On Saturday I listened to an interview/discussion, between Ross Douthat and Paul Kingsnorth. It was an interesting take on technology, and I find my brain coming back to it periodically.
Even though Kingsnorth seemed to say that he's making a living writing books and with his Substack, which is reliant on the Internet, he painted the Internet as a portal and asked us to think what we're inviting in. He thinks that most people are inviting evil into their lives, by way of the Internet.
Here are his exact words: "Sometimes I think the internet is a giant Ouija board and we use it to summon things. And things appear through it. So if you want to be supernaturalist about it, if you want to be Christian about it, the world is inhabited by powers and principalities and demonic forces, which have it in for us, and which want to turn us away from God. That’s their purpose. I think if C.S. Lewis was writing 'The Screwtape Letters' today, there would be a good few letters about how the demons can use the internet, how they can use the phones, how they can use this to completely delude us and distract us and take us away from our true purpose."
Kingsnorth converted to Orthodox Christianity 12 years ago, so he's got a very different perspective than many writers who talk about AI. This morning, I read an article in The New York Times about how young men are increasingly attracted to the Orthodox branch of faith. I'm remembering when I, too, wanted something more rigorous, but I was attracted to monasticism, but a bit too late, being already married, with a host of other commitments.
I don't have an elegant way to close this post other than to say that my writing time has run out. Off I go to move away from my screen and go for a walk.
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