Comments on: How Roasting Coffee Helped Me Understand Technology and Theology

By: Top 7 Posts of 2010 | Don't Eat The Fruit

Top 7 Posts of 2010 | Don't Eat The Fruit — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:18:29 +0000

[...] How Roasting Coffee Helped Me Understand Technology and Theology – A personal favorite of mine (and the most tweeted post) in which I used coffee roasting to talk [...]

By: From Blog to Book in Two Years: What I Learned | Don't Eat The Fruit

From Blog to Book in Two Years: What I Learned | Don't Eat The Fruit — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:00:52 +0000

[...] or journal articles I read (Four philosophies applied to twitter, definitions of technology, Borgmann’s Device Paradigm and Roasting Coffee), and I think these were the kinds of posts that attracted a publisher. Perhaps this kind of [...]

By: Alex Gallman

Alex Gallman — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:43:33 +0000

That something special you’re looking for is appreciation. The processes that have taken place gives you a sense of accomplishment, however small it may be, will cause you to rather enjoy than give a larger chance to take it for granted.

The somehow is merely the same thing, you finished all of the work creating said “product” why wouldn’t it now be significant to you since you put the work in to use it. It’s the appreciation.

By: Is Your True Sense Of Self And Identity At Risk As You Navigate An Online World?

Is Your True Sense Of Self And Identity At Risk As You Navigate An Online World? — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:08:11 +0000

[...] which stems from his 1964 work, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life (HT: to John Dyer for introducing me to this). A device is a technological process available at the press of a button. Because of this we [...]

By: REPOST: Technology: Connected, Yet Lonelier Than Ever

REPOST: Technology: Connected, Yet Lonelier Than Ever — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:15:38 +0000

[...] idea very much reminds me of a post by John Dyer back in March, How Roasting Coffee Helped Me Understand Technology and Theology. In that post John refers to the “device paradigm” as coined by the philosopher Albert [...]

By: Technology: Connected, Yet Lonelier Than Ever

Technology: Connected, Yet Lonelier Than Ever — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:21:46 +0000

By: jamesj

jamesj — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:57:27 +0000

Great article.

I like coffee, I love Jesus, am a tech, and have recently been considering the distance between humans and creation in the food industry.

I watched the documentary Food Inc. a couple of weeks ago. I have some mixed feelings about some things in the documentary, but one thing stood out to me. An independent farmer spoke with wisdom when he described what I could only interpret as the “de-creationizing” of food. I am not sure of his disposition on God, but when he was killing chickens and slaughtering animals out in the open air, while he looked out over the other animals grazing across his open fields, there was a sense of the worth of life. Both the humans, the animals, and the plants that fed them formed a system of life that made sense to this man in overalls. He pointed to the cows and said that they even fertilize for him, and said that the technology in the food industry has segmented layers of problems that they keep trying to address with another man-made technology, instead of asking whether there is a more fundamental problem when they broke the system as it was intended. Cows are eating corn instead of grass, and packed into factory-like confined spaces, and their answer to the resultant (?) increase in e-coli and other bacteria is to expose the meat to ammonia in the factory before going out to market. Because of the complex set of technology driven processes (a chain of black boxes), no one questions the machine as a whole anymore.

Your article about the cost and esteemed value that comes through understanding that a whole lot went into the bean in your cup, reminded me of this recent reflection of mine… as a geek who is indoors far too often, and in a city that is pretty distant from the source of what I eat.

The analogy of God’s glory (and our appreciation of that glory) increasing because of His acts of redemption in time and our process of sanctification leading to a timeless end is a great one.

peace in Christ
James Janssen

By: Todd Gorton

Todd Gorton — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:00:57 +0000

A few years back I was in Ethiopia and was able to participate in their coffee ceremony in a friends home. The lady of the house dressed herself in ceremonial garb, roasted the beans, smashed them by hand, then made coffee for us…quite a far cry from the drive-thru Ethiopian Sidamo…I’ve come to believe that the process is MORE important than the product. How we get their in relationship is what the incarnation of Jesus is all about.

By: Kyle Reed

Kyle Reed — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:34:22 +0000

Coming from a guy who drinks a lot of coffee this is a great post and reminder.
Insta coffee is gross, much like insta faith…the redeeming process is something that is tough but like you were saying can take time and effort but means so much more.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:58:03 +0000

Technology and desire. That’s something I’m trying to explore more. It gets quickly complicated. The hypothesis I’m exploring at the moment: The more advanced the technology, the clearer the reflection of human values. (Narcissus and the pool’s reflection.)

For example, Facebook has found a way to quantify relational connections (“friends”). But it also reflects a devaluing of friendships by quantifying them into something we can boast about.

It’s muddy water for me at the moment. I’m sure you have clearer thoughts on this.