The problem with the computer revolution

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lynnehelen

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I happen to have inside information on this.

I submitted a thread under prayer intentions for high-tech professionals, that the Lord lead their hearts, as I know from personal experience of my father’s involvement in high-tech that there is a cult of intellect involved.

It goes deeper, and I believe that this should be of interest to Catholics.

I noted that Khalid, in his response, (I pray that you don’t mind my naming you), used the term “rationalism” to denote this cult of intellect.

Putting myself at great risk on a Sunday with the love of God in my heart, I would submit to you that this term comes straight from my father, who is English, and was baptised Anglican before he was sent on scholarship to a Catholic school. We know that the Anglican Church embraces reason as a contingency for its practice of faith. Then, there is the great tradition of English rationalism–John Locke, Charles Darwin, the Royal Scientific Society of the 1800’s. It is the reasoning upon which our Constitution of the United States is based.

My father, indeed, was at the very epicenter, the very pulse point, of the computer revolution in its inception. I cannot divulge his exact role in the early industry as that would identify him. Suffice it to say that, as a working class Brit who had learned posh habits at university, including God-bashing, which was popular in post-War England, with a beautiful young Middle Class (translates to American Upper Middle Class) bride at his elbow, put a James Bond face on the Revenge of the Nerds.

Cutting to the chase, I will point out that digital technology was a switch from vacuum tube technology (you had vacuum tubes in your t.v.'s in the early 60’s). Vacuum tube technology was analog–curvy–human. Digital technology, (based on the development of the integrated circuit, for the invention of which Jack Killian won the Nobel Prize in 2000)for those who don’t know, is about strings of zeros and ones, switches which say either yes or no, on or off.

I happen to know (as I said, I am going out on a limb here with the strong love of Jesus in my heart) that the determination to move away from vacuum tube and go digital (develop the integrated circuit) was based solely, purely, and entirely on a profit motive. A paper at that time demonstrated that through miniaturization of the IC (integrated circuit), which had been shown to be doable, smaller, cheaper computers, calculaters, etc., could be produced, indeed, proliferated to the point that there could be a PC in every living room by the 90’s. I am mixing things up a little here deliberately.

There was a lot of debate in the early 80’s as to whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

My father (more) recently tempted my psychologist to treat me disrespectfully and do harm to me in a way which was subtle and which he, my psychologist, a Catholic, did not understand. He is an expert and highly-trained professional. But this slipped by him, even though he knew that there was a sexual abuse issue between me and my father.

My point is, there is logic abroad which has become so much part of the popular lexicon (need I go to mention of zillions of dollars poured into public image and advertising so slick it defies the word, I’ll reference James Bond again).

Simply put, it is Protestant logic. Q.E.D. (which means quod est demonstrandum which means, which has been shown, also “Quite Easily Done”)

I won the Geometry Prize in high school, actually the Math Prize, but it was for my work in Geometry.

See what I mean? Please, Lord, please help me remember my heart iq.

So be careful.

Please feel free to respond to this thread. I treat this subject lightly because it is so very serious. The core human values are being undermined by inhuman machinery and the pretentions of those who run it and the desperation of those who are forced to keep it up and running (I mentioned in my prayer thread that it was said that the demand for IT professionals will increase 10-fold, or something like that, in the next generation, and elsewhere, that “Information Management Professional” was among the 10 most hated jobs.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with Thee.
Blessed art Thou among women,
and Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now, and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
 
This is very interesting! I have a different problem with the computer revolution. I think it encourages us, particularly young people who have grown up with the computer, to expect instant decisions and answers to questions that may require a lot more time and thinking. And when we don’t receive immediate responses, we may become more prone to anxiety and depression.
 
i still wonder if the computer revolution is a net good or evil. hmmmmmmmm
 
I’m sorry, I am totally lost here. What has your father’s expertise in the computer field, and the replacement of the vacuum tube, to do with your father supposedly attempting to manipulate your therapist? I guess I don’t understand what is so dangerous about your post, and what the “computer revolution” has to do with your father’s abuse of you.
 
I honestly believe that the cult of intellect that we’re seeing is really just a manifestation of athiesm that is using science and mathematics as a convenient umbrella for it’s agenda. Topics like evolution, global warming and human sexual psychology have all been severely distorted and twisted to promote an anti-christian agenda when, in fact, the science itself has been pushed off to the side and sometimes even completely ignored.

With regards to the computer revolution, I agree that this is also providing an “umbrella” for this athiest movement. There’s so much talk about computers becoming smarter then people and human’s creating new life through machines that it seems like we’re trying to make ourselves into God (Lucifer tried the same thing, and we know what happened to him).

All the respect intended towards your personal situation, while computers do appear to be providing an avenue for this negative cultural phenomenon, I do not believe it has as much to do with the technology of integrated circuits as it has to do with the prevailing athiesm that seems to be taking hold in our popular culture and academic institutions. I mean, the printing press was a pretty huge invention back in the 1400’s and it never led to this kind of dissent away from God.
 
Some of your post was incorrect in some minor details.
The thing that jumped out at me at first was the assertion that digital electronics was introduced with the integrated circuit. This is false.

Digital electronics does not depend on the integrated circuit. The early digital computers of the 1950s were all based on vacuum tube (valve) technology.

The first digital computers that were not vacuum tube based were discrete transistor computers of the early 1960s.

Integrated circuits are nothing more than multiple transistors (and other semiconductor components) manufactured as a complete circuit using photolithography. Electronically it isn’t much different than building a discrete component circuit using individual transistors, apart from effects caused by the decades-long continual reduction in feature size.

To sum up, it is perfectly possible to make an internet capable computer using vacuum tube technology, but it would be quite large, quite power hungry, and quite expensive.
 
The computer revolution is one of the best things ever. In the past it was told us what to believe like we have to be agonistic and over the top tolerant. The internet gives us the possibility to look for many differed opinions. If there was no internet I would still believe that all religions are the same and that the Catholic Church is just one of many Churches that claims to interpret the bible right, just like my parish told me. The first time I saw the true catholic teachings was in the internet.
 
The computer revolution is one of the best things ever. In the past it was told us what to believe like we have to be agonistic and over the top tolerant. The internet gives us the possibility to look for many differed opinions. If there was no internet I would still believe that all religions are the same and that the Catholic Church is just one of many Churches that claims to interpret the bible right, just like my parish told me. The first time I saw the true catholic teachings was in the internet.
True, the Internet allows us to be exposed to a variety of opinions. However, that benefit comes at a potential cost, namely that we have to be even more careful to use our own minds to discriminate between the opinions offered. Not all of them are accurate, some may be only partially correct, and still others quite misleading.
 
The “Revenge of the Nerds” is like all the Too-Talls took over and developed an industrial standard that required everything to be set 6" higher, and then used, abused, and took advantage of their special advantage to obfuscate and intimidate those who couldn’t see what they were doing because they were too short.

High intelligence can be a stumbling block. Just like being too tall. It should be addressed and attended to as such in those who possess it.

I am short. Tall people scare me.

🙂
 
The industry needs to be regulated.

I believe that massive anti-trust legislation is required.

As for my father, I will share this exchange with you:

In our ongoing, lifelong argument, I shared with him some time ago, truly believing that he would hear me, that faith is not reasonable. That that is the whole point. (He was pointing out the irrationality of Christian faith.)

I think that my problem has a serious problem with his heart.

Faith is an act of the heart.

He, for one thing, stole my words without asking and incorporated them in a text he was working on in order to refute them. I try to explain to him that logic by itself accomplishes nothing.

He came back some time later with this: he referred me to a book called “The Christian Delusion.” In our personal and private lexicon he was attacking my vulnerability as a person with a history of treatment for mental illness and a diagnosis of record–in order to win the argument about faith.

I would point out that the title itself is a lie. Technically, an apparently irrational belief shared by many, as in the case of religion, is specifically excluded from the definition of the technical, psychiatric term, “delusion.” Indeed, patients at the state hospital where he sent me when I was 24, despite the doctor’s pleading desperately with them to cough up for a private hospitalization, had the right to refuse medication based on a documentable history of belief in faith healing.

That’s my father–he just wants to win the argument–through logic–doesn’t understand about right and wrong and that there’s a difference between. He got so pumped up as a high-tech pioneer in the limelight that he was never able to let go. And, as his child and a member of a family among MANY families of high-tech professionals, I am aware of MANY cases where such egomania in the parent, cultivated and fostered by the corporation, good for productivity, deleteriously affected the children.

Anglican rationailism gone to the devil.

:gopray: :gopray2:
 
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