Tag: technology

What Are People For? Control or Love?

The arguments that Deneen and Shatzer advance are really two sides of the same coin; as one interpreter of Marshall McLuhan put it, “We make our tools, and then our tools make us.”

Robo-umps and Us

As is so often the case when new technology promises to correct the errors of human fallibility, robo-umps could be bad for everyone involved.

A Primer on Digital Thinking Part 2: Eliminating the Human Element

In Part 1, I outlined the basic difference between counting and measuring and gave some examples of how data is not always objectively derived....

Learning to Distinguish between Demonic and Redemptive Technologies

In a recent essay for Christianity Today, “Do All Plants Go to Heaven?,” Abigail Murrish speculates that GMOs might be present in the New...

Stop Talking about Wendell Berry on Twitter

Editor's Note: Matt's piece kicks off a mini-symposium on the question of whether localists should use social media, and if so, how. As a...

Learning How to Think with Alan Jacobs

Last fall Alan Jacobs published a slim book with a bold title: How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds. Jacobs...

Convenience, Digitized Childhood, Hunters, and more

“Make Communities Great Again.” James Bruce argues the federal government should adopt policies that would strengthen local communities. “The Tyranny of Convenience.” Tim Wu writes...

Technology and the Virtues: Scale Matters

When an autonomous Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, Uber suspended its fleet of self-driving cars and assured everyone that it...

Technological Failures, New Localism, and More

Each week, I’ll try to post links to recent essays and stories that might interest Porchers. If you have additional essays to recommend, please...

Nonsense on Stilts? Dandyism? Okay.

If I were God, I’d keep other company.