Technology in the Kingdom, Society, and Your Life

Technology in the Kingdom, Society, and Your Life
John Charles Dickey Dyer

You Might Be Addicted to Your Phone If…

Hi, I’m John Dyer

What I Do

What I Make

Interruptions every 3 minutes
Creativity takes at least 8 minutes

I worry that the level of interrupt, the sort of overwhelming rapidity of information — and especially of stressful information — is in fact affecting cognition. It is in fact affecting deeper thinking. I still believe that sitting down and reading a book is the best way to really learn something. And I worry that we’re losing that.
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

Yikes!
Technological Pace
??
1850
1650
2000
1950

excited, but confused

Technology in The Biblical Story

Cain built a city… his son Jubal was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe … he was the forger of all tools of bronze and iron (Gen 4:17-22)

Technology in the Biblical Narrative
Positive
Negative
Reflection
How does this technology display the imago deiand fulfill the cultivation mandate?
Rebellion
How does this technology attempt to live apart from dependence on God?
Restoration
What unintended consequences or shortcomings does this technology bring (until Christ returns)?
Redemption
What effects of the Fall can this technology help overcome? Can it help build the kingdom?

What happens when we start using a new technology?

Categories for Technology
Good uses
Bad uses
Tools = Neutral
“It’s just how you use it”

Money: Good, Bad, or Neutral?
Good: the Church, family
Bad: materialism, hoarding
Lots of money
Little money
Lots of choices

Cars: Good or Bad?
Good: going to church
Bad: run over murder
Other Effects
Interstate highways
Gas stations
Kills more people per month than 9/11
Mega churches

iPhone: Good or Bad?
Good: call your child, spouse
Bad: sexting, bomb threats
Other Effects
Constantly accessible (work & relationships)
Know fewer numbers (mind is transformed)

We shape technology, and technology shapes us.

Embedded in technology is tiny story.

Technology always presents trade-offs.

Technology is ecological, not additive.

Technology tends to disappear.

Technology values ends, not processes.

Family
Work
Leisure
Technology moves the boundaries.

Entertainment
Work
Relationships
Technology moves the boundaries.

How Then Shall We Live?

Believe the commercials.

Necessity is often not the mother of invention. In many cases, it surely has been just the opposite.
- David Nye
Question the commercials.

Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
2 John 1:12
Start with your values…

… then question the values of technology.

What kind of person do I want to be?

Have a plan.

Adopt technology in community.

Create space with boundaries.

Embrace limits.

Heighten meaning with old things.

Experiment.

Thanks!
Email: johndyer@gmail.com
Twitter: twitter.com/johndyer
Code: johndyer.name
Theo/Tech: donteatthefruit.com

Technology in the Kingdom, Society, and Your Life

by John Dyer on Feb 19, 2010

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