Back in July the Bioethics Council started a process of public discussion on and engagement with the theme of human embryo research (see Greenflame: New Zealand discussion of human embryos in research). Now, they have started to make some of the results of that process including video and audio content from public seminars, and later summaries of public discussion.

See Human Embryos in Research [Bioethics Council].

Multimedia links at Talking embryos seminar [Bioethics Council].

This is so, so cool. What an amazing way to interact with digital technology. I kept watching and thinking that would be great for this and this and this. That photo lightbox app is just like parts of iPhoto or similar should be like.

See Jeff Han on TED Talks

Some of these are very clever. Some are very funny. Wired Magazine asks various authors to supply six (6!) word short stories. See Wired 14.11: Very Short Stories.

A reasonably long, and sometimes bitty, article on social media’s use by teenagers and tweens over at MediaShift . Media Usage::Finding Balance in Teen Use of Social Media | PBS. One comment that stuck out as I scanned it,

Kids and teenagers have very little freedom in the real world. It’s not like back in the day. They used to bike places on their own — now it’s all controlled and sanitized.

The online world is the only place where they have freedom of expression, and can really be on their own and be themselves.

Hat tip to Fernando’s Desk » Blog Archive » A Few Good Reads…

Russell Kirkpatrick is a geography lecturer and writer of fantasy novels from down the road in Hamilton. I’ve just finished reading his “Fire of Heaven” trilogy, which was a good read for the stage I’m at in the thesis (i.e. something with no robots in it that is easy to read). An interesting mixture of “classic” fantasy geography and cultures (e.g. Nordic, Oriental) but will some Maori and Polynesian landscapes, characters and culture woven into it. The books have an element of gentleness to them, amongst the grand epic fantasy stuff, and the characters flaws weave their way into the story well.

Each of the books has some maps in them. As a lover of maps it was great to see the detail in them, and a more realistic view on the way geography shapes the speed and path that journeys take. In the books the black and white printing loses some of the detail but the web site below has them in glorious colour. Excellent.

When I started the books the theistic slant to them was apparent, and by the end of the books there’s places where Christian imagery and allegory are obvious. But they probably wouldn’t be so obvious to someone brought up in a post-Christian world, and the reader isn’t beaten over the head with the imagery like some other authors like to do.

There’s bits of the books, maps and diagrams on the web site plus a blog (to add to my RSS feeds from other fantasy and sci-fi writers) all at RussellKirkpatrick.com.

Quite possibly the most helpful (and interesting) web site I’ve seen for ages. Love those animations.

See Animated Knots by Grog

Wired News have an interesting article about the rise of “New Atheism” which aims to bring about a society free of religion and superstition through reason. It’s interesting because it raises the issue that this may become the very fundamentalism it seeks to do away with. See Wired News: Battle of the New Atheism

If there’s money to be made then someone will want a slice of it – and possibly tax it. A few points about this at Virtual worlds getting so big they’re virtually taxable – 23 Oct 2006 – World News – NZ Herald.

Brief article on Pope Benedict’s critique of reliance on science and technology over at Pope warns scientists not to risk fate of Icarus – Yahoo! News.

Wired guide for first-time visitors (“noobs”) to Second Life in Let’s Go: Second Life.

And an article over at Rise of the machines – Technology – smh.com.au which picks up on some of the things that I highlight in the opening chapters of my thesis.

These wee beasties look interesting if you’re looking for easy ways to get video/audio into a video iPod. Being able to shoot video or have a video source, convert it and upload it to the iPod or PSP with little or no need for a computer looks helpful.

See iRecord in one touch and Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2 PLUS.

With it now being over 48 hours since Waikato (37) defeated Wellington (31) (also known as the Cathari) I’ve recovered enough to extend my thanks to all the Waikato supporters who emailed me (and left the odd comment here) after the game. Your thoughts are, as always, much appreciated. (See, such magnanimity.)

Anyway, I enjoyed the game (if not the result) and thought the Waikato team were more hungry for the win.

And I’m pleased Keith Robinson made the All Blacks (and Marty Holah should be there too). Also pleased to see Conrad and Ma’a going too as they look the goods at the moment.

A while back I wrote about viewing technology in ecological terms (Greenflame: Information ecologies). The outworking of this might be called appropriate technology. Ian Barbour, in Ethics in an Age of Technology puts it like this when he says “the welfare of humankind requires a creative technology that is economically productive, ecologically sound, socially just, and personally fulfilling.”

Barbour argues for engagement in all of the following four areas briefly summarized below:

Defense of the personal

To represent human values that stand against materialistic and mechanistic views of the world through:

1. Adopting personal and community life-styles more consistent with human and environmental values.
2. Protesting strongly against unbalanced technological optimism and affluent society’s disproportionate resource consumption.
3. Defending of individuality and choice in the face of standardisation and bureaucracy.
4. Upholding of personal relationships and a vision of personal fulfillment that goes beyond material affluence.
5. Affirming importance of a spiritual life.

The key here is not rejection of all technology but rather identifying what is the “right” technology for the task at hand.

The role of politics

Technology is not only a cultural influence, but is also part of culture. (Similar to Stephen Monsma’s claim that technology is the air we breathe). In recognizing this he rejects both the ideas that:

1. Technology is basically good and should be unregulated (free market approach).
2. Technology is always dehumanizing and uncontrollable, and shapes all the world including politics, leaving individuals and communities powerless (technological determinism).

Rather, by recognizing that technology is an instrument of power to those that wield it, its engagement with culture and as part of culture needs robust political engagement at all levels of society.

The redirection of technology

The past trajectory of technological development should not be totally rejected. Instead we need to look beyond narrow economic agendas and evaluate technology more before deploying it. If we do this then we can work to redirect technology, through decision-making processes and social policies, toward the realization of technological values that affirm a rich and life-giving existence for human beings and the environment.

The scale of technology

A critical key to this is the development of appropriate technology for particular local contexts and situations. The aim being to:

1. Achieve some of the material benefits of technology (optimist),
2. Without destructive human costs (pessimist) – which come, he argues, mostly from large-scale implementations of technology.

Instead, a better way is to create intermediate scale systems that allow decentralization and greater local participation, as well as the use of local materials and the reduction of environmental impact.

This latter point of scale is similar to Joel Garreau’s contention that human values can and do shape our future through the choices available to us. We don’t always pick the best choice technologically but we should not capitulate to technological determinism based on either overly optimistic or pessimistic perspectives of technology.

For the individual Christian, and Christian communities, the questions that arise include:

1. What is “appropriate technology” within the context of loving and serving God and neighbour?
2. If technology is our environment, and is part of the value system we live within, how then has that shaped our theology and praxis in areas such as mission, social concern and ecclesiology?
3. How does that shape ethics and practices in the workplace, the church and engagement with politics?
4. How do Christians work with others in the community to find common values that can undergird technological engagement?