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Full-Text Articles in Religion
Artificial Intelligence And Human Hope, Michael Paulus
Artificial Intelligence And Human Hope, Michael Paulus
SPU Works
Slides from a book talk at Folio: The Seattle Atheneum on Artificial Intelligence and the Apocalyptic Imagination: Artificial Agency and Human Hope.
Revisiting The Meaning Of The City And The Library, Michael Paulus
Revisiting The Meaning Of The City And The Library, Michael Paulus
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We are living through an information revolution connected with automated information processing and artificial intelligence. Previous information revolutions, connected with information agencies and information artifacts, resulted in cities—described by Jacques Ellul in The Meaning of the City as artificial and autonomous systems—and libraries, which augment human intelligence through technological systems as well as related formative practices. The library remains an important institution and infrastructure for confronting challenges and opportunities associated with the latest form artificial agency, AI. Focusing on the history of the library, this paper explores the history of—and future possibilities for—the role of artificial agency in cultural development.
Introduction: Imagined And Real Ai, Michael Paulus
Introduction: Imagined And Real Ai, Michael Paulus
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The increasing role and power of artificial intelligence in our lives and world require us to imagine and shape a desirable future with this technology. Since visions of AI often draw from Christian apocalyptic narratives, current discussions about technological hopes and fears present an opportunity for a deeper engagement with Christian eschatological resources. This book argues that the apocalyptic imagination can transform how we think about and use AI, helping us discover ways artificial agency may help us create a better world.
Exploring Ai, Faith, And The Future Through A Faculty Research Group, Michael Paulus, Carlos Arias, Mike Langford, Phillip Baker
Exploring Ai, Faith, And The Future Through A Faculty Research Group, Michael Paulus, Carlos Arias, Mike Langford, Phillip Baker
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The impact of artificial intelligence on our world requires engagement from Christian scholars in every discipline. This presentation describes the organization of a faculty research group (FRG) to explore AI from various disciplinary perspectives and with Christian faith. This FRG increased knowledge of AI, stimulated interdisciplinary and theological reflection, and cultivated collaboration and scholarship. The FRG has an essay collection, AI, Faith, and the Future, forthcoming from Pickwick Publications. FRG members will discuss the impact of the FRG on members’ scholarship, as well as research opportunities related to AI.
Hope And Longing In Las Vegas, Michael Paulus
Hope And Longing In Las Vegas, Michael Paulus
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This paper brings together three interpreters of the earthly city and the apocalyptic city—Jacques Ellul, Hunter S. Thompson, and John of the Apocalypse—to reflect on the future of our technological society. Focusing on expectations about artificial intelligence, it explores the future imagined at the 2019 re:MARS conference, “Amazon’s global AI event for Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space,” and the global stress test of these expectations a year later during the COVID-19 pandemic. What can we learn from the negative prophecies of Ellul’s The Meaning of the City (1970) and Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey …
Fear And Loathing In The Technological City, Michael Paulus
Fear And Loathing In The Technological City, Michael Paulus
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This presentation brings together three interpreters of the city—Jacques Ellul, Hunter S. Thompson, and John of the Apocalypse—to reflect on the future of our technological society. It contrasts rejections of the city, found in Ellul’s The Meaning of the City (1970) and Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), with an affirmation of the technological city found in the Apocalypse of John.
Imagining The Posdigital Church, Michael Paulus
Imagining The Posdigital Church, Michael Paulus
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This essay focuses on the ongoing need and opportunity for church leaders to continue the process of digital transformation and imagine new forms of the post-pandemic church.
Data And Identity: Notes Toward A Theology Of The Digitally Enhanced Self, Michael Paulus
Data And Identity: Notes Toward A Theology Of The Digitally Enhanced Self, Michael Paulus
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In the HBO-BBC miniseries "Years and Years," a teenager named Bethany (!) comes out as transhuman and tells her parents she wants to “live forever as information ... [to] be data!” As information about us increasingly takes the form of digital data, we are all of us becoming data. Indeed, so much of our attention and agency is engaged with digital information in digital environments that the philosopher Luciano Floridi describes us as “inforgs” living “onlife” in an “infosphere.” Through nearly constant and ubiquitous patterns of digital interactions with human and artificial agents, we are creating digitally extended and enhanced …
Artificial Intelligence And The Apocalyptic Imagination: The Ends Of Divine, Natural, And Artificial Agency, Michael Paulus
Artificial Intelligence And The Apocalyptic Imagination: The Ends Of Divine, Natural, And Artificial Agency, Michael Paulus
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New information and communication technologies (ICTs) are reshaping our lives and the environments in which we live to such an extent that philosopher Luciano Floridi claims we are living through an information revolution. ICTs are changing our self-understanding, how we relate to each other, and how we understand our role in the world. At the center of this revolution is the advent of automated information processing and intelligent systems.These technologies of artificial intelligence (AI) raise questions about data collection, algorithmic agency, and the future of every dimension of life. They also inspire a range of hopes and fears. Some AI …
A Framework For Digital Wisdom In Higher Education, Michael Paulus
A Framework For Digital Wisdom In Higher Education, Michael Paulus
SPU Works
Institutions of higher education have a crucial role and responsibility at this moment of technological change to form people who will flourish in our so-called digital age. The speed with which digital information and communication technologies have permeated our lives has left little time for critical reflection on how we may intentionally integrate them into our lives. Regardless of when we were born or the depth of our technological expertise, we are all of us digitally naïve. Individually and collectively, we are still learning how to use new and emerging digital technologies well and wisely. This essay presents a framework …
From The City To The Cloud: Charles Williams’S Image Of The City As An Affirmation Of Artificial Intelligence, Michael Paulus
From The City To The Cloud: Charles Williams’S Image Of The City As An Affirmation Of Artificial Intelligence, Michael Paulus
SPU Works
A number of Christian intellectuals who lived through the “catastrophic” twentieth century had a deep distrust of “technological innovation.” C. S. Lewis lamented the impact of technology on education, Dorothy L. Sayers lamented the impact of technology on community, and J. R. R. Tolkien lamented the impact of technology on the environment. Jacques Ellul saw technology as a human rejection of God’s work. For Ellul, this was the meaning of the city: from its primordial origins through its apocalyptic end, the city was a “counter-creation”—a technological negation of God’s Edenic creation.Charles Williams stands out from among his contemporaries in his …
Digital Reformation.Pdf, Michael Paulus, Bruce Baker
Digital Reformation.Pdf, Michael Paulus, Bruce Baker
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Digital information and communication technologies are rapidly changing how we understand our identities and institutions. Five hundred years ago, new printing technologies created conditions that enabled the Protestant reformation and profoundly changed the world. Today, we are in the midst of a digital revolution. But what is being reformed, and what are we reforming? This session will explore the nature of our present information age and the theological questions it raises, touching on theological principles, cultural critiques, and spiritual practices that can help us reflect on digital reformation and transformation.
Gleaning As A Transformational Business Model For Solidarity With The Poor And Marginalized, Bruce D. Baker
Gleaning As A Transformational Business Model For Solidarity With The Poor And Marginalized, Bruce D. Baker
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“Gleaning” refers to the mandate within the Mosaic Law that harvesters should leave behind “gleanings” for the sake of the poor who subsist on the literal and figurative margins of society. Although this biblical mandate is generally neglected and considered irrelevant in modern business practice, it holds powerful lessons to help guide modern businesses into transformational solidarity with the poor and marginalized. This paper interprets the biblical significance of gleaning, to discern how the principles of gleaning, though rooted in ancient agrarian culture, might be applicable to modern business which is generally far removed from agriculture. The exegesis and analysis …
Our Technological Past And Future: From Predigital To Postdigital Apocalypses, Michael J. Paulus Jr.
Our Technological Past And Future: From Predigital To Postdigital Apocalypses, Michael J. Paulus Jr.
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An exploration of technological hopes and fears in apocalyptic literature.
The Beginning Of Digital Wisdom, Michael J. Paulus Jr., Ryan Ingersoll
The Beginning Of Digital Wisdom, Michael J. Paulus Jr., Ryan Ingersoll
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Marc Prensky, who popularized the term “digital natives” more than ten years ago, now emphasizes the need for “digital wisdom”: using digital technologies wisely to become wiser. Recent research reveals that so-called digital natives are often “digital naïves”—familiarity with digital technologies does not translate into facility with them. Incoming college students report declining confidence in their computer skills and report very modest improvements by the time they graduate. Employers report deficiencies in the technological skills of college graduates and, perhaps most troubling, studies of youth and young adults show that ethical and moral reasoning does not extend much beyond self-protection. …
Technology And Power, Michael J. Paulus Jr.
Digital Wisdom For A Digital Age: Spirituality And Technology In The 21st Century, Michael J. Paulus Jr., Ryan Ingersoll
Digital Wisdom For A Digital Age: Spirituality And Technology In The 21st Century, Michael J. Paulus Jr., Ryan Ingersoll
SPU Works
No abstract provided.
Capital In The Twenty-First Century: A Tale Without Morality, Bruce D. Baker
Capital In The Twenty-First Century: A Tale Without Morality, Bruce D. Baker
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Thomas Piketty has given economists a lot to argue about, but their arguments miss the point of the book’s success. “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” is not a bestseller based on its economic merits. It’s a bestseller because it speaks to a deep moral anxiety. Confidence in capitalism has been shaken. The crisis of 2008 exposed weaknesses in the financialization of our economy. Piketty makes a valiant contribution to economic theory and history, but his empiricism succumbs ultimately to the same flaw John Paul II diagnosed in Marxism—it leads to an incoherent statement of moral order.
Free Markets With Caritas: A Transformational Concept Of Efficiency, Bruce D. Baker
Free Markets With Caritas: A Transformational Concept Of Efficiency, Bruce D. Baker
SPU Works
The logic of caritas transforms conventional concepts of economic efficiency in a direction conducive to the health and sustainability of a market system, by distinguishing between economic activities which are additive or extractive toward the common good. The beneficent power of the market to serve human flourishing is based not in a morally tacit concept of economic efficiency as a cardinal good, but rather in a gift-bearing efficiency aligned with caritas. This thesis is explored through three business case studies: (1) patents related to pharmaceutical drug design and marketing; (2) “monetization” strategies in recent internet-based business models; and (3) …
Implications Of Biblical Principles Of Rhythm And Rest For Individual And Organizational Practices, Margaret Diddams, Lisa Surdyk, Denise Daniels, Jeff B. Van Duzer
Implications Of Biblical Principles Of Rhythm And Rest For Individual And Organizational Practices, Margaret Diddams, Lisa Surdyk, Denise Daniels, Jeff B. Van Duzer
SPU Works
The information technology economy with its endless 24/7 workdays has eroded the normative cycle of work and rest, and as a result, many Americans are experiencing a profound and increasing sense of time pressure. By integrating biblical passages relating to Sabbath observance with psychological and organizational empirical literature, Diddams et al seek describe the principles of rest, reflection, and relationships underlying biblical notions of rhythm; identify their associated influence on psychological wellness; and discuss how organizations can embrace a rhythmic, Sabbath culture.