-
What sort of baptism is this, when the one who is dipped is purer than the font, and where the water that soaks the one whom it has received is not dirtied but honored with blessings? What sort of baptism is this of the Savior, I ask, in which the streams are made pure more than they purify? For by a new kind of consecration the water does not so much wash Christ as submit to being washed.
St. Maximus of Turin, Sermon 13A -
I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.I like to think
Richard Brautigan, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace. -
You Don’t Need A Full-Size Pickup Truck, You Need a Cowboy Costume
Brett Berks article, You Don’t Need A Full-Size Pickup Truck, You Need a Cowboy Costume, provides a good look at truck culture and the disconnect between how trucks are marketed and how they are actually used by owners. On one…
-
Yes, people were angry about restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic, I got that, but what was being proposed in opposition? What was being proposed in response to the very real problem of dealing with a virus?
An almost humorous response from the US right came from the lieutenant governor of Texas who argued that we should be willing to sacrifice our lives in defense of the economy. Turn away from mass vaccines, contract COVID, in the name of all mighty capitalism. I was looking forward to the lieutenant governor being the first sacrificial lamb. I mean you just can’t make this up.
The response to COVID that was led by right wing authoritarian forces was coded rightwing libertarianism rhetorizing about freedom. It was a strange combination of self suicide and genocide, in other words, there was nothing here with which to offer critical support. And this movement has now expanded to address an alleged right to refuse vaccinations in the name of self control over one’s body, a hideous use of the call of the pro-choice movement.
Bill Fletcher Jr. -
Somehow Jesus wanted his followers to live with the tension of believing that the kingdom was indeed arriving in and through his own work, and that this kingdom would come, fully arrive, not all in a bang but through a process like the slow growth of a plant or the steady leavening of a loaf.
N.T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 1 -
January 2025
Housing In December we finalized the purchase of a new house, and sold our current house (in a brief 3 days). We celebrated Christmas but also spent a lot of time packing for the move. Moving into January, the focus…
-
I will talk to you of art,
For there is nothing else to talk about,
For there is nothing else.Life is an obscure hobo,
Maxwell H. Brock
Bumming a ride on the omnibus of art. -
Can Architecture Trigger Neuroinflamation?
Studies have established that architecture can trigger a stress response, but stress is more than a mental response – it triggers a whole host of compensating mechanisms in our bodies including hormonal changes. Cleo Valentine is doing interesting research, taking…
-
The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society
After the Second World War, philosophers were playing a bit of a game of catch up behind the scientists. The war machine had driven all sorts of advancement, but there wasn’t a lot of thought about the impacts to people…
-
Any machine constructed for the purpose of making decisions, if it does not possess the power of learning, will be completely literal-minded. Woe to us if we let it decide our conduct, unless we have previously examined the laws of its action, and know fully that it’s conduct will be carried out on principles acceptable to us! On the other hand, the machine like the djinnee, which can learn and can make decisions on the basis of its learning, will in no way be obliged to make decisions as we should have made, or will be acceptable to us. For the man who is not aware of this, to throw the problem of his responsibility on the machine, whether it can learn or not, is to cast his responsibility to the winds, and to find it coming back seated on the whirlwind.
Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society