Future Technology as Religion

by Paul M. Summitt

Many theorists have divided communications history into three main epochs; the oral tradition, the literary tradition, and the visual tradition (Sreberny-Mohammadi, 1990, 43; see also Postman, 1985). Each of these traditions provides "ways of knowing" what is true and what is not. In a previous paper I have suggested that our society is entering a fourth tradition, that of interactivity (Summitt, 1993). The locus of this interactive tradition will be cyberspace. In the following pages I will submit that these future technologies and the media they represent are laden with mythical, religious, and other cultural baggage that represent the ideology that has controlled our society for most of its history. To make these assertions I will first attempt to define cyberspace. I will also suggest that all future technology and the media they represent will center in cyberspace. From that point we will look at the analogy of future media and technology as religion. I will conclude this paper by examining some possible ramifications of these contentions.

What is cyberspace? William Gibson is credited with creating the term in his 1984 novel Neuromancer.

Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts . . . A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding . . . (51).

But what does it mean? Gibson, during a later interview, explained more.

Cyberspace has a nice buzz to it, it's something that an advertising man might of thought up, and when I got it I knew that it was slick and essentially hollow and that I'd have to fill it up with meaning . . . a consensual hallucination . . . the point at which media [flow] together and around us. It's the ultimate extension of the exclusion of daily life. With cyberspace as I describe it you can literally wrap yourself in media and not have to see what's really going on around you (quoted in Woolley, 1992, 122).

Some writers feel that cyberspace is a kind of "new frontier" and "is presently inhabited almost exclusively by mountain men, desperados and vigilantes, kind of a rough bunch. And, as long as that's the case, it's gonna be the Law of the Wild in there" (John Perry Barlow quoted in Gans & Sirius, 1991, 49).

Benedikt (1992) calls cyberspace;

A new universe, a parallel universe created and sustained by the world's computers and communication lines. A world in which the global traffic of knowledge, secrets, measurements, indicators, entertainments, and alter-human agency takes form: sights, sounds, presences never seen on the surface of the earth blossoming in a vast electronic night (1).

Hayward (1993) refers to it being "a new place, or new space, where innovative control and communication occur - a place where you can steer or guide with new tools" (78). This definition directs us back to the original Greek word kybernetes or steersman. Lavroff (1992) suggests that cyberspace "takes alternate reality a step further by introducing a computer as a mediator, or imagination enhancer" (7). Krueger (1991) defines it as "a global artificial reality that can be visited simultaneously by millions of people" (270). Pimentel and Teixeira (1993) define it as "an imaginary computer world and a word that stands for a kind of computer network that doesn't yet exist" (247). And it doesn't exist as defined.

Still, if we extrapolate from current technology and reexamine the manner in which these authors define the term, cyberspace, at least in a beginning form, exists today. John Barlow suggests that "Cyberspace is where your money is" (quoted in Aukstakalnis & Blatner, 1992, 18). Current and future technologies are and will be the terminals through which we use the medium. It seems you can't pick up a newspaper or magazine today without reading the hype on the new technologies (see Barnes, 1992; Elmer-Dewitt, 1993, Feb. 8; Elmer-Dewitt, 1993, Apr. 12; Elmer-Dewitt, 1993, May 31; Hamilton et al, 1992; Metheny, 1993; Ryan, 1993; Sterling, 1993; Van Der Luen, 1993; and Zoglin, 1993 to name a few). These writers expound on everything from interactive television to virtual reality to portable personal cellular phone and fax technology. Public understanding of these new technologies is defined by these writers. The definitions of these new technologies become socially constructed by the media.

Elmer-Dewitt (1993, Apr. 12) writes "Welcome to the information highway. It's not here yet, but it's arriving sooner than you might think" (51). Someone please wake Mr. Elmer-Dewitt Van Winkle up and let him know that it is 1993 and that the information highway is here. It's the on and off ramps that the public need to be made aware of. The information highway was born in the early and mid-1970's (Krol, 1992, 11). The attitude of the telephone companies until recently was to lease phone lines for whatever purpose the user had in mind. The result was that certain governmental agencies, educational institutions, and far-seeing individuals were responsible for maintaining the highway (Krol, 1992, 17).

Perhaps the culture as a whole was just not ready for access then. Through the phone lines the user has access to local and regional computer messaging systems known as Bulletin Board Systems (BBS's), Multi-User Dungeons (MUD's), and a variety of national commercial systems such as America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe as well as the non-commercial systems such as BITNET and INTERNET. For six months during late 1992 and 1993 I ran a BBS known as Communications Access in Jefferson City. Depending on the system the user can communicate with others around the world (I regularly communicate with people in many of the fifty states as well as will people in Germany, England, Canada, and Japan). This can be either through E-mail or interactive on-line conferencing. The user can make reservations for airlines, rental cars, hotels, and restaurants. They can examine stories from over fifty of the nation and world's newspapers. They can shop for everything from foodstuffs to books to video tapes to automobiles. They can play interactive on-line games with others. In other words, many activities that the magazines and newspapers are writing about as just around the corner are here now and have been for several years. Millions of people, their "personal interests, profession, hobbies, or political affiliation" not withstanding, access "for the purpose of research, amusement, business transactions, shopping, or just to shoot the breeze with like-minded fellow travelers" (Arca & Lindstrom, 1990, 12). These activities take place in cyberspace and the primary method used to access cyberspace in through the phone lines.

Use of current and future technologies allow one to enter this world of "global traffic of knowledge, secrets, measurements, indicators, entertainments, and alter-human agencies" (Benedikt, 1992, 1) through phone lines and cable. Just as experiencing the artificial world of Star Trek: The Next Generation is using an "imagination enhancer" (Lavroff, 1992, 7), reading a book or having a telephone conversation can be seen as similar. They all take place in artificial realities.

Communication forms do not replace other communications forms. New ones may come to dominance while older ones take on different functions (Sreberny-Mohammadi, 1990, 54). All forms, however, are the site of artificial realities. Actions taken in these artificial realities have impact in the user's real world. The purpose of media can be seen as to tell us what our world is like, how it works, and what things mean. Fore (1987) suggests that media reflect and express: . . .

the myths by which we live. These myths tell us who we are, what we have done, what power we have, who has power and who does not, who can do what to whom with what effect, what is of value and what is not, what is right and what is not. It also tells us what has happened and what has not. It takes our history and our present and interprets it to us. In a sense, . . . [it] . . . is less concerned with history than with what the medium itself believes ought to be remembered. It thus becomes a kind of collective memory of our shared experiences (21).

What is religion? A good working definition has been suggested by Donald Miller (1982): "religion is that set of symbolic expressions and activities which (1) reflect a person's attempt to give ultimate meaning to life, and (2) justify one's behavior and way of life, conscious of the certitude of death and the pervasiveness of human suffering" (266).

Notice that the media seem to be replacing religion. Fore (1987) suggests that:

. . . in many ways television is beginning to replace the institution that historically has performed the functions we have understood as religious. Television, rather than the churches, is becoming the place where people find a worldview which reflects what to them is of ultimate value, and which justifies their behavior and way of life (24).

I suggest that it is the media in general and not just television that is replacing the church as center of what we understand as religious. The analogies are many in this regard. Krol (1992) writes of phone company personnel not having "religion, but they are studying the Bible furiously" and then notes that some telephone company employees are "trying to drag their employers into church" (17). The word bible means literally word. It is interesting that two of the top selling word processors today are called Word and WordPerfect.

Rheingold (1991) repeatedly speaks of his and others "conversion experience" upon first encountering cyberspace and virtual reality. That virtual reality that most people are aware of is referred to as immersion. The analogy between this and baptism cannot be overlooked. Space and time are exceptionally important in the religious context. Sreberny-Mohammadi (1990) discusses the orientation of space and time as being a major difference between oral and written communication.

Mircea Eliade (1961) stated that "For religious man, space is not homogenous, he experiences interruptions, breaks in it, some parts of space are qualitatively different from others" (20). In other words, the experience of the Sacred is portrayed by the discontinuity in the sense of time and space. Both television and computers are the home of real time, 30 frames per second (Stenger, 1992, 55). Simultaneously, however, in both media, time can be made to stand still, speed up, slow down, and even to repeat itself.

This fits well with Eliade's definition of Sacred time. Tomas (1992) has discussed the mythical idea of rites of passage and cyberspace. Spectacle has always been one of the tools of religion and current and new media use spectacle continuously. Other analogies can be made between the clergy and media programmers, the congregation and the mass audience, and the church/tabernacle and the accessing technology, be it the computer, the telephone, the television, or the radio.

It can be seen from the previous pages that in this new interactive tradition of communication that is represented in the use of cyberspace will, as previous media, continue to tell us what our world is like, how it works, and what things mean. It was not the intention of the paper to present these new technologies as either angel or devil, our individual cultures will take care of that.

As Bertrand Russell wrote in 1928: "Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful, and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous, and loathed because they impose slavery." Our individual cultures, with all their mythical and religious aspects, will decide how we, as individuals, perceive the new technologies. They decided how we perceive our current ones.

Works Cited

This article ©1993 Paul M. Summitt
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