Technology and Trajectory
The following essay was composed, according to my selection of topic, as a research project for my college composition class (ENG110) at Taylor University. I’ve edited it slightly, for its publication here. Its tone and content reflect the context and audience for which it was created (a Christian audience is presumed). Because I feel that it is an important piece of my writing, containing many of the key ideas that have captured my attention lately, I am publishing it here for public edification and enjoyment.
Technological Processes are Alive
The development of technology follows a natural trajectory. In this way, it possesses a will, with interests, objectives, and a personality. The logic of technological development does not exist in order to serve human flourishing, but according to the advancement of its own power. Because of this, the identification and challenging of certain anti-human implications of unrestrained technological development is essential. Our current use and view of technology is deeply characterized and enabled by our uncritical commitment to modernism and its ontological implications. By returning to a framework that expresses systemic issues in spiritual language, rather than conspiratorial language, Christians can better understand our current socio-political state and be equipped to oppose its destructive advancements.
My Experience with(out) the Personal Smartphone
The personal smartphone is no longer an optional technology. I would know; I tried living without one for January through March of 2022. During this time, it struck me that we do not only own technology; technology also owns us.
The deep extent of the effects resulting from existing without an iPhone were pronounced in new and enlightening ways to me throughout the three months that I lacked one. Through being without a smartphone for any significant time, effects beyond reduced capacity for efficient communication are not difficult to intuit. For my friends, social events were planned in iMessage groupchats. I was no longer invited; I never knew of the events unless explicitly told. My physical friendships suffered as my digital silence implicitly communicated to them distance. In addition to being impractical, being without smartphone communicates, “I am not one of you”, to a world deeply intertwined with such digital technologies.
In addition, some of my high school assignments and attendance records assumed my ability to scan a QR code. I was unable to complete these assignments. My friends used to exchange memes or casual conversation with me over text. They began to stop reaching out to communicate with me unless they had some immediate, practical reason to do so. It was quickly tiring for them when I would constantly request personal accommodation. “Call, no text,” I would pluck away in response to lengthy, soul-bearing paragraphs, whenever I was lucky enough to still receive one. At one point, when I was hired for an important internship, I was provided an iPhone, told that the increased efficiency of communications associated with universal iPhone ownership within the company was a necessity. If I wanted the job, I needed to use their tech. Social and business groups form and live on a mixture of physical and digital communications. At church, we give and sign up to volunteer through our app. To be a full part of a group, using their technology, communicating on their terms, is required.
Smartphone usage is a social and economic necessity for personal ascension on the central axis of status and power in the global market. Further, an individual living in a developed nation in 2022 is required to have a smartphone to live among our central culture. Any person’s access to recognized social respectability and physical resources requires the use of a smartphone. We trade on the expectation and reality that each individual has and utilizes a smartphone. Ted Kaczynski describes this same effect, using automobiles and transportation as an example:
“…the use of motorized transport is no longer optional. Since the introduction of motorized transport, the arrangement of our cities has changed in such a way that the majority of people no longer live within walking distance of their place of employment, shopping areas and recreational opportunities, so that they HAVE TO depend on the automobile for transportation,”
Further, he could add that the arrangement of communities and normal personal relationships have changed in accordance with the new possibilities of technological advancement. We, for example, rarely live in imbedded, socially interdependent communities, in which we know people who know people. Instead, we dissolve the importance of place or community as we are enabled to move across large geographical distances easily. We have individual friends, who we visit and talk to, not local communities, who we live through and with. This is the direct consequence of the social and ontological reorganizing that owes itself to technological development in the area of motor transport.
Smartphones as Exerting a Force Back unto Us
But, as we return to the example of smartphones, we are presented with a familiar problem. It is now widely recognized that smartphones do not only extend and advance our own objectives and power in the world, but they also augment and shape us. The massive success of the widely renown 2020 docudrama on this subject, The Social Dilemma, indicates our public receptivity and sensitivity towards the ways in which social media, and smart phones, exert a certain pressure and control back onto us. Still, our public conversation on subjects relating to the shaping effect of technology most typically is limited to the insecurities and addictions created by the introduction of smartphones, treading down well-worn conversational paths, such as those dealing with modern ‘mental health’ or ‘dopamine overload’. Most often, the dilemma central in the public conversation surrounding smart phones deals primarily with the individual’s use of, and relationship with, their device, and secondarily with the regulatory policy that the state, or a child’s parents, should exert with respect to these new technologies. The assumption here is clear: technology itself is morally neutral, maybe even good, and we are simply responsible for more intentional and appropriate use. If only it were that simple.
Technology is not Morally Neutral
Contrary to the key assumptions underlying the common modern discourse on our misuse of digital technology and social media, technology is not actually morally neutral. Technology follows a natural trajectory, and it possesses a will and personality. To illustrate what I mean by this, consider the more primitive technology of writing. A discussion of Socrates was recorded in 370 BC, in which the famed philosopher argued that writing, the written word, dissolved the necessity, and therefore strength and integral role, of memory, community, interpersonal discourse, and a life marked by truths not only expressed, but lived (Britannica). In our current age, we trade on the reality that writing will be done. Every institution requires and expects writing, there is no living argument as to the merits of writing. The world of writing has largely swallowed the world of oratory, narrative, and spoken tradition.
Our assumption as to writing’s goodness may not actually be a response to Socrates’ arguments, but instead be a result of writing’s greater staying power and accessibility. Writing lasts forever, as long as there are those to read it. Speaking dies as soon as it leaves the lips, unless its contents are embodied, understood, and again spoken. Writing can be printed, replicated, and spread widely. We can reread things that we don’t understand. Speaking requires long form, personal attention, and patient care to understand. Basically, writing as a means of communicating is more powerful than the spoken word; writing can be disseminated more efficiently. We did not choose writing, as the best means of widespread communication, writing chose us. Those who choose to attach themselves to the trajectory of writing will, in turn, move farther than those who do not, and are advancing writing’s cause, in doing so. In this way, we are possessed by the spirit of writing.
All technology acts in the manor that writing does here. Technology is integrated as it is immediately advantageous to us, as far as it multiplies our efficiencies. The reason that we accept smartphones as a necessary and good part of our daily lives may not be that we have conclusively and finally determined that they are, but instead that, for each of us as individuals, they are convenient and lend themselves to our efficiency.
Systems of Power and their Sprawling Effects
In the information age, the reason that certain dispositions and consensuses gain social credence and the status of cultural orthodoxy may not be that they are so resolved or settled, but instead that common likeness of belief and practice lends itself to efficiency, coherency, and public order. The system of universalizing consensus by extension of power is touched on, in relation to our concept of global health, by academics Clara Affun-Adegbulu and Opemiposi Adegbulu. In Decolonising Global (Public) Health: from Western universalism to Global pluriversalities, the authors argue that even the conception of public health, and modern medical science as universally good, is more dependent on the power and social import of this system, rather than the actual goodness or relevancy of the methods. In simpler terms, they see the Western man imposing his values on those living in the global south as he outstretches his hand in charity, “Don’t you want this new vaccine?”. Of course, the adopters of the technological capabilities of the West will outlive, outpower (in an informational and digital banking age in which central power still belongs to the systemic global West), and outdo in popularity, those who cling to traditional or internally produced solutions. The vaccines (usually) work, but that doesn’t mean that they are morally better than traditional African medicine, as they make less-wealthy cultures dependent, jealously sensing their own inferiority in a locality that was once their own.
Global public health is just another example of the same principal. What we will find is that this same principal plays out at every layer of reality, in our modern world. Greater capability means, in time, the technology will work to bypasses moral concern. It is often the case that power has its way, not because it is good, but because it has greater power to convince us of its goodness. Further, in a global society, we see a sort of technological arms race, it is not only individuals reluctant to adopt technology that get left behind. Likewise, nations and cultures must adopt the practices and technologies of the times or become destitute (Kovarsky). International trade, along with the international cultural exchange and heighted demand for imported or non-local goods created by the widespread distribution of digital and information technology, has served to create a sort of global socio-cultural-economic hegemony. This is what is most often described as neo-colonialism, the subversive and systemic cultural conquering of localities and bordered peoples. Want to take a child (and a generation), spiritually, from their family, place, and culture? Give them access to the internet. The power of international sanctions and global military operations contribute to this process, as political regimes are not only accountable to local resistance, but also the international state of consensus, determined by the principles of power manifested in powerholders.
Theology of Power as an Alternative to Conspiratorial Thinking
As Bruce Rogers-Vaughn of Vanderbilt Divinity-School describes in his article Powers and Principalities: Initial Reflections toward a Post-Capitalist Pastoral Theology, global economic principles may dictate the direction of cultures and social entities, at a higher and more systemic level than individuals or collectives. Many conservative Christians who are rightfully weary of, what they have labeled, “globalism”, are quick to point to specific powerful individuals as responsible for coordination. Not uncommonly, actual accusations of demonic ritual abuse accompany these claims. No doubt, Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, and Mark Zuckerburg have had their fair share of scrutiny as prophetically inclined Christians are quick to point to troubling soundbites along with their unique positions of power. They are, however, both missing the more foundational motivating principality, and in doing so, compromising the import of their rightly intuited narrative. It is actually the case that Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, and Mark Zuckerburg were, and continue to be, empowered by a global economic system in which their approaches, methods, and politics are necessarily favored. The moment that figureheads stop acting in the interests of the global socio-cultural-economic system (affectionately nicknamed “The Machine” by Paul Kingsnorth) they are fired or removed from power. This very process happened to Steve Jobs, who was dismissed as CEO despite being the founder of Apple, as Apple is a publicly traded company, accountable to shareholders (or rather, the principal of the shareholder, the capital investor).
Because capitalism requires infinite economic growth in the future to ensure the stability of investments in the present (Zuboff), greater production and consumption is thrust upon people, as they learn to want and need these new goods, not because persons and cultures exist more meaningfully as a result of this production, but because the system commands it so. This is, again, to reiterate the primacy of that which British author Paul Kingsnorth has dubbed “The Machine”, over individuals.
Orthodox Christian icon carver Jonathan Pageau argues that this is what is meant by Saint Paul in Ephesians, where it is written,
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (KJV Bible, Ephesians 6:12).
Alternative to Conspiratorial Language: Premodern Spiritual Language as a faithful Descriptive and Combative Technique
To think in terms of global systems is, according to Pageau, to think in terms of premodern, spiritual language. This is also, according to Pageau, what is meant in the symbolism of the body of Christ. The church is an actor, the flesh and matter, animated by the spirit and will of Christ, who is the uniting and motivating spirit.
The process of The Machine, driven by this principality, could then be rightfully described as demonic, though not necessarily because of hidden, explicit secret ritual abuse. Pageau, in an interview with John Vervaeke, describes demonic entities as such,
“To understand demonology is to understand that evil is transpersonal, it has a kind of parasitic intelligence. You can recognize it, name it and see the pattern, and you can notice it when it embodies itself. And you can see that most of us will give up to some ‘demon’ sometimes (I get angry, etc.), but then sometimes some people get completely ‘taken over’ by a parasitic pattern and possessed”, (Pageau).
In this vein, Pageau, Vervaeke, and Kingsnorth would liken The Machine to the great demon of our time. However, when conspiracy theorists, inhabiting a modernist world with an according descriptive language, cling to their sometimes-outlandish narratives and far-fetched accusations, they actually diminish the content of their prophetic witness and message, properly directed at The Machine. A few people believe their claims, usually by intuitive and not inductive logical process, and accordingly they find sufficient evidence to be convincing (as Tim Keller says, “What the heart trusts, the mind justifies, the emotions desire, and the will carries out”). But the warning is diminished in the minds of the popular public when believable answers are given to outlandish accusations.
For this reason, it may even be assumed that the elevation and increased attention allocated to conspiratorial narratives, as something to disprove, mock, marginalize and deride, is a useful and beneficial aspect of the machine’s program. This perverse motivation may accurately explain the mysterious behavior of organizations like the World Economic Forem, World Government Summit, and even the United Nations, who continue to publish deliberately conspiracy-baiting and exaggerated materials, in public view. On YouTube, for example, the public comment section is rarely disabled on these types of videos, with futurisitc and dystopian style graphics and language, despite the overwhelmingly negative response. In a more systemic sense, the objectives of these organizations may benefit from the contained moral panic that they stir up.
The Limited Value and Purview of Efficiency and Material Prosperity
At this point in the paper, I hope to have thoroughly demonstrated the manner in which technology possesses a natural trajectory, will, and spirit, driven by the gods (or idols, principalities, forces, telos, etc.) of efficiency and power. As so far as the power, the principality, is fundamental, and not the individuals, it possess a will and personality of its own. The individuals are auxiliary to the principal. The principal has possessed them. But this being the case, the reader may still be inclined to believe in the goodness of the efficiency and productivity, as well as ostensive peace, tolerance, and prosperity, that naturally result from The Machine. Never does it occur to most that our increased efficiency is substantially dissolving our meaning, our social communities, and traditional commitments. I use the personal example of familial relationships and online recipes.
Consider my grandmother. Grandma Musser has described that friends and family of her’s would ask often, in later years calling, to ask for inherited family recipes. Our beef stew has been in the family for generations. Much to the dismay of my grandmother, however, the latest generation of cooks need not bother themselves with intergenerational mantle-passing rituals, and they instead look up beef stew recipes on the internet. This is, of course, much more efficient. Being modernist, they believe that the function of the beef stew is just that of a product to consume, but in so, they miss out on the meaning, tradition, and familial community that makes eating such an important part of our lives, in the first place. Knowing this, my mom always calls my grandma for recipes, when relevant, and my grandma endlessly appreciates it. In this case, it is obvious that the more meaningful, ultimately good exchange and telos lies not in the most efficient choice.
In the age of The Machine, let us not be disillusioned by the promises of efficiency and technology. But instead let us point to the destructive and dehumanizing advances of the system we inhabit, redeeming the broken systems of the world as we devote ourselves more fully to Christ in us. Let us see the powers of the world as the seductive forces that they are, seeking to redeem them not by the sword, but by prophetic speech and sanctified living. For as it is said in John,
“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (KJV Bible, John 15:19).
Works Cited:
(I’m not sure that I believe in intellectual property rights, and a person certainly cannot own an idea, but citing sources is useful to track backwards the reasoning and to find further explanation of ideas. But there’s nothing new under the Sun, and authors don’t deserve exclusive credit for the things that they write).
Affun-Adegbulu, Clara, and Opemiposi Adegbulu. “Decolonising Global (Public) Health: From Western Universalism to Global Pluriversalities.” BMJ Global Health, vol. 5, no. 8, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002947.
Britannica. “Dialogue Form of Plato.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plato/Dialogue-form.
“Demons & the Machine, John Vervaeke & Jonathan Pageau.” YouTube, YouTube, 31 July 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBErw604LXg.
Kaczynski, Theodore J. “Industrial Society and Its Future.” The Anarchist Library, 2009, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/fc-industrial-society-and-its-future.
Kovarsky, Lee. “A Technological Theory of an Arms Race.” Indiana Law Journal, vol. 81, no. 3, Summer 2006, pp. 917–970. HeinOnline, https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/indana81&i=927.
Leamy, Elisabeth. “Feeling like the Smartphone Has Taken over Your Child’s Life? Experts Talk about How to Regain Control.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Aug. 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/feeling-like-the-smartphone-has-taken-over-your-childs-life-experts-talk-about-how-to-regain-control/2019/08/21/f3c7655a-a260-11e9-b8c8-75dae2607e60_story.html.
Orlowski-Yang, Jeff, director. The Social Dilemma. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/title/81254224.
Pageau, Jonathan, “The Symbolic World Podcast #36”, Spotify, 10 Nov 2022, https://www.youtube.com/@JonathanPageau
Pageau, Jonathan, “The Symbolic World Podcast #158”, Spotify, 10 Nov 2022, https://www.youtube.com/@JonathanPageau
Pageau, Jonathan, “The Symbolic World Podcast #229”, Spotify, 10 Nov 2022, https://www.youtube.com/@JonathanPageau
Rogers-Vaughn, Bruce. “Powers and Principalities: Initial Reflections toward a Post-Capitalist Pastoral Theology.” Journal of Pastoral Theology, vol. 25, no. 2, 2015, pp. 71–92., https://doi.org/10.1179/1064986715z.00000000010.
Schlossberg on Oct 6, Michael. “Why Did Apple’s Board Fire Steve Jobs in 1985?” The Corporate Governance Institute, The Corporate Governance Institute, 1 Nov. 2022, https://www.thecorporategovernanceinstitute.com/insights/case-studies/why-did-apples-board-fire-steve-jobs-in-1985/.
Scott, Seth L. “Why Does the Bible Say out of the Abundance of the Heart the Mouth Speaks?” Christianity.com, Christianity.com, 13 Nov. 2020, https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/out-of-the-abundance-of-the-heart-his-mouth-speaks.html#:~:text=As%20Tim%20Keller%20explained%2C%20%E2%80%9CThe%20heart%20is%20not,the%20emotions%20desire%2C%20and%20the%20will%20carries%20out.%E2%80%9D.
The Bible: Authorized King James Version. Edited by Robert Carroll and Stephen Prickett, Oxford UP, 2008.
Zuboff, Shoshana. “Surveillance Capitalism and the Challenge of Collective Action.” New Labor Forum, vol. 28, no. 1, 2019, pp. 10–29., https://doi.org/10.1177/1095796018819461.
