People appreciate contributions by Reformed thinkers on issues in contemporary culture, including technology. However, at a recent talk, I also heard a critique: the church does not figure very prominently in many of these Reformed writings. Digital technology is fraught with ethical, social and privacy issues, but what is the role of the church in…
Technology is all around us, and always changing. Take the lights in my house, for example. We no longer have incandescent light bulbs (the old 60- & 100-watt lights), but we still have a few halogen pot lights. In other light sockets we have those twisty fluorescent bulbs. But in most fixtures, we have the…
Have you made a list of all your social media accounts? Does a loved one know where you do online banking or hold digital assets? Have you chosen someone to gain access to your phone once you’re gone? The effects of a global pandemic have hit every corner of our lives, from the workplace to…
“Alexa, tell me a story.” Today we can ask our “voice assistants” almost any question and hear a reply. Alexa can tell jokes and bedtime stories and even play games. Artificial intelligence (AI) applied to areas like this appears almost magical. As a computer scientist I delight in the possibilities of AI but I don’t…
For a Christian, imagination is not the sole domain of the artsy and literary types. The imagination is every Christian’s home country. Survival is insufficient, as Star Trek’s famous quote tells us. We must all explore beyond the visible and the known to somewhere better. So let the writers’ circles have their creativity training in…
What makes humans unique, and is this uniqueness a matter of degree or a qualitative difference? Is it our intelligence, language ability and consciousness? As Christians, we argue that we hold a special place in creation because we are made in the image of God. Two areas of research approach this question from very different…
In 2016, I wrote an article for Christian Courier called “Disruptive Theology.” I said that in the digital age, churches are less about where you live, and more about a community of believers with a shared understanding of faith. That digital ways of connecting with each other were becoming more important to many of us…
If you don’t know what the heck Bitcoin is, it might be time to figure it out. Not only has cryptocurrency – Bitcoin being the original and best known – taken off in the last year, much to the delight of speculative investors and counter-cultural diehards, but social justice advocates herald it as a way…
What does technology have to do with the opening chapters of Genesis? At first glance, the creation story seems to speak only of the natural world – skies and seas, fish and birds, stars and planets. However, the first chapters of Genesis provide a crucial frame for understanding the context for all our human cultural…
In Genesis, one of the first things God says about humans before the Fall is “it is not good that the man should be alone” (2:18). We are alone in many ways right now. Ten months into this pandemic, in the midst of a long winter, many of us are feeling the effects of social…
A recent Netflix documentary titled The Social Dilemma interviews several engineers who initially helped build social media platforms, but who are now sounding the alarm on their creations. The film features prominent designers from Google, Facebook and Twitter, including the engineer who created the pervasive “like” button and the inventor of the “infinite scroll.” The…
From June 29 to July 2 this year, the American Astronomical Society held a virtual conference on satellite constellations’ impact on optical astronomy. The scientists were concerned that satellite deployment, particularly bright satellites in low-Earth orbit, will prevent us from collecting meaningful optical data from the stars. I grew up in Montreal and never realized…
|
Uploaded
Failed
|
 |
