Device & Virtue

Wow, we've got a new set of episodes coming our way—and Adam & Chris have decided to unveil a twist—while possible moving even closer to the Platonic ideal of Device & Virtue. Support our new season at https://www.deviceandvirtue.com/patreon Leave us a feedback voicemail at https://www.deviceandvirtue.com/talk-back Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If not, what about our soundboards and electric guitars? If you thought the answer would be straightforward, you don't know us! Adam and Chris deep into the intertwining histories of church music and technology. From early debates over instruments in worship services to the effects of platforms like Spotify on today's songwriting, they explore the tensions between tradition and innovation. NEW THIS SEASON! Leave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! IN THIS EPISODE Trace the twists and turns of church debates over instruments vs voices Can instruments help Christians worship in Spirit and truth? Strong opinions from ancient church fathers, the Reformers, and denominational creeds Is AI just another "instrument," or something more disruptive? Watch the TikTok Worship Song clip: https://www.tiktok.com/@jonathanogdenmusic/video/7221950505486945541 Read Chris' AI worship song about the blind man in John 9 LINKS “The first AI Christian artist” JC (@jc.theartist) • Instagram photos and videos Worship.ai by John Dyer (create your own worship song in “modern worship music”, “classic hymn”, or the “Psalms (KJV)” Spotify has reportedly removed tens of thousands of AI-generated songs (Engadget May 2023) TALK BACK NEW! Leave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NEW THIS SEASON! Leave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! Pulpit AI could save your church hours of social media work every week. Could it kill the sermon in the process? We interview pastor and entrepreneur Michael Whittle. He wants to make the sermon more valuable than ever, and he created Pulpit AI to do it. We talk to him about his new AI platform does and the future he's dreaming for it.  Plus, Chris and Adam discuss how Pulpit AI might affect pastors, preaching, and the work of discipleship. In this episode  Is the sermon just “content”?  Why Pulpit AI won't write your sermons What does Pulpit AI look like in 2033?  Risks for pastors and churches Megachurches have used social media to build massive platforms and stir up plenty of controversy. If Pulpit AI gives that platform to every pastor, how will it affect the church? Links Michael Whittle is the Founder and CEO of PulpitAI and Vast Media. He's obsessed with the intersection of faith, business & entrepreneurship, a topic he explores in his podcast, "Kings & Priests." Over the past decade, he has built companies spanning media, advertising, and consumer products in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, and Singapore. Michael also serves on the pastoral team at C3 Los Angeles and resides in South Pasadena, CA with his wife Jillean and their two children, Rook and Willa. Learn more about Pulpit AI on their website.  Talk Back NEW! Leave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ownership is not an option. Forget magazines—does it seem like today we subscribe to just about everything? You're not wrong—from reading books to driving cars—80% of new businesses offer a subscription. Has software changed ownership forever? Chris & Adam explore how technology has changed how we pay—and all the implications. No longer do we buy Microsoft Office in shiny boxes from Best Buy! That model that used to be magazines and the CD of the month club has moved to practically every digital product in our daily world. Chris's business degree 101 taught him that all purchases fell into two two obvious categories—product or service. But now? Who knows! Add complaints about inkjet printers, Tesla, and thought on the spiritual implications of ownership, and we've got a roving convo that mixes tech, economics & daily life. Links How Tesla changed owner's car battery capacity by unlocking software My Printer is Extorting Me by Charlie Warzel (The Atlantic) Listener Voicemail This episode features a talkback voice message from listener Toby B. Thanks Toby! Leave Your Own Voice Message Patreon Patreon supporters get a raw video cut of this episode! Check out how to support us here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NEW THIS SEASON! Leave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! When's the last time you got a handwritten letter, or stared out the window, or went on vacation without checking email? Did the Internet kill the good ol' days, or is this just nostalgia talking? Chris and Adam dive into the book 100 Things We Lost to the Internet and explore the difference between true wisdom and mere wistfulness. Tech has become the de facto symbol of progress, but is everything new a true advancement? How could we know the difference. In this episode Among the 100 Things We Lost are… Boredom Getting Lost Relying on the Doctor Uninhibitedness The Spanish-English Dictionary Solitude Your Attention Span Spelling The New Kid Memory Scrabble Tiles Social Cues Closure Links Learn more about the author Pamela Paul and her book 100 Things We Lost to the Internet Talk Back NEW THIS SEASON! Leave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

THREADS is the all new social network launched by the founders of Facebook, and it launched big and fast—over 100 millions accounts in the first week. Chris reflects on how social networks work like societal mirrors, and reflect some of the same issues that vexxed the early Christian church. Short Circuit episodes skip the argument—Adam or Chris grab the mic on their own for a more personal reflection on technology & faith. These shorter entries are a bonus to our full-length Device & Virtue episodes. Enjoy! Feedback? Send us a voicemail from your phone: https://www.deviceandvirtue.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NEW Leave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. -- This month, Apple announced the new Vision Pro headset. 10 years from now, will we look back and say it changed our life? Can we ever know whether something is a Flop or the Future? Think about it. When they first came out, did folks know that the electric refrigerator or the microwave oven would change modern life as we know it? How about when Apple launched the iPhone? Sure—today we think about that as a turning point in history. But then? Discerning and predicting new tech is hard. You'll find naysayers and you'll find worshippers from the first minutes it appears. Who's right? And how would we know? APPLE VISION PRO LAUNCH (JUNE 5, 2023) “In the same way that Mac introduced us to personal computing, and iPhone introduced us to mobile computing, Apple Vision Pro will introduce us to spatial computing.” …“The first Apple product you look through, and not at.” — Tim Cook Watch the 2 hour event (Apple Vision Pro begins at 1hr 20min) APPLE IPHONE LAUNCH (JANUARY 9, 2007) “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything” — Steve Jobs MORE LINKS Professor Scott Galloway was unimpressed with the Vision Pro launch We may feature it in a future segment! Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NEW THIS SEASON! Leave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! “Minority Report” was just a movie, right? Well, not anymore. Beat cops from Los Angeles to London are using Artificial Intelligence to forecast tomorrow's murders. Is every crime predestined? Artificial Intelligence is everywhere, including the police station. From forecasting burglary to heading off homicides, predictive policing is more than 10 years old, and your city is probably already using it.  What is predictive policing, and what should Christians think about it? Chris and Adam unpack the ethics of prediction and beliefs about predestination. They look some of the risks that come with crime statistics, and the solutions that don't merely reduce crime but actually increase justice.  Plus, if you've ever used Google Analytics, stick around for the Bible story of David's census In this episode What is predictive policing? Is crime predictable? Is it predestined?  What personal data is being tracked? How can crime statistics be biased? What should Christians think? Links Predictive Policing Explained (Brennan Center for Justice) 2021: Predictive Policing and Crime Control in The United States of America and Europe: Trends in a Decade of Research and the Future of Predictive Policing (Social Sciences Journal) 2022: ​​Algorithm predicts crime a week in advance, but reveals bias in police response (University of Chicago) 2022: The never-ending quest to predict crime using AI (Washington Post) 2020: Predictive policing algorithms are racist. They need to be dismantled. (MIT Tech Review) 2017: How strategic is Chicago's “Strategic Subjects List”? (Equal Future) 2020 Update: Chicago police end effort to predict gun offenders, victims. (Associated Press) Talk Back NEW THIS SEASON! Leave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Device & Virtue, Season 9!  Leave Us a Digital Voicemail! Starting this season, *in these show notes* and at deviceandvirtue.com, you can leave us a digital voicemail.  We've been arguing the wrongs and rights of technology and faith for 4 years. We think it's time you spoke up. If you've ever wanted to hear yourself featured on a podcast, this could be your debut!  There will be a link in the show notes for every episode of Season 9! Tap through and start recording! Tell us... - something we should discuss in season 9 - a technology and faith dilemma that you have - a Vice or Virtue that we should do ...90 seconds or less. We'll see you soon with our next episode on AI Cops and the world of predictive policing! Thanks for listening! Adam & Chris https://www.deviceandvirtue.com/talk-back Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christians used to be known as "people of the book." Do we lose something big if we become the "people of the screen"? From Moses to Gutenberg to YouVersion App, we're talking the digital bible with our guest John Dyer. Chris talks with John about his newest book People of the Screen. We explore how evangelicals created the digital Bible and how it is shaping Christians interpretation of scripture today. In his research, John found that people read print and digital Bibles at different times depending on where they are and what they're doing. We cover a lot of ground: How digital reading influence our Bible interpretation The history of the Bible technologies, from Moses to Gutenberg The four eras of the digital Bible, from universities to YouVersion How Christians can better understand digital's influence on their own Bible reading If your Bible reading ever leaves you feeling judged or confused, John's research illuminates some surprising reasons why that might be the case.  What's the future of print Bibles? Find out what John thinks will happen as the Christians go deeper into digital. Plus, hear about John's latest Bible project: the Y'all Version.  ABOUT JOHN John Dyer is Vice President for Enrollment Services and Educational Technologies & Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.  LINKS Visit John Dyer's website From the Garden to the City: The Place of Technology in the Story of God People of the Screen: How Evangelicals Created the Digital Bible and How It Shapes Their Reading of Scripture Y'all Version—putting the “y'all” back in the Bible where it belongs Follow John on Twitter REACH OUT TO ADAM & CHRIS Reach out to Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Talk back to Chris and Adam on Twitter Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Hey Chat GPT, write a script for a podcast arguing the wrongs and rights of technology and faith…” Could AI write that? The shocking answer is… it's close. Maybe a full yes. The revolution of Artificial Intelligence chatbots got a rocket boost in the last months when on Nov 30, 2022, OpenAI released a language model called ChatGPT, which can interact in a conversational way. The results were heads above what we've experienced with Siri or Alexa, immediately launching fears and possibilties. Adam and Chris explore what ChatGPT can do, and talk about the implications for society and faith. What does this change for the future? Are we witnessing one of the biggest tech moments of our lifetime? Bonus this episode: find out if Chris can pronounce the word 'specificity.' (Spoiler Slert: it's rough) WHAT/WHO IS THE VOICE FOR CHATGPT IN THE EPISODE? This version of ChatGPT is text only, but for our podcast, we used another AI product called Descript to generate an artificial voice to read ChatGPT's parts. And guess what? OpenAI is one of the investors in the Descript product—one we use regularly for our podcast production. LINKS OpenAI's original introduction to the world in 2015 “Why Does ChatGPT Lie?” from Noah Smith A New Chat Bot is Code Red for Google's Search Business via New York Times Business background: The Best Little Unicorn in Texas: Jasper Was Winning the AI Race—Then ChatGPT Blew Up The Whole Game from The Information MORE ABOUT CHATGPT HOW FAST DID IT GROW? WHO IS BEHIND IT? Starting as a non-profit, in 2019 Microsoft invested more than $1 Billion dollars, and in January 2023, after ChatGPT exploded, they upped their investment to $10 billion. REAL CHATGPT EXAMPLES CHRIS TRIED What is my future? As a language model, I do not have the capability to predict the future. I can provide information and answer questions based on my training data, but I cannot predict events that have not yet occurred. It's best to consult with experts or make your own plans for your future. SEE THE REST OF THE CHATGPT EXAMPLES AT DEVICEANDVIRTUE.COM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Device & Virtue friend & author John Dyer jumps on the podcast talking about the 10 11 year updated edition of his book From the Garden to the City. Wow, a lot changes in a decade! Ten years ago, nobody knew what Zoom was, and online church meant having a Facebook page. No matter how fast tech changes, John Dyer says it still has a place in the story of God. Adam asks John about “The virtualization of culture” The definition of technology Why technology is not netural Tools vs devices And don't miss the end where we debut our special guest segment, Settle This Argument Between Adam & Chris. MORE ABOUT JOHN DYER Adam & Chris think John Dyer is one of the best voices writing on technology & faith. Dr. John Dyer is the Vice President for Enrollment Services and Educational Technologies & Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. Channeling Eric Liddell, John likes to say, “When I code, I can feel God's pleasure.” This desire to glorify God by showing how our creativity is an important aspect of our role as image bearers, drives John's work and teaching. A former youth pastor, he enjoys working with students to see how the biblical story brings insight and clarity to the ideas found in science, sociology, and culture. John is married to Amber, a literature and philosophy professor and has two lovely children. LINKS Visit John Dyer's website Best Commentaries.com—”rotten tomatoes for biblical studies” Y'all Version—putting the y'all back in the Bible where it belongs Follow John on Twitter REACH OUT TO ADAM & CHRIS Reach out to Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Talk back to Chris and Adam on Twitter Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who hasn't heard about Twitter these days? With all the controversy, Adam & Chris are talking about how private tech becomes a “public square”—and does Twitter have a future in 2023? Big Questions What is “free speech”? What is the idea of the public square and how does it relate? How has the long history of communications technology been controlled by the rich or the royal? Who owned the most powerful communications network in the middle ages? How should Christians speak and interact in the public square? Should Adam & Chris delete the Device & Virtue Twitter account? Links A timeline of Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter (NBC) We're witnessing the brain death of Twitter (MIT Technology Review) Beyond the Public Square: Imagining Digital Democracy by Mary Ann Franks (Yale Law Journal) Dramatic Tweets https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1518623997054918657?s=20&t=CVF4F0xrENuRCMb8-QztJg https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097?s=20&t=CVF4F0xrENuRCMb8-QztJg Talk Back to Adam & Chris Reach out to Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Talk back to Chris and Adam on Twitter (uh, the Vice & Virtue vote was to keep it?) Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stained glass, digital photos, or a pile of rocks. Today, we join the co-hosts of the Embedded Church podcast and talk about how the church builds memories. It's a podcast inside a podcast. Memories help people establish identities and build communities, and physical places are fertile ground where memories take root. But are new digital spaces uprooting our memories, or giving them new soil to grow in?  As Christians, God consistently calls us to remember all that he has done and the ways he has been faithful. How can we root our memories in physical places and digital spaces, and cultivate the benefits of both?  We asked our friends Eric Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe, the co-hosts of the Embedded Church podcast, to help us sort this out. Call it a podcast playdate. What does memory look like in digital and built spaces?  How do these spaces shape the capacity, and content, of our memory? Hear stories of churches that have established creative practices that both embrace lament and celebrate God's healing. If your church wants to build memory and community through digital and physical spaces, check out this episode! LINKS Learn more about the Embedded Church podcast on their website and on Instagram. Listen on Apple, Google, Spotify, and everywhere else. Eric O. Jacobsen is the Lead Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Tacoma Washington. He is the author of numerous books and articles exploring the connections between the Christian faith, local community, and the built environment. He has a PhD in Theology and Culture from Fuller Theological Seminary and is a member of the Congress for the New Urbanism. He is married to Liz Jacobsen and has four amazing children (Kate, Peter, Emma, and Abraham). Follow him on Twitter. Sara Joy Proppe (‘Pro-pay') is a speaker and consultant who started Proximity Project as a way to integrate her faith and work. She seeks to educate and equip churches to be strategic stewards of their properties for the common good within the contexts of their neighborhoods through avenues of placemaking and real estate development. Her professional expertise includes urban planning, real estate development, and placemaking. She has a Masters in Community Planning from Iowa State University and is a member of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Follow her on Twitter. Sara Joy mentioned Biola's Advent devotionals. You can check them out here! Chris mentioned Laurence Scott a couple times. His book The Four-Dimensional Human is an acute reflection on the human experience of digital spaces. Learn more here. TALK BACK Reach out to Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Talk back to Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Author Andy Crouch says that we're doing it all wrong—smartphones aren't giving us the life we're looking for. We asked him how to fix it, plus whether he'd ever own a robot dog. Andy is our first returning guest to Device & Virtue! This time, he joins us to talk about his new book, The Life We're Looking For. We take his ideas for a test drive, and run into everything from dishwashers and furnaces to Slack and electric cars. Plus, we ask Andy to resolve some arguments from past episodes. He weighs in on Ring doorbells, robot dogs, communion online, and AI art generators. His hot takes will keep you on your toes. Andy Crouch is partner for theology and culture at Praxis Labs and author of multiple books including his latest, The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World, and his earlier book, The Tech-Wise Family. A public speaker and professional musician, Andy was executive editor of Christianity Today from 2012 to 2016 and served the John Templeton Foundation as senior strategist for communication in 2017. Most importantly, he received a shout-out in Lecrae's 2014 single “Non-Fiction.”  LINKS For more about Andy and all his books, check out his website. Follow him on Twitter. Andy first joined us with his daughter Amy to talk about her book, My Tech-Wise Life, back in Season 5.  Check out our past episodes for more on the topics we talked about with Andy.  DALL-E Electric Cars Slack Robot Dogs Ring Doorbell Communion Online Andy mentions “prompt battles.” We did a little digging. Learn more about them here. Andy adapts his analysis of instruments and devices from the work of philosopher Albert Borgmann, who first introduced “the device paradigm” in his 1984 book, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. Borgmann writes more about it in his newer book Power Failure. QUOTES FROM THE LIFE WE'RE LOOKING FOR "God and Mammon ... are precisely opposed to each other. God wishes to put all things into the service of persons and ultimately to bring forth the flourishing of creation through the flourshing of persons. Mammon wants to put all persons into the service of things and ultimately to bring about the exploitation of all creation." (p78) "So, rather than actually creating machines that understand the infinitely creative and complex world of human culture, we will find that it is far easier to create attenuated cultural environments that treat persons like machines." (p97) TALK BACK Reach out to Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Talk back to Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can you strap on VR goggles and go to church in the metaverse? We asked the author Jay Kim of Analog Church and the pastor DJ Soto of Virtual Reality Church to argue all the wrongs and rights. Finally, an episode where Adam & Chris aren't the ones doing all the fighting! To be fair both these guys are pastors so the debate is probably more of mild-mannered discussion, but it covers some important ground about what it means to be the church, and what the future of the church might look like. VR CHURCH—PASTOR DJ SOTO DJ Soto, Bishop & Pastor or VR Church D.J. Soto began preaching in the metaverse in 2016. Originally thinking he would plant physical churches, he soon realized a new vision to plant churches in the metaverse. He is now the Bishop of Virtual Reality Church and MMO Church, which are futuristic church expressions that is intended to be radically inclusive and consistent with Christianity's long history of adapting to new forms of media. About DJ Soto at VR Church Wired Magazine interview with DJ Soto (Feb 2018) Check Out what VR Church building looks like “inside”—YouTube ANALOG CHURCH—PASTOR JAY KIM Jay Kim author of Analog Church Jay Y. Kim serves as lead pastor at WestGate Church in the Silicon Valley—really!—of CA and as teacher-in-residence at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, CA. He's the author of Analog Church (IVP, 2020) and Analog Christian (IVP, 2022). Some of his written work has been featured in Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, Missio Alliance, Relevant, and other publications. Visit Jay Kim's website Outreach Magazine interview with Jay Kim (January 2020) Jay Kim is the author of Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places, and Things in the Digital Age (InterVarsity Press) THE QUESTIONS DJ'S QUESTION(S) FOR JAY How do you define church? What would "count" as a church experience.? Can a metaverse church fulfill all the functions of a physical church? JAY'S QUESTION(S) FOR DJ What are the most significant limitations of virtual church, as you see it? Do you think there are any potential drawbacks or even dangers to the customization and control afforded in VR (e.g. avatars curated to project an aspirational self rather than a more genuine self)? Find Us Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Join the Device & Virtue Team on Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vincent van Gogh spent decades perfecting his impressionist style. You can master it in one minute with the new AI art generator called DALL-E. Do we even need artists any more? DALL-E 2 is an artificial intelligence image generator released to the public on Sept 28, 2022. Considered by experts to be a noticeable jump in technology, the website or app allows users to type in any imaginary prompt “a monkey eating grapes in Mexico in the style of Picasso” and in a few seconds generates a new unique image that tries to match the prompt. Try DALL-E for yourself! THE QUESTIONS Adam & Chris imagine the implications and effects of AI generated art including questions like: How does this work? Could AI generated art replace the human artist? Who are the people behind DALL-E art and what are their goals? What does the future look like with AI generated art? Is their a Christian viewpoint on AI generated art? What happens in a world where everything can be unique? LINKS & RESOURCES OpenAI is the non-profit that created DALL-E 2. Their 2015 announcement outlined their goals. OpenAI has a content policy for safety and blocks certain keywords from working that could create pornography or fakes of politicians. It also has worked to promote accurate diversity in results. However other groups have announced plans to release similar AI tools without any filters Chris mentions concepts from Roland Barthes' “The Death of the Author” THE IMAGES For being a podcast for your ears, this was a pretty eye-opening episode! (groan) Check out all the visual images that Adam & Chris talk about here, including unique images that they created with DALL-E Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gas prices went crazy this year. Are electric cars actually better? This is the one where Adam tries to decide whether to buy an electric car. In the age of Tesla, is it the right choice? Where did the choice even come from? Adam and Chris take a look at the key issues that could help us decide. Are electric vehicles the eco-friendly choice? How would life change if everyone went electric? What's the cost/benefit compared to gas vehicles? Could electric cars kill the great American road trip? How long does it take to change an electric vehicle, and what does it cost? What choices do individuals have in global systems? Electric cars continue to pass milestones, reaching tipping points for mass adoption in countries around the world. Legislation is driving consumers into electric vehicles. Global car makers are committing to all electric fleets within the next decade. Will gas-guzzlers go the way of the horse? Links Compare For Yourself. Check out Adam's cost comparison spreadsheet for Gas vs Electric. Fill in your own local data and compare costs for yourself. Here's another visual comparison as well. Recharging. One woman's road trip from New Orleans to Chicago, and back, and the harrowing risks of finding charging stations. Watch. Who Killed the Electric Car? - 2006 documentary by Chris Payne Leaded Gas didn't completely disappear until 2021! Images Woman Cooking on Car Engine Horse Head? The weird car design that includes a horse head, so as not to spook other horses. Talk Back Reach out to Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Talk back to Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is a computer actually like the human brain? And is God's wisdom as mysterious as an AI's black box? We host Wired columnist Meghan O'Gieblyn with fascinating conversation through sentience, suffering, God's sovereignty—and of course, AI robotic dogs. Meghan O'Gieblyn is the author of God Human Animal Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning. Her previous essay collection Interior States, won the Believer Book Award for nonfiction. She writes essays and criticism for Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The New York Times, and Bookforum. Her writing has received three Pushcart Prizes, was nominated for a National Magazine Award, and has appeared in The Best American Essays and The Contemporary American Essay anthologies. And she writes a monthly advice column for our perennial favorite WIRED magazine. Big Questions How is it possible that humans can become attached to these artificial intelligence pets? What is the “hard problem of consciousness” in philosophy? How has the language of computers affected how we think about our own mind? Will artificial intelligence affect the way we think about God? Suffering? A note on faith Meghan openly talks on this episode that she no longer considers herself a Christian—despite growing up as an evangelical and a degree in Christian theology. She incorporates her personal story of belief and doubt into her recent book. While of course at Device & Virtue we produce our podcast from our own Christian worldview & faith, we felt like we had much to consider from her thoughts and were thankful she agreed to come on the show knowing we were a podcast of faith. Books & Links Chris mentions author Ted Chiang's science fiction story “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” about artificially intelligent pets Adam and Meghan discuss LaMDA—an AI chatbot by Google trained on conversation. In June 2022, news was made when a Google employee named Blake Lemoine claimed that the chatbot was sentient, a claim rejected by experts. Meghan O'Gieblyn's earlier book that Adam mentions at the beginning was entitled Interior States Talk Back Reach out to Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Talk back to Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You know that Thing where they ask celebrities to answer popular questions from Google autocomplete? Yeah... that's what we're doing today. Every day, people google their questions about technology. In this episode, Chris & Adam set the record straight and answer some of the most popular searches. They each choose 3 questions the other has to answer. No takebacks. Why does technology hate me? Is technology making us dumber? Where did technology come from? Where has technology gone wrong? What if technology disappeared? How did technology improve city life? How would you answer these questions? Adam and Chris take their best shots. See if you agree with their answers. Plus, you'll never guess what this episode's "Vice or Virtue" is. LINKS Google Autocomplete was originally named "Google Suggest" when it appeared on Google's homepage in 2008 after 4 years in beta testing. We cited a couple silly autocomplete surveys including... “Why is [US STATE] so…” Google Autocomplete Reveals What People Think Of Different US States TALK BACK Reach out to Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Talk back to Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Wired magazine started, they did the weirdest thing a tech magazine could do—they picked a patron saint. Was Marshall McLuhan a digital prophet? Chris interviews Nick Ripatrazone, author of Digital Communion: Marshall McLuhan's Spiritual Vision for a Virtual Age (2022). Nick is the Culture Editor for Image and a Contributing Editor for the Catholic Herald. Find out why McLuhan, in his mid-20s, left his nominal Baptist upbringing for a robust Catholic faith. Plus, are smartphones the new stained glass window?  In the book, Ripatrazone writes, "For McLuhan, mass media was a form of Mass. When we communicate electronically, not only do we send information; we send ourselves." He unpacks this idea more fully in this episode. Afterward, Adam and Chris discuss how digital media provides a kind of "secular" communion, and whether McLuhan's uniquely Christian metaphor ultimately breaks down. Finally, find out whether Nick thinks the digital age requires us to reimagine the sacraments in a virtual world. LINKS Nick's book is Digital Communion: Marshall McLuhan's Spiritual Vision for a Virtual Age. Marshall McLuhan's books include Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, The Medium is the Massage, and The Gutenberg Galaxy. Chris mentions the posthumously published, The Medium and the Light, as well as Douglas Coupland's biography, Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work! TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you use Slack at work? Is your email inbox overflowing? Has any of this tech made our work better? Workplace tech has grown a lot… from memorandums to fax machines to email to Slack! So are we all more efficient? Or more overwhelmed? Workers check their email every 6 minutes. Slack users check it every 5! How do we get anything done? Do we just send messages to show our boss that we're working? Performative productivity is real! Chris and Adam arguing about work life for the first time. Tech is collapsing our work and personal lives together. Maybe that's a good thing?  Plus, find out what happened a week after IBM introduced email into the company.  Other questions in this episode… Are email and Slack making us more productive? Have these communication tools made us more distracted? What the heck is the “hyperactive hivemind”? How are digital communications affecting our work relationships and emotions? Plus… What does Good Work for Christians working digitally today?  What antidotes are there to the hyperactive hivemind of today's corporate culture? LINKS Cal Newport's book is called A World Without Email Atlantic's article is “How Slack Upended the Workplace”.  Seneca's book is called Moral Letters Brian Brock's book is called Christian Ethics in a Technological Age Arcade Fire's song "Wasted Hours." TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The war in Ukraine has tanks in the streets, but don't miss the invisible weapons—hackers from both sides are launching online attacks. Chris & Adam ask a really subtly perplexing question: is digital war violence? BIG TOPICS INCLUDE This episode floats into all sorts of things: The 31 year old digital marketer that has become the tech mastermind behind Ukraine's digital offense and defense Some of the history of the world being very slow to recognize online attacks as “real attacks” What is hacking really anyway? Like, what do they actually DO? What does scripture and church theology say about the rights and wrongs of war? Just war theory? Christian Pacifism? How do we apply these Christian ethics from other eras to today's digital warfare? MYKHAILO FEDOROV (MEH KY LO FED-ER-OF) Did we pronounce his name right? Questionable. We tried hard. Letter to Apple's Tim Cook LINKS TO LEARN MORE Wired Magazine: Ukraine's Volunteer ‘IT Army' Is Hacking in Uncharted Territory Jacques Elull Violence: Reflections from a Christian Perspective (1969) Foreign Affairs: Digital Disorder issue TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Author Tony Reinke thinks Christians have made a wrong turn with technology, and he is out to steer us right. We're coming along for the ride. We interview Tony Reinke, author of the new book God, Technology, and the Christian Life, exploring how humanity's innovation relates to God's purposes. You don't want to miss this conversation! IN THIS EPISODE… Why Tony thinks non-Christians will be innovators more often than Christians. What Tony imagines the future fate of technology will look like. How tech gratitude and tech stewardship pave a way forward for Christians. How creational patterns guide scientific discovery and technology development. Plus, hear about the “Copernican Revolution” Tony experienced while writing this book. Tony Reinke serves as a senior teacher at Desiring God, and hosts the popular podcast Ask Pastor John. GET A COPY OF TONY'S BOOK. Join us on Patreon by May 30, 2022, and we'll send you a copy*. Plus, hear an extended cut of our interview with Tony! (*Regretfully, we can only mail books to residents in the continental US.) TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CELEBRATING 50 EPISODES 50 technologies. 50 arguments. 50 episodes. After 6 seasons, we're celebrating with clips from our greatest hits. Get ready for flashbacks. We dug into the archives, and dusted off a handful of clips that have stuck with us, going all the way back to Season 1! We add some updated thinking and reflect on why these episodes were chart-toppers for us. Plus, sample some episodes that might be new to you. As fast as tech changes, these episodes are still worth your ears. With insights that are still relevant today. CLIPS FROM THIS EPISODE Looking for an episodes we talked about? The details are here! S1E4 - Digital Romance: Getting Serious with Aziz Ansari S2E3 - Evangelism Chatbots S3E6 - Counting Down the New Year? That's Techy. S3E7 - Tech-Savvy Family: Smart Screen Time and Parenting Digital Natives S4E8 - Force for Good? S5E6 - mRNA Vaccines: 2020's Technology of the Year TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New! We are launching www.patreon.com/deviceandvirtue and have a goal to have 50 listeners become brand-new members of our DV crew! We need you! (And join by May 2 for a special bonus!) Special message from Adam + Chris: "Hey there! We love our listeners! You're smart. You notice the tech around you. And you know that our mission has always been to "argue" about the wrongs and rights of technology and faith in everyday life. We've heard from so many of you who know that this conversation is incredibly essential for our culture. Especially now. And there aren't a lot of places doing it like this. I'm sure you know it—but we work many hours each week for you and our listening community—trying to pull together a conversation on a current tech + culture topic that keeps you informed, thoughtful, and prayerful. We wish we could make this into our fulltime job, but it isn't! Mostly we use our nights and weekends to pull off these our podcast, and we hope you are loving it. We've met Christian leaders, pastors, Christians in tech, and people of faith everywhere who have told us that our discussions have helped think better about how to live. Discernment is the key—and it can't be done without effort. Or without you! Your Patreon financial support for the Device & Virtue mission will be a huge encouragement! Yes, we're about to do our 50th episode—And so we're looking for 50 ground-floor members who will launch into episode 51 and well beyond! BONUS: Join by May 2nd and get an exclusive bonus: Chris + Adam's curated lists of best reads on the topic of tech + faith. We narrow down the many sources to the essential ones worth your time and our private notes on each title. And Patreon supporters get other ongoing perks—check out www.patreon.com/deviceandvirtue to see all the options. Also: stay tuned for our “50th Episode!” retrospective episode, coming soon. TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Does he use Alexa in his own house? We've got a interview with the founder of Alexa, Jeff Adams. MORE QUESTIONS INCLUDE What's the story of how Alexa came about? How does your faith affect your work in technology? What are the next big things coming with voice technology? PLUS, CHRIS & ADAM DISCUSS: Are we good at predicting the next big technology? (seems like… no) How the first automobile relates to the Alexa project Should Alexa be emotionally intelligent? ABOUT JEFF ADAMS Jeff Adams has been a speech technologist for 25 years, spending time at Nuance, Yap, and Amazon. At Amazon, Jeff founded the Alexa Speech Group and led the team of speech and language scientists that built the automatic speech recognition and natural language understanding engines that Alexa runs on. Today he is the CEO and Founder of Colbalt Speech. Links & Resources Check out Jeff Adam's podcast: The Voice Box More about the Alexander Winton and the founding of the automobile (Saturday Evening Post, 1911). TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue on Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SHOULD WE PUT OUR MONEY WHERE OUR PRAYER IS? How do you pray? In the morning? With friends from church? How about with your smartphone? Millions of people already are, and paying a subscription to do so. And Big Tech thinks you will too. Are Prayer Apps good for the soul? Adam and Chris dive into the spiritual, and financial, realities of Prayer Apps and this new pay-to-pray world. We do everything else on our phones. Why not praying too? But how might these apps change the ways people connect with God? And should we have to pay for it? Prayer Apps made headlines in 2021, winning the attention of Silicon Valley investors to the tune of more than $175 million dollars. If Silicon Valley believes people's prayer lives could become big business, maybe Christians should be asking a couple questions too. LINKS Forbes reported that venture capital funding for religious, primarily Christian, “apps have increased from $6.1 million in 2016 to $48.5 million in 2020 and $175.3 million in 2021.” TechCrunch talked to Hallow's founder, Alex Jones, about their $40 million investment from Peter Thiel and Drive Capital. Religion News Service reported on Glorify's 40 million from the venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz, and a host of celebrity supporters. More here from TechCrunch. TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue on Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LIVING WITH AN IMMANENT SENSE OF THE DIGITAL Felicia Wu Song is a Christian sociologist who says digital natives aren't as native as we think. Is there any hope for the rest of us? She says, yes. Chris interviews Dr Felicia Wu Song about her new book Restless Devices. She explains her belief that our digital routines and habits are themselves forms of discipleship. She says they not only form our habits, but also shape our identity, community, and relationships. And as a sociologist, Dr Song also draws attention to Big Tech's platforms and design decisions, the structures and systems they create, and the defaults those designs introduce to digitally mediated relationships. Afterwards, Adam and Chris explore more what those routine and habits look like for them, and the struggles that come with the "immanent sense of the digital," as Dr Song puts it in her book. They imagine together what new habits and designs could help them better relate digitally to the most important people in their lives. LINKS & RESOURCES Dr Felicia Wu Song is Professor of Sociology at Westmont College in California, and author of the book Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence and Place in the Digital Age, published by Intervarsity Press. Dr Song mentions James K A Smith's work on counter-liturgies, which factor heavily into his books Desiring the Kingdom and You Are What You Love. Chris mentions Marshall McLuhan's book The Medium is the Massage, an avant-garde 60s/70s book that uses graphic design to explore the ideas of his seminal work, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue on Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WHOSE EXPERTS? WHICH INFORMATION? Doctors and scientists have fallen on hard times. Experts are facing a crisis of trust, and we think technology is a major factor. We explore why on this episode of Device & Virtue. Chris proposes how elders, priests, and magicians gave way to the modern expert, how digital media has led to the expert's decline, and who is rising up in their wake. Meanwhile, Adam says that information overload is something the Bible addresses in surprising ways. Navigating the new information economy starts with some age-old wisdom. LINKS & RESOURCES Adam recounts a theory about places like Stonehenge and Easter Island being “memory spaces.” Learn more in Lynne Kelly's book, The Memory Code. Adam and Chris talked about Google's nGram search engine for finding the rise of the term expert But they didn't know what n-gram meant! Here's the answer TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue on Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sometimes a new technology comes along that you've barely heard of but could change everything. Like how we OWN things. Adam & Chris are putting the fun in Non-Fungible Tokens—the relatively new digital tech also known as “NFTs” OWN THE NFT FOR THIS DEVICE & VIRTUE EPISODE Are we kidding? No! You can buy the NFT for this very episode! CHECK IT OUT HERE CHRIS & ADAM ARGUE ABOUT NFTS They use the same underlying technology as Bitcoin, but NFTs aren't money—they are being used more like a digital deed—an ownership certificate that allows people to buy digital goods. Some of the questions Adam & Chris argue about this episode: There are already people paying millions of $ for some digital cat images online. It seems crazy. Are NFT's a fad? Digital things can be copied with just a right-click! Why does anyone care about owning an “original?” What is an original anyway? If NFTs stick around, what are the effects on the world? What is a Christian ethic of ownership? LINKS & RESOURCES OpenSea —Chris called this the current “Amazon of NFTs” American rock band the Kings of Leon sold an album as an NFT Artist Beeple sold digital art collection for a record $70 million “No, NFTs Aren't Copyrights” by Harrison Jordan via TechCrunch “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”—1935 essay by Walter Benjamin that Adam brings up talking about how technology has affected our view of “originals” Manifold—NFT digital agency doing complex “digital contracts” with NFTs TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue on Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well. Facebook has announced that their new name is Meta. As in “metaverse.” As in a science fiction nerd-term becoming reality. As in—is this our future?? Chris & Adam laugh and raise eyebrows as they watch Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of what he thinks future life will be like for relationships, work, and play. What does a virtual reality life offer that life today does? Is this bad? Good? And what does a Christian think about an alternate reality? A virtual reality that is becoming less “virtual” every day? WATCH THE FACEBOOK/META KEYNOTE VIDEO LINKS “Founder's Letter 2021 “ from Mark Zuckerberg LM Sacasas: Notes from the Metaverse (The Convival Society Vol 2, No 16) Matthew Ball: The Metaverse: What It Is, Where to Find It, and Who Will Build It Snow Crash, the scifi book where the metaverse term originally came from TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue on Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet a new smartphone that can't install apps, doesn't have Facebook, and that's why people want it. Does it make life better? Adam interviews Chris Kaspar, founder of Techless and maker of the Wisephone, aiming to change how people relate to their most personal device. They talk about digital addiction, parenting, smartphone self-control, and more. Then, in the post-interview discussion, Chris and Adam discuss whether they would get a Wisephone. They even get around to suggesting some ways the Techless might make the Wisephone better. Links Learn more about Techless, the Wisephone, and Chris Kaspar on Techless's website. See our Season 3 episode on screen time: “Tech Savvy Family: Smart Screen Time And Parenting Digital Natives.” Chris and Adam each interview their sisters to find out how they manage devices for their kids. Talk Back Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue on Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is my smartphone listening to me? Too many creepy stories are out there about suspiciously perfect ads appearing after just a conversation with a friend! So Adam starts getting a little paranoid and tries an experiment with some friends. Then he brings It to Chris to prove that our phone's microphones have to be spying on us. Welcome to the world of digital marketing which is still right in front of us but many people don't entirely understand. MARKETING TECH FROM EASY TO CREEPY MAGIC LINKS & RESOURCES What the big companies say Google's policies for app developers Lots of articles linked back to this one article… which Chris said was more sensational than getting to the bottom of anything. Vice: Your Phone Is Listening and it's Not Paranoia: Here's how I got to bottom of the ads-coinciding-with-conversations mystery Patents that Adam mentions Facebook secures patent to track users' TV viewing with microphones, cameras, GPS Studies we mention by universities or independent firms: Gizmodo: These Academics Spent the Last Year Testing Whether Your Phone Is Secretly Listening to You BBC: Why phones that secretly listen to us are a myth What is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon? TED Talk from professor Zeynep Tufekci: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue on Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ever seen a Bible professor wear virtual reality goggles? Dr. Darrell Bock is well known in the Biblical scholarship world—he is a past President of the Evangelical Theological Society, New Testament Professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, and pastors know his commentaries on Luke & Acts. But today we interview him about a pretty different topic: the future of the church in a post-pandemic world where Zoom and livestreamed church has become the norm. Plus he talks about virtual reality goggles. Questions include: Can you do a virtual baptism? How does virtual reality help the global and persecuted church? Practical ideas on making online church more human and interactive And after the interview, Chris reacts with Adam, talking about Billy Graham and Jesus Avatars. Buy Virtual Reality Church by Darrell Bock (published by Moody Press). Links to Amazon are affiliate links and any proceeds go to help support Device & Virtue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you wear a FitBit? Fitness trackers are producing more data than ever. But how useful are all these charts and graphs? We dig into the spreadsheets of the Quantified Self to see what kind of person we can find in the numbers. Meanwhile, as Big Tech companies hoover up data about our resting heart rates, body-fat percentages, and sleep habits, is our own privacy being threatened? Finally, we ask, “What is a body for?” We turn to Pope John Paul II, a big hitter when it comes to a theology of the body. He offers deep insights about what human freedom truly means, which gives us insight for how fitness trackers might help us live into all that God has for us as his image-bearers. NOTES A history and analysis of the Quantified Self movement that started in 2008. The Amazon Halo band: Reviews from The New York Times and The Verge. A review of Amazon’s custom t-shirt biz. A summary of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. All his public addresses can be searched for here. Most of Adam’s comments are drawn from this message.

Why you have to trust in order to know. Learn more about "Lateral reading" sourcing and more with this video series that Chris recommends: https://thecrashcourse.com/courses/navigatingdigitalinfo Skip the argument with our new Short Circuit format! Adam or Chris grabs the mic for a more personal reflection on technology & faith. These shorter entries are a bonus to our full-length episodes. Enjoy!

From disinformation to polarization, we hardly know what to believe anymore. And knowing who to believe isn't any easier. Chris and Adam talk thru the marks of conspiracy theories, and how moderation of social platforms may need to get more personal, not less. And how does our Christian faith impact this all? Doubting Thomas and how Paul talks about mystery cults—all packed in to this one

Skip the argument with our new Short Circuit format! Adam or Chris grabs the mic for a more personal reflection on technology & faith. These shorter entries are a bonus to our full-length episodes. Enjoy! This week Adam sits down to talk about finding Upgrades in an expected place: The Book of Genesis.

Can we live more genuine, compassionate, and focused lives online? Well-known Christian author Andy Crouch joins his daughter Amy Crouch for a fascinating conversation on living My TechWise Life: Growing Up and Making Choices in a World of Devices Amy’s book is a follow up to the The TechWise Family by Andy Crouch: and the family Amy grew up in! Now a junior at Cornell University, she writes her own volume on what it was like as a teenager to grow up in a household with a certain approach to the iPhones and technology that we live with everyday. Our interview is packed with fascinating bits including: What does it feel like for a teenager growing up with SnapChat and social expectations online? How does technology interact with our own vulnerability and self-doubt? How do we confront distraction? How do parents and kids work together on creating family approaches to technology? Also—we ask Andy Crouch (author of Culture Making and former editor of Christianity Today) magazine what he makes of the current startling events in Washington DC, how technology has affected what has happened, and what he thinks the church can do in response. **This podcast description includes sponsored links: help support the Device & Virtue podcast**

The COVID-19 vaccine might be the technology of the year. But what is it about some new technologies that fuels fear? And where is faith? And are Chris & Adam going to get the vaccine? “If I get the COVID vaccine, am I failing to trust God?” Some Christians will be asking themselves this question. The vaccine has arrived faster than anyone could believe, and more effective than most doctors dared to hope. How did it happen so fast? And what makes this vaccine different than any vaccine in history? The COVID-19 vaccine is brand new in many ways, but it took 6 decades to create this vaccine in record time. Chris and Adam unpack the history and technology of mRNA, and the story of the woman behind it. And they dig deep into Scripture to look at what it means to trust God with what seems like a man-made miracle. Links Wired: How mRNA went from a scientific backwater to a pandemic crusher NYT: Politics, Science and the Remarkable Race for a Coronavirus Vaccine Official vaccine site: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine | cvdvaccine.com Gospel Coalition: The FAQs: What You Should Know About COVID-19 Vaccines STAT News: With science and scripture, a pastor fights Covid-19 vaccine skepticism YouTube: Inside the Lab That Invented the COVID-19 Vaccine

Introducing our new Short Circuit format! Skip the argument. Adam or Chris grab the mic for themselves to make any point they want about technology & faith. These short sidebars are in addition to our full length episodes. Enjoy! Chris takes 5 minutes to talk LED lights for Christmas and what makes them special.

Is social media manipulating the world? People are talking about this new scary documentary on Netflix, so Adam and Chris did movie night and are ready to talk it out. (We recommend you watch it first, but you don't have to!) Watch the trailer on YouTube right here. Adam & Chris talk through the The “Psychology Dilemma” — Does social media cause psychological harm? The “Disinformation Dilemma” — Does social media manipulate politics and what we believe? The “Never Before in History” Dilemma — Is this unprecedented? The “Solution Dilemma” — What will work? LINKS Official website—The Social Dilemma The press release response from Facebook Review from Wired Magazine: Hate Social Media? You’ll Love This Documentary Review from The Verge: Telling People to Delete Facebook Won’t Fix the Internet Critique that The Social Dilemma did not include a diverse set of voices from experts who are women or people of color.

So the founder of GrubHub—the original guy who started the app from his Chicago apartment—just gave us a call. Here’s what he thinks about the ethics of what he made—in this interview with Device & Virtue. Order some takeout, and listen while you wait. When Mike Evans started GrubHub in 2002, he was doing more than helping you find your next meal. He was seeking to change the game for small businesses across the country. Mike sits down with Chris to talk about how his faith inspired the groundbreaking app. Get an inside look at how vision and virtue can drive a company, and how business models and digital platforms can shape how tech companies develop. And see how a dream for helping restaurateurs translated into increased quality and convenience for customers. Plus, a hard look at the ethics of food delivery apps from farm to table.

Food delivery didn’t start with pizza. It’s as least as old as the Bible. But ordering food is now easier than ever. Food delivery apps are transforming how we find food and consume it like never before. Transforming not just the making and eating, but also space and time. Food has a story and a history. And even a theology. How will food delivery apps shape them all? For Christians, whose faith finds its focus around a table, food delivery apps are worth thinking about deeply. Get started here. Links Ghost Kitchens are real. Here are a couple articles about this haunting phenomenon. Here is a history of online meal delivery. Margherita pizza and the origins of modern pizza delivery. Pizza Net circa 1993! The Slow Food Movement doesn’t mean you don’t crave McDonald’s. As Christians in the 21st century, how now should we think about food?

If you’ve been in a big city recently, you’ve probably seen people scootering around. Or is it “scooting”? Chris & Adam are asking the hard questions about micro-mobility—is it trendy? Transformational? Or Terrible? And if “cars created the megachurch”—what do e-scooters create?

Have you installed the world’s newest social media app? Your church youth group has! China, dancing cats, and Adam’s new obsession all right here on the first episode of season 5.

If you’re out for an evening stroll, you can bet that someone’s watching, even if nobody’s home. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood surveillance state. Instead of Mr. Rogers, Jeff Bezos is putting on his cardigan and answering the door. Grab your shoes. Ring Doorbells are popping up on porches across the country and around the world. What happens in your neighborhood no longer stays in your neighborhood. The video is getting uploaded to the cloud, everything from kidnappings to random acts of kindness. Are Ring cameras making our neighborhoods safer or making us more suspicious? This is the 6 o’clock news at the neighborhood level. And police are finding new ways to patrol your streets without leaving the precinct. Chris and Adam unpack the new normal for Christians who want to love their neighbor without violating their privacy. LINKS We recounted a bunch of stories in this episode. Read more about each one here: kidnapping, halloween, eavesdropping, trolling girl, aliens. Caroline Haskins has covered Ring’s relationship with police in quite a number of articles for Vice. Quite. Two earlier episodes from Device & Virtue, Season 2, touch on some of these same themes: Can I Get a Witness? (S2E1) and Fixing Our Privacy Settings (S2E2). Photo by Qusai Akoud from StockSnap

Apple, Google, and governments around the world are cooking up a new way to trace where you’ve been and who you’ve talked to. Sound like Big Brother? It may actually help you to love your neighbor.

Life's changed for all of us, right? Adam & Chris each highlight four things they noticed this week about technology & faith—all from home. For one thing, when church goes online, what’s the difference between watching and worshiping? It may depend on which app you use. Pastors are scrambling to keep their congregations connected during the coronavirus quarantine. And they are realizing that some key elements of “church” go far beyond just live-streaming the service itself. Plus, every live-streaming platform offers different features, and these differences will significantly impact the online community experience. Chris and Adam help pastors consider how different platforms will shape their congregations’ feelings of connection and meaningful relationship. LINKS Chris mentioned this Washington Post article arguing why we should use smartphones to track the coronavirus. Digital Tithing is more crucial than ever for churches during COVID-19. We talked about smartphone giving back in season 2, weighing the benefits and risks, and suggesting ways the technology could be improved. Chris argues that “Online Communion Can Still Be Sacramental” over at Christianity Today.

Did your church cancel services last weekend? With coronavirus, worship went online in unprecedented numbers, and social distancing has us all asking, “Can real church happen on the Internet?” The coronavirus may do more than infect our bodies. It may have a lasting effect on church theology around the world. Even while we long to gather together in person, we’re finding ways to still connect in real, meaningful ways. Plus, why is COVID-19 different than earlier pandemics? And what role has social media played in its spread? Adam & Chris jump in for a unplanned, self-quarantine episode to talk about all the craziness, and the tech & theology questions the coronavirus has brought up. Links Wanna compare COVID-19 to earlier outbreaks? Here’s a good article to get you started. Check out this Coronavirus Simulator from the Washington Post (no paywall). Compare quarantining to social distancing, and see which one is more effective. Here’s a Twitter thread from DV friend Dr. Karen O’Donnell with more academic sources for thinking about online sacraments.