EXCERPT
The Luddite's Guide to Technology
by C. J.
S. Hayward
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Description
Mammon, as it is challenged in the Sermon on the Mount, represents such
wealth and possessions as one could have two thousand years ago. But that is
merely beer as contrasted to the eighty proof whisky our day has concocted. The
Sermon on the Mount aims to put us in the driver's seat and not what you could
possess in ancient times, and if the Sermon on the Mount says something about
metaphorical beer, perhaps there are implications for an age where something
more like eighty proof whisky is all around us.
Excerpt
Plato: The Allegory of the ... Flickering Screen?
Socrates: And now, let me give an
illustration to show how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: - Behold!
a human being in a darkened den, who has a slack jaw towards only source of
light in the den; this is where he has gravitated since his childhood, and
though his legs and neck are not chained or restrained any way, yet he scarcely
turns round his head. In front of him are images from faroff, projected onto a
flickering screen. And others whom he cannot see, from behind their walls,
control the images like marionette players manipulating puppets. And there are
many people in such dens, some isolated one way, some another.
Glaucon: I see.
Socrates: And do you see, I said,
the flickering screen showing men, and all sorts of vessels, and statues and
collectible animals made of wood and stone and various materials, and all sorts
of commercial products which appear on the screen? Some of them are talking,
and there is rarely silence.
Glaucon: You have shown me a
strange image, and they are strange prisoners.
Socrates: Much like us. And they
see only their own images, or the images of one another, as they appear on the
screen opposite them?
Glaucon: True, he said; how could
they see anything but the images if they never chose to look anywhere else?
Socrates: And they would know
nothing about a product they buy, except for what brand it is?
Glaucon: Yes.
Socrates: And if they were able to
converse with one another, wouldn't they think that they were discussing what
mattered?
Glaucon: Very true.
Socrates: And suppose further that the screen had sounds which came from
its side, wouldn't they imagine that they were simply hearing what people said?
Glaucon: No question.
Socrates: To them, the truth would
be literally nothing but those shadowy things we call the images.
Glaucon: That is certain.
Socrates: And now look again, and
see what naturally happens next: the prisoners are released and are shown the
truth. At first, when any of them is liberated and required to suddenly stand
up and turn his neck around, and walk and look towards the light, he will
suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see
the realities of which in his former state he had seen the images; and then
imagine someone saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but
that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards
more real existence, he has a clearer vision, - what will be his reply? And you
may further imagine that his instructor is asking him to things, not as they
are captured on the screen, but in living color -will he not be perplexed?
Won't he imagine that the version which he used to see on the screen are better
and more real than the objects which are shown to him in real life?
About the Author
Christos Jonathan Seth Hayward wears many hats as a person: author,
philosopher, theologian, artist, poet, wayfarer, philologist, inventor, web
guru, teacher.
Some have asked, "If a much lesser C. S. Lewis were Orthodox, what would he be like?"
And the answer may well be, "C. J. S. Hayward."
Called "Jack of all trades and master of many" by one boss, he
also wears many hats professionally: open source/IT generalist, front end
developer, JavaScript programmer, back end web developer, Pythonista, PHP and
Perl user, Django developer, end to end web developer, Unix/Linux/Mac wizard,
LAMP guru, SQL generalist, Unix shell (both using existing shells and
implementing a new shell), system administrator, researcher, technical writer,
usability advocate, UI developer, UX/IA enthusiast, and more.
Hayward has lived in the US, Malaysia, England, and France, and holds
master’s degrees bridging math and computers (UIUC), and philosophy and
theology (Cambridge).
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