Rapture For The Geeks

Culture.

Will the Geeks inherit the earth? If computers become twice as fast and twice as capable every two years, how long is it before they’re as intelligent as humans? More intelligent? And then in two more years, twice as intelligent? How long before you won’t be able to tell if you are texting a person or an especially ingenious chatterbot program designed to simulate intelligent human conversation? According to Richard Dooling in Rapture for the Geeks—maybe not that long. It took humans millions of years to develop opposable thumbs (which we now use to build computers), but computers go from megabytes to gigabytes in five years; from the invention of the PC to the Internet in less than fifteen. At the accelerating rate of technological development, AI should surpass IQ in the next seven to thirty-seven years (depending on who you ask). We are sluggish biological sorcerers, but we’ve managed to create whiz-bang machines that are evolving much faster than we are. In this fascinating, entertaining, and illuminating book, Dooling looks at what some of the greatest minds have to say about our role in a future in which technology rapidly leaves us in the dust. As Dooling writes, comparing human evolution to technological evolution is “worse than apples and oranges: It’s appliances versus orangutans.” Is the era of Singularity, when machines outthink humans, almost upon us? Will we be enslaved by our supercomputer overlords, as many a sci-fi writer has wondered? Or will humans live lives of leisure with computers doing all the heavy lifting? With antic wit, fearless prescience, and common sense, Dooling provocatively examines nothing less than what it means to be human in what he playfully calls the age of b.s. (before Singularity)—and what life will be like when we are no longer alone with Mother Nature at Darwin’s card table. Are computers thinking and feeling if they can mimic human speech and emotions? Does processing capability equal consciousness? What happens to our quaint beliefs about God when we’re all worshipping technology? What if the human compulsion to create ever more capable machines ultimately leads to our own extinction? Will human ingenuity and faith ultimately prevail over our technological obsessions? Dooling hopes so, and his cautionary glimpses into the future are the best medicine to restore our humanity.

Computing technology is an indispensable feature of modern life. Our rapid-paced world seems more and more remote from the world narrated in sacred scriptures. However, despite its pervasiveness, there remains a dearth of theological reflection about computer technology and what it means to live as a faithful individual in a digitally - saturated society.The Web and Faith provides a brief theology of technology, rooted in the Islamic tradition and oriented around the grand themes of creation, redemption and new creation. The book combines a concise, accessible style with penetrating cultural and theological analysis. Building on the work of Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman, and drawing from a wide range of enlightened Islamic thinkers, the book situates computer technology within the big picture of the story of creation. Technology is not neutral, but neither is there an exclusively ''faith-based'' form of technological production and use. Instead, this book guides us to see the digital world as part of a larger creation, which is redeemable according to the law of faith. Responsibly used, technology can become an integral part of religious wisdom world-wide.

Welcome to the fractured future, at the dusk of the twenty-first century. Earth has a population of roughly a billion hominids. For the most part, they are happy with their lot, living in a preserve at the bottom of a gravity well. Those who are unhappy have emigrated, joining one or another of the swarming densethinker clades that fog the inner solar system with a dust of molecular machinery so thick that it obscures the sun. The splintery metaconsciousness of the solar-system has largely sworn off its pre-post-human cousins dirtside, but its minds sometimes wander...and when that happens, it casually spams Earth's networks with plans for cataclysmically disruptive technologies that emulsify whole industries, cultures, and spiritual systems. A sane species would ignore these get-evolved-quick schemes, but there's always someone who'll take a bite from the forbidden apple. So until the overminds bore of stirring Earth's anthill, there's Tech Jury Service: random humans, selected arbitrarily, charged with assessing dozens of new inventions and ruling on whether to let them loose. Young Huw, a technophobic, misanthropic Welshman, has been selected for the latest jury, a task he does his best to perform despite an itchy technovirus, the apathy of the proletariat, and a couple of truly awful moments on bathroom floors. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The “problem” of the internet has plagued theologians for the past decade: some have claimed it as “gnostic” and evil because it denies the Christian doctrine of the incarnation and lacks serious engagement with others. Some have viewed the internet as presenting good possibilities for theological work because it provides a democratic arena for sharing ideas, unrestricted by traditional hierarchies and concerns. None of these considerations quite capture the problems or benefits that the internet provides. Jana Bennett reviews critically how Web 2.0 both develops from traditional theology and also how Web 2.0 may change the way traditional theology is done. Web 2.0 spaces do invite many more lay people to participate in theological conversations than in the past, but the conversations frequently become constricted because of the medium. At the same time, Web 2.0 also offers surprising spaces for renewing or revisiting questions that theologians have left aside. The book explores how theologians and other interested persons might carefully respond, neither totally rejecting nor wholly embracing Web 2.0 technology.

All Christian colleges and universities hail the integration of faith and learning as a premier mission objective. There is less agreement as to what the integration of faith and learning should look like in pedagogical and cross-disciplinary terms. This volume proposes that faith and learning are interrelated from the start. Discovery of truth within the academic disciplines cultivates discipline-specific wisdom that both accords with all reality and complements the whole counsel of God. Where Wisdom May Be Found brings together a faculty of twenty-seven accomplished voices from across curricula to celebrate each field's capacity for revealing wisdom from all corners of God's creative design. In synthesis, these voices declare the depth and richness of the wisdom and knowledge of God for the educational advancement and holistic equipping of the corporate people of God.

Should technology be used to improve human faculties such as cognition and longevity? This thought-provoking dialogue between "transhumanism" and religion examines enhancement technologies that could radically alter the human species. "Transhumanism" or "human enhancement" is an intellectual and cultural movement that advocates the use of emerging technologies to change human traits. Although they may sound like science fiction, the possibilities suggested by transhumanism are very real, and the questions they raise have no easy answers. If these enhancements—especially major ones like the indefinite extension of healthy human life—become widely available, they would arguably have a more radical impact on humankind than any other development in history. This book comprises essays that explore transhumanism and the issues that surround it, addressing numerous fascinating questions posed by scholars of religion from various traditions. How will "immortality" or extreme longevity change our religious beliefs and practices? How might pharmaceuticals enhance spiritual experiences? Will "post-human" technologies be available to all persons, or will a superior "post-human race" arise to dominate the human species? The discussions are as intriguing as the future they suggest.

This book looks at questions and answers pertaining to the organization, usage, and ownership of information in the Internet age—and the impact of shifting attitudes towards information ownership on creative endeavors. In the competing traditions of Marshall McLuhan and Langdon Winner, authors Aaron Barlow and Robert Leston take readers on a revealing tour of the Internet after the explosion of the blogosphere and social media. In the world Beyond the Blogosphere, information has surpassed its limits, the distinction between public and private selves has collapsed, information is more untrustworthy than it ever was before, and technology has exhibited a growth and a desire that may soon exceed human control. As Langdon Winner pointed out long ago, "tools have politics." In an eye-opening journey that navigates the nuances of the cultural impact the internet is having on daily life, Barlow and Leston examine the culture of participation in order to urge others to reconsider the view that the Internet is merely a platform or a set of tools that humans use to suit their own desires. Provocative and engaging, Beyond the Blogosphere stands as a challenge on how to rethink the Internet so that it doesn't out-think us.