Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

A Case For Hope In A Warming World, Noreen L. Herzfeld

Reuter Professorship of Science and Religion Publications

It is difficult to feel hopeful in a rapidly warming world. But hope is not just a feeling. It is an active verb, one that calls for courage, solidarity, a clear vision, and hard work. First, knowing that each fraction of a degree counts, humanity is called not to despair but to use every technology and means, technologies we already have. Second, we can be encouraged by a vision of a new world and society that works for everyone. Third, we can be heartened by nature’s resilience and an evolutionary theology that looks toward the future.

“Fly Buddha To Mars”: The Co-Production Between Religiosity And Science & Technology At Longquan Monastery, Beijing, Han Zhang, Junxi Qian, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article attempts at a re-theorization towards the symbiosis and co-production of religion, modern science and technology, inspired by theoretical thinking within geographies of religion and science and technology studies (STS). Recent scholarship on the geographies of religion has made substantive advancements in discerning the convergence of religion and secular modernity. However, science and technology (S&T), as an essential condition and driving force of secular modernity, remain peripheral to this ongoing theoretical agenda, yet to be fully incorporated into the analytical framework about the co-constitution of religion and secular modernity, arguably because of the entrench divide between the rationalism of …

How Then Shall We Work: Should Christian Engineers Pursue Productivity?, Kayt Frisch, Michael Foster, Justin R. Vander Werff

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Technology critics like Neal Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death) and Nicholas Carr (The Shallows) have long held forth that our technology shapes us. In recent years, philosophers (including some that have presented at past Christian Engineering Conferences) have explored the value-ladenness of engineering design and how the biases in our technology affect us on a daily basis. A “hidden in plain sight” technology that we interact with everyday is our approach to getting things done, or our “productivity system.” While everyone has a productivity system, that is, a way of organizing, prioritizing, and executing tasks, some have thought more explicitly …

Exploring Ai, Faith, And The Future Through A Faculty Research Group, Michael Paulus, Carlos Arias, Mike Langford, Phillip Baker

SPU Works

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.

Islamic Meditation: Mindfulness Apps For Muslims In The Digital Spiritual Marketplace, Megan Adamson Sijapati

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter describes and analyzes three digital sites that offer guided meditations curated by and for Muslims: Sakeenah, Sabr, and Halaqah. My analysis offers thick descriptions of these mobile apps, which first appeared in the online “meditation marketplace” in 2020 and 2021, and identifies resonant themes and questions that I believe are fruitful for the study of religion in digital landscapes and for mapping the shifting contours of lived Islam. Today’s industry of online meditation and mindfulness products is highly profitable, as meditation—and, more broadly, “mindfulness”—has in recent decades been embraced and normalized in contemporary, cosmopolitan life as a key …

Hope And Longing In Las Vegas, Michael Paulus

SPU Works

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

SPU Works

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

SPU Works

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.

Forging Our Future: A Review Of The Synthetic Age, Jeff Ploegstra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Part of Preston’s argument is for a profound improvement in scientific fluency in the population, but it should also be for a stronger behavioral response as well."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the book The Synthetic Age from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/forging-our-future-a-review-of-the-synthetic-age/

Data And Identity: Notes Toward A Theology Of The Digitally Enhanced Self, Michael Paulus

SPU Works

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

SPU Works

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

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

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

SPU Works

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.

Time Travel, Labour History, And The Null Curriculum: New Design Knowledge For Mobile Augmented Reality History Games, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This paper presents a case study drawn from design-based research (DBR) on a mobile, place-based augmented reality history game. Using DBR methods, the game was developed by the author as a history learning intervention for fifth to seventh graders. The game is built upon historical narratives of disenfranchised populations that are seldom taught, those typically relegated to the 'null curriculum'. These narratives include the stories of women immigrant labour leaders in the early twentieth century, more than a decade before suffrage. The project understands the purpose of history education as the preparation of informed citizens. In paying particular attention to …

Technology And The Mind, Body And Soul, Kayt E. Frisch

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Both The Shallows and The Next Story do an excellent job of motivating the reader to consider their use of media, but it seems to me that the different approaches taken by these authors are rooted in fundamentally different pictures of what it means to be a human being."

Posting about two books that discuss the effects of technology on our lives from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/technology-and-the-mind-body-and-soul/

Our Technological Past And Future: From Predigital To Postdigital Apocalypses, Michael J. Paulus Jr.

SPU Works

An exploration of technological hopes and fears in apocalyptic literature.

The Beginning Of Digital Wisdom, Michael J. Paulus Jr., Ryan Ingersoll

SPU Works

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. …

A Taste Of Armageddon: When Warring Is Done By Drones And Robots, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Discusses the increasing use of drones and weaponized robots. Argues that the international community must put firm ethical guidelines in place before the technology becomes rampant.

Technology And Power, Michael J. Paulus Jr.

SPU Works

No abstract provided.

Digital Wisdom For A Digital Age: Spirituality And Technology In The 21st Century, Michael J. Paulus Jr., Ryan Ingersoll

SPU Works

No abstract provided.

Chapter One: Beneath The Spanish Moss: The World Of The Root Doctor, Jack G. Montgomery Jr.

DLTS Faculty Publications

The spiritual practice of the Shaman is most likely the oldest spiritual tradition on Earth. Shamanism is a way in which humanity has sought a psychic connection to the world of healing, life and death, as well as a sense of social and individual balance. It is a complex psychological grammar that allows the Shaman to function in both the conventional and an alternative "spirit" view of reality. Shamanisn has been a part of American culture since the colonial settlement and continues today despite technology and modern scientific rationalism. This chapter is a brief social history of the African-American shamanic …

Seyyed Hossein Nasr And Ziauddin_Sardar On Islam And Science: Marginalisation Or Modernization Of A Religious Tradition, Leif Stenberg

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.