March 2006

Today was spent doing admin stuff before heading off to the Science and Theology Consultation conference in Canberra tomorrow morning. Smallest child had a tummy bug relapse so he was around too.

Swinging through Melbourne tomorrow and Friday (no direct flight to Canberra) and catching up with a few folk there. Now trying to get my home office tidy before I go so when I come back it’s ready for immediate use (and Kim can get to the other side of the room to her desk). There are four of us going from the Auckland region that I know of so I won’t be the only Kiwi there. Printing out a couple of the conference papers to read in the plane, and looking forward to being a in room full of people who think science-theology is worth talking about.

Also hoping the conference will shed some light on vocational possibilities in the Australasian region.

The Sci Fi Channel is creating a reality TV show around a superhero that you design and portray. See SCIFI.COM | Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

The potential for spandex-clad inanity is mind-boggling.

Stephanie posts some good thoughts on why there should be no more Star Trek series at TV: The Failure of “Star Trek: Enterprise”.

On my favourite Star Trek movies - definitely ST II : The Wrath of Khan and ST : First Contact.

Least favourite - ST V : The Final Frontier. Every time I’ve seen it I’ve wonder how they could have made Star Trek so bad. Still it does have that great line of Kirk’s - “Excuse me… Excuse me… I just wanted to ask a question. What does God need with a starship?”

Skimmed through A Tale of Two Kitties - Christianity Today Magazine while in at the library today which put me in the right frame of mind for Duncan’s link to the McPassion movie (see Duncan’s TV Adland » Blog Archive » McPassion Movie). Watched the movie and was reminded that Steve talks of ‘spiritual takeaways‘, though maybe not quite in this sense.

The journal Nature has a special issue on the future of computing at looking at the next 15 years. Future of Computing: Web focus : Nature. Currently the articles are available as free content.

Article on computer gaming promoting creativity and stimulating the imagination at Wired 14.04: Dream Machines.

It appears from the (unintentional) research being carried out by my children that the breakfast cereal Weetbix possesses strange transdimensional properties rivaling the TARDIS. Indeed, if a child takes a Weetbix (is that a plural?) and then crushes it into a bowl, flakes of wheat are relocated through minute wormholes in the space-time continuum to various parts of the kitchen. Parts of the kitchen, I might add, that cannot be reached under the regular laws of physics. Once again we are faced with the evidence that breakfast cereal is indeed part of a larger alien conspiracy to replace tasty food with pencil-shaving analogues.

I picked it up here at Faith and Theology: Footnotes or endnotes? but it started here at Frankly, Mr Shankly: TF Torrance, footnotes and endnotes. Then it evolved to here to Aaron Ghiloni’s poll pointed to by Faith and Theology: The footnote controversy.

At the end of the day - “Endnotes - just say no!”

A gadget that allows authors to sign books and meet readers while in another location. See Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Atwood sign of the times draws blank.

Spent the weekend filling in a gap between thesis chapters and adding some comments in a chapter about how different models of the imago Dei are challenged by techno-science. Came across this quote in my notes when looking at how the imago Dei maintains both a connection to the divine and to creation.

It is dangerous to show man too clearly how much he resembles the beast, without at the same time showing him his greatness. It is also dangerous to allow too clear a vision of his greatness without his baseness. It is even more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both. (Pascal, Penseés [1659])

A breakdown of religious adherence for comic book (mainly superhero) characters at Religion of Comic Book Characters (Religion | Comics). The links at the bottom of the page are interesting (in parts) too.

Hat tip to AKMA.

MSNBC run an article that manages to capture a number of transhumanist themes at Human evolution at the crossroads - Future of Evolution. The article is pretty fluffy, picking up on the sensationalist-type things together with a little Flash animation that shows their different possible predictions for humanity. Probably of more interest for the fact that transhumanist ideas seem to have moved into the mainstream media’s attention.

Wired carried this story about a collaborative environment for programming that is modeled on old-fashioned text adventure games - see Wired News: Coding Tool Is a Text Adventure.

If you want to relive those days of text adventures try Lobotomo Software’s port of Adventure to Mac OS X. Infocom have their Zork games available for free download for both PC and Mac (Classic) here too.

To get a feel for the significance of Adventure in the psyche of old-timer computer types have a read of The Soul of a New Machine from your local library and this on Adventure. Reading the Wikipedia entry Adventure game brought it all flooding back. Now when I close my eyes I see,

You’re in a maze of twisty thesis footnotes, all alike.
>north

You’re in a maze of twisty thesis footnotes, all alike.
>west

You’re in a maze of twisty thesis footnotes, all alike.
>south

You’re in a maze of twisty thesis footnotes, all alike.
>quit

Command not found
>

Full text of NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark’s speech to the Cebu Dialogue On Regional Interfaith Cooperation For Peace is now available here. (It was also published in the NZ Herald today).

Betterhumans.com posting Nanotech restores sight to blind hamsters points to articles that describe the use of nanotechnology to help regenenrate severed optic nerves in hamsters.

Interview in Wired with Seth Lloyd on why the universe is just a big quantum computer and everything is made up of information. See Wired 14.03: Life, the Universe, and Everything.

I thought this was quite funny - gapingvoid.com : ctrlaltdel. I guess at the final resurrection one gets “rebooted”.

Science and Theology News has a collation of articles relating to ecology and religion available in a new mini-portal at Science & Theology News - Ecology. This includes the 2001 article “Ted Peters Reflects on Making the World a Better Place” which is of interest for me at the moment as I work through ideas about the proleptic nature of the imago Dei.

Article in the (UK) Independent’s legal section on the status of frozen embryos from IVF in Britain. See Independent Online Edition > Legal : Fertility: The frozen ones by Cole Moreton. It’s mainly concerned with the stories of people involved, but also has some basic technical information.

The other day I was visiting the local clearance bookseller, where all manner of books end up, and saw a pile of “Miracleman: The Golden Years” by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham. So I had to buy it. I grew up on British comics (including Starlord, Tornado and 2000AD, plus some old Eagle comics) but hadn’t read any recently, plus I like some of Gaiman’s stuff, so it seemed like the thing to do. An eclectic collection of stories looking at life in the new utopia (distopia?) enforced upon the world in the near future (with some transhumanist-type themes in places). Definitely different from the other comics I’d read recently and I may go off and find some more issues. (For those of you who are interested in the character its history makes interesting reading - see the link above).

It got me thinking about other non-US comics I’d read as a kid, and I remembered that my brother had bought the first (and only) issue of “Captain Sunshine” - a NZ superhero comic. It even came with a cool sundial watch. I have dim recollections too of it being somehow promoted at our primary school but I can’t remember why - though there may have been an ecological thrust to the comic. (Colin Wilson, the artist, went on to do work for comics like 2000AD after it.) The internet being like it is there’s information here and I’m now looking for a copy of that first issue, hopefully with the Solar Watch or whatever it was called.

More information at Kiwi Comics: History Questions (scroll down for Captain Sunshine).

Noticed that the second installment of Radio New Zealand’s Are Angels OK plays this Tuesday night on National Radio. From the web site,

A series of programmes arising from a collaboration between eminent New Zealand writers and physicists. The project is named Are Angels OK and is the work of The Royal Society, The MacDiarmid Institute and the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University.

Anyway, in looking at the web site I see that the four installments are also available via the net. (Set your options to MP3 on the RNZ site to avoid getting a Windows Media stream.)

Ben Myers on his posting Faith and Theology: Theology and GM foods has a link through to an interesting Science & Spirit article on religious debate (or lack thereof) over genetic modification foodstuffs. The article is at Science & Spirit: God and the New Foodstuffs.

The article makes some good points and highlights some of the range within the discussion. The social justice implications of GM are often lost in the discussions over whether people are ‘playing God’ or not. For example, what if the only food aid your country or territory will get is in the form of GM grain or seeds. How do you make a “balanced” decision about GM in that situation?

Other relevant links include:

• Nuffield Council on Bioethics: Genetically modified crops: the ethical and social issues (1999).
• Nuffield Council on Bioethics: The use of genetically modified crops in developing countries: a follow-up Discussion paper (2003).
• World Hunger, Genetic Engineering and Christian Moral Responsibility by Judith Scoville (Northland College).
• Notes on faith and technology by Daryl Culp (Uni. of Toronto)

Did the quiz “Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?” which put me in Matrix. Obviously there were no questions about important things like whether you can speak Narn or Vorlon, and whether you’d invite a Reaver to tea.

You scored as Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix). You can change the world around you. You have a strong will and a high technical aptitude. Is it possible you are the one? Now if only Agent Smith would quit beating up your friends.

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

Had a play around with Pandora this afternoon. Enter in the names of artists and songs you like and it’ll find similar genre music and stream it to you. It works quite well, picking up songs that I’d never heard off but quite liked when they were played.

Several articles came online recently after the electronic embargo period expired.

From the Christmas issue of the NZ Listener, which always has a good religion article in that issue there are:
Gospel truth by Tim Watkin and Bruce Ansley | New Zealand Listener (December 24-30 2005 Vol 201 No 3424) and Christ in the classroom by Nick Smith | New Zealand Listener (December 24-30 2005 Vol 201 No 3424).

And a few weeks later there was this article which has some really interesting ideas in it to discuss.

Thanks, but I’d rather be disabled by Marilyn Head | New Zealand Listener (January 21-27 2006 Vol 202 No 3428).

“The absence of alternative narrations of genetics, particularly those that see biotechnology as inherently threatening to the worth of people with disabilities, is a rude reminder of the silent and silenced voices of the disabled,” said Newell, who is associate professor of medical ethics at the University of Tasmania’s school of medicine.

According to this way of thinking, the hidden subtext of the genetic revolution is the re-emergence of eugenics, albeit clothed in the language of “therapy” and “choice”. Put bluntly, if disability in general is something damaged or broken that needs fixing, of what value are people living with impairments now? Are they also broken and damaged and therefore of less worth than other people?

3quarksdaily: Poison in the Ink: How Virtual Worlds Mirror Our Own is an article picking up on the popularity of the large-scale online multi-player gaming systems.

See also: Greenflame: UN uses video game as educational tool

This looks cool. Point it a star and get the star’s name. Wonder if it works downunder? See: SkyScout.

Vinyl Vulture (slogan - “A site for those of us who measure space and time by vinyl”) has a survey of Christian music LPs at Jesus Rocks!. Definite cringe factor here, but it’s part of our history.

In what might be the first piece of legislation to explicitly mention transhumanism some seek to alter the Missouri constitution to prohibit it. See CybDem: Missouri to vote on constitutional ban on transhumanism which contains links through to the proponents of the changes.

Neil Gaiman writes on the relationship between comics and films in Guardian Unlimited Film | Features | ‘$1m a minute to film? No problem’. As well he points to the similar, and in Gaiman’s opinion, much better article by Dominic Wells in It’s not always who draws wins - Saturday entertainment - Times Online. (On page 3 of the latter you’ll find a list of films made from comics including some you might not have known were originally comics.)

Two different perspectives on human enhancement at:

BetterHumans.com : George : What would Jesus say about human enhancement?

and

The Pursuit of Enhancement - Christianity Today Magazine.

Article over at BetterHumans.com on virtual humans - those created by scans, computer programs, and video capture. See pragmatica : The growing role of virtual humans.

The PCANZ web site has some resources on it for Lent available from Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand // Resources for Ministers: Special Services. Interestingly they also have a couple of links to services for Matariki which I’m going to look at for examples of how the Antipodean winter might be engaged with.

Just found out that Andreas Katsulas, the actor who played G’Kar in Babylon 5, died a fortnight ago from lung cancer at the age of 59. Katsulas also played Commander Tomalak from several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as featuring in the remake of The Fugitive.

More at: The Official Andreas Katsulas Website and Sci Fi Wire — Babylon 5’s Katsulas Dies.

I like Maggi’s posting on Lent as a time of recognizing our dependence upon God, rather than a time of stressed self-improvement (maggi dawn: just (don’t) try harder). A thought I’ll keep with me for the season, particularly here as the days shorten as we move towards winter.

Pancakes were a success yesterday - though one of the visiting children suggested we should change churches if we had to give something up during Lent. In actuality, it’s more Kim and I who recognize the church seasons rather than where we attend where they aren’t really part of the culture.

And the blog should have seasonal purple on it now - try refreshing the browser a few times if it doesn’t appear when you get here initially.