Oct 02 2023 24 mins
A look at how technology will disrupt the structures of how western society functions.
The following is a transcript of the sermon written and delivered by Harmony member Rob Rogan on Oct. 1, 2023. So it has been a minute since I’ve done a sermon up here, and I’m kind of excited to get back to it. And then I’m going to throw a disclaimer out there. I do like to do these. Some of the lines of logic and scenarios I’m going to throw out here today, may be considered too dramatic. They may be considered unrealistic, or maybe not. But I ask that even when I intentionally get a little hyperbolic, that we allow ourselves the space to run down these logical rabbit holes. And at the end of our discussion, we consider if we agree with them or not. But if you’d give me a little artistic license, I appreciate it. Also, before I do get into it, I do want to give some credit for some of the source material to Israeli historian Yuval Harari. If you don’t know him, he’s just a really, really interesting guy to listen to. He’s got a really straightforward take on a lot of things usually from a historical lens. And I highly recommend he’s got a lot of content out there. So– and I am actually going to play a couple clips with him towards the end. So you’re going to see him. All right. So with that out of the way, I’m going to go ahead and dive in. All right. So, question, how many here have seen the Stanley Kubrick classic film 2001? All right. Maybe half. OK. By all accounts, it’s probably one of the more groundbreaking movies of all time. For those who haven’t seen it, I’d offer, it’s a fairly obtuse film. It’s filled with imagery as much as it is story. And it’s really designed to evoke emotion, maybe even more than it is to be logically interpreted. Kubrick himself stated that if anyone walked out of the theater on the first viewing and understood the film, that he failed as a filmmaker. However, what is quite clear is the representation of technology as this two-sided sword that hurts humanity as much as it helps. I particularly marvel at the imagery of the first act of the film. The whole first scene, maybe 20 minutes, is now a line of dialogue. And it’s kind of this powerful story of depicting the primitive descendants of humans that learn to use bones as tools for the first time and then immediately use that to kill fellow primates and acts of rage. Now, most remember the more infamous third act of the movie where the dangerous computer known as how becomes one of the first cautionary tales of AI and cinema. In the film, the soothing voice and complex abilities of the HAL 9000 computer controls every system and device around our astronauts in space. And while Hal is compliant in his requests and gentle in his demeanor, Kubrick masterfully makes the viewers feel so uncomfortable by showing how helpless the astronauts were. Even in scenes where Hal is kind and benevolent, we feel how the astronauts are completely reliant upon the technology. Now, this movie, which was released 55 years ago, really did a bad job at predicting the year 2001. But perhaps now in 2023, we are at a time where technology is approaching an uncomfortable relationship with humans. And why intend to portray today a cautionary view of technology? I’m not going to talk about the kind of uprising violent technology featured in pop culture cinema, like the Terminator, the Matrix, or other more common sci-fi human versus AI tropes. Instead, I intend to discuss technology, even in concentrated human control, that represents a more gentle but dangerous Hal-like risk to the very structures of our society.