In reviews, I provide reflections on movies, music, and books. These musings often lead to thought-provoking insights that encompass spirituality, technology, and humanity.
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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.
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.
What do you do when your computer can’t recognize your face? In a previous blog, we explored the potential applications for emotional AI. At the heart of this technology is the ability to recognize faces. Facial recognition is gaining widespread attention for its hidden dangers. This Coded Bias short review summarizes the story of female researchers who opened the black box of major applications that use FR. What they found is a warning to all of us making Coded Bias a bold call for algorithmic justice.
Official Trailer
Coded Bias Short Review: Exposing the Inaccuracies of Facial Recognition
The secret is out, FR algorithms are a lot better at recognizing white male faces than of any other group. The difference is not trivial. Joy Buolamwini, MIT researcher and main character in the film, found that dark-skinned women were miss-classified up to 35% of the time compared to less than 1% for male white faces! Error rates of this level can have life-altering consequences when used in policing, judicial decisions, or surveillance applications.
Screen Capture
It all started when Joy was looking for facial recognition software to recognize her face for an art project. She would have to put a white mask on in order to be detected by the camera. This initial experience led her down to a new path of research. If she was experiencing this problem, who else and how would this be impacting others that looked like her. Eventually, she stumbled upon the work of Kathy O’Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction: How How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, discovering the world of Algorithmic activism already underway.
The documentary weaves in multiple cases where FR misclassification is having a devastating impact on people’s lives. Unfortunately, the burden is falling mostly on the poor and people of color. From an apartment complex in Brooklyn, the streets of London, and a school district in Houston, local activists are mobilizing political energy to expose the downsides of FR. In doing so, Netflix Coded Bias shows not only the problem but also sheds light on the growing movement that arose to correct it. In that, we can find hope.
If this wasn’t clear before, here it is: watch the documentary Coded Bias multiple times. This one is worth your time.
The Call for Algorithmic Justice
The fight for equality in the 21st century will be centered on algorithmic justice. What does that mean? Algorithms are fast becoming embedded in growing areas of decision-making. From movie recommendations to hiring, cute apps to judicial decisions, self-driving cars to who gets to rent a house, algorithms are influencing and dictating decisions.
Yet, they are only as good as the data used to train them. If that data contains present inequities and or is biased towards ruling majorities, they will inevitably disproportionately impact minorities. Hence, the fight for algorithmic justice starts with the regulation and monitoring of their results. The current lack of transparency in the process is no longer acceptable. While some corporations may intended to discriminate, their neglect of oversight makes them culpable.
Because of its ubiquitous impact, the struggle for algorithmic justice is not just the domain of data scientists and lawmakers. Instead, this is a fight that belongs to all of us. In the next blog, I’ll be going over recent efforts to regulate facial recognition. This marks the next step in Coded Bias call for algorithmic justice.
I am hesitant to watch French movies as the protagonist often dies at the end. Would this be another case of learning to love the main character only to see her die at the end? Given the movie premise, it was worth the risk. Similar to Eden, Netflix Oxygen is a powerful exploration of the intersection of hope and technology.
It is uncommon to see a French movie make it to the top charts of American audiences. Given our royal laziness, we tend to stay away from anything that has subtitles preferring more the glorified-theatrics-simplistic plots of Hollywood. The French are too sophisticated for that. For them, movies are not entertainment but an art form.
Realizing I had never watched a French Sci-Fi Thriller, maybe it was time to walk down that road. I am glad I did. The next day, I reflected on the movie’s plot after re-telling the whole story to my wife and my daughter. Following the instigating conversation that ensued, I realized there was enough material for an AI theology review.
Simple Plot of Human AI Partnership
You wake up and find yourself trapped in a capsule. You knock on the walls eventually activating an AI that informs you that you are in a cryogenic chamber. There is no way of knowing how you got there and how you can get out. You have 90 minutes before the oxygen runs out. The clock is ticking and you need to find a way to survive or simply accept your untimely death.
Slowly the main character played by Melanie Laurent, Elizabeth, discovers pieces and puzzles about who she is, why she is in the chamber and ultimately what options she has. This journey is punctuated by painful discoveries and a few close calls building the suspense through out the feature.
Her only companion throughout this ordeal is the chamber AI voice assistant, Milo. She converses, argues and pleads with him through out as she struggles to find a way to survive. The movie revolves around their unexpected partnership, as the AI is her only way to learn about her past and communicate with the outside world. The contrast between his calm monotone voice with her desperate cries further energize the movie’s dramatic effect.
In my view, the plot’s simple premise along with Melanie’s superb performance makes the movie work even as it stays centered on one life and one location the whole time.
Spoiler Alert: The next sections give away key parts of the plot.
AI Ethics, Cryogenics and Space Travel
Oxygen is the type of film that you wake up the next day thinking about it. That is, the impact is not clearly felt until later. There is so much to process that its meaning does not become clear right away. The viewer is so involved in the main character’s ordeal that you don’t have time to reflect on the major ethical, philosophical and theological issues that emerge in the story.
For example, once Elizabeth wakes up, one of the first things Milo offers her is sedatives. She refuses, preferring to be alert in her struggle for survival rather than calmly accepting her slow death. In one of the most dramatic scenes of the movie, Milo follows protocol to euthanize her as she is reaching the end of her oxygen supply. In an ironic twist that Elizabeth picks up on: the AI asks her permission for sedatives but does not consult her about the ultimate decision to end her life. While a work of fiction, this may very well be sign of things to come, as assisted suicide becomes legal in many parts of the world. Is it assisted-suicide of humane end-of-life care?
In an interesting combination, Oxygen portrays cryogenics, cloning and space travel as the ultimate solution for human survival. As humanity faced a growing host of incurable diseases they send a spaceship with thousands of clones in cryogenic chambers to find the cure in another planet. Elizabeth, as she learns mid-way, is a clone of a famous cryogenics scientist carrying her memories and DNA. This certainly raises interesting questions about the singularity of the human soul. Can it really transfer to clones or are they altogether different beings? Is memory and DNA the totality of our beings or are there transcending parts impossible to replicate in a lab?
In the end, human ingenuity prevails. Through a series of discoveries, Liz finds a way to survive. It entails asking Milo to transfer the oxygen from other cryogenic chambers into hers. Her untimely awakening was the result of an asteroid collision that affected a number of other chambers. After ensuring there were no other survivors in these damaged chambers, she asks for the oxygen transfer.
To my surprise, the movie turns out to be a colossal affirmation of life. Where the flourishing of life is, there is also theology. While having no religious content, the story shows how the love for self and others can lead us to fight for life. Liz learns that her husband’s clone is in the spaceship which gives her a reason to go on. This stays true even after she learns she herself is a clone and in effect have never met or lived with him. The memory of their life together is enough to propel her forward, overcoming insurmountable odds to stay alive.
The story also illustrates the power of augmentation, how humans enabled through technology can find innovative solutions that extend life. In that sense, the movie aligns with a Christian Transhumanist view – one that sees humans co-creating hopeful futures with the divine.
Even if God is not present explicitly, the divine seems to whisper through Milo’s reassuring voice.
Recently, my 11 year-old daughter told me she wanted to watch animes. I have watched a few and was a bit concerned about her request. While I have come to really appreciate this art form, I feared that some thematic elements would not be appropriate to her 11 year-old mind. Yet, after watching the first episode of Netflix Eden, my concerns were appeased and I invited my two oldest (11 and 9) to watch it with me. With only 4 episodes of 25 minutes each, the series make it for a great way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, beyond being suitable there was enough that for me to reflect on. In fact, captivating characters and an enchanting soundtrack moved me to tears making Netflix Eden a delightful exploration of human frailty.
Here is my review of this heart-warming, beautifully written story.
Official Trailer
A Simple but Compelling Plot
Without giving a way much, the story revolves around a simple structure. From the onset we learn that no human have lived on earth for 1,000 years. Self-sufficient robots successfully turned a polluted wasteland into a lush oasis. The first scenes show groups of robots tending and harvesting an apple orchard.
Two of these robots stumble into an unlikely finding: a human child. Preserved in a cryogenic capsule, the toddler stumbles out and wails. The robots are confused and helpless as to how to respond. They quickly identify her as a human bio-form but cannot comprehend what her crying means.
After the initial shock, the toddler turns to the robots and calls them “papa” and “mama” kicking off the story. The plot develops around the idea of two robots raising a human child in a human-less planet earth. We also learn that humans are perceived as a threat and to be surrendered to the authorities. In spite of their programming, the robots choose to hide and protect the girl.
Are Humans Essential for Life to Flourish on Earth?
Even with only 4 episodes, the anime packs quite a philosophical punch. From a theological perspective, the careful observer quickly sees why the show is named after the Biblical garden. It is an illusion to the Genesis’ story where life begins on earth yet it includes with a twist. Now Eden is lush and thriving without human interference. It is as if God is recreating earth through technological means. This echoes Francis Bacon’s vision of technology as a way to mitigate the destructive effects of the fall.
Later we learn the planet had become uninhabitable. The robot creators envisioned a solution that entailed freezing cryogenically a number of humans while the robots worked to restore earth back to its previous glory. The plan apparently works except for the wrinkle of this girl waking up before her assigned time. Just like in the original story of Eden, humans come to mess it up.
Embedded in this narrative is the provocative question of human ultimate utility for life in the planet. After all, if machines are able to manage the earth flawlessly, why introduce human error? Of course, the flip side of the question is the belief that machines in themselves are free of error. Putting that aside, the question is still valid.
Photo by Alesia Kazantceva on Unsplash
Human Frailty and Renewal
Watching the story unfold, I could not help but reflect on Dr. Dorabantu’s past post on how AI would help us see the image of God in our vulnerability. That is, learning that robots could surpass us in rationality, we would have to attribute our uniqueness not to a narrow view of intelligence but our ability to love. The anime seems to be getting at the heart of this question and it gets there by using AI. It is in the Robot’s journey to understand human’s essence that we learn about what makes us unique in creation. In this way, the robots become the mirrors that reflect our image back to us.
Another parallel here is with the biblical story of Noah. In a world destroyed by pollution and revived through technological ingenuity, the ark is no longer a boat but a capsule. Humans are preserved by pausing the aging process in their bodies, a clear nod to Transhumanism. The combination of cryogenics and advanced AI can preseve human life on earth albeit for a limited number of humans.
I left the story feeling grateful for our imperfect humanity. It is unfortunate that Christian theology in an effort to paint a perfect God have in turn made human vulnerability seem undesirable. Without denying our potential for harm and destruction, namely our sinfulness, it is time Christian theology embraces and celebrate human vulnerability as part of our Imago Dei. This way, Netflix Eden, helps put human frailty back in the conversation.
In the previous blog, we discussed how Klara, the AI and the main character of Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel, develops a religious devotion to the Sun. In the second and final installment of this book review, I explore how Klara impacts the people around her. Klara and the Sun, shows how they become better humans for interacting with her in a dystopian world.
Photo by Randy Jacob on Unsplash
Gene Inequality
Because humans are only supporting characters in this novel, we only learn about their world later in the book. The author does not give out a year but places that story in a near future. Society is sharply divided along with class and racial lines. Gene editing has become a reality and now parents can opt to have children born with the traits that will help them succeed in life.
This stark choice does not only affect the family’s fate but re-orients the way society allocates opportunities. Colleges no longer accept average kids meaning that a natural birth path puts a child at a disadvantage. Yet, this choice comes at a cost. Experimenting with genes also means a higher mortality rate for children and adolescents. That is the case for the family that purchases Klara, they have lost their first daughter and now their second one is sick.
These gene-edited children receive special education in their home remotely by specialized tutors. This turned out to be an ironic trait in a pandemic year where most children in the world learned through Zoom. They socialize through prearranged gatherings in homes. Those that are well-to-do live in gated communities, supposedly because the world had become unsafe. This is just one of the many aspects of the dystopian world of Klara and the Sun.
Photo by Andy Kelly on Unsplash
AI Companionship and Remembrance
A secondary plot-line in the novel is the relationship between the teenage Josie, Klara’s owner, and her friend Rick who is not gene-edited. The teens are coming of age in this tumultuous period where the viability of their relationship is in question. The adults discuss whether they should even be together in a society that delineates separate paths assigned at birth. One has a safe passage into college and stable jobs while the other is shut out from opportunity by the sheer fact their parents did not interfere with nature.
In this world, droids are common companions to wealthy children. Since many don’t go to school anymore, the droid plays the role of nanny, friend, guardian, and at times tutor. Even so, there is resistance to them in the public square where resentful segments of society see their presence with contempt. They represent a symbol of status for the affluent and a menace to the working class. Even so, their owners often treat them as merchandise. At best they were seen as servants and at worse as disposable toys that could be tossed around for amusement.
The novel also hints at the use of AI to extend the life of loved ones. AI remembrance, shall we say. That is, programming AI droids to take the place of a diseased human. This seems like a natural complement in a world where parents have no guarantee that their gene-edited children will live to adulthood. For some, the AI companion could live out the years their children were denied.
Klara The Therapist
In the world described above, the AF (artificial friend) plays a pivotal role in family life not just for the children that they accompany but also for the parents. In effect, because of her robotic impartiality, Klara serves as a safe confidant to Josie, Rick, her mother, and her dad. The novel includes intimate one-on-one conversations where Klara offers a fresh take on their troubles. Her gentle and unpretentious perspective prods them to do what is right even when it is hard. In this way, she also plays a moral role, reminding humans of their best instincts.
Yet, humans are not the only ones impacted. Klara also grows and matures through her interaction with them. Navigating the tensions, joys, and sorrows of human relationships, she uncovers the many layers of human emotion. Though lacking tear ducts and a beating heart, she is not a prisoner to detached rationality. She suffers with the pain of the humans around her, she cares deeply about their well-being and she is willing to sacrifice her own future to ensure they have one. In short, she is programmed to serve them not as a dutiful pet but as a caring friend. In doing so, she embodies the best of human empathy.
The reader joins Klara in her path to maturity and it is a delightful ride. As she observes and learns about the people around her, the human readers get a mirror to themselves. We see our struggles, our pettiness, our hopes and expectations reflected in this rich story. For the ones that read with an open heart, the book also offers an opportunity for transformation and growth.
Final Reflections
In an insightful series of 4 blogs, Dr. Dorabantu argues that future general AI will be hyper-rational forcing us to re-imagine the essence of who we are. Yet, Ishiguro presents an alternative hypothesis. What if instead, AI technology led to the development of empathetic servant companions? Could a machine express both rational and emotional intelligence?
Emotionally intelligent AI would help us redefine the image of God not by contrast but by reinforcement. That is, instead of simply demonstrating our limitations in rationality it could expand our potential for empathy. The novel shows how AI can act as a therapist or spiritual guide. Through empathetic dialogue, they can help us find the best of our moral senses. In short, it can help us love better.
Finally, the book raises important ethical questions about gene editing’s promises and dangers. What would it look like to live in a world where “designer babies” are commonplace? Could gene-editing combining with AI lead to the harrowing scenario where droids serve as complete replacements for humans? While Ishuguro’s future is fictitious, he speculates on technologies that already exist now. Gene editing and narrow AI are a reality while General AI is plausibly within reach.
We do well to seriously consider their impact before a small group in Silicon Valley decides how to maximize profit from them. This may be the greatest lesson we can take from Klara and the Sun and its dystopian world.
