Greenflame
Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand
Category: Science, Technology & Religion
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A while back Brian Edgar, Director of Public Theology for the Australian Evangelical Alliance, wrote a good summary paper on some of the theological issues arising from transhumanism and the notion of the cyborg. It’s written in reasonably accessible language (one doesn’t need to be a theological or technological expert) and was originally presented at…
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In her article, “Thoughts on the Status of the Cyborg: On Technological Socialization and Its Link to the Religious Function of Popular Culture”, sociologist Brenda Brasher continues the conversation about cyborgs and their role in society by arguing the metaphor of the cyborg may provide a useful avenue for critical and constructive engagement with technology…
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I’ve been skimming through cognitive scientist/philosopher Andy Clark’s book “Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence” over the past couple of days and came across this bit near the end of the book. The drive toward biotechnological merger is deep within us—it is the direct expression of what is most characteristic of…
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Came across the online lecture, Edinburgh University Divinity School: God in Cyberspace by Lavinia Byrne, the other day. Concentrating on religion and cyberspace, I particularly liked the conclusion: The scribe of the Book of Kells knew about community; his was a monastic calling. Yet the discipline of scholarship required him to spend time alone; his…
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Looking at information technology, and technology in general, as an ecology is a stimulating idea, and one I’m thinking about in relation to the imago Dei. Much has been written on the relationship between the environment and interpretations of the imago Dei in Gen 1. Is it possible, if we think of technology ecologically, to…
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Picked up a copy of this the other day via inter-loan (all the way from Wichita State University). Contains a selection of essays looking at, among other things, co-creation and artificial intelligence. Most of the papers are short (5-10 pages) and don’t interact with the material to the depth of my own research (and nor…
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No, not a Star Trek reference. A newspaper article about the director of the Church of Scotland’s Science, Technology and Religion Project (Donald Bruce) calling for more critical engagement and oversight of technologies such as nanotechnology. See Scotsman.com News – Scotland – Kirk seeks ‘superman’ technology watchdog to rein in scientists.
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Radio New Zealand’s National Radio programme Ideas (part of Sunday Morning with Chris Laidlaw) was a discussion on human embryo research in New Zealand, looking forward to the discussion over the next few months in NZ over policy. Featured a panel discussion including a good friend on mine, Graham O’Brien, and touched on a range…
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Continuing the process of organizing reference material I’ve generated a non-exhaustive bibliography for the engagement of religion with artificial intelligence. It’s available here (PDF), and also from the sidebar on the front page. Some material got culled from the more extensive collection, including a range of articles from Christianity Today in the 1980s about robots,…
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The NZ Bioethics Council (Toi te Taiao) has just launched an awareness programme about the use of human embryos in research. Discussion material is available for download and by post, as well as online discussion at their web site. This awareness campaign is timed to coincide with the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ACART)…