Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Your Data Primer, Michael Paulus

SPU Works

In their recent book Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne describe the 2018 Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal as a Three Mile Island moment for data stewardship. After years of sharing personal data without much thought about how it might be used or abused, the public is now becoming more aware of the need for clearer responsibilities and rights related to the collection, processing, and dissemination of personal information. “Data has always been important to society,” Smith and Browne point out, but “it has never played the role it does today … every aspect of human life is fueled …

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 …

Holy Listening In Reference Work: A Sacred Aspect Of The Christian Librarian’S Calling, Cynthia Strong

SPU Works

Along with all Christians, I live out a vocation – both a general and a missional calling. More specifically, as a Christian who is a librarian, my missional calling is to serve my patrons. In my experience, the best way that I can fulfill this service is by listening. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in Life Together, “[t]he first service one owes to others in the community involves listening to them” (1954, p. 97).

Many pastors and spiritual directors write on the practice and importance of listening for the work they perform. The listening they do is shaped by their …

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 …

The Age Of The Library, Michael Paulus

SPU Works

In 2018, the Seattle Pacific University Library launched a minor in Information Studies. This multidisciplinary program explores the dynamic relationships between information, technology, and people and how our lives are changing in our emerging information and technological environment. Why would a library create such a program, and what does it reveal about the present and future role of the library?

Stigma, Loss Of Face, And Help-Seeking Attitudes Among South Korean College Students, Paul Youngbin Kim, Kyujin Yon

SPU Works

This study investigated empirical associations between others stigma (predictor), self-stigma (mediator), loss of face concerns (moderator), and professional help-seeking attitudes (outcome) among South Korean college students (N = 485). We also explored the dimensionality of close others and public stigmas using bifactor analysis and ancillary measures. Participants were recruited from several universities in South Korea. They completed an online survey containing demographic questions and study measures. Bifactor analysis results indicated that close others and public stigmas may be better treated as a unidimensional measure (i.e., others stigma). Mediation and moderated mediation analyses indicated that others stigma predicted self-stigma, which …

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 …