Rev. Thomas Disrud

First Unitarian Church

January 20, 1999

Signs of the evolution of technology are everywhere. Lately I’ve especially been noticing cell phones. This year, it seems that whenever I was Christmas shopping, there people were, cell phones ringing. I don’t know why this bugged me so much, but somehow it seems to add one more distraction as I shopped.

And then there are the drivers with cell phones. This really irritates me. I expect we have all been stopped behind someone who is on the phone. The light turns green. We are ready to go, and there they sit. They don’t move.

I think of myself as a fairly easy going person. But when this happens, I feel my own road rage potential come to life. I feel some primal urge to play bumper cars and move them out of the way.

Some people take their cell phones very seriously.

There’s the man who was hauled into an emergency room after an accident. He was injured, but not seriously. As paramedics wheel him in, he is talking on his phone. Emergency room workers ask him to stop. He refuses and keeps on talking, and won’t answer their questions. They continue, trying to take the phone away from him. He refuses and fights back. Eventually the police are called. He still refuses. The police finally hit him with pepper spray. He gives up the phone. (I heard that on National Public Radio, so it must be true.)

There are times when it seems like technology has taken over our lives. Every week there seems to be a new invention. Something more we need. Just yesterday in the paper, there was a story about a phone that will automatically scan a database and search for the cheapest long distance rate and make long distance calls for us. When we get a bill, we may make calls through dozens of companies.

I the price is right, that actually sounds pretty good.

Each day, we process a lot of information.

The average worker in a large corporation sends and receives 177 messages a day—from phone and fax to e-mail and notes. There’s a book out entitled "Data Smog" that describes this overload of information. I read about one person who gets so many e-mails that often he simply erases them all. His theory is that if they are really important, they will get back to him. Probably not the best way to do it—depending upon the kind of business you are in.

There are lots of ways to be stimulated. This past holiday season shopping on the internet increased three-fold. If the price of Amazon.com stock is any indication of things, the bets are that this is going to continue well into the future. People imagine a day when they won’t have to face crowds for holiday shopping. They can simply do it on line.

And it may be more comfortable this way. A survey found that 60 percent of people shopping this way did so in their pajamas. That is a definite plus.

With all the information that comes our way, it is no wonder we sometimes prefer to stay at home in our pajamas. We live in an age when information and changes comes at us from all directions.

I expect we can all point to things that have come along in our lifetime. Like generations before us, we have technologies that change the world and how it operates. And it seems that as I grow older, the faster things change.

I remember the days before there was cable TV or VCRs.

I remember when the first microwave ovens came out. They were pretty big and heavy. They didn’t work with certain kinds of food, but the first owners had to do some experimenting.

I remember when computers were large boxes in an office—they were not something you had at home. But they certainly are now. I’m amazed when I watch young children who are adept with computers. They seem to maneuver the system in a way that almost looks foreign to me.

And technology happens in all kinds of areas. In war, we now have smart bombs, loaded with tiny TV cameras and infared sensors allow them to zero in on locations and hit their targets at a much better rate.

In medicine, we hear about developments every week. I expect there are people here who are alive because of some development in medical technology.

And communication is nearly instantaneous. I remember when the only way you could leave a phone message for someone was when they had another person to answer their phone. Now voice mail is just about everywhere.

I remember when Federal Express started with the overnight delivery and that became more and more commonplace. Then the fax machine came along. Then e-mail. Now you can send message almost anywhere in the world. Human hands don’t have to play that large of a role.

And last but not least, do you remember what we did before we had post it notes?

We all experience remarkable changes in a short time.

All this makes me wonder what it was like to live in the world before there was electricity, or before there were cars, or before printed materials were readily available.

Throughout time, people have struggled with the pace of change. We are certainly not the first to do this.

I expect people in the past felt some of the same emotions we do about new things. There was excitement and also some nervousness. How did they feel about the pace of change?

How will people look at our times 50 years from now? What will that look like?

It’s hard to tell. Back in the 60s, it was said that one of the hardest things about the future would be that we would have so much time on our hands that we wouldn’t know what to do with it. We would have a lot more leisure time. But it doesn’t always feel that way.

I don’t know how many people would say it feels like they have more time. People are working more, and we have more leisure activities in our lives. It doesn’t add up to a sense of less time filled, but more.

With the advance of technology, the pace of life speeds up. Life doesn’t always seem better as much as it simply seems to be more. As the pace picks up, so do we. If we get more information, maybe we will find more satisfaction. This is a trap it is easy to fall into. We are stimulated in all directions, and we get caught up in it.

Writer Jay Walljasper tells about his life:

Swamped by the accelerating pace of work? Get a computer that’s faster. Feel like your life is spinning out of control? Increase your efficiency by learning to read and write faster. No time to enjoy life? Purchase one of those handy products advertised on television that promise to help you cook faster, exercise faster, and even make money faster.

Yet it seems that the faster we go, the farther we fall behind. Not only in the literal sense of not getting done what we set out to do, but at a deeper level, too. I feel this keenly in my own life. Like many Americans, I’ve always moved at a fast clip. It has always seemed obvious to me that the faster I move, the more things I can do and the more fun and meaning my life will have. But it has gotten to the point where my days, rammed with all sorts of activities, feel like an Olympic endurance event: the everydayathon. I’m beginning to wonder what I’ve been missing. What pleasures I’ve been in too much of a hurry to appreciate or even notice."

That sounds like a sentiment I hear these days. I hear this from people these days.

It has been said with the internet, a year happens in three months because things move so quickly. In our lives this translates as well. Think about the dissemination of the Starr report a few months back. When the Judiciary Committee posited it on the internet, in a very short time, a huge amount of information was available.

A single weekday edition of the New York Times today contains more information than an average person in the 17^th century would have encountered in a lifetime.

Think about that.

It may be that this is what sets us apart from people in the past who have faced rapid technological evolution. The kind of changes and the volume of information may be different.

With the technology we have we are supposed to have more time. The problem may be we haven’t figured out how to process all the information we get.

When the car was built at the beginning of this century, it was an amazing invention. It was different than the horse and buggy, but it also had similarities. You could see the parts of it moving together, which made it more real.

But today, we may not be able to see the technology that is increasing the pace of life.

In the information age, it may have a feeling of unreality. When I send an e-mail message to someone is Boston, I have a sense of how it gets there but I don’t know exactly what happens. And I certainly don’t see e-mail coming to me. It shows up, almost magically.

As this goes on, keeping some perspective on what is happening and evolving gets more difficult. The things that are speeding up may be hard to see. It happens behind the scenes and we may or may not be aware of it. In this context, technology feels like something that is out there. We wonder what is coming next.

A couple years ago, an IBM computer named Deep Blue took on the great Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov. Over many years, computers were programmed to be able to do such things as playing chess. This match was the latest step in that work.

In 1996, the computer beat Kasparov in the first game of six. Kasparov went on to win the match, but forecasters were predicting that it wouldn’t be long before the computer would beat a person. A year later, in 1997, that happened. The computer won.

This was a big deal. It was said to signal a turning point in our evolution. It brought up many difficult questions. What does it mean to be human? Isn’t it, after all, our intelligence that sets us apart from other things? Isn’t the ability to win a chess match a sign of that intelligence that sets us apart?

The computer’s victory seemed to call all of this into question. What is next, will a computer be able to write a great novel? How are we special?

If there was anxiety about technology, this story brought it all up. Man vs. the computer. One had to win and one had to lose. In this story, the machine is given almost human qualities. It is something that can defeat and win.

It has been pointed out, however, that Kasparov was defeated not so much by a computer as he was by a computer and a whole team of programmers. If it were not for them, the computer would not have gotten very far.

The story could be framed in another way: we must be pretty smart to be able to program a computer that can defeat a brilliant chess champion.

So what does it mean?

The story forces us to look again at out relationship the machine. Technology is not necessarily opposed to us as it is a part of us. We might want to make the machine the other, but in fact it is our creation. Whatever it is, it comes from us.

Problem is it gets a little unnerving when it seems to get away from us.

As technology advances, and the line between human and machine seems to get closer and closer, it forces us to ask some profound questions: What is our responsibility to other living things on the planet? What sets us apart from technology? What do we have in common with it?

If it was thought the winning at chess was a sign of our intelligence and ability to reason, what do we have? What else might a computer do?

I can’t imagine a computer being able to write a book like the "Grapes of Wrath." It is possible, I acknowledge, but it is hard for me to imagine.

I can’t imagine a computer being able to duplicate the experience of an artist as they experience something, live with that and then produce a piece of art. It seems hard to believe that could happen. There is computer art that has value in itself, but it is not the same.

And what is the essence of our being human? It is the ability to communicate—on many levels—verbal, intuitive, emotional. This relationality is something that cannot be duplicated. That does set us apart.

Living is not a list of functions that we are able to do and are therefore human. Living is something much more mysterious and sacred. We are each different, precious creatures. We are able to know someone only so much. At some point our lives are a mystery. The things we say and do are only part of the story. But what are our deepest fears and joys? Others may only be able to get glimpses of that. That does set us apart.

As machines are able to do more of the functions we do, the questions become all the more important.

It calls us to step back and to discern what it is in life that really matters to us.

We are asked what it is technology is best used for.

Technology is human potential magnified, for good for ill. Maybe this is what is so scary about it. We can harm others and the earth with the things we create. But we can also make things that are more efficient and save resources that take less from the planet. The question is, what will we do with these gifts?

And so it is as we look to the future. What will it look like in 50 years? We cannot know, but there are widely varying visions.

One is a technoapolocalyptic scenario. Technology continues to advance and we are all taken over and loose our humanity. This is a revised 1984 plan. With the approach of the millennium, this seems to have more and more followers. We’re not quite sure what will happen, but the chances of something frightening are out there.

Another has been called the technofabulous—this is more like the Jetsons scenario. Everything is great with the advance of things. We will all have homes like the one Bill Gates built. Hunger and poverty will be things of the past. All will be well and our problems will be solved.

I expect that neither extreme will be the case. It feels like technology could tilt the scale either way. It seems like more of the future is in our hands.

This gives us an enormous responsibility.

If we can remain open to the power and potential of technology, we can grow from it and learn from it. It is not something we can take without questioning, but its power is enormous. Lately we hear about how the internet allows people living under totalitarianism to communicate in ways they could not before.

The potential is great to break down barriers and increase connections between people. It may be harder for political systems to stand in the way of this.

And it can help us to know and understand the world in new ways, and in so doing help us to save things we are in the process of destroying. This means we have to change our ways and not only see things from the perspective of how much money we might make from them.

The potential of our imagination is great. It can help us further that imagination.

When the explorer went to Mars, it was an example of technology drawing us in. Why was that? It was a question of what is out there? Is there life on Mars? Might we be able to discover that? If there is life, what does that mean for us? We are drawn by the quest to discover new forms of life.

As images were beamed back and they could be seen on the internet, the potential was also there. We were could see what was previously impossible to see.

The promise of technology is that it can help us to see our potential to change things. If we can use it for the good, the possibility of the impact it could have are great.

Getting there amid all the distractions may be a challenge. We are called to strike a balance in life. If we are so busy running around that we don’t have time for anything, the purpose is defeated.

We are asked to see what is the most important and to strive for that. As technology advances, this will only get harder. It won’t get easier. We have to say yes and say no.

We need to model this for our children. We can only imagine the changes they will see. It is up to us to give them some grounding as they face this future.

A teacher in our congregation told me a story last week that I have been thinking about. She teaches fifth grade and the next three weeks are crunch time for her and her students. It seems they have to take the standardized state tests. This means the kids really have to buckle down these days to prepare. No extra stuff, just study and prepare. The atmosphere in the classroom seemed pretty tense.

The teacher had a meeting one night last week and she did not want her dog to be inside alone all that time. She brought the dog into the classroom. The tension of the previous day seemed to be gone. Something about the dog’s presence put everyone at ease, and probably made the study time more productive.

As our lives more faster and faster, it may be a dog that helps us hold some perspective. It may be some other kind of break. It may be we give ourselves permission not to buy the latest thing on the shelf.

The next time you’re in the grocery store with your cell phone, instead of calling someone, you may want to put it away and go to a bin or oranges and smell them, and imagine where they came from.

If you are in your car, you may want to forgo a call and catch a glimpse of Mount Hood as it comes into your view. It is worth it. Save your call for later.

Blessings. Amen.

Let us pray: Spirit of life, we give thanks for the many blessing in our lives. Help us to be open to all that life has to offer. Help us to know what we need and to not be overwhelmed. May we use all we have to build the common good. May we approach the future, open to what life may bring. Amen.

Benediction. As your life unfolds, may it be filled with beauty and joy, and may you bring those gifts into the world. Go in love and go in peace. Amen.

Opening words by T.S. Eliot:

We shall not cease from exploration 

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Through the unknown, remembered gate

When the last of earth left to discover

Is that which was the beginning;

At the source of the longest river

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for

But heard, half heard, in the stillness

Between two waves of the sea.

Quick now, here, now, always --

A condition of complete simplicity

(Costing not less than everything)

And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flame are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.

Copyright 1999 by Rev. Thomas Disrud. All rights reserved.