Religion and Technology Into the Future DRAFT Studies in Body and Religion
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DRAFT Religion and Technology into the Future DRAFT Studies in Body and Religion Series Editors: Richard M. Carp, Saint Mary’s College of California and Julia Huang Lemmon, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Studies in Body and Religion publishes contemporary research and theory that addresses body as a fundamental category of analysis in the study of religion. Embodied humans conceive of, study, transmit, receive, and practice religion, with and through their bodies and bodily capacities. Volumes in this series will include diverse examples and perspec- tives on the roles and understandings of body in religion, as well as the influence and importance of religion for body. They will also move conversation on body and religion forward by problematizing “body,” which, like “religion,” is a contested concept. We do not know exactly what religion is, nor do we know exactly what body is, either; much less do we understand their mutual interpenetrations. This series aims to address this by bringing multiple understandings of body into an arena of conversation. Titles in the Series Early Daoist Dietary Practices: Examining Ways to Health and Longevity, by Shawn Arthur Dancing Culture Religion, by Sam Gill Risky Marriage: HIV and Intimate Relationships in Tanzania, by Melissa Browning Dancing Bodies of Devotion: Fluid Gestures in Bharata Natyam, by Katherine C. Zubko Sacred Scents in Early Islam and Christianity, by Mary Thurlkill Sensing Sacred: Exploring the Human Senses in Practical Theology and Pastoral Care, by Jennifer Baldwin Religion and Technology into the Future: From Adam to Tomorrow’s Eve, by Sam Gill DRAFT Religion and Technology into the Future From Adam to Tomorrow’s Eve Sam Gill LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • London DRAFT Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB Copyright © 2018 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Title: Description: Identifiers: Subjects: Classification: LC record available at TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America DRAFT The future belongs to them Fatu, Shay, Leon DRAFT DRAFT Contents Acknowledgments ix Into the Future: An Introduction xiii 1 Thumbelina’s Severed Head 1 2 Little Green Sprout 11 3 Fury Road 23 4 Garden of Making and Unmaking 35 5 Ava and the Ultimate Turing Test 47 6 Cursed, Cursed Creator! Why Did I Live? 59 7 Falling in Love With “Her”: One Singular Sensation 73 8 Made of Clay: Prometheus and Golem 85 9 Gender Matters 91 10 Creepy Dollies or My Fair Ladies? 99 11 I-Robot 111 12 Orphans of the Sky : Outside, Movement, and Corporeal Concepts 123 13 Violent Delights 135 14 Robots and the End of Work 155 15 “Beam Me Up Scotty!” Corporeal Concepts and Posthuman 163 16 The Matrix 171 17 Meet Me on the Holodeck! 185 18 ToolsRUs 195 19 Cyborg/Metahuman: Future of Gender and Religion 205 Contents DRAFT 20 Watson and the Jeopardy! Test: Machine Learning 217 21 It is Bigger on the Inside!: TARDIS and Wormholes 231 22 Secret Hidden Horror 241 23 Step Again Into the Forge 253 24 Song of Tormorrow’s Eve 259 Bibliography 273 About the Author 281 DRAFT Acknowledgments [B02.0] Recently, I eagerly accepted an opportunity to teach an introduction to relig- ion course that explored the relationship between technology and religion, a long and abiding interest of mine. My undergraduate degree was in mathe- matics with a minor in physics. I went on to earn a Master of Science in Business focusing on quantitative methods. While in graduate school I worked full time as a research analyst at the Coleman Company and was extensively involved in installing their first computer systems. I learned pro- gramming and systems analysis so that I could design the first computer applications for many of the operations of the company. [B02.1] When, after several years, my career seemed to be progressing a bit too rapidly I wanted to take a brief pause to make sure that business was what I wanted as my life’s work. Having taken and loved a course on world relig- ions from Harry Corbin, a former president of Wichita State University, I approached him for ideas about how I might take a short sabbatical from business to gain the space and time to assure myself that a career in business was what I wanted. He suggested that I go to the University of Chicago, the place where he had received his PhD in political science. I’m a bit embar- rassed to say that, at that time, I had never even heard of the University of Chicago, but I followed his advice. Since the course I had taken from him was on world religions I decided to study that field, but had no intention of studying there more than one semester. I applied and, looking back, can’t begin to imagine why I was accepted; but I was. Moving to the south side of Chicago from Kansas was like being airlifted by tornado to Oz. My one course in religion hardly prepared me and I felt completely out of place, unable to comprehend much of anything about the subject matter or the vocabulary used by my teachers and fellow students. I recall asking my professor, Charles H. Long (who had such an amazing way of pronouncing Acknowledgments DRAFT words like “god” and “myth”), what he meant by the term “myth.” His reply was “if you don’t know, you can’t be told.” Yet it didn’t take me long to realize that, despite being totally lost, I had entered a world that—a few months before—I hadn’t known existed. There was certainly no clarity on how I’d ever manage to survive and I nearly didn’t, yet there were no roads back. One thing I clung to in those days was a sense I got from the Chicago faculty that there might be advantages to not fitting in. While studying there, I earned a living as a systems analyst for the busi- [B02.2] ness administration of the university. I worked nearly full time and, because of my experience, I was given some projects of considerable responsibility and learned a great deal. One project was to design and implement a comput- er-based payroll system for the university including the hospitals and clinics. There are many other stories to be told, perhaps better at another time. [B02.3] Yet I must mention by way of acknowledgement that one of the first faculty members I found to be challenging and who took me seriously enough to level his strongest criticism of my work was Jonathan Smith. I first met Jonathan in the spring of 1968, fifty years ago. Throughout the fifty years Jonathan has been a mentor and constant inspiration to me. Most everything I have done in the study of religion has roots in and was inspired and shaped by Jonathan and his important work. His death near the end of December 2017 was a great loss to me and so many others. I appreciate his wife Elaine keeping me connected with Jonathan through his last months; her loss of Jonathan is, of course, the greatest. There is some humor and irony in my acknowledging Jonathan’s influence on this book, given its subject matter and because he refused to use email, the Internet, a cell phone, or even a typewriter. For a while he even threatened those who attempted to contact him through Elaine who does use email and Skype. Jonathan was a man who valued humor. I’m pretty sure that he’d have found some humor in my acknowledging him in this book given its subject and he might have found in it something here and there familiar to what he most valued. Jonathan was a truly remarkable man and I miss him dearly. To prepare for that introductory course on technology and religion I sat [B02.4] down one day and wrote titles for twenty-five lectures. They seemed to just pour out of me and that list is pretty close to the table of contents of this book. In recent years I’ve taken to writing all my lectures, even though presenting them to students amounts to talking about what I remember of what I’ve written guided by a few mnemonic notes. That one semester, which turned out to be the only time I taught that course, I wrote all of the lectures. The process, though exhausting, was fun and exciting for me. The class was taught in a large lecture hall, yet I felt the students enjoyed and were engaged by the materials. And, of course, as digital natives—that is, youth who have never known a world without Internet or space travel or artificial intelligent algorithms—they had a great deal to teach me. I pestered DRAFT Acknowledgments them to tell me about their lives, their views, and their opinions; they happily did so. I thank them for their interest and for helping me keep abreast of the latest trends.