Teleology & Technology
What the Amish can teach us about technology
As a kid I remember traveling to visit my grandparents a few times each year in Lancaster County, PA. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Lancaster County is home to one of the largest concentrations of the Amish in the United States.
One of the most distinctive features of Amish culture is their approach to technology. They famously ride in horse-drawn carriages instead of cars and don’t have phones or televisions in their homes. At first, I thought that this was pretty crazy, but the more time I spend with a phone glued to my hand, the more I feel that they might be on to something.
Although I am by no means an expert on Amish philosophy, I think the Amish approach to technology is more nuanced than I first thought. Initially I assumed that the Amish were essentially Luddites, explicitly rejecting technology and opposing its use in any and all circumstances. But as I have heard and read a bit more about them, I’ve come to learn that the Amish approach to technology is more nuanced.
Instead of being strictly anti-technology, the Amish are opposed to technologies which separate us. In other words, they are concerned with the telos or end goal of the technology. So, they don’t have phones in their homes because it might tempt them to stay at home speaking to their friends or neighbors instead of walking or riding to visit with them. The telos of the phone is to enable remote communication and the Amish reject the technology on that teleological basis.
While I am not advocating that we sell our cars or toss away our phones, I do think that the underlying principles of the Amish approach to technology (which view technologies through a teleological lens) are vitally important for us to consider. How many times have you, like me, been convinced to rely on the convenience of technology to facilitate an interaction with someone you care about instead of making the extra effort to meet with them in person? And did you spend any time thinking about the impact of this decision on you, your friend, and your relationship?
The class of examples I have been thinking about recently are in-person community gatherings (e.g., school, church, and academic conferences). During the pandemic, it made sense that these activities needed to be taken online, and certainly Zoom was better than pure isolation. However, as we returned to in-person activities, it was quickly obvious that we missed out on even more than we might have thought.
We also need to broaden our definition of technology. I am often tempted to think of technology as purely digital – my phone, tablet, and computer. Maybe I also broaden it to consider my car or other machines like a coffee roaster or grinder. But, in a broader sense, technology is applied knowledge.
In this frame, even a table is a technology. Maybe even the anti-Zoom technology. Instead of being huddled on a screen in a set of video squares with fake backgrounds to hide the mess of our offices, at a table, we are present and facing each other (no dual screening allowed).
As Melvin Kranzberg wrote in his first rule of technology in 1986, “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.” Hopefully that is as thought-provoking for you as it is for me. Although I don’t have the time to go full Neil Postman or Marshall McLuhan this week, I’ll pick up on what they have to say on this topic in the future. As you go through your day today, make a mental note of the technologies that are around you using this broader definition and consider what the telos or goal of that technology is and how it is positively or negatively impacting you and those around you.
The Book Nook
While I was traveling this week I finished up a short read from Alan Jacobs called Breaking Bread with the Dead. The main thesis of the book is to make a case for the power and opportunity we have to engage with writers from the past, even (and maybe especially) if we might find their views outdated or out of step with modern society.
Alan argues that we should develop our personal density by expanding our temporal bandwidth. The basic idea is that we grow in maturity as we engage with a wide range of ideas from different times, places, and cultures.
As an engineer, the concept of temporal bandwidth jumped out to me. I doubt Alan thought about it this way, but the idea of bandwidth in engineering is directly related to the range of frequencies that is spanned by a signal.
Think about this in the context of music. Music is formed by the addition of signals at different frequencies. If you have a narrow temporal bandwidth, you might only have a single tone or frequency. Consider the standard 440 Hz “A” that you hear at the beginning of a musical ensemble performance.
However, we know that music composed from a single tone misses out on the richness that is brought by adding more frequencies to the mix. This is an expansion of the temporal bandwidth of the signal. Of course, this expanded bandwidth also opens the door not only for consonant combinations, but dissonant ones as well. But even the tension of dissonance can be beautiful, especially when it resolves to consonance and harmony.
I think this mental image is helpful as we consider what to do with authors from the past that we may disagree with or whose ideas we may even find strongly abhorrent. These are the dissonant frequencies. To deal with this problem Alan frames our engagement as a conversation over a table and argues that we are in control as the living conversation partner and therefore set the rules of engagement. In this framing, we have the power to invite writers from the past into our present and engage with them while still maintaining the ability to leave them or pause the conversation if we feel the need to. But, he argues that we should use this as an opportunity to engage with difference and challenge ourselves. We only learn by engaging with information we don’t already know.
This was the first book of Alan’s that I have read and I found it very thought provoking. Perhaps this might reframe the way you think about engaging with thinkers from the past, especially those that you might vehemently disagree with.
The Professor Is In
This week I am in Maine for a Gordon Research Conference on Image Science. Gordon Conferences are hands down my favorite conferences. This particular meeting on Image Science runs every other year and I attended twice during my PhD. It was scheduled to run in 2020, but due to the pandemic was cancelled.
What makes them so refreshing is the way they are designed to push the frontiers of science by creating a forum for scientific conversation in a relaxed and intimate setting. Gordon Conferences really bring out the best parts of the scientific community and spark lots of new conversations, ideas, and collaborations. If you have the opportunity to attend one in your field, you certainly should!
Leisure Line
Another great thing about Gordon Conferences is that they schedule time in the afternoons for recreational activities nearby the venue to create space for serendipitous interactions and conversations. At this conference venue in Maine, there is lots of hiking nearby and the resort also offers archery and kayak tours. It was great to get out on the water in a kayak with friends new and old!
Still Life
Here’s a nice shot of some of the local scenery taken from one of the ski slopes a short hike up the mountain right behind the hotel where I am staying.