June 02, 2010
by Pastor Jeremiah
It's a rare privilege nowadays to sit through an entire movie, church service, or school play without the interruption of someone's cell phone ringing. It's considered public enemy number one when it comes to bad social behavior and we are all victims of these senseless crimes. Of course, most of us have been guilty of the crime as well. If it's ever happened to you, you know from first hand experience the humiliation one feels. Every eye in the room is on you as you frantically search your pockets, desperately pressing every button on the phone to make it stop.
The other day I was hanging out with a friend and I thought we were having a great conversation, but apparently, he wasn't all that into it because he answered his cell phone two, or three times right in the middle of it. I was thinking about how ironic it was that I was taking the time to have a face to face conversation with him, but any of the 200 potential contacts who may be trying to reach him at that time took priority over me. It makes me wonder... Are cell phones really making the world a better place?
I love cell phones. Personally, I am an Iphone user and I can't imagine having to go without it, even for one week. But lately I've been asking myself the question, “am I a slave to my cell phone, or does my cell phone serve me?” I could ask myself the same question with all kinds of electronic devices that have the potential to rule my life, for instance: my computer, my HDTV, or my High School Musical 2 dance pad (the default babysitter when my girls are driving me crazy). They all require something of me my time, my attention, or worse, my devotion.
One of my favorite movies when I was a kid was the eighties cult classic Wargames with Mathew Broderick. The United States government has turned to a supercomputer to do its dirty work in case a nuclear strike becomes necessary. In an ironic twist of fate, the supercomputer takes on a will of it's own and threatens to bring the whole world into nuclear holocaust. Wargames paved the way for other modern day parables like I Robot, The Matrix, The Terminator, and Minority Report, all warning of the dangers of letting machines and technology take over our lives. It's films like these and the sentiments behind them that have inspired a whole line of bumper stickers like, Kill Your Television, Hang up and Drive, or the sarcastic want world peace? There's an app for that. All of this begs the question, are machines taking over? If so, what can be done about it?
According to Francis Collins, the head of the Human Genome Project, the world is ripe for another anti technology movement. Another anti-technology movement you might ask? Yes. After all, this didn't begin with the WTO hating riff-raff who destroyed our beloved Starbucks locations in downtown Seattle. Does anyone remember the Luddites from history class? The Luddites were a social movement of British textile workers who organized to protest the changes that were taking place during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. They also planned attacks destroying mechanized looms and other machines that were leaving them without work. Is our addiction to technology enough of a threat to society that it warrants a modern day Luddite revolt against Google, Apple, and Microsoft? I'll think about it and get back to you. Stay tuned…
Wed, 06/09/2010 - 2:51pm
Corbett says:
Wed, 06/09/2010 - 3:27pm
Jeremiah says:
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