Can technology really deliver what we long for?
Our world is saturated in technology.
If you could go back fifty or a hundred years and show your grandparents or great-grandparents what that tiny aluminium device in your pocket could do, I’m sure they wouldn’t believe you. It simply wouldn’t register with them.
From the phone in your pocket, you can communicate with pretty much anyone else in the world, from pretty much anywhere in the world. You can access almost all of the information which has ever been recorded in human history. You can order meals, buy investments, find work, do your banking, watch movies, find a romantic partner, build a business, find your dream home, find the best route to getting anywhere on the planet, all without lifting a finger (at least not lifting it far).
With a single blog post or a tweet, you can potentially reach millions of people and persuade them to see the world the way you do.
There are barely any limits to what is possible to achieve with modern technology.
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was a British author, inventor and futurist who died just a few years back in 2008. He wrote a footnote in the 1973 revision of his book ‘Profiles of the Future’, which read the following:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
It’s a quote that you might have heard before. But if you haven’t, you can’t help but get the point, can you?
Who would have thought a couple of hundred years ago that with telepathic resemblance, I could have a face to face conversation with a loved one from the other side of the world. It’s magic!
And it’s brilliant isn’t it!
Technology has been responsible for eradicating killer diseases and treating the most serious medical conditions. It has enabled us to produce cars and houses and boats and planes at an incredible volume, filling life with comfort and excitement and freedom. It’s enabled us to get whatever we want, wherever we want it, whenever we want it.
Technology, complemented by capitalism and cheap energy, has quite literally lifted billions of people the world over out of abject poverty, to the point at which the considerable majority now has access to clean drinking water, basic medical care, plentiful and choice food, and the reasonable expectation of living to old age. By all accounts, technology has been of tremendous benefit to humanity.
And this is exactly the narrative which has captured us, isn’t it? The collective efforts of the entire planet are aligned towards this single aim: the fulfilment of our deepest human desires, through human innovation and human advancement.
You see, each of us, as human beings, share the same ultimate longings. We may have different ways of expressing them or seeking them, but fundamentally we’re longing for the same things. And we hope that technology will satisfy them.
We’re all seeking intimacy in connection, so we glue ourselves to social media.
We need an escape: a way out - deliverance from the frustrations of life and hope of something more.
We’re all craving for control over our lives. We need to know that our lives are our own and can be shaped in any way we choose.
In short, we’re seeking transcendence: the creation of our own realities, on our own terms, to serve our own purposes. And technology is our secret weapon.
The faith we place in technology
As we contemplate the situation which we as the human race find ourselves in, we can’t help but recognise the vulnerability of our condition.
We are prone to disease and natural disaster. We are prone to accidental harm, and to the malicious harm of others. We experience sadness and loneliness and poverty, and it’s impossible to escape the fact that ultimately this is all destined to end in death.
Sometimes we can kid ourselves into thinking we’ve got it all sorted: that we have everything we need, or at least that we’re headed in the right direction. But in our more sober moments, there’s only one word to describe our natural condition: we are mortally fragile.
We are by nature burdened by our own impediments. So when new technology comes along and promises something different, we’re all ears.
Elon Musk heads on stage and paints a picture of a future of abundance; of life beyond this planet; even of the furtherance of human consciousness beyond the limitations of our natural bodies, and our inclination is to be captivated by the hope which he dangles in front of us.
As the global human race, we have become transfixed by the promises which science and technology could offer us, and we invest our hopes and dreams in a future enriched with abundance through technology.
There’s a little verse in the Bible - in the gospel of John - in which Jesus is recorded as saying this:
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free
And that’s what we believe isn’t it? That the truth will set us free. With enough hard graft and invention; with enough economic growth or government investment; with enough technological super stars and revolutionary devices, we will overcome our human limitations and finally attain freedom and fulfilment.
When we ‘follow the science’ (and if that phrase has not become a proxy for seeking truth, what has?), when we leverage the data, build the technologies and manufacture the vehicles of our own transcendence, we will be set free. We will become all that we could be. That’s the story.
The disappointment of technology
But let’s pause for a moment for a brief sanity check. It’s quite true that the last hundred years have seen extraordinary advances in life expectancy, food security, literacy and leisure time. But at what cost? Are there not dark implications of our tech-saturated world? Are there not just as many problems which technology has created than the ones it has addressed?
You see, it’s the very same technology that promised connection and intimacy which has actually served to make us one of the most lonely, isolated, angry and anxious generations ever to have existed.
The same technology that promised cheap and secure production of food has sent obesity and related illnesses sky-rocketing. The technology that has given us energy abundance is simultaneously poisoning our atmosphere. The same technology that promised abundant information has made us more confused than ever before about who we are, how we should live and where to find truth: even what truth actually is and where it comes from.
While technology has enabled us to perform reliable surgery, detect early cancer, and generate renewable energy, technology has simultaneously sent birth rates plummeting. It has threatened the sustainability of our environment. It has threatened the fabric of our democracy. And it has made millions of people fear that before too long their jobs - indeed their entire life’s purpose - could be rendered redundant due to automation.
Is this real hope? Is this the way to break free of our human condition? Is this really the way out?
The better hope in Jesus
That quote from Jesus which I mentioned a moment ago from the gospel of John says this:
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free
Well, the ‘truth’ which Jesus has in mind in that verse is actually a very specific truth, indeed it’s a personified truth. At the beginning of his gospel, in chapter 1, John is describing the coming of the ‘Word’ from God.
But the way he describes the Word is a little unexpected. Rather than the Word being a snappy phrase, a philosophical worldview or an ideology. Rather than it being a Tweetable nugget of wisdom or a scientific discovery, according to the Bible the Word - the truth - is a person.
Let’s take a look at a few more verses from the beginning of John’s gospel. This is what John says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
John goes on to say this:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Did you spot it?
According to John, the place where we can find truth is in the person of Jesus: God become flesh. Jesus is the eternal Word, sent from God, full of grace and truth. He came to give us the truth. He came to give us himself.
As wonderful as science and technology are, and as able as they are to reveal to us and manifest for us certain kinds of truth, it is a categorical mistake to think they can provide us - even in the fullness of time - with the kind of longings we all yearn for.
I mentioned earlier that as human beings we long for connection and intimacy. We long for hope and deliverance - for lasting satisfaction. Well the claim of Jesus (and a claim which deserves proper investigation from us all for its veracity), is that there is a person who is truth and who can satisfy those deepest longings. Indeed, they are satisfied - and we are set free to live the way we’re made to - precisely when we put our trust in him.
I don’t know if you’ve ever spent much time exploring the claims of Christianity or getting to know the person of Jesus. But let me encourage you to do so.
If you’ve built your hope for the future on the foundations of technology and human ingenuity, let me warn you - that’s not a good place to be. It’s not a dependable foundation to build your life on.
But if you get to know Jesus; if you read about his life and his teachings in John’s gospel; and if you orient your life around him, you may well find that in Jesus we can find truth; real freedom from the shackles of our human condition, and lasting hope of a future worth waiting for.
