Our Technological World Archive

St. Peter’s Square: 2005 vs. 2013

NBC posted a powerful image of St. Peter’s Square showing how different things looked in 2005 when Pope Benedict was chosen from the new world of 2013 with Pope Francis: My guess is that in 10-20 years when the next Pope is chosen, Google Glass and other similar products will make the screens disappear

Read More…

How Google Hacked Our Imaginations with #IfIHadGlass

In just about every James Bond and Batman film, there is a segment where Q (or Morgan Freeman) introduces us to a few new gadgets. At first, the hero looks over the objects quizzically, but then the handler demonstrates how to use them, unlocking their mystery and inviting both the hero and the audience to

Read More…

Awesomely Awkward Technology Poses

Curious Rituals, an new ebook from the Art Center College of Design (by Nicolas Nova, Katherine Miyake, Nancy Kwon, and Walton Chiu) does a fantastic job of illustrating some of the “new” poses we make with modern technology products. They start the book with gestures like swipe and pinch, but then quickly move into the

Read More…

This Christmas “Browser History” is the New “Shaking the Box”

I tried to muster a look of disapproval, but I couldn’t help but smile when my 4-year-old picked up a present, sized it up, shook it a few times, and proclaimed, “I fink it’s LEGOs!” Like father, like son, another generation is carrying on the tradition of trying to figure out what’s inside those beautifully wrapped boxes. But

Read More…

5 Human Experiences Modern Technology Makes Impossible

When a new technology arrives we tend to focus on what new things it makes possible, but a recent trip to Taco Cabana and another to an Apple store reminded me that of equal importance are the things technology makes impossible, or at least extremely uncommon. Below are five formerly everyday human experiences that modern

Read More…

Of Cars, Community, and Church: Families vs. Facilities

A Counter-Cultural Choice The church community of which I am a part is coming up on its 50th anniversary this month, and it has been creating videos that are meant to represent the congregation as a whole. Some of them have been quite touching, but I was particularly struck by this past Sunday’s video because

Read More…

In Awe of Flesh On Screens

I wrote a little piece for Mere Orthodoxy. It starts like this: Passing a row of large televisions at a bigbox store yesterday, I became aware that I was surrounded by images of human flesh. You can read the rest here: In Awe of Bodies

Read More…

Hierarchy of Innovation: Why Some Technologies Are More Important Than Others

Nicholas Carr, author of the famous Is Google Making Us Stupid essay and the book The Shallows, created a chart reminiscent of

Read More…

Is the Kingdom of God present in a Blue Screen of Death?

What you see above is the new Windows 8 “Blue Screen of Death” (properly known as a “Stop Error”) that users will see when their tablet, laptop, or desktop crashes for some reason. Macs and Linux machines have their own equivalent Kernel Panic screens as do just about every device and program on the market. The universal

Read More…

Teen Online Video Usage [INFOGRAPHIC]

The Pew Research Center recently released a study of teens and online video, and a group called “Online College” made an info graphic out of the video portion. Most of the stats seem pretty unremarkable except that it seems young girls like to video chat more than boys do

Read More…