19 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
19 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
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People are fairly aware that something is going 'wrong' with technological development, even in the secular world. There is much talk about humanist design - "human-centered", "humanitarian".
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At first blush this seems good - instead of building machines for their own sake, we build them for ours. But what is our sake? What is good for man? What is man for? Where did he come from - where does he go? Humanely developing technology is not a technical problem or even just a political one - it is an anthropological one.
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Good technology begins with good anthropology.
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I may ask you to make a glove for my hand but if you do not know its measure, much less its form, how can you begin? If you misunderstand, will you not merely waste material?
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Most "humanitarian" efforts are concerned predominantly with man's physical well-being, and in particular, alleviating sufferring. Most forms of physical sufferring are well-understood: hunger, disease, war, inadequate shelter. Reducing these is good, but focusing on them can be a distraction or an excuse from the higher things, as Judas did when the woman perfumed Jesus' feet. The ends do not justify the means - we need balance.
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Man is for union with God - cooperation with divine grace - the cultivation of virtue. He is the soil from which the virtues grow. This is lofty - poetic - beautiful, but by itself offers little more than the message of "reducing human sufferring". What is needed is a well-developed anthropology - an understanding of these virtues.
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The sort of thinking we have in today's world - the air we breathe - is machine thinking. It is mathematic, calculating, and most importantly: all-encompassing; ideological. We seek to account for everything on a quest for a grand unifying equation of the world. No such theory is possible - both God and Godel will tell you that. There must be room for the transcendent. There must be room for dispensation. We must use judgement and prudence rather than defer to machines. To to otherwise is a misunderstanding of our role in creation as steward, and to let our sense of prudence atrophy.
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The charioteer of the virtues is Prudence - she commands the others, knowing when one is required and the other not. Prudence is built not by a sort of mathematical logic and reason - machine thinking - but by a long process of observation, decision-making, and study. Holy Tradition provides us with a rich well from which to pull in developing prudence. Only in the Church will we find the graces and knowledge necessary for human flourishing. Let us look to her for help in developing our prudence, so that we may design in accordance with God's command. |