Is Technology Leading us to a New Tower of Babel?
The current financial crisis we are in took a long time to develop. Everybody and their kid has an opinion about how to fix it. Ironically, even the best of the best including Obama aren’t sure if they know the answer. The frenzy to fix things has dusted up quite a cloud of confusion. The irony is that the we are being asked to trust the same people who got us into this mess in the first place to turn things around. How does that work???
The Bible tells the story of the people of Babel. At the time, they all spoke one language. They decided to build a tower to the heavens saying, “‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’” This was in direct opposition to God’s desire for the people to multiply and fill the earth. So, God confounded their language and they were scattered around the world. Their own power to create was greater then their recognition of the one who created them. They were consumed with their ability to unite and build their own fame.
We didn’t get here overnight. There was a time when people were thrilled with our economic system. In 1999, a large bank launched a marketing campaign called “Live Richly.” Its goal was to get consumers to change their attitudes about money, persuading them to tap into their home equity and use it to live life a little better. Ad agencies have spent billions of dollars to convince people to leave common sense behind and take out a loan for that car, TV, new toaster, the funky trinket sitting in a box at Storage Tek. This “consumer” mentality wasn’t just the result of ad agencies though.
Technology has given us the instant message, the five minute burger and fries, and virtual communities where no one actually knows anyone. Will future generations look back at us and conclude that we must make all our decisions in 30 seconds – just like a TV commercial? Has media shaped us as much as the modern worldviews? Take TV. It’s really just a continual blinking mosaic of lights mixed with sound. Every second 60 fields of light flash across the screen. Is it possible that when a human being is bombarded by billions of bits of information at the speed of light everyday the effect is a short attention span? Can a visual medium whose strength is emotion and subjectivity not diminish a person’s ability to reason?
We are on the verge of a New Age of Discovery, Rupert Murdoch declared in a speech given in 2006. One is required to develop a scientific literacy in order to safely navigate its waters.
But what hath this technology wrought? Are there consequences to having access to billions of bits of information at the speed of light? Is there a downside to being able to create virtual communities where no one has ever met anyone in person? Many years ago being able to split the atom was an amazing scientific breakthrough. Now we realize that this discovery led to the creation of the ultimate weapon able to cause mass destruction. The atom bomb. Will we wield this technology like a skilled swordsmen and win the battles of the future? Or, will technology consume us? Will we become what we behold?
What can we learn from the financial crisis? Experts say the real culprit are the new financial tools that really smart economic wizards came up with in the last 20 years. These monetary tools have now created a virtually impossible mess to repair. The very same man-made financial technologies that fueled our economic boom are now bringing down the house of cards. People became so enamored with their new creations they could not see the clear warning signs of impending collapse.
Will our new found medium of the Web 2.0 cloud our view? Is it possible that the beautiful benefits of the Internet will so capture our attention that we’ll forget who we are, and ultimately who God intended us to be? Will technology become our Tower of Babel?
I’m wrestling with these questions as a creative professional who makes a living off of media, and I must say, I’m not liking what I see so far.