Proposition: I think that smartphones should be illegal to handle by anyone under the age of 18. I certainly don't want my own daughters to own them until at least that age.
Rationale:
1) Smartphone technology is so new -- and so fundamentally unique -- that we do not yet know what its long-term impact might be on the individual human brain, let alone on the evolution of the brain for future generations (see recent Atlantic article on this).
2) The uncritical adoption of technologies which are leading us down the path of cyborg-like human/computer integration could very well also eventually lead to the end of our species (as proposed in Homo Deus).
3) Christians need to figure out how to be peculiar again or the faith with die. I am attempting to raise my daughters to be Christians and this could be a counter-cultural practice that will help define our people for centuries. But theologians need to think carefully about technological change to see if they agree that this is the way forward.
4) Benefit: our children will be forced to interact with the real, physical, embodied world and with real physical human beings/bodies/faces. This will be their salvation. The alternative is what we already see: teens spending entire summers in their bedrooms on their beds with blue screens in their faces. If this trajectory continues for generations, our physical bodies will gradually evolve into something almost inhuman as we integrate more intimately with our computers.
Rationale:
1) Smartphone technology is so new -- and so fundamentally unique -- that we do not yet know what its long-term impact might be on the individual human brain, let alone on the evolution of the brain for future generations (see recent Atlantic article on this).
2) The uncritical adoption of technologies which are leading us down the path of cyborg-like human/computer integration could very well also eventually lead to the end of our species (as proposed in Homo Deus).
3) Christians need to figure out how to be peculiar again or the faith with die. I am attempting to raise my daughters to be Christians and this could be a counter-cultural practice that will help define our people for centuries. But theologians need to think carefully about technological change to see if they agree that this is the way forward.
4) Benefit: our children will be forced to interact with the real, physical, embodied world and with real physical human beings/bodies/faces. This will be their salvation. The alternative is what we already see: teens spending entire summers in their bedrooms on their beds with blue screens in their faces. If this trajectory continues for generations, our physical bodies will gradually evolve into something almost inhuman as we integrate more intimately with our computers.
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