The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

This book is also sub-titled "How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember".

This was one of a couple of books I read on holiday this year and it has really opened my mind to how our technology is literally changing the way we think.

Carr's book shows how our brains have changed as each new technology has come along, not just the internet. All the way through this book he backs up his arguments by referencing appropriate scientific evidence. He works through the different technologies from the printed word to the latest digital media affirming Marshall McLuhan's theories along the way. He debunks each contrary theory including that our brains become rigid in adulthood and then start loosing brain cells at an alarming rate.

He shows that if we come to depend on the internet for our information we will loose our abilities to reason etc. Indeed he almost goes as far as to say we will loose our humanity. However he doesn't suggest we should stop using technology, just not depend on it, so all in moderation is the name of the game.

He also outlines that one of the core principles of the internet - that 'free & open access to information encourages innovation' is not working, that the use of search engines is actually reducing the number of citations in academic documents as the search engines will present the most popular answers at the top and people tend not to read as broadly and deeply as they once did and so the most popular wins and it produces an ever decreasing circle as only the most popular are referenced, so the link pool gets smaller & smaller. So rather than opening out and making access to a brad range of ideas and information the search engines and the internet are doing the exact reverse.

He presented evidence as to how we now read, especially on line, that we only read around 18% of the text on a web site and that we read like a letter F. So we read the top line for a bit, then jump down read in a little before jumping down to the bottom.  Scary or useful information for web designers.

He also makes a compelling case for the internet and our use of search engines reducing our time to think, review, and come to our own conclusions.

This has a real effect on creativity, where is the space for creativity in this ever faster "want it now" and "what's happening now" world?  Surely creativity often comes from those seemingly unproductive moments of peace and space. If we remove those deeper reading moments and time for contemplation and review, because they aren't immediately productive, then the world will become populated by machines irrespective as to whether they are carbon or silicon based and the world will be much the poorer for it.

So I do recommend this book, and if you use the links to buy it then I will get a small commission from Amazon.

Also please do comment and discuss these issues, I would be very interested in your thoughts on these issues.

The theology of iCloud

The title of this article from macworld.com by Andy Ihnatko not unsurprisingly grabbed me and I thought I would post a few excerpts from it.

Technology, when done ambitiously, is a form of art and as with painting, it’s always interesting to see how three different artists have approached the same subject. All art is autobiographical in nature, or so I heard in between naps during my Art History classes. It’s hard for me not to look at iCloud and the other new cloud services offered by Google and Amazon and think of them as emblematic of the companies’ views on the world. 

As someone who spends most of my time straddling the worlds of technology and creativity I can definitely buy into this point from Andy, but the core of this article is embedded in the last sentence which he goes onto explore in more detail....

In a sense, these three companies’ cloud services do represent three different concepts of God. Google is an Old Testament, theist-style cloud all the way: He through whom all blessings and punishments come, who must be praised and supplicated; without the Cloud, you are nothing and have nothing. iCloud represents more of a Deist ideal. The Cloud exists, but its presence is more to be felt than seen; if it does its job right, iCloud will instill great doubt that it even exists, or that it takes any notice of us at all.
Amazon is a form of agnosticism. You don’t know if you really believe in it or not, but you do know that on the third weekend of every month this pointy building near the center of town throws a really great bake sale. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced I’m on to something with these ideas about God and iCloud. Some atheists derisively describe God as “Your magic friend who lives in the clouds,” after all. I’m perfectly fine with that concept, if this new magical friend makes sure I’ll never again find myself 3000 miles from home with a hard drive that’s making crunchy noises instead of retrieving the Keynote files I’ll need for the four hours of talks I traveled there to deliver.

An interesting analogy which has generated a wide variety of comments.

Faith should harness art's appeal

I came across this very interesting article in The Guardian by Jennie Hogan and here strap line is...

Tate Modern shows that art now inspires on a scale that religion once did. Churches should get a piece of the action

As she points out churches were once major patrons of the arts but no more....

Despite the centrality of faith in the art of centuries past, religious themes within contemporary art are fading fast. At Chelsea College of Art & Design, where I work as chaplain, God is dead. As students in their studios aspire to join the avant garde there is only a faint desire to look back at works in which the Christian tradition is central. Perhaps when universal themes such as death, suffering and delight are explored though a religious and theological lens the students cannot see them. Could it be then that art is replacing religion?

But as the article goes on to say it isn't all doom and gloom...

The Reformation damaged the natural connection between art and faith but some places are making serious attempts to heal it. All Hallows on the Wall in the City has created a venue, Wallspace, and describes itself as a spiritual home for visual art. St Paul's Cathedral may not attract the same numbers as Tate Modern, but the UK's most famous church has recently been commissioning work from prominent artists. Antony Gormley created Flare II, a shimmering, almost abstract form which revolves mysteriously below Wren's geometric staircase. Bill Viola is creating video installations for two altarpieces. Some commissioned works are explicitly religious but many others are not. Clearly, the dean and chapter are keen to explore faith though art. 

I know from the work we do with Wellspring helping Christian musicians as well as other artists, that many are not respected or understood and remain sat in the pew unable to use their gifts to express their response to God in church. The church also has a view that artists should give their gifts for free especially in this country. The church is no longer a patron of the arts commissioning (paying for) art in all its forms. There are all sorts of opportunities for engaging all sectors of our communities like asking artists to explore issues, as Jenny suggests, starting with the universal themes like birth, life, suffering, delight, and death.

Come on Church, engage with your communities and use people's creative talents to explore the issues that are front and centre in their lifes.