Alone Together

Welcome to my blog about the ideas that I am finding especially interesting during the Interdisciplinary Conference that is currently taking place at King's University College. I will attempt to strike a balance between the things that are being said in the sessions and the thoughts they are stimulating in my head, though I believe I will tend to express my own ideas more fully.

Alright.

My best thought of the day occurred during the first lecture (Quentin Schultze, "We Are Multimedia") as a result of Schultze's comments about technology needing to "fit" the context it is introduced into. He made an example of how we would decide to add a certain technology to a worship setting. In this case we should ask: does the technology fit? Does it naturally complement and add to the worship experience and the elements already in place to create a worship service? He warned against fitting the worship into the technology. He made it clear that a technology should never be served but should do the serving.

This is a bit of a loose link, but here's what I began to mull over, and what I asked him at the end of the session. It seems to me that technology (especially technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messaging, Online Dating Interfaces and so on) is consistently moving towards an attempted simulation of human intimacy. These communication tools are the distributors of personal information to the point where a status update is something the users are often needing to perform multiple times per day. There seems to be an inherent ideology that it is possible to actually share your day with someone, to actually get to know someone, to actually commune with another human being if only enough information is shared consistently. I can personally see these technologies developing to include multi-sensory experience and even more frequent sharing of personal experience in an attempt to actually simulate real life human intimacy. My main concern is that it might follow for these technologies to replace face to face human interaction.

My question is this: If technology really is moving in this direction, is there something inherently wrong or anti-gospel about relationships based in simulated intimacy and closeness replacing real flesh and blood, voices and eyes, fingers and skin, hearts and bones human interaction? As Christians, do we have a responsibility to interact with these technologies and use them as they "fit" in order to enhance relationships in whatever way possible? Or do we have a responsibility to decry technologies which may damage our society's relational abilities? Should Christians concern themselves primarily with creating alternate opportunities for real human interaction?

It seems to me at first glance that the premise for technologies that attempt to simulate intimate relationships is fear. After all, real human interaction puts us all in a place of vulnerability. In my mind, the extent to which technologies are used to bridge relationships would indicate the extent to which a person has withdrawn into fear of this vulnerability. It is the example Jesus set by making himself vulnerable and coming to the world to pursue real flesh and blood human relationships that causes me to question any compatibility or "fit" between technologies of this nature and a Christian worldview.

To sum up: Is attempted technological intimacy - the idea of having a felt reality of being "together" with others while actually being alone - in its very nature an aim that is opposed to the gospel of Christ? Your thoughts please.

P.S. I should mention that Quentin Schultze was actually delivering his lecture and responding to my question from Michigan via a satellite connection. As it happens I really liked what he had to say and who he seemed to be and I realized after the lecture that I had a craving to get to know him more and to continue the brief conversation we had started about this. In other words, I felt I wanted a real relationship with him. You could keep in mind and perhaps comment on the fact that I would never have met Quentin or wanted to pursue a relationship with him further if it weren't for a technology that is getting very close to creating a simulated experience of "closeness".