Greenflame

Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand

  • Hacking the Divine

    Finished the Virtual Theology paper finally. Definitely a start toward something larger (a thesis chapter?) and a weaving together of some strands of my research.

    Had a large section (1500-2000 words) on the role of science-religion models of interaction in technology-theology engagement. It went into the paper, was removed, went back in and then was brutally cut out. Felt like I was doing the “Hokey Cokey” [Syr. mss “Hokey Tokey”, Copt. mss “Hokey Pokey”]. My main problem with science-religion stuff is that the messy stuff (like the ethics of embryonic stem cell research) is left as an exercise to the reader. Too much abstraction and not enough “rubber meets the road.” Anyway, here’s the abstract.

    Hacking the Divine : A metaphor for theology-technology engagementIn this paper the metaphors of �God as hacker� and human beings as created co-creators are linked with the narratives of creativity, novelty and experience within contemporary technoculture. This type of approach is envisaged as one of many that might be used to engage with technology theologically. Drawing upon the tradition of God as creator and a functional interpretation of the imago Dei in humans it aims to open up a conversation with technology. This conversation looks to move beyond mere abstraction and into existential questions raised by new technologies together with identifying how to live wisely within the everyday technological world.

    Note: The term created co-creator is one that Philip Hefner developed. The idea that we are rooted in an ongoing creation yet can act as agents of change – producers of novelty – as we participate with God’s ongoing creative action.

    Note 2: Also managed to fit viriditas in the too. Might print the final copy of the paper in green.

  • The Book-Scanning Project

    Some useful details about making your own system for collecting book details from scanning through to ISBN lookup via the net.

    The Book-Scanning Project

    Shouldn’t be too hard to convert the examples into an app on the Mac or Windows.

  • Consumer : Xtra Global Roaming Charges

    If you’re heading off overseas from NZ and you looking at keeping online with some sort of global roaming service with your ISP it pays to check the small print on pricing.

    See:

    Book catalogue started

    A few weeks back (Greenflame: Home Library Software) I started looking for some software to organize all our books at home. I had a look at various piece of software and settled for Booxter because it did what we wanted, ran under Jaguar (OSX 10.2) on the Mac and was inexpensive (NZ$22.50). One of the nice things about it is it supports access to online catalogues beyond just Amazon – so we can use Australian and UK ones which works out well with our mix of Aus/NZ, UK and US books.

    So now we’ve started. 227 books catalogued. I’m hoping to scrounge a barcode scanner this week to zap the rest in rather than typing in ISBNs.

    One thing it doesn’t do is other forms of media – e.g. DVDs. But you can download Books for MacOS X, an open source project, that allows you to enter an Amazon ASIN. If you do that for a DVD it sucks the data down with cover picture just fine. You could, suprisingly enough, use Books for the cataloging of books too but I’d need to ugrade to 10.3 to use the latest version. I’ll probably catalogue my videos and DVDs with it when we finish the books.

    As for PC software to do that same thing, I didn’t find anything I liked (too expensive or really clunking interface) but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something good out there. If there was a Windows XP version of Booxter we’d probably get that too.

  • Wandering in information

    William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer gave data and information a 3-D structure within cyberspace. Information became the landscape. It’s a little bit how I’m feeling at the moment as I stuggle to put my Virtual Theology paper to bed. I have a beginning and I know where I want to end but the middle feels like I’m in a landscape with no map. I can see all sorts of things around me – notes I’ve made, papers I’ve read, half-read books, multiple drafts of sections, innumerable outlines – but no clear path through to the other side. Or rather more than one path and I don’t know which is the best to pursue. It’s not a wilderness – it’s a jungle.

    I’m hot and I’m mentally and physically tired. Writing feels like futile chipping away at a mountain with a hammer and chisel. It’s not that the material isn’t interesting – but it’s too interesting and I’m not doing it justice.

    I’m hope things will look better in the morning when I revisit my draft. Maybe then I’ll see the critical connections between the parts and something unforeseen will emerge.

  • Linux User on the new Mac Mini

    Pretty much like my experience when I got my iBook. Nice interface, the iApps work well, set up was a snap, some commercial software was needed (Office, EndNote) and a nice UNIX system under the skin for downloading, testing and running open-source software and systems (Makes testing things like blogging software really easy). Again like the article writer I use Linux for servers (Greenflame’s on a Linux box) and OSX for the desktop and development.

    See: The Mac Mini Experience – OSNews.com

    Not sure I’d buy a Mini but some of the project that people are using them for (integration with home theater and cable TV) look interesting.

  • The Peace of Creation: Recovering a Theological Balance

    Came across this essay in Crux today while searching for something else written by Steven Bouma-Prediger.

    The Peace of Creation: Recovering a Theological Balance by Jonathan R. Wilson. (Crux September 2004/Vol. XL, No. 3).

    It’s exactly the sort of essay I could give to my theology students when we’re talking about creation and how other aspects of theology (incarnation, atonement and eschatology) interact with it and how we live today. It’s not a radical piece for many of us but it would hopefully start some on a journey of looking at creation with new eyes. Wilson opens his essay,

    In the midst of rising concern about care for creation, conservative Christians present various responses. Some are deeply involved in the environmental movement; others are profoundly opposed to policies that protect and preserve the environment. My own view is that Christian doctrine, properly understood, commits Christians to care for the environment. In this article I will identify the (mistaken) theological basis for conservative Christian opposition to the environment and propose some theological correctives that would lead to support for environmental concern. Of course, political, sociological and economic interests are interwoven with theology in this opposition. But theological analysis is important, because conservative Christianity is most deeply formed by a commitment to biblical faithfulness. If we are able to identify a more faithful theology, then we may be able to find ways of forging a theological consensus on care for creation that crosses other boundaries.

    Also have a look at RCA: Resources on Caring for the Earth an “Annotated Resource List on Caring for the Earth” compiled by Steven Bouma-Prediger.

  • Macintosh Devotion as Implicit Religion

    Came across this article today as part of my pulling stuff together for my “Hacking as Theology” paper I’m working on at the moment.
    Sociology of Religion: May the Force of the Operating System be with You: Macintosh Devotion as Implicit Religion (From Sociology of Religion, Summer, 2001 by Pui-Yan Lam)

    As practice, identity, and mystification, technological mysticism lies at the heart of advance industrial society. When we look at technology this way, we find some remarkable similarities with theological traditions. Like a religion, technological mysticism ‘binds together’ core values into a coherent, if implicit (and often unexamined) set of beliefs and rituals.

  • Academics give lessons on blogs

    BBC NEWS | Education | Academics give lessons on blogs

    Blogs are giving departments, staff and students the freedom and informality of tone impossible in scholarly journals or even the student newspaper.

    Blogging lecturers say the technology provides them with easy online web access to students and improves communication outside of the classroom.

    Via: maggi dawn: Blogging lecturers

  • Home with a view

    I grew up just north of Wellington looking at this view everyday. Our elevation was greater so we could see out over the Golden Gate peninsula to the Tasman Sea as well as a greater sweep of Pauatahanui Inlet but the same bay was always there. There’s something soul refreshing about watching the sea (just like watching forests). The light and water colour change, the wind and tide shape the dynamics of the water and there’s always a sea-smell in the air. Sometimes I could spend hours in front of the windows or on the balcony with a book and a drink just looking at the sea. When I left it to go to university in Christchurch the sea was one of the things I really missed. One day I’d like to have a view like this – with hills for the light to play on, green forests to absorb and the sea always present.


    (Click on the picture for a larger image)