Fatal Error - “God” not found: Is there Salvation in Software?

Paul Brebner, 30 August 2005

Powerpoint slides of talk: "Is there Salvation Software?" (20MB!)

Outline

1. Introduction
   • My background and biases; what I do; what I will and won’t talk about
   • Overview and thesis; Software virtualness
2. Travels in Cyberspace 1: Software, the Substrate of Cyberspace.
   • The technical characteristics of software - Illustrated by comics
   • Software History and Trends - Illustrated by online examples

                                                               i.      Pre-internet

                                                             ii.      Internet

                                                            iii.      WWW

                                                           iv.      Games

                                                             v.      P2P

                                                           vi.      Virtual Reality

                                                          vii.      Pervasive and Ubiquitous computing

3. Travels in Cyberspace 2: The Inhabitants of Cyberspace
   • Software and People

                                                               i.      The personal dimensions of software

                                                             ii.      Software Roles and relationships

• Motives and drivers for software
• Influences and impacts of software
• Software and work, jobs, and careers
• Software economy
3. Travels in Cyberspace 3: The Culture of Cyberspace.
   • Software and Society

                                                               i.      Techno evangelists and Sci-Fi writers

                                                             ii.      Social Commentators and Analysts

• Hype, benefits and problems
• Large-scale trends
• The transcendence of Cyberspace

                                                               i.      Virtual Reality, Pervasive computing and Hyperreality

                                                             ii.      The Ontology of Cyberspace

5. The View of Cyberspace from Christspace: Christianity and Software
   • Christianity and Technology
   • Evangelical perspective – Creation, Sin, Revelation, Salvation, the Future
   • Christian analysis of Cyberspace
   • Software and Salvation

                                                               i.      Salvation through software

                                                             ii.      Salvation in software

                                                            iii.      Salvation from software

• Conclusions

                                                               i.      The interaction of hyperreality with “real” reality

                                                             ii.      Closed/Open world assumptions

References

Web

·        Wired Online: www.wired.com

·        Wikipedia: E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality

·        Project Entropia: www.project-entropia.com

·        Runescape: www.runescape.com

·        Cyber Geography: www.cybergeography.org

·        Science and Theology News: www.stnews.org

·        FUSION Anomaly: http://fusionanomaly.net

Science Fiction

• John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider
• William Gibson, Neuromancer
• Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
• Andy and Larry Wachowski, The Matrix

Analysts

• Neil Postman, Technopoly.
• Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality.
• Jean Baudrillard, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeadn_Baudrillard 
• Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem at Large: What you should know about technology, 1998, Cambridge University Press
• Margaret Wertheim, The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet
• Richard Wurman, Information Anxiety
• Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas: The fate of the commons in a connected world.

Christian

• Norman Fraser, The net commandments: how to be a righteous nerd, IVP 2002
• Quentin Schultze, Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age, Baker 2002
• Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture.
• Kategoria book reviews of Wertheim and Lessig.