http://religionandtechnology.com "The subjects are cyborg, nature is coyote, and the geography is elsewhere." * Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:00:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The NYT writes about the decline of buddhism in Japan. Within the article is an aside about buddhist priests for hire via the internet: It was partly to dispel this bad image that Kazuma Hayashi, 41, a Buddhist priest without a temple of his own, said he founded a company, ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/07/14/obohsancom/ Interview with Davis during Loris Gréaud's Cellar Door installation. http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/07/06/erik-davis-at-palais-de-tokyo/ I want to watch A&E's remake of Andromeda Strain... However, the digital cable god won't give it to me. Why is this? I keep thinking it's somehow related to the rain. Is this the moment when technology becomes a part of our religious environment? When we suspect ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/06/30/infinite-moments-in-cable/ "U.S. Chief District Judge Mark Wolf ruled this week that the Department of Correction violated federal law protecting religious freedom and ordered the department to provide Daniel Yeboah-Sefah a diet in line with his Buddhist beliefs." Read more... http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/06/24/prisons-ordered-to-provide-vegan-meal/ (Posted about Bike Blessing on Drunk and In Charge of a Bicycle.) http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/06/10/bike-blessing/ From the New York Times article: Thousands of South Korean students, mainly networking through the Internet, immediately took to the streets, followed by a broader uproar. The uprisings and protest in South Korea are a great example of the power Cyberactivism to affect and infect people (who may or may not have ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/06/10/cyberactivism-in-south-korea/ Apparently over 260,000 of you have seen this and I didn't even know it was there. Into the remix rabbit hole: http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/05/31/alice/ http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/05/31/uncanny-valley-30-rock/ The NY Times has a silly article on Mindfulness Meditation, here's the summary: "Many researchers now worry that the enthusiasm for Buddhist practice will run so far ahead of the science that this promising psychological tool could turn into another fad." Yes, another 5,000 year old fad. Of course, western "psychotherapy" ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/05/27/nyt-reports-on-buddha%e2%80%99s-arrival-in-psychotherapy/ Reading Spiritual robots: Religion and our scientific view of the natural world by Robert M. Geraci http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/05/19/spiritual-robots/ Reading Apocalyptic AI: Religion and the Promise of Artificial Intelligence by Robert M. Geraci http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/05/19/apocalyptic-ai/ Reading Thoughts on the Status of the Cyborg: On Technological Socialization and Its Link to the Religious Function of Popular Culture by Brenda E. Brasher http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/05/19/technosocialize/ MOMA kills a sculpture. http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/05/10/killing-the-art/ This is one of the most responsive, interactive and informational web interfaces I've encountered: http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/ http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/05/10/moma-exhibit-web-interface/ Discerning Brute blogs about Guillermo Vargas Habacuc's plan to starve another dog as part of an exhibition. As artists and viewers of art, we must take a firm stand against this exhibition. Not a stand against any form of art, but a stand against cruelty and slavery, torture ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/04/22/art-at-what-cost/ The pope's vehicle is much stranger than I remember. He really looks like an artifact in a display case at a museum. An interesting blend of security and visibility. http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/04/16/papal-pupa/ Take a look at Gregory Donovan's brilliant research blog - he's re-launched. What a code master! http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/04/14/cyberenviroorg/ "Natural Charcoal" I contributed a little story about a food producer and their sugar refinery to The Discerning Brute. You can read it here. I verified that the Domino refinery in question does not use cow bones. I read something recently that claimed it takes something like 7,800 cows to ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/04/14/euphemism-for-burnt-slave-bones-in-your-food/ Genetic storefront opens in SoHo. http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/04/14/genetic-testing-goes-retail/ The Washington Post is reporting that the Bush administration is prepared to begin directing our most advanced spying technology on our own citizens. This includes advanced satellite systems. We are entering the era of total surveillance. Every movement will soon be tracked - every cell phone call will enable location ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/04/14/burqa-v2/ It's the feeling you get when you see it slipping. Gizmodo describes it as "It feels so "animal" that I almost feel bad when they hit it to demonstrate how it regains balance on its own." http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/03/26/i-almost-feel-bad/ Biblical events as if seen on Google earth. God's Eye View (Ark) http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/01/27/the-glue-society/ http://religionandtechnology.com/2008/01/17/floris-kaayk-metalosis-maligna/ Great way to phrase this, could be done without calling cuneiform chicken scratch, but... "The chicken scratch of Sumerian bureaucrats had blossomed into an oracular delivery mechanism for the Word of God, one powerful enough to trigger the speck of essence within -- and to prove that humble infotech may, in ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/12/15/notes-the-visual-idea-and-the-sacred-self/ "Every time culture succeeds in revolutionizing its cybernetic technologies, in massively widening the bandwidth of its thought-tech, it invites the creation of new gods." quoted by Erik Davis in Techgnosis, pg 37 The full paragraph: "How do we reconcile the rationalism of utopian vision with the obvious irrationalism of postmodernism generally, and ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/12/15/notes-david-porush/ Devices are always watching us - and feeding data into the network. This OS X screensaver by Michael Zoellner searches for CCTV feeds and displays them. Very eerie. http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/11/12/hacker-voyuerism-of-network-surveillance/ ZDnet posts an article called "Mac OS X Leopard installation as a spiritual practice". I'm engaging in that practice right now - preparing my various Macs for the upgrade, the archive and install and the clean install. But it's more than the installation that is spiritual. To retrieve the ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/10/26/the-temple-of-apple/ Dr. Mala Htun discusses the crucial role that electronic communication plays in the social justice movement for Burma. http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/10/02/electronic-communication-and-social-justice/ http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/10/02/electronic-communicatin-from-burma/ "In Myanmar's main city of Yangon, residents launched a new form of dissent, switching off their lights and TV sets for 15 minutes during the nightly government newscast starting at 8 p.m. The ''silent protest'' began Monday and continued Tuesday, even when state television showed pictures of the Gambari-Than Shwe meeting, ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/10/02/burma-protests-by-refusing-electronic-propoganda/ riseup.net has a great collection of tech activism listserves. Highlights include: nomesh-tech New Orleans Mesh Networking - Technical Support & Discussion farma Renewable energy sources campaign for the Zapatista communities leftistpython Leftist and combative object oriented programming fpl-fbv Forum on the Patenting of Life - Forum sur le brevetage du vivant vgranjeros List for the farmers ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/09/17/tech-activist-listserves/ Action by the Iraq Veterans Against the War http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/09/16/war-is-not-a-game/ At the ANSWER march on the capitol Iraq war veteran Rev. Yearwood closed his remarks by saying: "The revolution may not be televised, but it will be uploaded!" Rev. Yearwood asked the listeners to go to youtube and watch the following video of Captiol police tackling him when he tried to ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/09/16/the-revolution-will-be-uploaded/ I had the great pleasure of reading Phil Dick's Galactic Pot-Healer (1969) last week. I'm now about to finish The Unteleported Man (1966). Pot-Healer is an extraordinary story of a divine life form from another world (yes, it's Dick, you probably could have assumed that much) who recruits ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/09/14/glimmung-part-gyroscope-part-teenage-girl-part-ocean/ The New York Times reports that prison libraries are being purged of religious books and other materials. The Bureau of Prisons is banning material that might “discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize.” Of course this is absurd and I can't even begin to imagine who is deciding what would “discriminate, ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/09/10/bureau-of-prisons-clearly-hasnt-read-the-bible/ In his research blog, Gregory Donovan constructs a definition of his neologism "cyberenvironmentalism." Donovan writes that "cyberenvironmentalism aims to develop ecologically informed environmental practice for the information age through interdisciplinary examination of cyborg ecology." He further defines his new field as follows: "Pragmatic in its approach, constructive ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/08/30/cyberenvironmental-activism-a-digital-revolution/ My host switched DNS info and didn't update - apologies for the outage over the last day! http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/08/18/server-outage/ Reading William Gibson's blog and thinking about his discussion of ATMs as part of his extended nervous system, I decided to start mapping mine. I began with the interface I spend most of the day with, my Mac - then to the WiFi router, then the cable modem, then ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/08/03/extended-nervous-system-10/ And how does Honda's reaction to this fall make you feel? One youtube commenter said the reaction made him feel like Asimo had "been murdered." http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/07/29/robot-crime-scene/ Asimo continues to be a great example of the uncanny valley, how does watching this video make you feel? http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/07/29/asimo/ At the Humanoid Robotics Group at M.I.T., a robot’s “humanoid” qualities can include fallibility and whininess as much as physical traits like head, arms and torso. This is where our cultural images of robots as superhumans run headlong into the reality of motors, actuators and cold computer code. the article... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/07/29/superhuman-reality/ How much storage do you have on you right now? http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/07/28/data-storage/ This is something I've always noticed with the change from a generation who couldn't imagine how they would sound recorded or look on film to the current generation who live as though they are on television - the hyper-mediated state of mind. http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/07/28/gibson-on-non-mediated-humans/ http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/07/28/br-the-final-cut/ Simon Haiduk created this "interactive permaculture learning module" reflecting the work of GaiaCraft. http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/07/21/gaiacraft/ In 2005, Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori issued a brief article, On Uncanny Valley, which proposes an amendment to his original graph of familiarity vs. appearance (human likeness). He adds “something more attractive and amiable than human beings in the further right-hand side of the valley.” I've created this ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/07/20/expanding-the-uncanny-valley/ In response to text messages, hundreds of participants wore white and crossed the Brooklyn bridge, boarded Subways and made their way (many unknowingly) to Coney Island. Joining the event without understanding the purpose and following this crowd, I had the distinct impression that I had been swept up in ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/07/20/flashcongregation/ I've been working on completing a paper I began in Jenna Tiitsman's Cinema and Religion course at Hunter College which explores the numinous potential of replicants in Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner. Cyborgs challenge the praxis that has traditionally divided human and machine (and companion/slave, animal/food, creator/creation, etc.). In doing ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/07/05/mapping-the-temples-of-cyborgism/ http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/06/16/pibai/ Can technology provide not only access to, but understanding of the origin of our design/evolution? According to Arianna Huffington, some family and friends of Google are getting into the business of decoding genomes. The Mountain View company 23andMe, Inc. is offerring to help you "make sense of your own ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/31/view-source/ In The Soul of Cyberspace Zaleski quotes Rabbi Yosef Y. Kazen, founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch Web site, description of his "Global Interactive Database of Good Deeds" in which users type in an act of goodness or kindness and a 'vitrual menorah' lights up: "[this database adheres to] our perspective that the ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/29/they-shall-beat-their-swords-into-databases/ This post is activating connectivity with Technorati. The automated programs that search and index web content are called spiders. These very insect-like digital-dna based life forms will recognize this site from the following link information and validate my claim on this blog. Visit my Technorati Profile. http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/27/releasing-spiders/ The following quote from Tiitsman's article on destabilized spectatorship and the creative potential of chaos in Blade Runner suggests another cognitive space in which a Temple of Cyborgism emerges. "Replicant identity can only be unequivocally determined by a test of involuntary pupil dilation in emotional response. However the viability of ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/27/emergent-robotic-beast/ O'Leary (1996) as quoted by Højsgaard & Warburg in "Religion and Cyberspace" As we move from text-based transmissions into an era where the graphic user interface becomes the standard, and new generations of programs such as Netscape are developed which allow the transmission of images and music along with words, we ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/26/cyber-ritual/ Quote from metacritical.com: Jesus is a computer. Transubstantiation via silicon wafer. We have declared the cyborg religion. Mammon is God, born this day. http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/26/silicon-wafer/ From a summary of the preceedings of the 2000 AAR meeting: "Models of God in Religion and Science" "Cyborg religion" also came up at a Religion and the Social Sciences section devoted to, "The Moral Life of Cyborgs: Issues in Forging, Navigating, and Resisting Virtual Communities." A foursome from Union Theological ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/26/cyborg-religion-at-aar/ Josh Levy's project on activism in Second Life takes the form of a Machinima Documentary. In this screenshot you can see the slogan "Avatars Against the War." The avatar has ethical practice. What about worship, spirituality? How do Second Lifers express religiosity in the virtual world? ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/26/avatars-against-the-war/ May 6, 2007 Bhutan Lets the World In (but Leaves Fashion TV Out) By SOMINI SENGUPTA THIMPHU, Bhutan — “Explore the World,” promised the signboard outside. Inside Norling Cyberworld, in a second-floor corner of a busy shopping arcade, Dorji Wangchuk rolled up the sleeve of his Puma sweatshirt and offered a glimpse of his ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/25/the-body-the-internet-the-mind/ When the tech and the environment are no longer disambiguated. This is an ultimate boundary crossing for RelTech. Ubiquitous computing (or "ubicomp") is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. As opposed to the desktop paradigm, in which ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/22/ubicomp/ I read Meditations on the Indranet (Erik Davis) for the first time today. I say this as though I should have read it earlier because I ran across the text online while doing research for my work on mapping the Temples of Cyborgism and just didn't have time to ... http://religionandtechnology.com/2007/05/21/magic/