Cone family lore tells how when I was a toddler mom put me down for a nap, and during said nap I took apart a Fisher Price cassette player using a screwdriver I found, because "I wanted to see how it worked." It never worked again after that, despite a search for a missing spring through the garbage (apparently I pointed out the missing spring which had not in fact gone in the garbage but that didn’t fix it). I've always enjoyed understanding how things work, and my son will similarly take things apart. Today I really appreciate having a smart phone I can snap photos of something before I take it apart, and pull up a user manual or ask AI.

Something different that I've been taking apart recently is the idea of technology. What is technology? We often define technology as new and interesting machines, but this is an extremely limiting definition, what qualifies as new? What is a machine? Does a vaccine which is primarily biological count as a technology?

Douglas Adams description of technology has always resonated with me:

I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies: 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

-- Douglas Adams in The Salmon Of Doubt

Like Adam's says, most of our technology fades into the background and we barely consider it. Take clothing or fabric, for example, the average pair of blue jeans (a very useful technology) contains some 6 miles (10km) of cotton yarn, something that most American's have several pairs of, and yet before the industrial revolution would've required more than 12 workdays just to spin the thread (and far more time planting and harvesting before than).[1] Despite this, hardly any of us think of jeans as a technology, they're just "normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works."

If that's the case, then it becomes difficult to consider how a Christian should consider and evaluate technology, because the target is always shifting and different for those of different generations. I propose that when a Christian is considering technology the definition proposed by John Dyer holds the most value: "the human activity of using tools to transform God's creation for practical purposes."[2]

This brings us to consider that nearly all of the things that we interact with are a form of technology: clothing, language, or a computer. If you are a follower of Christ, then Dyer's definition brings into light a new question, if you're using technology to transform the world around you, is that transformation shaped by your relationship with Christ, or have you walled it off as "normal and ordinary?"

Toddler me took apart a cassette player just to see what was inside. Look closely at the "normal and ordinary" around you... the tools you reach for unconsciously. Take apart how you use your clothing, phone, car, the language you speak, an app on your computer. Are they "just a natural part of the way the world works" for you? Or are these tools reshaping the world God created Christians need to surrender like the other parts of our lives?

Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
  1. Virginia Postrel - Fabric of Civilization - Chapter 2↩︎
  2. John Dyer, From the Garden to the City, Ch. 4↩︎