I came across this piece while Googling a definition of technocapital and then began reading your other work. It is all quite interesting and I will be recommending it, especially Statecraft, to some friends. I realize this might be a tall order, but can you recommend a primer or two on Land's philosophy that's accessible to a layman? (As what counts as a "layman" is terribly vague, maybe "educated and able to use technology" is as good a start as any.) For some context, I'm working through a particular set of questions around technology use and the Internet with reference to the value neutral thesis, especially as it relates to the structures of social media.
Mostly unrelated, but since I don't know how else to reach you: you asked a question some months ago on X about why small groups are something like the dominant social expression of American (or Evangelical) Christianity. The phenomenon seems to have arisen in response to economic changes during the industrial revolution, and (later) the effects of the automobile. As you know, the home/village and local parish used to be the center of economic and social life and the primary locus of identity formation. As life shifted to factories and cities and everything became much more mobile, the organic life that church discipleship / apprenticeship was built around evaporated. Christians responded to these trends with new (mediating?) institutions like discipleship groups or societies that often met midweek, and thus modern small groups were born. Mark Sayers (an Australian pastor and author) recently discussed this on the Rebuilders podcast, arguing this is possibly an outdated model given shifts in the information age: https://youtu.be/IJ8vwpRdH_c?t=1587 and Alastair Roberts (an independent Anglican scholar) also addressed the rise and function of small groups (in his typically insightful manner) in a Q&A a few years ago: https://youtu.be/Hx7fc-ChiVs?feature=shared
It is fascinating to view modern theological controversies, most of which were questions which ancient and medieval Christians generally considered settled, as arising almost entirely from the disorientating effect of modern technology on our social arrangements and material conditions. It's possible to overfit--if that's the right term--this framework, but it has helped me understand why these debates arise and why they seem to be so interminable. Is all ecclesiology downstream of technology?
Read this yesterday & haven’t stopped thinking of the collection of ideas in here. Interesting to note how “the only way out is through” is a description of accelerationism in Steven Shaviro’s “No Speed Limit”
Interesting and thoughtful, thank you.
It's a nuanced topic.
I came across this piece while Googling a definition of technocapital and then began reading your other work. It is all quite interesting and I will be recommending it, especially Statecraft, to some friends. I realize this might be a tall order, but can you recommend a primer or two on Land's philosophy that's accessible to a layman? (As what counts as a "layman" is terribly vague, maybe "educated and able to use technology" is as good a start as any.) For some context, I'm working through a particular set of questions around technology use and the Internet with reference to the value neutral thesis, especially as it relates to the structures of social media.
Mostly unrelated, but since I don't know how else to reach you: you asked a question some months ago on X about why small groups are something like the dominant social expression of American (or Evangelical) Christianity. The phenomenon seems to have arisen in response to economic changes during the industrial revolution, and (later) the effects of the automobile. As you know, the home/village and local parish used to be the center of economic and social life and the primary locus of identity formation. As life shifted to factories and cities and everything became much more mobile, the organic life that church discipleship / apprenticeship was built around evaporated. Christians responded to these trends with new (mediating?) institutions like discipleship groups or societies that often met midweek, and thus modern small groups were born. Mark Sayers (an Australian pastor and author) recently discussed this on the Rebuilders podcast, arguing this is possibly an outdated model given shifts in the information age: https://youtu.be/IJ8vwpRdH_c?t=1587 and Alastair Roberts (an independent Anglican scholar) also addressed the rise and function of small groups (in his typically insightful manner) in a Q&A a few years ago: https://youtu.be/Hx7fc-ChiVs?feature=shared
It is fascinating to view modern theological controversies, most of which were questions which ancient and medieval Christians generally considered settled, as arising almost entirely from the disorientating effect of modern technology on our social arrangements and material conditions. It's possible to overfit--if that's the right term--this framework, but it has helped me understand why these debates arise and why they seem to be so interminable. Is all ecclesiology downstream of technology?
Read this yesterday & haven’t stopped thinking of the collection of ideas in here. Interesting to note how “the only way out is through” is a description of accelerationism in Steven Shaviro’s “No Speed Limit”