly understood. In this thriving field, one of the most daunting questions has been the cities’ abandonment. By the time the Spanish arrived, many of the great Mayan cities were already ruins covered by the rainforest.
I asked our knowledgeable guide about this. While there was warfare involved, in many cases, the population simply left migrating to other cities or smaller settlements in the forest. He indicated that it was most likely because of weather changes, some of which may have been precipitated by agricultural practices to feed growing populations in the region. Changes in rain patterns disrupted harvest yields leading to political instability and warfare.
If this is indeed the case, then the Maya story through technology also offers a cautionary tale for our time. It re-inforces the message scientists have been warning us about in the last decades on climate change. We must revisit our way of life and how we sustain our growing populations or see our big skyscrapers become ruins overtaken by forest.
Conclusion
Contrary to what it seems, I don’t purposefully look for reasons to blog on my vacation. Yet, they occur from time to time. All it takes is a willingness to enter into the story of a place. Even in a digitally connected world, physical spaces matter. We sit on land that was re-settled by many before us. They, in turn, lived in ecosystems that took millions of years to form. Attending to the story of both the land we inhabit and the people that lived before us is our duty and call for this time.
I cannot see a more theological task than this. If we believe in a timeless God who created the earth, surely we must learn to hear God’s voice in the ground we step on and the cultures that preceded us. If we slow down to listen, we’ll be amazed at the wisdom that surfaces. These are the very whispers of God speaking truth through time and space.
With that posture, I am grateful for the Mayans and their land which I had the privilege to visit. In my time of rest and recreation, I also found new nuggets of wisdom to take along the journey.
Which story is the place you live in telling you? If you haven’t pondered on this question maybe now it is time to start searching.
A while back, I noticed “Don’t Look Up” at the top of the Netflix rankings. Considering the star-studded cast, I was excited to watch the comedy with my wife. I could not have been more disappointed. The long-winded satire missed many opportunities only accomplishing in repeating Hollywood caricature images of the last president and his supporters. With that said, this is not the first movie that I did not like. What surprised me, however, and made me open an exception to write about a movie I disliked was the passionate reaction I was getting from my lone FB comment. More importantly, what struck me was how many respondents saw it as a good metaphor for the climate change crisis.
In this blog, I would contend the exact opposite: the movie did a great disservice for raising awareness and affecting environmental change. It did so, not just because of its flat jokes but because it framed the issue wrongly, only serving to confirm the prejudices against Hollywood activism – namely, that it is shallow, misguided, and most often, ineffective. In short, ‘Don’t Look Up’ misses the point on Climate Change.
Before you tune out thinking you were trapped into reading a climate denier diatribe, let me introduce myself. I have written before here about the importance of making the environment our top priority. My commitment goes beyond writing. Our household composts nearly 80-90% of our non-animal food waste goes back to the earth. I drive a Plug-in Hybrid and solar panels will soon be placed in our rooftops.
I don’t say this to brag but only to make a point that there can be disagreement even within those who support the bold climate change action. This is not a binary world and I hope by now you can slow down and read what I have to say. I write this not because I don’t care about climate change but precisely because I do.
Trailer from Youtube
Framing the Issue Wrongly
Now that we got our introductions out of the way let me introduce the central point here. To use an analogy of a cataclysmic disaster 6 months from now to convince people about climate change misses the mark because it reduces it to a one-time event. This is hardly what is happening. Our climate crisis is not a premonition for an upcoming doomsday. Instead, it is a complex and gradual problem which ramifications we hardly understand. It does not mean it is not serious, just that real change requires long-term planning and commitment.
If anything, the movie exposed America’s inability to inspire grand ideas and engage in long-term plans. The problem with climate denial is not just that it ignores the facts but also that it demonstrates fatally selfish short-termism. We are simply unable to think beyond a 4-year election cycle or even the next year. Instead of working towards long-term plans we instead try to reduce the problem into one cataclysmic event through cheap comedy that only feeds into political polarization.
What about urgency? It is true that the window is closing for us to meet UN temperature increase goals. In that sense, there is a parallel with an impending disaster. With that said, while the urgency is real, addressing it is a lot more complex than shooting a meteor off-course. Hence, my concern is sounding a general alarm and labeling anyone who ignores it as an idiot is not very productive.
Top-down vs Grassroots Change
According to ‘Don’t Look Up’, while climate denial is a generalized problem, it is particularly acute among Silicon Valley and the political elite. They take a light jab at the media which is rather ironic, given who is talking. It also critiques recent billionaires’ efforts to reach space as a glorified act of escapism.
Not to say that their criticism here is unwarranted. I must admit that Meryl Streep as a Trump-like character had its funny moments. The memory of last year’s stupidity and cruel incompetence is still vivid. Almost too real to even be funny. The Tech Tycon character also had its moment, constantly looking for ways to profit from earth’s misfortunes. This is not too far from Big Tech’s mentality of technologizing their way out of any problem. That is, they are constantly seeking to fit a technological hammer to problems that require a scalpel.
Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash
With that said, the movie again misses the point. The change we need to address climate change must start at the grassroots and then makes its way to the top. If we continue to look at the centers of power for solutions, we will be in bad shape. Elon Musk made the electric car cool. That is progress but it is a bit disheartening that it took sleek design and neighbor envy to get people interested in this technology. An electric future powered by Tesla may be better than the one offered by other carmakers but that is still short of the change we need.
As long as American suburbs lie undisturbed with their gigantic SUVs spewing pollution in school car lines, we have a long way to go. The change needed is cultural. We need something that goes deeper than “scaring people” into doing good things. We need instead to articulate an attractive vision that will compel large segments of society to commit to sustained, long-term change.
Conclusion
You may say that I am taking this movie too seriously. Comedies are not meant to be political manifestos and will often get a pass in how they accomplish their goals. That may very well be the case. My goal here is not to change your mind in regards to the movie but instead to use this cultural phenomenon as a way to open up a wider conversation about our current predicament.
While our environmental crisis is dire, we need a bigger vision of flourishing to address it. It is not about an impending doom but a warning that we need to change our relationship with our planet. Instead of focusing on those who cannot see it yet, why not show them a vision of flourishing for the planet that they can get behind?
The work for the flourishing of all life requires a long-range view so we can engage in the hard work needed ahead of us. If all this movie does is to bring the conversation back to this issue, then that’s progress. In that sense, ‘Don’t Look Up’ may not be a complete loss on the cause to address climate change. Even if it misses the point, it hopefully makes people think.
The automobile industry is about to experience transformative disruption as traditional carmakers respond to the Tesla challenge. The battle is not just about whether to go from combustion to electric but it extends the whole concept of motorized mobility. E-bikes, car-sharing, and autonomous driving are displacing the centrality of cars as not just a means of transportation but also a source of status and identity. The chip shortage also demonstrated the growing reliance on computers, exposing the limits of growth as cars become more and more computerized. In this world of uncertainties, could Knight Rider shed some light on the future of autonomous cars?
As a kid, I dreamed of having a (Knight Industries Two Thousand) KITT, a car that would work on my voice command. Little did I know that many of the traits in the show are now, nearly 40 years later, becoming a reality. To be sure, the show did not age well in some aspects (David Haselhoff sense of fashion for one and the tendency to show men’s bare hairy chest). Yet, on the car tech, they actually hit a few home runs. In this blog, I want to outline some traits that came up in the show that turned out to be well aligned with the direction of car development today.
Lone Ranger Riding a Dark Horse
Before proceeding, let me give you a quick intro to Knight Rider‘s plot. This 1980’s series revolves around the relationship between Michael, the lone ranger type out to save the world and his car KITT. The car, a supped-up version of a Pontiac Trans Am, is an AI-equipped vehicle that can self-drive, talk back to its driver, search databases, remotely unlock doors, and much more.
In the intro episode, we learned that Michael got a second chance in life. After being shot in the face by criminals, he undergoes plastic surgery and receives a new identity. Furthermore, a wealthy man bequeaths him the supercar along with the help of the team that built it to provide support. At his death bed, the wealthy magnate tells Michael the truth that will drive his existence: “One man can make a difference.”
Taken from Wikipedia
Yes, the show does suffer from an excess of testosterone and a royal lack of melanin.
Yet, I contend that Michael is not the main character of the show. KITT, the thinking car steals the show with wit and humor. The interaction between the two is what makes an average sci-fi flick into a blockbuster success. You can’t help but fall in love with the car.
Knight Rider Autonomous Car Predictions
Auto-pilot – this is the precursor of autonomous driving. While systems to keep speed constant has been common for decades, true autonomous driving is a recent advance. This is now an option for new Tesla models (albeit at a hefty $10K additional) and also partially present in other models such as auto parking, lane detection and automatic braking. This feature was not hard to predict. Maybe the surprise here is not that it happened but how long it took to happen. I suspect large auto-makers got a little cozy with innovation as they sold expensive gas-guzlers for most of the 90’s and early 00’s. It took an outsider to force them back into research.
Detecting drivers’ emotions – At one point in the debut episode, KITT informs Michael that his emotional state is altered and he might want to calm down. Michael responds angry that the car would talk back to him. While this makes for a funny bit it is also a good prediction of some recent facial recognition work using AI. Using a driver’s facial experession alone is sufficient to assertain the indivudal’s emotional state. There is a lot of controversy on this one but the show deserves credit for its foresight. Maybe a car that tells you to “calm down” may be coming your way in the next few years.
Image extraction from Coded Bias
Remote manipulation of electronic devices – This is probably the most far-sighted trait in the show. Even this day it is difficult to imagine automated cars that can interact with the world beyond its chassis. Yet, this is also in the realm of possibility. Emerging Internet of Things (IOT) technology will make this a reality. The idea is that devices, appliances and even buildings can be connected through the Internet and operate algorithms in them. It envisions a world where intelligence is not limited to living beings or phones but all objects.
Conclusion
Science Fiction works capture the imagination of the time they are written. They are never 100% accurate but sometimes can be surprisingly predictive. Show creators did not envision a future of flat screens and slick dashboard designs as we have today. On the other hand, they envisioned aspects of IOT and emotional AI that we unimaginable at the time. In this case, besides being entertainment, they also help create a vision of a future to come.
from Wikipedia.com
Reflecting on this 40 year-old show made me wonder about current Sci-fi and their own visions of what is to come. How will coming generations look back at our present visions of their time? Will we reveal our gross blind spots like Knigth Rider while male individualism? Will we inspire future technology such as IOT?
This only highlights the importance of imagination in history making. We build a future now inspired by our contemporary dreams . Hence, it is time we start asking more questions about our pictures of the future. How much to they reflect our time and how much do they challenge us to become better humans? Even more importantly, do they promote the flourishing of life or an alternative cyber-punk society? Wherther it Knight Rider depiction of autonomous cars orOxygen‘s view of cryogenics, they reflect a vision of a future captured at historical time.
The book Cybertheology: Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet (Fordham University Press 2014) by the prominent Vatican theologian Antonio Spadaro SJ, represents an explicit attempt to conceptualize an encounter between Christian theology and contemporary digital culture. It tries to answer questions related not only to the impact of the internet on the church’s self-understanding but also reflects on God’s revelation, grace, liturgy, sacraments, and many other theological topics. Hence, Spadaro’s book serves as a brief but lucid introduction to a whole range of questions emerging in the Internet era.
Defining Cybertheology
From his perspective, the Internet is not a tool to be used. Rather, it is a genuine environment for contemporaries to inhabit as much as they do in the physical landscapes of this world. We would be mistaken if we conceive the Internet just as a kind of parallel reality because it permeates the complex of human dwelling. It is “an anthropological space that is deeply intertwined with our everyday lives.”[1] As such, it represents a new culture – the culture of cyberspace,[2] and in relation to that fact, theology entering the coordinates of this culture becomes Cybertheology.
At the beginning of the 21st century, many authors attempted to define Cybertheology. Some understood it as a theology of new technologies. Others saw it as the study of spirituality appearing within the internet environment. Spadaro’s aim is to reframe these first attempts and offer his own alternative definition: “It is necessary to consider cybertheology as being the intelligence of the faith in the era of the Internet, that is, reflection on the thinkability of the faith in the light of the Web’s logic.”[3] Cybertheology reflects on faith lived “at a time when the Web’s logic marks the way of thinking, knowing, communicating, and living.”[4]
This is an important characteristic because in this sense it would not be appropriate to define cybertheology only as a kind of contextual theology since the internet is a phenomenon that became an integral part of everyday human life, at least for the majority of people living on planet Earth. Cybertheology could be understood as mediation between God’s word (Logos) and digital culture and for Spadaro, it appears as one of the most important vocations for contemporary Christians.[5] Consequently, cyberspace is a new anthropological space, where Christians encode and de-code their digital witnesses about their faith and hope they have in Jesus Christ (cf. 1. Peter 3,15). It is a new eco-system (or extension of the physical eco-system) where theology is done and thought.
Two ecclesiological relevant topics may be mentioned here to illustrate this. The first one is connectivity, which introduces the Church as a connective environment, i.e., as a communication hub allowing for multiple encounters of people among themselves, with the rest of creation, and with God the Creator. In this relation, the Church can become a connective authority or a kind of Google for the realm of spiritual life.[6] In other words, just as Google enables its users to find what they search for, Church enables people to find and encounter God.
The second example is relationality itself, which receives new meanings in the environment of the internet. Just think of how often we are preoccupied with deciding if our meetings will happen online or offline. According to Spadaro, the Church may understand itself as a network and derive new impulses from the very conception of the internet for the sake of its own self-reflection. This kind of theology does not only react to new trends or technologies. At the same time, it is influenced by them and starts to live inside a milieu shaped by them.
With that said, Spadaro is rather critical to living a Christian life exclusively in the realm of cyberspace. In consonance with his own denomination, he still holds that physical community is essential and indispensable for a genuine Christian life from faith. With respect to this, he argues against tendencies like virtual sacraments received by avatars in cyberspace, which are supposed to mediate grace to physical persons of whom they are extensions.
Teilhard de Chardin’s Noosphere
Even though he holds that from a Christian point of view it is not possible to accept the concept of purely virtual sacraments, he concludes that thanks to God’s grace, religious experience is principally possible also in cyberspace.[7] In any case, it might be said that for Spadaro, the age of the Internet introduces a new and specific phase of the human journey towards God, which requires complex theological reflection stemming from deep immersion in digital culture. Spadaro writes:
Today, one thinks, and one knows the world not only in the traditional manner, through reading and exchange or within the confines of special interest groups (for example, teaching or study groups), but through realizing a vast connection between people. Intelligence is distributed everywhere, and it can be easily interconnected. The Web gives life to a form of collective intelligence. The Church itself recognizes that it has a responsible role in the formation of a human collective culture.[8]
Here, Spadaro connects to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who he considers a prophetic theological voice, because Teilhard thought that the development of human culture is directed towards ever more intensive interconnection (complexification), that is into the global network which would be in future the environment for life.
While for philosopher Pierre Levy, the global environment implies the subordination of the individual to the whole, Teilhard turns this conviction upside down and speaks of an individual mind. In the milieu of the intensive, global interconnection, this individual mind is lifted into a higher level of being, into the level of the noosphere. In the sphere of reason, the new intensification of human interconnectedness (including their minds and consciousnesses) occurs.
The interesting fact is that according to Teilhard, machines play an important role in this process,[9] because they help with interconnecting intelligent entities and contribute to the genesis of “the technological, planetary nervous system.”[10] Restlessly complexified, the techno-human network of the world (noosphere) remains evolutionarily connected to the biosphere as well as an ancient lithosphere. This continuously opens up (more and more) to its own transcendence (even more intensive integration and interconnectedness) reaching its final climax in the Omega point – the end of history, in salvation, which comes through Jesus Christ as the very basis of all evolution.
Through Jesus Christ, with Him and in Him, the whole process of evolution is brought towards completion, towards God, who shall be “all in all” (1. Corinthians 15, 28). This final unity, however, does not mean the vanishing of the particular in universal. On the contrary, it becomes preservation of the particularity of all parts and may be compared to a firmly woven net of distinctive beings imbued by God in whom, all particularities meet their unity in diversity because He is all in all. This was clear already to Jennifer Cobb who at the beginning of the 1990s, saw in cyberspace a clear parallel to Teilhard’s noosphere.[11]
We may conclude that in his book, Spadaro shows how theology may help in the contemporary quest for re-thinking new technologies and changes they bring along. In this attempt, he finds the theology of Teilhard extremely inspiring, even though he is aware of all its ambiguities.[12] Spadaro thinks the most important is Teilhard’s emphasis on proposing “an open vision of transcendence that is able to understand an intelligence that is not collective but convergent.”[13]Consequently, we can understand digital culture as a specific phase of the human journey towards God, and, thanks to that, it is also legitimate to think about the internet, in theological terms, as an integral part of the divine milieu.
Cybertheology in COVID Times
Spadaro formulated his ideas (in Italian) already a decade ago. The English translation of his book appeared 7 years ago. At that time Spadaro could have hardly imagined that the theological reflection he proposed will become so important in times of the global pandemic of the Covid-19. Within a very short period, an unprecedented amount of people throughout the world found themselves in social isolation.
Consequently, the vast amount of human social activities was quickly transferred to online mode (or environment as Spadaro would probably say). Including education and religious life. With brute force, the Covid-19 pandemic pointed out the key role of new technologies in the lives of contemporaries, religious people not excluded. Debates on how to be the Church in the digital age intensified in all Christian denominations, and this requires a conscientious theological reflection.
In such context, the return to Spadaro’s 2014 Cybertheology book becomes even more pertinent. The things he envisioned then as faint glimpses of the future became our de facto reality when houses of worship were forced to close. Shifting a faith paradigm from attracting people to people buildings to developing intelligent forms in cyberspace is a good start.
František Štěch is a research fellow at the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University. He serves as coordinator of the “Theology & Contemporary Culture” research group. Previously he worked at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University as a research fellow and project PI. His professional interests include Fundamental theology; Ecclesiology; Youth theology; Religious, and Christian identity; Intercultural theology; Public Theology; Theology of Religions; Landscape & Theology.
[1] Antonio SPADARO (2014), Cybertheology: Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet. (Translated by Maria Way), New York: Fordham University Press, p. 3.
[6] See FRIESEN, Dwight, J. Thy Kingdom Connected: What the Church Can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other Networks, 2009, Grand Rapids (MI): Baker Books, p. 80-81.
Sci-Fi authors are the visionaries of our time, those who can see where society is going and imagine future scenarios that inspire us to live a better present. While their books introduce their ideas to the public, their cinematic expressions are what bring them to life. This review claims that the Chinese blockbuster Wandering Earth does that to Cixin Liu’s writing of apocalyptic hope. The movie is not just entertainment but pertinent material for theological reflection. Its message of hope and cooperation, similar to Edenand Oxygen, sheds light on how we can face the global challenge to avoid climate catastrophe.
A Daring Apocalyptic Vision
Apocalyptic comes from a Greek word that means unveiling. It is about making a hidden meaning show up in plain sight. It is also the name for an ancient type of literature that foresaw end-of-the-world scenarios. In the West, the biblical books of Daniel and Revelation are the most well-known examples of this type of writing.
Science Fiction is the contemporary version of this ancient literature. If you pay attention, most stories in this genre revolve around a moral dilemma that is resolved by the end. While they paint a future world, their implications speak directly to the present environment of the readers. In this respect, Wandering Earth is no different. The movie grapples with how humanity responds to impending doom.
The story happens in the near future where natural disasters become commonplace. A warming climate, droughts, torrential rains, hurricanes happen in higher frequency because the Sun is collapsing and inching closer to Earth. Humanity has 100 years to come up with a plan.
What is the plan? Send a few souls to space in order to start a new civilization? No. Shoot the Sun with a gigantic nuclear bazooka? Nope. How about moving the whole friggin Earth out of the Solar system? Yep, that’s the plan. How? By building enormous reactors in 10,000 places on earth, burning mountains, and sheltering 3.5 Billion people underground.
Talk about a grand plan!
The idea is to shuttle the whole planet 4.2 light-years away into a new galaxy where they can find a new sun. How long will that take? Not 100 or even 1000 years but 2,500 years to complete! Needless to say, this multi-generational project entails immense sacrifice of present generations so future descendants can simply live. The main storyline revolves around one family and their fate in this great scheme. It defines hope as the collective will to persevere for a better future.
I hope by now you can see what makes the Wandering Earth different from other epic doomsday blockbusters. As the world is facing insurmountable challenges, humanity opts for a daring long-view solution. We also see this theme in Cixin Liu’s award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem, where the planet learns of alien invaders 400 years out.
Could this be a metaphor for climate change? Maybe, but it sure is a refreshing alternative to the once-and-done happy ending prevalent in Hollywood cinematic stories. The deeper question that confronts us is not whether we have what it takes to avert an imminent disaster but do we have the generational resolve to work for long-term plans of salvation?
In this way, the millenary Chinese culture offers the long-view perspective as an alternative route to solving global intractable problems. With that said, the movie is still a blockbuster for a reason. There is no shortage of entertaining visuals and the tech is stunning. On the downside, the personal storylines could have been a bit more polished and the plot is hard to follow at times. Even so, the overall result is still an impressive accomplishment.
Screenshot from the Wandering Earth‘s movie scene
The Thousand-Year Reign
Now, let’s turn to some theological reflection. The book of Revelation in the New Testament is filled with mysterious imagery. While many throughout time have claimed to understand it, the imagery continues to elude modern readers and believers alike. As I reflected on the movie, I wondered how would a long view of redemption interact with the Biblical story. Hence, this review probes how Wandering Earth apocalyptic hope squares with the Biblical apocalyptic literature.
At first glance and heavily influenced by dispensational theology, a reading of the last book of the NT may yield a sense of a quick succession of events. That is, the doomsday scenario will unfold in a matter of years and certainly within a generation. No place for a long view plan in this perspective.
However, the text may not lend itself to these certainties. Any text built on imagery is wide open for interpretation. Hence, when John the Revelator talks about 3 1/2 years, these may not be literal years. Furthermore, chapter 20 introduces the idea of the Millenial reign. This is a period of peace where the faithful reign with God as our ultimate enemy is imprisoned and unable to thwart our plans.
This is not to say that the Bible suggests a millenary plan to move earth across galaxies. The idea is more of a dramatic liberation followed by a long period of peace. With that said, the millennial reign does open the way for a human-divine partnership in the service of earth stewardship. In this way, the 1,000 years, literal or not, provides a nod to a long view.
Screenshot from Wandering Earth Movie
Re-Considering Wandering Earth‘s Long View
At the end of the day, movies like Wandering Earth are meant primarily to entertain us with fantastic visuals and unexpected plot twists. Hence, I don’t claim to speak for the author or movie director. However, there is enough there to give us reason to ponder. In an age where multiple sources fight for our attention in a split second of a finger scroll, it is wise to expand our time horizons. An inordinate focus on the immediate crisis can rob us of the hope and resolve to build a sustainable future for the generations to come. If for nothing else, the movie is worth your time for that alone.
Furthermore, the interaction with the long view also allowed me to re-think the meaning of millenary biblical texts. While Christian theology continues to over-emphasize an imminent redemption through Christ’s return, we do well to take a pause and consider a longer time horizon. If anything, followers of Christ have been anticipating a return for over 2,000 years. Could it be that we missed something about how this is to unfold? As we grapple with these questions, it is wise to engage Eastern voices offering alternative perspectives. As this review stated earlier, Wandering Earth apocalyptic hope can help us better understand a Christian view of the future as well.
