UC Berkley have released some course lectures and other talks over at Google Video. Nice way of promoting your yourself, while also being useful to some. See UC Berkeley on Google Video.

Over at The Digital Sanctuary: Internet Evolution Cynthia points to the new Pew/Internet report Imagining the Internet which surveyed the opinions of various stakeholders in the Internet. Related to my previous posting is their assertion that a substantial number of them are concerned about the role of autonomous technology in shaping future societies.

Of course, one of the best known examples of this technological unease is Bill Joy’s article Wired 8.04: Why the future doesn’t need us, which sparked off a range of responses.

Another well-known but optimistic view is that of Ray Kurzweil. See, for example, Reinventing Humanity: The Future of Machine-Human Intelligence. (PDF)

Joel Garreau’s book gives a good introduction to three of the various scenarios posed by the development of nano, biological, information and cognitive technologies (NBIC). He describes these as “Hell”, “Heaven”, and “Prevail”. Your local library should have a copy of the book. See “Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human” (Joel Garreau).

Mark over at Reflections… wanted some more details about last Friday’s talk. So here are some links to related things:

• The introduction to my talk is here – Cyborg-Intro.pdf. It’s pretty rough and ready as I read it, rather than have others read it.
• I used the ASB Bank “Streamline” TV commercial as an example of a narrative of apprehension about technology – wonder and anxiety combined. It’s online here: http://www.caanz.co.nz/awards/video/effie_2002_1269.mpg (It’s the last ad in the clip)
• Mondolithic Studios have some pretty amazing art the connects with the themes of the cyborg and boundaries being broken. See www.mondolithic.com.
• Sociable robotics projects at places like MIT. Video clip available on this page about MIT Media Lab’s Leonardo Robot is a good example.
• The Flavr-Savr – a tomato with a flounder gene in it to slow down decay and spoiling.

All these things contribute to the sense the traditional boundaries are being lost. Human life is now found in the borderlands between what used to be clearly separated categories in the world.

In recent times I’ve seen the Christianity Today article Young, Restless, Reformed concerning the return by some to a more Calvinistic type of evangelicalism. For example, theobloby: Calvinism and Youth Ministry and Generous Orthodoxy ThinkTank: Young, Pastors, Male.

Because of the Generous Orthodoxy posting the pointed out that in the print edition there are more photos (which seem pretty much white and male) I went to have a look for myself. However, it was the following article in that issue of CT that I found more interesting.

In For Shame? Amy Laura Hall has a thought-provoking article on attitudes to single mothers in society and the church. Have a read. What attitudes do we have towards single parents, and solo mothers in particular? And do we use shame as a blunt instrument, when we should be thinking more of grace?

Related links:

Scot McKnight has some interesing posts relating to Calvinism and Arminianism over in Jesus Creed » Post-Calvinism.

Before & After magazine has a few PDF articles that you can download – teasers to get you to subscribe to the magazine. One of these free articles is a nice one on choosing a readable typeface for a publication/presentation.

Via ProBlogger: Which Font is Best for Blogging?. Darren has a few extra comments there too.

Soccer prize-giving today for the kids football club this morning, followed by the end of year BBQ at the club for one of the kids soccer teams. Sitting still for a couple of hours, followed by kids vs. parent touch rugby and soccer has left me hobbling a little – It was the glorious run down the left wing to score a try that did it. Reliving the speed of youth, followed by the painful reality of a sedentary lifestyle and advancing age. Good company, conversation, fun, food and drink – glimmers of the kingdom in unexpected places. The team and it’s associated parents, brothers and sisters, and other supporters becomes family-like.

One of the interesting things about the meeting today was finding out that the local Baptist church is a financial sponsor of the club through their community trust. This combines with their willingness for their property to be used for fundraising activities by the club – like kids’ discos. Nice feeling seeing them mentioned positively in the speeches, and good to see some of their visible input into the local community.

Presented last night for the (semi-regular) meeting of the Auckland group of STAANZ (NZ systematic theology association) held at the Methodist Ministry Training Unit right in the centre of town.

The presentation came out of the final section of the thesis (and some random ideas that generated recently) and was entitled “Living in the borderlands : Cyborgs and the imago Dei”. Looked at the concept of hybridity that arises within contemporary technoculture, especially the clash of ontologies between organic and inorganic, human and non-human, artificial and natural, and asked the question of whether the Christian tradition has resources within it to engage with this world.

Good feedback (as always) from the group, and encouragement to continue pursuing this direction. The group is mixed across a range of spectra – denomination/tradition, conservative/liberal, male/female – which always generates interesting dialogue.

Fernando (as always) has some good comments on the formation of FoxFaith, a division of 20th Century Fox, formed to produce movies oriented around “Christian” and “family” values. See 20th Century Fox To Release Christian Films.

The Wired web site has a new interactive bionics feature that allows you to find out more about technology being used therapeutically within the human body. Everything from artificial knee joints through to neural implants of various sorts. Focus is upon mechanical, digital and nano technologies. See Wired – Interactive Bionics Tour.

Up to my ears in footnotes (interesting anatomical imagery comes to mind) so haven’t had much time recently for blogging. However, a few random thoughts at the end of the day.

• Congratulations to the Black Ferns for winning the Women’s Rugby World Cup for the third successive time. Awesome.
• Wellington 26 – Canterbury 24. Someone buy Ma’a Nonu a drink.
• Finally got hold of Green Lantern #13 to finish reading the story arc started in GL #10. Many comments that may come out later but from a research point of view the story made for an interesting clash of cyborg ideologies. The review here was pretty spot on and of the four parts of the arc it was probably the weakest.
• Fanfare about the iTunes Music Store and new iPods etc. in the email starts to grate a little when NZ still doesn’t even have a ITMS for downloading music. Ah, the joys of being in a digital backwater.
• Bizarre iPod accessory of the week – the iBreath – a combination FM tuner and breathalyzer. Really.