The Dawn Treader

It is the Web, stupid.

Check out the notable Mike Metzger post on technology at "Provocative Church" blog ... called What Might The iPhone Do?

Snippets of note:

"New technologies are wonderful in what they promise to do, yet we are often "incapable of imagining what they will undo," said the late Neil Postman."

"Now consider the iPhone – a wonderful new technology promising us the world. It can do a lot.  What might it undo? If we stare long enough at an iPhone (or any mobile technology), the answer is right in front of us. See it? People who putt through life with their nose pressed against a window are called tourists. Sightseers. Yet according to the ancient Judeo-Christian faith, we're supposed to be travelers and sojourners instead."

"This is not an argument against technological advancements. We can't become Luddites. But we have to remember that technology, according to Paul Goodman of the New Reformation, is a branch of moral philosophy, not of science. In the nineteenth century, science's new attitude was "if something can be done it should be done." It replaced the Judeo-Christian faith, which believed that just because something can be done, it's better to ask whether we ought to do it. Technologies can do – and undo – a lot."

This is well stated and I agree 100 percent.  Technology is a branch of moral philosophy.  No question about it.  There is an ought embedded in technology ... not just because technology can be misused ... but because technology changes us.  Where there is an ought, we are dealing with moral philosophy.

The comparison of traveler versus tourist is also rich and very helpful.  We ought to be travelers in life ... not tourists.  Technology that changes us into tourists is bad.

If you have comments, please post them on Thinking About iPhones and we can discuss.

My musings about iPhones over at The Point.  Comments open over there.

Have you heard the term "mashup"?