The Android God

Our society is so obsessed with complex tools—what else is ‘technology’?—that the role of human face-to-face interactions has been eclipsed by the enthusiastic adoption of electronic intermediaries. One wonders if we could appreciate a naturalistic conception of god, if we were presented with it afresh, rather than as received cultural mythology. Indeed, if god is created in the image of man, one wonders if god is actually an android—or spends so much time with his supercomputer of the divine (accessed by the Holy Spirit of wireless) that he might as well be. After all, do we not make god in our own image, and then say that it is the other way around—that he made us in the image of himself? Perhaps god made us primitive, so long ago, because he himself was primitive; or, perhaps we made god primitive, because we were ourselves. Either way, we are different now—not because human nature is different, but because we are more than human, we are also cultural creatures—and our cultures are overrun with neon gods. Somehow we still give the worship of our lips, out of incongruous habit, to a cultural artifact. After all, the correspondence of Christianity to our society, our way of life, our purposes, our culture, is utterly gone. We do not live in Palestine, 200 C.E., nor in Europe of the Dark Ages.  Either we should remake god in the image of how we are now, saying that he made us to make our computers extensions of ourselves, and to anthropomorphize our iPhones—this point at which the integration of technology into our lives leaves only its integration into our bodies—or call it quits with metaphysics. Shall we worship the neon gods of our distraction with our words as well as our eyes? Or are these, too, false idols?

Consumerism, advertising, and postmodern humanity

In looking at the role of advertising in promoting a consumerist mentality- advertising sells not just specific products, but consumerism, acquisitiveness, mammon, a mindset and a lifestyle- in making citizens into consumers, and then manipulating those consumers- it would be useful to look at what kids (and parents, for that matter) are like who keep their children away from television (and, hence, TV ads), and other forms of electronic entertainment and communication used to transmit advertising.

One of the things that makes me feel ambivalent about the internet, much as I make use of it myself, is that it has become so integrated into most people’s social and work lives, even in terms of email alone, that it is hard to avoid using it, but this has brought advertising, in every moment, into our homes and workplaces, made it always at the periphery of our state of mind, because whether emailing at work or doing Facebook at home, you’re seeing ads. It also contributes, of course, to overstimulation (hence, anhedonia and problems focusing, concentrating, being able to sustain a line of thought, as well as being able to think of original thoughts in the first place, or tending to think any thoughts at all).

Before the internet, an interdepartmental memo didn’t have ads attached to it- now, memos come through email, with ads on the side of the screen (depending on the email you use). Before Facebook, people would reconnect with people they hadn’t seen in a while who live elsewhere by a phone conversation- something more substantial than messaging back and forth or commenting on the same picture once in a while, or they would write a letter, and neither phone calls nor letter-writing requires seeing ads. Facebook does. What kind of effect does this have on us? Not just in the sense that ads promote consumerism and acquisitiveness, but a superficial focus on money, things, and a certain physical appearance and social manner for men and women?

What are we doing to ourselves? And how much of what we are doing to ourselves is really voluntary? How much of it is imposed upon us by pervasive societal structures, to varying degrees based on demographic factors such as class, race, and locale (urban, suburban, or rural), in ways that make it highly unlikely for us to opt out of them, or even make the choice to do so non-viable?