Wonderosity

We continue from the last entry exploring the nature of technology through Tolkien’s myth…

My Story
As early as about 1978, when personal computers were just beginning to make their way into many North American middle class homes, I was already spending a lot of time with them. Using a computer was one of the few things my step-father and I did together. In fact, I learned to type by playing computer adventure games: hunting and pecking for the right letters, I would give my computerized character commands like “g-o n-o-r-t-h” and “p-i-c-k u-p s-w-o-r-d” and “a-t-t-a-c-k t-r-o-l-l”. I was entertained and fascinated, enchanted, and soon became quite proficient with these magical boxes. But with time, as they and I each developed in complexity and power, previously unseen problems and concerns about their nature and my use of them began to arise. I was unsure how to begin trying to understand how technology was affecting me and the rest of the world. Thus the research for this paper has primarily been to help me wrestle through my very ambiguous feelings about technology. And, in my own unusual way, the writing of it is an attempt to increase awareness of what seems to be the crucial questions involved with technology and to offer any answers I have found along the way.

A week before writing this paper I decided to go for a long walk in the woods to think over what I’ve learned thus far and to put together some kind of outline in my head. However, before I left my house, I started gathering things for my backpack –a few snacks, a book or two, a journal and pen, and my new ‘Revo’ –a 1999 gadget that was basically like a laptop computer, except that it was only the size of a wallet. Pretty geeky stuff for the times. “I had better take this to capture my ideas” I thought to myself. However, in light of the topic at hand, I eventually reconsidered and left it in my office. Actually, I decided to leave the pen and paper there too –for, I wondered to myself, aren’t these types of technologies as well? In the end I left everything at home except a tuna-fish sandwich that I had made for lunch, which I put in my coat pocket before heading out the door. If you’re one of those who would consider my tuna sandwich a type of technology, well, I’ll have a word or two for you later. Anyway, I left the house feeling a little less burdened than my initial attempt.

The woods were quiet and refreshing. Eventually the trails of the UBC endowment lands take one away from the sounds of rushing cars and other city noises. Slowly, as my mind settled and I became immersed in the beauty of the woods, I began to mull over much of what I’d read related to the nature of technology. Soon afterwards, ‘brilliant earth-shattering revelations!’ (or so I felt) began to rain down upon me. “Oh, I hope <read: fear> I don’t forget these ideas” I thought to myself, “I wish I would have brought my Revo –or at least the pen and paper. Maybe I was being too legalistic. Should I go back and get it? I’d hate to forget all this.” This type of chatter and more of its kind looped through my mind for a few minutes before finally submitting to the silent whispers of the trees.

I wondered to myself later that day: was my Revo, like Tolkien’s One ring, calling out for me, it’s servant?

Tolkien’s Story
J.R.R. Tolkien created a massive work of the imagination, a fantastic meta-narrative some might say, that is working its literary ‘magic’ on millions of readers to this day. I was one of these enchanted readers early in my childhood, and made my way through his trilogy probably only a few years after my exposure to the magic of computers –which, for a 10 year old infrequent reader, was quite a feat (around a couple thousand pages if you include the Hobbit!) Tolkien’s primary works (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Sirmarillion) have sold well over 100,000,000 copies (as of 1999), have been translated into at least thirty languages, and are frequently at the top of various national ‘top ten book’ surveys. They have clearly been influential in the lives of many many people –and there is no sign that this trend will be ceasing any time soon. In his myth, the basic plot runs so:

An ancient and magic ring has been unexpectedly found by a member of a simple and somewhat humble race, a hobbit by the name of Bilbo Baggins. He knows not the ring’s true nature or powers, but there is a powerful enemy that does. In time, a wise old wizard named Gandalf and other wise men from various races –elves, dwarves and such –come to conclude that this ring is none other than the One Ring, from the sayings of Lore;

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord in his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to Bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

A High Council is called in which, after many disagreements and struggles, it is painfully admitted that there is only one thing that must be done with this powerful ring –it must be destroyed. The council realizes that even if one were to try and use the ring to war against the Dark Lord Sauron (for a great war is stirring at the time of this story, and many tragic victories have already been won by Sauron), it would eventually turn to ill, for its use would ultimately corrupt and enslave the wearer (The reason for this will be explored in more detail later, but for now recall Acton’s famous phrase “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”). Yet the matter of destroying this ring is not so simple: it must be taken by one willing to travel far into the lifeless land of Mordor, and cast into the same mount of fire in which it was forged.

By the time that this council takes place the ring has passed on to another hobbit, Frodo Baggins (Bilbo’s adopted cousin), who reluctantly accepts the heavy burden of bearing the ring to Mordor. The rest of the story, which is the majority of Tolkien’s trilogy, describes the journey Frodo takes with a fellowship of companions, and the adventures that they embark upon to try and destroy the One Ring.

Stay tuned for Part III:  Modernity’s Myth 

Tags: Tolkien, Technology, Skeptech, wonderosity, leifhansen, theonering

“As the servants of the machines are becoming a privileged
class, the Machines are going to be enormously more powerful.
What’s their next move?”
–J.R.R. Tolkien (in a letter to his son, at the close of WWII)

Have you ever had the odd experience of re-reading a paper you’ve written, even just a few years back, and feeling like it must have been written by someone else far more knowledgeable or far more idiotic than yourself? I tend to feel one of those two extremes when I re-read my papers (which is probably why I do it so rarely). While a good portion of those papers now feel like they were a waste of time, a few of the ones I wrote in grad school still have tremendous importance and relevance to me and, I’ve been told, for society in general.

One of the two papers most requested from me I’ve decided to take material from and re-post in blog format, for a) I’ve recently received some national press about a workshop we’re doing related to this topic, b)I’ve always wanted to edit and update this paper, c) Excerpts from the paper are much easier to digest than a 50 page paper and, d) My paper was written from a particular ‘theological’ context that could distract some folks from the heart of the issue. If you want to read the full paper with all its foot notes (there are some good juicy ones), feel free to go ahead but, without further adieu: “The Ring, The Stone, & The Pool: Exploring the Nature of Technology through the Magic within Tolkien’s Myth, Part I, An Introduction”

“…Technology is playing more and more of a role in our daily lives and we are doing more and more of our playing through technology. However, the question that gets closer to the point of this paper is this: is technology actually playing more and more with us? Some of us are concerned that this might be the case; that as we increasingly use technologies, we are actually increasingly being used by them as well.

If the connections between an increase in technological dependency and many of the problems facing our modern society are not already obvious to the reader, I hope that by the end of this paper they will be. Yet not only do I hope to heighten your awareness of the seriousness of the situation at hand, I also aim to help you better understand the very nature of technology, and in time, to be more thoughtful about intentional about which technologies to embrace and in what manner their powers can best be used. Lastly, I will point towards another type of power, an alternative ‘magic’, that I believe can better meet many of the needs and desires which we have tried mostly in vain to meet through technological means.

In order to accomplish these goals we will need to traverse what may seem strange or unrelated territory; for what do technology, magic, myth, and art have to do with each other? By drawing upon the mythic literature of J.R.R. Tolkien, the relationship of these subjects will become clearer as we examine the nature of three magical artifacts found in Tolkien’s trilogy: the One Ring, the Palantiri stones, and Galadriel’s Pool.

After briefly telling a story about my relationship with technology, and after briefly summarizing the core plot of Tolkien’s trilogy, I will use each of these magical artifacts to provide the basic structure of this paper. In looking at ‘the One ring’, I will be critiquing various myths of modernity and exploring the nature of technology in general. Next, the Palantiri stones will provide for us a helpful analogy to our modern technologies, and so here I will also propose a more holistic approach to technological assessment. Finally, by looking into the pool of Galadriel, I will conclude by examining the nature of another kind of more creative magic that exists in both our own world and Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. But first I would like to share with the reader why this topic is so important to me…”

More coming soon…

Tags: Tolkien, Technology, Skeptech, magic, theonering, leifhansen, sparknw, wonderosity