WEBVTT 00:00:02.880 --> 00:00:03.860 Welcome, everyone. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:06.020 My name is doctor Steven Grundman. 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:11.780 I teach integrated studies in our doctorate in psychology program, and I'll be your emcee for tonight. 00:00:12.575 --> 00:00:15.955 First, a few quest a few words about the question and answer period. 00:00:16.575 --> 00:00:24.995 As questions occur to you during the lecture, please feel feel free to write them in the chat box or the question and answer box in Zoom. 00:00:25.530 --> 00:00:32.430 If you're in the room, we'll be able to take verbal questions, afterwards, but feel free to take notes and be ready for that when we come. 00:00:33.690 --> 00:00:39.230 There will be a short break after the lecture while doctor Bitch prepares his responses to your questions. 00:00:39.525 --> 00:00:47.945 And for technical reasons, we will, only be able to accept quest questions electronically until just before the end of the talk. 00:00:49.045 --> 00:00:52.185 Next, I'm happy to introduce the Newman lecture series itself. 00:00:52.565 --> 00:00:58.720 The series now in its twenty third year is held into the sponsorship of Divine Mercy University. 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:11.535 As is our tradition, the series aims at building a body of learning discussion that is Catholic both in its breadth of research and in its dialogue with contemporary Catholic Christian thought. 00:01:12.235 --> 00:01:17.135 And now I invite our president, father Charles Sikorsky, to open us in prayer. 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:24.220 Well, thank you, doctor Grundmann. 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:32.300 I just wanna welcome everyone here who's here present, but also who's watching us virtually, to the University. 00:01:32.600 --> 00:01:34.060 It's great to have you with us. 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:36.200 And I think it's gonna be a really fascinating talk. 00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:42.315 Over the years, I've been privileged to have several conversations with doctor Vince about this topic. 00:01:42.855 --> 00:01:56.600 First, I didn't really understand what he was gonna talk about, but it's one of the most I think one of the most current challenges that the world faces, and he'll get more into that with the advances in technology and what happens to the human person. 00:01:56.660 --> 00:01:56.900 Right? 00:01:56.900 --> 00:02:00.060 And so, really, looking forward to it. 00:02:00.060 --> 00:02:05.495 I think it's gonna be a a fascinating talk, and thanks to doctor Vitz for preparing this for us. 00:02:06.035 --> 00:02:09.075 So begin with our prayer in the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. 00:02:09.075 --> 00:02:09.475 Amen. 00:02:09.475 --> 00:02:09.975 Amen. 00:02:10.755 --> 00:02:13.715 Heavenly father, creator of the universe Mhmm. 00:02:14.035 --> 00:02:26.060 And all things, especially human person, thank you for the gift of intelligence, will, creativity, and so many things that you give to each person. 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:33.500 Help us to use our talents in a positive way to serve you, to serve others, to serve the human person. 00:02:34.425 --> 00:02:41.645 And we thank you for all the benefits that we've had through technology, and development. 00:02:43.065 --> 00:02:58.480 It also presents, obviously, challenges that can put man not at the center, put the human person out at the center more as a servant of technology, the servant of our own inventions rather than using them to strengthen human life, to strengthen the human person. 00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:12.875 And so hope that this conversation maybe gives us some insight how we can better use our talents to serve you, use it and use the inventions and creations that others have helped to make and advance in a positive way. 00:03:12.875 --> 00:03:30.945 We thank you for doctor Vitz to be with us, tonight and for all he's done over the years to promote the study of psychology and its deeper meaning its deeper meaning that ultimately finds its purpose in you and your eternal plan. 00:03:31.805 --> 00:03:38.465 I also wanna pray for all those who are suffering right now with mental illness or struggles, emotional problems. 00:03:39.805 --> 00:03:47.000 Recently recent study came out from the CDC saying that suicide rates are going up both for young men and young women. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:04:01.885 We pray for all those who might be struggling right now that they get the help, the love, and the assistance they need to to persevere, and to find what they need to help them live flourishing, happy, healthy lives. 00:04:02.185 --> 00:04:06.125 We ask all these things in the name of your son, our lord Jesus Christ. 00:04:06.425 --> 00:04:06.925 Amen. 00:04:07.145 --> 00:04:07.645 Amen. 00:04:14.370 --> 00:04:18.790 Now please welcome doctor Klowicki who will introduce our speaker this evening. 00:04:25.515 --> 00:04:26.015 Evening. 00:04:26.475 --> 00:04:28.255 My name is doctor Lisa Kliewicki. 00:04:28.395 --> 00:04:32.895 I'm the IPSD and the PsyD program director here at Divine Mercy University. 00:04:33.915 --> 00:04:38.895 And tonight, I have the very great pleasure of introducing our speaker, doctor Paul Bitz. 00:04:39.870 --> 00:04:54.770 As mentioned previously, the 22, 23 human lecture series celebrates the integration of Catholic Christian vision of the person with the mental health sciences, particularly through the life work of DMU's most influential scholar, doctor Paul Bitz. 00:04:55.705 --> 00:04:59.885 Doctor Vitz has made an impact on contemporary psychology for over forty years. 00:05:00.425 --> 00:05:10.860 Even before his groundbreaking publication of psychology as religion, the cult of self worship in 1977, which was not too much longer after I was born. 00:05:10.860 --> 00:05:12.960 So that really is something. 00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:19.200 The overall series will revisit themes important to doctor Bitz's legacy. 00:05:20.185 --> 00:05:27.805 And I think one of the things that's important here about doctor Bitz is that not only is he an incredible scholar, but he's an incredible man. 00:05:28.745 --> 00:05:32.365 He was our one of our very first founding faculty. 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:39.220 He taught our very first class in a in a, hotel room, right, for our students. 00:05:39.280 --> 00:05:40.400 Was it Saturday morning? 00:05:40.400 --> 00:05:41.680 Is it nine something? 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:41.840 Right? 00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:42.480 09:00. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:43.220 09:00. 00:05:43.440 --> 00:05:47.860 He would commute down from New York City where he was at NYU as well. 00:05:48.405 --> 00:05:57.785 And, doctor Vince, every time I would see him on campus, he would always stop and make eye contact with me and ask, how are you doing today? 00:05:58.085 --> 00:05:58.325 Right? 00:05:58.325 --> 00:06:00.505 There's always a question, how are you doing today? 00:06:00.565 --> 00:06:03.540 The next question he had was, how can I support you? 00:06:04.500 --> 00:06:05.460 I thought, wow. 00:06:05.460 --> 00:06:05.860 Right? 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:07.720 Here's a man of integrity. 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:08.820 Right? 00:06:08.820 --> 00:06:11.400 A man who really takes people seriously. 00:06:11.700 --> 00:06:16.920 He takes his scholarly work very seriously, but he takes to human relationship very seriously. 00:06:17.365 --> 00:06:24.825 And that has always impressed me with him for the time that I've known him from the very beginning of my time here at, IPS, now DMU. 00:06:25.845 --> 00:06:29.065 So doctor Vitz's contributions to the field are massive. 00:06:29.450 --> 00:06:34.270 And to comment on his more than lengthy curriculum would take us all night. 00:06:34.970 --> 00:06:39.130 So instead of hearing about doctor Vitz's work, I think we have something even better. 00:06:39.130 --> 00:06:41.070 We get to hear from doctor Vitz. 00:06:42.555 --> 00:06:51.135 So today, doctor Bitz will address analog and digital tech psychology analog and digital psychology and the challenge of transhumanism. 00:06:52.475 --> 00:06:53.935 Doctor Bitz, it's yours. 00:06:59.790 --> 00:07:01.410 Thank you very much, Lisa. 00:07:02.110 --> 00:07:05.010 And good evening, and welcome everyone who's here. 00:07:05.390 --> 00:07:10.290 I will do a lot of reading, so I'll be sitting down for much of it. 00:07:10.335 --> 00:07:12.175 I I have to say this. 00:07:12.175 --> 00:07:15.315 This is the first public presentation of this material. 00:07:15.615 --> 00:07:16.115 Mhmm. 00:07:16.415 --> 00:07:19.315 And so the result is it may be a little bit scattered. 00:07:20.415 --> 00:07:23.135 I have to pare it down a lot. 00:07:23.135 --> 00:07:26.650 There's more to it than what I can present in one talk. 00:07:27.270 --> 00:07:32.810 So I have to edit things, pair it down, and I may be a little bit disjointed at times. 00:07:33.110 --> 00:07:44.235 But please remember, there's a q and a session at the end of my talk, and you'll all be welcome to give a question to me or someone ask for clarification at that point. 00:07:44.855 --> 00:07:45.675 Thank you. 00:07:56.220 --> 00:08:04.480 Human beings have only two basic ways of representing information, knowledge, understanding, and meaning. 00:08:06.375 --> 00:08:08.155 One is with analog codes. 00:08:08.375 --> 00:08:10.235 The other is with digital codes. 00:08:11.335 --> 00:08:20.315 Evidence for this claim, the two codes themselves, and their impact on our life and culture will be the focus of my talk. 00:08:21.510 --> 00:08:30.970 In particular, the two codes will be shown to have very different mental and psychological effects and very different social and cultural effects as well. 00:08:32.470 --> 00:08:39.195 However, first, we need to know what analog and digital codes are, then we will move on to their significance. 00:08:40.775 --> 00:08:48.715 To begin, a code is anything that we can perceive and that stands for or refers to some other thing than itself. 00:08:51.050 --> 00:09:01.870 An analog code is one that has some physical similarity or analogy analogy to the thing to which it refers. 00:09:04.155 --> 00:09:07.375 The degree of similarity can be can vary. 00:09:07.755 --> 00:09:08.975 More on this later. 00:09:09.435 --> 00:09:13.855 But some similarity must exist between an analog code and its reference. 00:09:15.355 --> 00:09:19.295 A common visual code of a person is a photograph of him or her. 00:09:19.800 --> 00:09:25.100 By looking at the photograph, you can normally recognize its reference, assuming it's a good photo. 00:09:25.960 --> 00:09:29.260 Even a bad photo gives you some knowledge of the subject. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:38.755 However, the most elementary analog code of anything is our direct sensory perceptual experience of it. 00:09:39.855 --> 00:09:45.475 Your nervous system constructs a representation of what you are looking at. 00:09:47.135 --> 00:09:48.835 That is an analog code. 00:09:51.270 --> 00:09:54.810 Whatever you are listening to and looking at or even touching. 00:09:55.430 --> 00:10:06.075 This sensory or perceptual experience is technically a kind of neural representation or as I say code of the person, object, or thing being directly experienced. 00:10:07.975 --> 00:10:16.555 These analog codes are assumed to be so close to reality itself that we don't mention them in our interaction with others. 00:10:18.700 --> 00:10:20.880 I do not say when I'm looking at you. 00:10:21.900 --> 00:10:25.520 I have an aware I have an accurate representation of you. 00:10:25.820 --> 00:10:26.140 No. 00:10:26.140 --> 00:10:27.440 I say I see you. 00:10:28.060 --> 00:10:29.040 I see you. 00:10:29.420 --> 00:10:30.400 I see them. 00:10:33.475 --> 00:10:38.295 Although the codes are in our nervous system, they underlie all our conscious experience. 00:10:38.835 --> 00:10:43.255 And this experience is understood as an experience of what is real. 00:10:45.210 --> 00:10:55.390 These sights and sounds and other direct sensory and perceptual representations are our most elementary and most immediately meaning laden experiences. 00:10:57.875 --> 00:11:05.735 But the important point is that these experiences, which are perceptual and sensory, are constructed and are therefore codes. 00:11:06.195 --> 00:11:08.535 And so that's the basic analog code. 00:11:11.070 --> 00:11:19.170 Analog codes can be visual or auditory, or they can involve the other senses as well, of course, touch, taste, and smell. 00:11:20.270 --> 00:11:28.655 They are usually con continuous and connected throughout space to the rest of the surrounding environment. 00:11:28.655 --> 00:11:37.795 When I see you, I I'm connected to everyone else in this room and it usually and there are no boundary conditions very clear when I look at a person. 00:11:38.020 --> 00:11:45.240 There's always the context within which the analog, observation or analog code exists. 00:11:47.940 --> 00:11:53.160 A digital code in contrast is discreet and has no similarity to its reference. 00:11:54.315 --> 00:11:56.015 No similarity to its reference. 00:11:56.715 --> 00:11:58.895 Indeed, digital codes are arbitrary. 00:12:00.075 --> 00:12:05.135 For example, most of you have a Social Security number that refers to you. 00:12:06.330 --> 00:12:09.150 This number has no physical similarity to you. 00:12:10.170 --> 00:12:15.610 I cannot tell by looking at that code how old you are, your height, your weight, your sex. 00:12:15.610 --> 00:12:17.550 I cannot even tell if you are alive. 00:12:18.565 --> 00:12:22.505 And I can look at it, you know, Social Security code and the person could be dead. 00:12:23.125 --> 00:12:24.105 How would I know? 00:12:26.485 --> 00:12:57.025 Furthermore, most dir digital codes besides being discreet and therefore and also unrelated to the thing they refer to, they are part of a system that has rules for how the symbols are to be put into a correct sequence such as grammar and syntax rules for language, rules of logic or mathematics, rules for computer programs, or arbitrary rules for the way in which an organization writes its orders, pays its bills, and so forth. 00:12:58.630 --> 00:13:08.890 The difference of analog and digital codes is hardly new that I'm making here, although the claim of the sensory experience is, I think, somewhat new. 00:13:10.085 --> 00:13:17.385 But the two kind types of codes are familiar in computer theory and philosophers and psychologists have long made similar distinctions. 00:13:22.005 --> 00:13:29.480 Now this distinction between analog and digital codes means means that the codes are qualitatively different. 00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:35.720 They are independent of each other and refer to a different aspect of the reference. 00:13:38.035 --> 00:13:43.415 It is true that an analog code can be transmitted in terms of the digital phone. 00:13:43.955 --> 00:13:56.530 In other words, you can take a picture, put it into digital codes, transmit the digital codes to another actually, usually to another screen where it come where it's reconstituted as a picture. 00:13:57.150 --> 00:14:06.770 But the point I'm trying to make is that when the analog code is put in it to a digital form, while it's in a digital form, you cannot know what it is. 00:14:07.355 --> 00:14:11.775 You can't tell by looking at that series discrete zeros and ones or numbers. 00:14:12.075 --> 00:14:15.535 Whether it's a photograph of a person, much less if it's of your grandmother. 00:14:18.155 --> 00:14:24.410 In other words, it has to be reconstituted as an analog on a visual screen as a picture. 00:14:25.190 --> 00:14:26.730 Then you can understand it. 00:14:27.750 --> 00:14:29.450 And the opposite is true. 00:14:29.750 --> 00:14:33.850 A digital code can be conveyed to you by a photograph. 00:14:34.230 --> 00:14:37.130 It can be put into a pictorial form. 00:14:37.695 --> 00:14:41.215 But you cannot understand it by looking at it. 00:14:41.215 --> 00:14:45.155 By looking at the picture of a mathematical proof you don't know anything. 00:14:45.775 --> 00:14:54.860 You have to know what the symbols stand for, what language it might even have been written in, and all the rules and logic of the mathematical system within which it operates. 00:14:55.160 --> 00:14:59.340 So you can see a picture of it but, you can't do anything with it. 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:05.180 The same experience happens when most of us look at an unexpected foreign language. 00:15:06.735 --> 00:15:08.255 We can't we can't deal with it. 00:15:08.255 --> 00:15:09.155 It's written. 00:15:09.615 --> 00:15:17.795 It mostly is treated entirely as a digital code for us, but we can't figure out what it means because we don't know what the syntax. 00:15:17.855 --> 00:15:22.090 We don't know it's it's dictionary and so on. 00:15:29.750 --> 00:15:41.735 In addition, for example, analog codes have no no way to talk about zero or true negation, things like that. 00:15:42.195 --> 00:15:55.900 So there are aspects of reality that are only in the digital system just like as we'll see there are aspects of reality only in Anolon because the two are discrete, they're different, they cannot refer to the same information. 00:15:56.645 --> 00:15:58.645 A picture is worth a thousand words. 00:15:58.645 --> 00:16:06.025 It's a one way of summarizing that analog information is almost impossible to summarize even with words. 00:16:06.085 --> 00:16:10.825 And if you do, you have to use words that have lots of images in their associative character. 00:16:13.290 --> 00:16:14.810 In other words, you're bringing you're cheating. 00:16:14.810 --> 00:16:16.490 You're not giving them just a digital word. 00:16:16.490 --> 00:16:20.750 You're giving them a digital word that has lots of associations that are analog with it. 00:16:20.810 --> 00:16:21.850 And those bring it in. 00:16:21.850 --> 00:16:33.075 And those allow you to read poetry, for example, and, understand what somebody looks like when they're described in a novel and so on and why a sunset might be beautiful in terms of its description. 00:16:36.815 --> 00:16:45.040 The analog and digital distinction is important in a way that's been summarized by an interesting, philosopher. 00:16:45.660 --> 00:16:53.840 And I'll read it to you because it's gonna sort of capture the psychological differences associated with these two qualitatively different codes. 00:16:55.315 --> 00:17:04.135 The analog is pregnant with meaning, whereas the digital domain of significance is relatively speaking rather barren. 00:17:04.755 --> 00:17:10.535 It is almost impossible to translate the rich semantics of the analog into any digital form. 00:17:11.450 --> 00:17:23.310 This is true both of the most trivial sensations biting your tongue, for example, and the most enviable situations being in love, for example. 00:17:24.335 --> 00:17:33.235 It is impossible to describe precisely such events except in the recourse in recourse to unnamable unnamable common experiences. 00:17:34.175 --> 00:17:38.595 But this imprecision carries with it a fundamental and probably essential ambiguity. 00:17:40.510 --> 00:17:45.010 Analog symbols are not always clear as to what their meaning is. 00:17:47.790 --> 00:18:00.505 For example, a clenched fist may communicate excitement, fear, anger, impending assault, frustration, good morning, or revolution. 00:18:02.165 --> 00:18:07.465 You need to look at all the context to decide to figure that one out, and the context will also be analog. 00:18:09.020 --> 00:18:22.400 The digital, on the other hand, because it is concerned with boundaries and because it depends upon arbitrary combinations, has all the syntax to be precise and may be entirely unambiguous. 00:18:23.495 --> 00:18:29.675 Thus, what the analog gains in semantics or meaning, it loses in syntactics. 00:18:30.215 --> 00:18:35.035 And what the digital gains in syntactics, it loses in semantics. 00:18:36.810 --> 00:18:39.710 That's another way of talking about the qualitative difference. 00:18:40.490 --> 00:18:42.750 We need both of them, but they're different. 00:18:43.770 --> 00:18:55.915 Come sometimes we combine them, of course, in ways that make life more complicated, but that still doesn't that doesn't void the basic distinction between these two forms of of, code. 00:18:59.575 --> 00:19:02.155 Here are some more differences between the two codes. 00:19:02.455 --> 00:19:04.075 Digital codes, symbols. 00:19:05.820 --> 00:19:23.115 Digital codes are discrete, like numbers or letters of the alphabet or ones and zeros in computer and machine language, while analog codes are commonly continuous along with our rather arbitrary boundaries such as photographs or drawings. 00:19:24.055 --> 00:19:33.275 In a movie, although the edge of the screen is a boundary, this is usually implicit because the viewer is usually just looking at the center of the screen and not paying much attention to the boundaries. 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:38.180 And in essence, the boundaries is always floating around and changing. 00:19:56.175 --> 00:20:06.680 I mentioned already that digital codes are found usually within a an organization that specifies all the details of how to what is to be connected to what. 00:20:07.060 --> 00:20:13.080 What stands for, certain kind of, a certain kind of product perhaps that you bought. 00:20:13.460 --> 00:20:15.540 One one stands for another kind. 00:20:15.540 --> 00:20:19.545 What stands for how long you're gonna have it available and so on and so forth. 00:20:20.105 --> 00:20:22.845 Well, of course, we have words in a legal document. 00:20:24.825 --> 00:20:28.765 Each of those words you can only understand by knowing the legal precedence. 00:20:29.305 --> 00:20:36.630 You have a terrible problem reading a legal document unless you know all of the the digital meanings of those words. 00:20:37.330 --> 00:20:39.110 Same with the mathematical proof. 00:20:41.330 --> 00:20:44.230 But we can look at a picture, and we can know what it's about. 00:20:44.930 --> 00:20:48.390 We can't always tell its meaning as we've mentioned with the fist. 00:20:49.055 --> 00:20:50.915 But we can tell, oh, that's a fist. 00:20:51.535 --> 00:20:52.895 Now what's it mean? 00:20:52.895 --> 00:20:53.955 You look for context. 00:20:54.655 --> 00:20:58.755 But that's more building it up in more with more analog information. 00:20:59.775 --> 00:21:10.940 Even then there's always the possibility of some ambiguity with an analog signal. 00:21:10.940 --> 00:21:12.880 Types of errors that are made. 00:21:13.580 --> 00:21:15.760 Digital errors are very few. 00:21:19.335 --> 00:21:21.595 Digital systems are quite reliable usually. 00:21:22.295 --> 00:21:28.395 They're sudden, but when they make an error, it's sudden, it's discreet, and sometimes very large. 00:21:30.010 --> 00:21:38.670 You get a you get a a mistaken feedback from your tax report from the IRS, and it says you will be refunded $1,000,000. 00:21:39.370 --> 00:21:40.270 That's a mistake. 00:21:40.970 --> 00:21:45.505 There were bunch of zeros and ones in a row, and they put the one in the wrong place. 00:21:47.405 --> 00:21:52.225 So it's a sudden digital disaster from the point of view of the IRS. 00:21:53.245 --> 00:21:58.680 Digital you know, suddenly you're using your your phone and you press the wrong button and you call the wrong person. 00:21:58.920 --> 00:21:59.820 Oh, disaster. 00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:01.080 That's the last person I want. 00:22:01.080 --> 00:22:01.980 I got them now. 00:22:03.320 --> 00:22:07.020 You press the wrong lever in in in a in a factory and it whoops. 00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:08.440 Guess what happens? 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:09.740 All the lights go out. 00:22:10.920 --> 00:22:12.620 But, normally, they don't happen. 00:22:13.035 --> 00:22:18.895 Digital errors are few, but when they can when they do happen, they can be disastrous. 00:22:19.515 --> 00:22:19.755 Oops. 00:22:19.755 --> 00:22:20.235 I'm sorry. 00:22:20.235 --> 00:22:23.295 I've got I I I pressed the button for the atom bomb. 00:22:28.290 --> 00:22:32.710 Analog errors are fairly common and are always small. 00:22:34.210 --> 00:22:42.405 For example, if we're, I'm trading with you for I'm giving you a chicken for a bush of wheat. 00:22:43.025 --> 00:22:48.945 Well, every chicken I can give will be slightly different from every other chicken, and so you can't count on them exactly. 00:22:48.945 --> 00:22:59.050 They're always every coin, if we have a gold or silver coins if there some of them have been used more and so every one is slightly different. 00:22:59.050 --> 00:23:05.550 There's slightly different values in each coin depending upon how much of the silver or gold has been worn off. 00:23:05.945 --> 00:23:12.685 So you treat them as though they're all identical and and of the same value, but they're always slightly off. 00:23:13.225 --> 00:23:19.725 Analog measures are always often given to small errors that can accumulate. 00:23:20.540 --> 00:23:25.680 But when you're writing a digital one for a dollar, that dollar all those dollars are equal. 00:23:26.300 --> 00:23:32.700 But if I give you a dollar coin, some of those dollar coins are worth more than others if you have to. 00:23:32.700 --> 00:23:36.445 But we treat them for all practical purposes as equivalent. 00:23:36.445 --> 00:23:38.145 But in fact, they're slightly different. 00:23:38.365 --> 00:23:46.625 And if all I ever gave you were very worn silver dollars and you always gave me brand new ones, sooner or later somebody might notice the discrepancy. 00:23:51.750 --> 00:23:59.370 By the way, animal, analog, coding requires for our experience differences. 00:24:01.910 --> 00:24:07.805 That is our visual system and all of our sensory systems are set up to detect change. 00:24:08.905 --> 00:24:11.325 And that means the more differences, the better. 00:24:12.185 --> 00:24:17.165 As I look around this room, there are all kinds of different colors, shapes, etcetera. 00:24:17.225 --> 00:24:22.300 And that's what makes this an interesting, audience if you will. 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:26.860 But digital systems want there to be as few differences as possible. 00:24:27.480 --> 00:24:29.900 That's why machine language only has two. 00:24:30.120 --> 00:24:31.100 One and zero. 00:24:33.615 --> 00:24:36.035 They wanna have as few differences as possible. 00:24:36.335 --> 00:24:38.755 They want everything to be more or less homogeneous. 00:24:41.295 --> 00:24:44.995 The digital so digital systems want there to be one. 00:24:46.970 --> 00:24:49.470 Analog systems want there to be many. 00:24:50.570 --> 00:24:53.230 It's another way in which they're qualitatively different. 00:25:00.555 --> 00:25:00.955 Okay. 00:25:00.955 --> 00:25:07.775 Now I wanna talk about something that I call the analog to digital continuum and the analog to digital progression. 00:25:11.515 --> 00:25:16.600 Historically, analog symbols have tended to move toward the digital. 00:25:17.940 --> 00:25:23.640 They've become less analog over time, and eventually, in many cases, they become totally digital. 00:25:25.060 --> 00:25:35.585 We can see this is, for example, in cave drawings, you might find, well, maybe a picture of a man like the one on a or maybe one like b. 00:25:37.165 --> 00:25:38.700 Or you may find one like c. 00:25:38.700 --> 00:25:42.960 Actually, c is rather like the Chinese character even today for a human person. 00:25:44.460 --> 00:25:47.580 But you get to d, all analog aspects have been lost. 00:25:47.580 --> 00:25:52.695 You look at it just a straight line, that's not going to tell you any of that as a person in any way at all. 00:25:52.855 --> 00:25:57.915 You might get ahead of it from c only because you knew the the history of it. 00:25:58.615 --> 00:26:03.835 But you wouldn't normally, if it was shown to you to begin with, think that was a symbol for a person. 00:26:09.870 --> 00:26:10.770 They're the digits. 00:26:11.310 --> 00:26:20.865 The when the digits were first made by discrete, you know, sticks, putting it in wet clay, They were like they all were on the right. 00:26:20.925 --> 00:26:22.765 One, two, three, four, five. 00:26:22.765 --> 00:26:30.545 And you'll notice that in each of them, they have the number of straight lines that the digit eventually came to symbolize. 00:26:31.700 --> 00:26:46.040 The only example you might think is seven, which has if you look at the seven the one in the middle, the seven there, we've shortened it now today like the seven on the far left. 00:26:46.415 --> 00:26:52.835 If you look at the far right, you'll see the seven as it's still found in European countries and particularly in the past. 00:26:53.135 --> 00:26:56.995 And that seven has actually all seven separate lines to it. 00:26:58.095 --> 00:27:09.540 My guess is that nine, they discovered that the the right side of it was irrelevant or redundant, so they ended up with nine with the left set of, lines. 00:27:11.040 --> 00:27:15.380 But I don't in other words, even the digits themselves were once analog. 00:27:16.375 --> 00:27:18.955 They're not they once portrayed the number itself. 00:27:19.495 --> 00:27:33.540 But now thanks to all kinds of new technologies for making numbers, including moving from discrete sticks to script and feathers with ink and IBM machines and everything else. 00:27:33.600 --> 00:27:42.195 We now have the digits totally, digital, totally without any reference to the the no connection to them. 00:27:42.195 --> 00:27:44.915 Maybe people might think one is sort of like one still. 00:27:44.915 --> 00:27:53.975 But in general, people think of all the digits as discreetly, unique and not not pictorial at all. 00:27:58.950 --> 00:28:03.130 Now over time, how have these things changed? 00:28:06.950 --> 00:28:09.290 I call that the analog to digital progression. 00:28:10.275 --> 00:28:25.095 The biggest change that occurred in the Western culture was when we when when about five hundred or so years ago, the printing press was introduced, and we went from an oral culture to a print culture. 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:30.820 Print is much more digital because it than than it is. 00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:32.740 Oral is always analog. 00:28:34.800 --> 00:28:38.260 Oral is always something you hear and see in the presence. 00:28:39.415 --> 00:28:41.995 The oral culture is a very analog culture. 00:28:43.895 --> 00:28:50.055 It may have a few things that it writes up and so forth, but it's mostly an o an oral analog culture. 00:28:50.055 --> 00:28:52.555 The digital culture becomes more and more abstract. 00:28:52.990 --> 00:28:57.890 You can read something that somebody said without that person being there talking to you. 00:29:00.670 --> 00:29:03.470 And the words themselves, you have to learn when they're written. 00:29:03.470 --> 00:29:08.995 You have to learn what that written code for the words means in each language and so forth. 00:29:09.535 --> 00:29:10.355 Is that clear? 00:29:10.895 --> 00:29:23.360 And so when we went into the written word with the development of the printing press, especially, there was a little bit of the written word prior to that, of course, and, you know, it was written by hand and it was on scrolls. 00:29:24.140 --> 00:29:26.880 You didn't really have books as we know that you had scrolls. 00:29:27.180 --> 00:29:31.840 And that was digital, but it was very small compared to the rest of the culture. 00:29:33.075 --> 00:29:40.695 And what's happened increasingly since the invention of the printing press that we've gone more and more digital, and our culture has become less and less oral. 00:29:40.835 --> 00:29:48.020 And that means we've become less and less, analog, less and less directly involved with people. 00:29:48.560 --> 00:29:52.020 More and more, I can sit by myself and lead in a corner. 00:29:53.200 --> 00:30:00.105 I don't have to be with the group listening to somebody or with at least under one other person there speaking to me in the oral culture. 00:30:00.585 --> 00:30:08.525 Now I can be all by myself and deal only with things that have no, analog necessary significance. 00:30:08.585 --> 00:30:12.105 They may end up with a little bit by association and so on and so forth. 00:30:12.105 --> 00:30:17.060 But you see the big change in the culture that comes with the introduction of print. 00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:26.340 And that has been beautifully documented by Walter Ong, over it was some some decades ago. 00:30:26.615 --> 00:30:33.595 And you can find the the whole movement slowly as he talked about the movement toward, the the written culture. 00:30:33.735 --> 00:30:36.235 He did not use the words analog and digital. 00:30:39.810 --> 00:30:50.070 Now more recently, we can think about things that have changed in our life, you know, or at least we can refer some of it into our own experience. 00:30:51.455 --> 00:30:55.715 The animal to digital progression has certainly taken place in work. 00:30:58.175 --> 00:31:05.235 It used to be you could almost always tell what a person did by looking at what the the clothes they wore and what they were actually doing. 00:31:07.430 --> 00:31:09.830 They were digging a ditch, taking care of a child. 00:31:09.830 --> 00:31:11.210 They were being a priest. 00:31:11.670 --> 00:31:12.810 They were a warrior. 00:31:13.030 --> 00:31:13.530 Whatever. 00:31:15.190 --> 00:31:17.530 Now everything's much more digital. 00:31:17.590 --> 00:31:26.215 All people do is do is sit and look at a screen, and they don't they can wear just about anything while they're looking at the screen. 00:31:26.215 --> 00:31:35.515 And you can't tell what they're doing, whether that screen is about, you know, a mathematical proof or whether it's about ordering beans for tomorrow for your restaurant. 00:31:37.060 --> 00:31:38.680 You can't tell what it's about. 00:31:38.820 --> 00:31:46.200 The the job itself, because you're spending so much time looking at a screen, has become digitalized in that you don't know what the person is doing. 00:31:48.975 --> 00:31:54.275 All these jobs have become homogeneous in terms of the activity of the doer. 00:31:57.535 --> 00:31:58.675 That's in work. 00:32:01.470 --> 00:32:01.970 Time. 00:32:02.190 --> 00:32:04.530 Well, it's perfectly clear we've measured time. 00:32:04.590 --> 00:32:10.770 In the old days, there were so many days or so many moons or so many years or summers. 00:32:11.230 --> 00:32:13.970 Maybe you just told it was the year of the great tornado. 00:32:14.110 --> 00:32:17.375 It was the year of King Henry the twenty fifth or whatever. 00:32:17.915 --> 00:32:24.335 So you had analog understanding of time, the seasons, and so forth. 00:32:24.715 --> 00:32:28.495 Now a day may be just a string of digits. 00:32:29.380 --> 00:32:29.960 You know? 00:32:30.740 --> 00:32:33.080 02/16/2023. 00:32:36.020 --> 00:32:36.740 You know? 00:32:36.740 --> 00:32:37.560 That's today. 00:32:38.980 --> 00:32:41.380 There's nothing analog about it. 00:32:41.380 --> 00:32:45.225 The we still have clocks with hands in them. 00:32:45.225 --> 00:32:48.445 Hands still, and that's an analog thing. 00:32:48.505 --> 00:32:57.725 And we can watch time move, and it even goes through two it goes through a day cycle and a night cycle, twelve two twelve hour times. 00:32:58.500 --> 00:33:04.120 So that's still a little bit of analog left in our measurement of time even though we'll say it was 05:00. 00:33:04.420 --> 00:33:05.880 But it's five of the clock. 00:33:07.300 --> 00:33:08.840 But now we'll just say it's five. 00:33:09.300 --> 00:33:14.335 And today, when the digits change, all you do is seeing things just strictly pop on and off. 00:33:14.475 --> 00:33:16.155 Time doesn't move in front of you. 00:33:16.155 --> 00:33:26.415 It just changes from zero to one or from something to nothing as a flip as a as a string of numbers goes on and off in front of you. 00:33:27.510 --> 00:33:43.715 So our time now is almost completely digital without any of the associations of the older periods of measurement, much less our natural understanding of in terms of, you know, the seasons and the time of day is morning or evening and so forth. 00:33:48.815 --> 00:33:50.515 Same thing has happened with food. 00:33:50.975 --> 00:33:52.995 Our food has become much more digital. 00:33:53.790 --> 00:33:58.930 You used to always know what you were eating by looking at the piece of meat or by looking at the vegetable. 00:33:59.790 --> 00:34:01.810 Chicken nuggets, good grief. 00:34:02.670 --> 00:34:04.270 I'm talking about a digital food. 00:34:04.270 --> 00:34:04.930 You know? 00:34:05.390 --> 00:34:07.410 And now you can have other kinds of nuggets. 00:34:07.425 --> 00:34:08.725 You can have pork nuggets. 00:34:09.025 --> 00:34:09.345 You know? 00:34:09.345 --> 00:34:11.925 And that means that's a digitalization of food. 00:34:13.745 --> 00:34:15.585 We buy them in little packages now. 00:34:15.585 --> 00:34:17.905 You can't even touch them or smell them. 00:34:17.905 --> 00:34:19.345 So you can't even it's a cheese. 00:34:19.345 --> 00:34:22.560 You used to be able to figure it out a little bit by the smell. 00:34:22.560 --> 00:34:25.140 But now they're all packaged in little sections. 00:34:25.520 --> 00:34:33.520 And, of course, if you're not even going to the grocery anymore, if you're ordering online, you don't even see the actual item you buy. 00:34:33.520 --> 00:34:39.895 You just see a picture of The one crucial piece of information you always get, however, is the price. 00:34:41.315 --> 00:34:42.775 You get the digital name. 00:34:44.595 --> 00:34:55.850 And it may be delivered in little packages and so, you know but in the old days, you used to go to a grocery and pick and snoop, you know, and look at and feel and it was just ripe and all of that. 00:34:55.910 --> 00:34:59.130 But and that was just not very long ago. 00:35:00.230 --> 00:35:08.975 I still remember my mother touching melons, trying to figure out whether they were ripe enough to get and smelling them and so forth. 00:35:09.595 --> 00:35:13.515 But so all the analog aspects of a lot of food now have disappeared. 00:35:13.515 --> 00:35:20.580 In fact, now if they're going to talk about, you know, meatless meat, That'll be a totally digital phenomenon. 00:35:21.040 --> 00:35:23.280 They'll call it meat, but it's just as good as meat. 00:35:23.280 --> 00:35:25.140 It tastes like meat, but it isn't meat. 00:35:28.880 --> 00:35:37.345 So all of the notions of farming behind our food and things of that kind, all those images will fade as we digitalized our food. 00:35:38.445 --> 00:35:38.945 Money. 00:35:39.565 --> 00:35:41.585 We all know we digitalized money. 00:35:41.885 --> 00:35:50.450 It used to be something like, as I said, barter, where you change the chicken for a little bushel of wheat or something like that. 00:35:50.450 --> 00:35:55.890 And then you change the gold coin for something or silver coin, which had intrinsic value. 00:35:55.890 --> 00:35:59.910 And then finally, you went to paper money, or in between, you had letters of credit. 00:36:01.250 --> 00:36:02.550 Then you had paper money. 00:36:03.375 --> 00:36:07.395 And then but the paper money was always it always had an analog anchor. 00:36:07.455 --> 00:36:08.995 You you could always trade in. 00:36:09.455 --> 00:36:16.115 I could I always remember when I was young, I could always take a dollar bill to the bank and get a silver dollar in exchange for it. 00:36:16.990 --> 00:36:17.150 It. 00:36:17.150 --> 00:36:20.770 So you could give a silver dollar as a birthday present or something like that. 00:36:21.390 --> 00:36:23.650 Now there's no silver backing for currency. 00:36:23.870 --> 00:36:25.230 There's no gold backing. 00:36:25.230 --> 00:36:26.670 That was taken away a long time ago. 00:36:26.670 --> 00:36:29.170 So there's no backing at all, so it's totally digital. 00:36:29.535 --> 00:36:33.315 And most of the time now, they don't even wanna take paper money. 00:36:33.455 --> 00:36:37.795 They only want the your you you know, they want your credit card digitally. 00:36:39.215 --> 00:36:44.540 The last even a paper, which has nothing to back it, is no longer acceptable in many places. 00:36:44.540 --> 00:36:46.480 You have to have it on your credit card. 00:36:47.180 --> 00:36:48.880 And, of course, they won't take change. 00:36:50.220 --> 00:36:51.020 You know, all of that. 00:36:51.020 --> 00:36:56.320 So the last analog aspects aren't fading away in front of us with money. 00:36:58.805 --> 00:37:06.245 Oh, our names most of our names, you know, are all our our first names used to mean something in Hebrew and so on. 00:37:06.245 --> 00:37:08.585 Most of us don't know any about that now. 00:37:08.965 --> 00:37:11.625 But our last names used to mean something, you know. 00:37:11.970 --> 00:37:12.870 John Churchill. 00:37:12.930 --> 00:37:17.910 Well, if any is from the church you know, we had last names that were originally given to us that were analog. 00:37:18.690 --> 00:37:21.750 But you don't expect Tim Baker to be a baker anymore. 00:37:23.985 --> 00:37:27.045 So we've lost the analog meanings of our original names. 00:37:29.505 --> 00:37:32.485 We've lost the analog meanings of many original words. 00:37:33.185 --> 00:37:38.570 The letters of the alphabet used to be pictograms pictures of something that stood for the sound. 00:37:38.870 --> 00:37:44.330 The original letter a was a long pic was a schematic picture of an ox. 00:37:45.590 --> 00:37:49.770 It meant the sound that oxes or cattle were supposed to make. 00:37:51.715 --> 00:38:03.715 And then got abbreviated to an upside down v with a line across the top so that these two things were the horns, and it had two dots in it for the eyes. 00:38:03.715 --> 00:38:05.335 It was the face of a cow. 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:10.080 Well, the Greeks started using it arbitrarily, and they didn't know the analog history. 00:38:10.080 --> 00:38:31.555 So they changed it upside down and dropped out the i's and used it just to sound the sound for the measure the sound And the Greeks invented, therefore, the first digital alphabet because of that, which is probably why they invented some of the first other things in philosophy and so on, which was a very digital activity. 00:38:35.220 --> 00:38:39.560 There are many other ways in which the analog to digital has transpired in our society. 00:38:42.020 --> 00:38:47.640 Now I wanna connect the analog and the digital more clearly to the human being. 00:38:48.075 --> 00:38:50.095 I have to go quickly now. 00:38:52.155 --> 00:38:58.255 There is lots of evidence now that analog and digital can be connected to the two brain hemispheres and their functioning. 00:38:59.755 --> 00:39:05.990 Analog functioning seems to be in the right hemisphere and digital functioning in the left hemisphere. 00:39:08.210 --> 00:39:25.055 And this means that the psychology of right hemisphere mental processes and of left hemisphere mental processes represent the psychological environment that the person is in while they're processing in one or two of these modes the other of these modes. 00:39:26.155 --> 00:39:28.495 Now I won't go into the details of this. 00:39:28.580 --> 00:39:30.180 There's a wonderful new book. 00:39:30.180 --> 00:39:31.220 Well, not that new now. 00:39:31.220 --> 00:39:32.360 2009. 00:39:33.060 --> 00:39:35.800 It's a book by Ian Gilchrist. 00:39:36.820 --> 00:39:48.575 He's a British neuroscientist, and it's about the development of Western culture as the development of movement from right hemisphere activities to left hemisphere activities. 00:39:51.115 --> 00:39:53.215 He's not a Christian as far as I know. 00:39:53.755 --> 00:40:01.100 The secularist is a very powerful description of how our culture has moved from a right hemisphere culture to a left hemisphere. 00:40:01.560 --> 00:40:08.700 I call I call it oral to to to, written or, analog to digital. 00:40:09.960 --> 00:40:12.440 So I won't go into all the evidence that he gives. 00:40:12.440 --> 00:40:31.610 The book is called, the master and his emissary, which means the master according to, Gilchrist, the master is the right hemisphere, and the emissary is your left hemisphere. 00:40:32.870 --> 00:40:38.490 And the problem, according to Gilchrist, is that the left hemisphere has started to take over control. 00:40:39.430 --> 00:40:48.205 And the left hemisphere is like the sensor, like the, you know, you know, like the like an apprentice that's taken over from the master. 00:40:49.305 --> 00:40:52.765 And that this is causing many of the big problems we have today. 00:40:53.705 --> 00:40:59.950 And he talks about the lack of meaning in culture today as the result of the digitalizing or, the left. 00:41:00.170 --> 00:41:00.330 No. 00:41:00.330 --> 00:41:01.630 He doesn't use that language. 00:41:01.930 --> 00:41:04.430 The left hemisphere dominance in our society. 00:41:07.930 --> 00:41:08.430 Okay. 00:41:09.755 --> 00:41:15.135 So I just say now talking about it as analog and digital has some advantages. 00:41:16.315 --> 00:41:20.975 First of all, analog and digital is something that's visible, and you can see it or hear it. 00:41:21.115 --> 00:41:21.995 You can notice it. 00:41:21.995 --> 00:41:24.095 You don't have to know anything about the brain. 00:41:25.210 --> 00:41:31.310 It's observable for all of us, and we don't have to know where it's processed. 00:41:32.010 --> 00:41:41.495 We do tend to think it has to be processed in different places of the brain, and that's as as sequential things are processed differently from spatial things. 00:41:43.235 --> 00:41:47.155 And there's all I have there's now a neurological evidence for this and so forth. 00:41:47.155 --> 00:41:48.535 I won't go into that. 00:41:49.315 --> 00:42:03.910 But so now we have but now this whole movement toward digital toward higher and higher amounts of technology and toward digitalism, we now have that as our problem to be attended to. 00:42:15.315 --> 00:42:15.795 Okay. 00:42:15.795 --> 00:42:21.575 I'm trying to go too fast, but I'm at here are examples of right and left hemisphere. 00:42:22.370 --> 00:42:24.310 The right hemisphere is continuous. 00:42:24.530 --> 00:42:26.230 The left hemisphere is discrete. 00:42:26.690 --> 00:42:27.350 The codes. 00:42:28.770 --> 00:42:30.790 Spatial versus sequential. 00:42:31.970 --> 00:42:33.590 Image versus word. 00:42:34.795 --> 00:42:55.090 Holistic versus focus on parts, synthetic versus analytic, concrete versus abstract, metaphor versus consent, spatial performing such as sports, dance, and hunting versus sequential as in writing, math, proof, legal grief. 00:42:55.950 --> 00:42:59.490 Imaginative, a priori logic and rules. 00:43:00.190 --> 00:43:03.410 Parallel parallel processing, serial processing. 00:43:04.405 --> 00:43:28.200 Implicit and intuitive versus explicit and defined categories, flow and change in the right hemisphere, stasis and fixed in the left, reality in the right hemisphere, virtual reality in the left, empirical observation in the left, theoretical prediction in the right. 00:43:30.015 --> 00:43:32.915 Meaning is natural and strong in the right. 00:43:33.295 --> 00:43:36.995 Meaning is superficial and weak in the left. 00:43:40.415 --> 00:43:48.540 There are other differences, but I can't go into all of those that that are psychologically rich and interesting because I want to get to the crisis today. 00:43:49.320 --> 00:43:54.060 And I call the crisis today, analog hunger in a digital world. 00:43:56.875 --> 00:44:04.895 And what I'm arguing in here is that because of the digitalization of our lives, we've we have developed an analog hunger. 00:44:05.355 --> 00:44:09.690 We need more and more to find the analog, and we have trouble finding it. 00:44:10.170 --> 00:44:17.630 And the and I wanna focus on one major way where this analog hunger is showing. 00:44:18.650 --> 00:44:21.550 And the major way is in the search for identity. 00:44:23.755 --> 00:44:29.935 And we're all aware of how the identity search is common in the in the particularly the modern cultures. 00:44:32.235 --> 00:44:33.855 Now what do we mean by identity? 00:44:33.915 --> 00:44:38.095 Well, in the past, I wanna say here are the things what gave us identity? 00:44:39.830 --> 00:44:44.550 In the past, look at the things that gave us identity in the past. 00:44:44.550 --> 00:44:46.410 They were all analog things. 00:44:46.550 --> 00:44:50.410 They were, first of all, a stable family, which would give you identity. 00:44:51.425 --> 00:44:52.225 Who was your father? 00:44:52.225 --> 00:44:53.025 Who was your mother? 00:44:53.025 --> 00:44:54.085 Who were your siblings? 00:44:54.625 --> 00:44:57.605 And the interpersonal interactions that you had with them. 00:44:57.825 --> 00:45:05.925 But as the family became less and less stable and more and more dysfunctional, people's identity became less and less family based. 00:45:06.540 --> 00:45:11.680 It faded in terms of the family based identity that a person could have. 00:45:13.020 --> 00:45:16.960 We used to have an identity based on where we lived, our physical location. 00:45:18.555 --> 00:45:27.935 Somebody who was the Maine Yankee lived in a different life from the Southern Bayou character who lived around the alligators down there in the swamps. 00:45:27.995 --> 00:45:32.175 They had a different life, and they had a different physical location, and they had a different identity. 00:45:32.870 --> 00:45:44.730 But now those two characters may, in fact, have the same life because they're all on the same Internet playing the same games together with each other, and there's no longer any contact with the physical world of their surrounding. 00:45:45.375 --> 00:45:49.155 So we know the physical location doesn't identify us much anymore. 00:45:50.735 --> 00:45:54.675 In fact, some people now have multiple passports that with different countries. 00:45:55.055 --> 00:45:58.835 I mean, the whole globalization has gotten rid of even identity as being an American. 00:46:00.250 --> 00:46:01.930 That doesn't that's not concrete enough. 00:46:01.930 --> 00:46:02.990 It's not clear enough. 00:46:08.330 --> 00:46:12.510 Our work I've already mentioned our work, which used to give us a stable identity. 00:46:12.995 --> 00:46:25.415 You were a farmer or a carpenter or you worked for General Motors and you started there when you were 25 and then you retired when you were 55 and they gave you a watch and you you were a General Motors man. 00:46:25.710 --> 00:46:27.790 You worked for the same company all your life. 00:46:27.790 --> 00:46:31.150 Today, people move around all the time in terms of their jobs. 00:46:31.150 --> 00:46:37.330 And we're even told to we're telling young people you're gonna have to redefine your job two or three times throughout your lifetime. 00:46:37.790 --> 00:46:46.785 So the work that would give you an identity that was common, even if it was just street cleaning or just baking, I'm a baker, it gave you an identity. 00:46:47.085 --> 00:46:48.385 Those have all faded. 00:46:52.445 --> 00:46:56.830 In addition, what are other things that have faded besides our stable work? 00:46:57.210 --> 00:47:00.110 A religious identity, which gave many people identity. 00:47:00.170 --> 00:47:02.590 We all know that for many people that has faded. 00:47:03.050 --> 00:47:05.690 What do they say their religious identity is now? 00:47:05.690 --> 00:47:10.685 They say none, which is a way of saying that identity they don't have. 00:47:11.065 --> 00:47:13.905 And what used to be a very important identity, I'm a Protestant. 00:47:13.905 --> 00:47:14.745 I'm a Catholic. 00:47:14.745 --> 00:47:15.565 I'm a Jew. 00:47:19.945 --> 00:47:20.445 Okay. 00:47:21.180 --> 00:47:29.280 So that's where a lot of so these have faded, and it's created the need for a personal identity that we haven't had before. 00:47:31.260 --> 00:47:37.255 Now I do wanna say also that many of the digital systems create, an absence of identity. 00:47:38.115 --> 00:47:41.815 For example, one of the things people have lost track with is their body. 00:47:42.035 --> 00:47:48.670 If you spend your whole life as a child walking around on a on a cell phone, What are you doing? 00:47:48.670 --> 00:47:51.150 You're not paying attention to the whole world around you. 00:47:51.150 --> 00:47:54.110 You're you're hardly paying you may fall in a ditch even. 00:47:54.110 --> 00:48:02.035 You're you're just paying all you're learning is pressing digits in that phone and what shows up on the phone. 00:48:02.495 --> 00:48:07.315 But your body else why else wise has been shut down. 00:48:09.455 --> 00:48:16.620 If you go to summer camp and you're supposed to learn how to swim and canoe and go out camping with a tent and make a fire and all that. 00:48:16.620 --> 00:48:16.780 No. 00:48:16.780 --> 00:48:23.200 But if you go with your phone, you'll spend your whole time with your phone in your room talking to your friends that are still back where you came from. 00:48:24.380 --> 00:48:28.065 So you're not getting the physicality of the world around you. 00:48:28.145 --> 00:48:32.325 It's been lost in the digitalization of that cell phone. 00:48:33.345 --> 00:48:36.085 Let's look at some people now who are looking for new identities. 00:48:36.625 --> 00:48:43.140 Now we know that people look for identity in new ways, because of the transsexual identity. 00:48:43.520 --> 00:48:49.700 But I wanna show you there are lots of people looking for identity now that's and they're looking for trans species. 00:48:52.160 --> 00:49:03.205 And to begin with, there are at least three groups of people who identify themselves as being partly an animal or maybe entirely so. 00:49:03.825 --> 00:49:07.205 There there's one called other the otherkin society. 00:49:08.210 --> 00:49:09.090 You can go on online. 00:49:09.090 --> 00:49:09.730 I don't know. 00:49:09.730 --> 00:49:14.690 Thousands of people are in other kin society in which at least part of them is part of an animal. 00:49:14.690 --> 00:49:16.050 It's kind of an animal. 00:49:16.050 --> 00:49:17.330 I'm I'm part wolf. 00:49:17.330 --> 00:49:18.550 I'm a part cat. 00:49:19.730 --> 00:49:21.270 Another group are the Therians. 00:49:22.545 --> 00:49:29.205 The Therians are another entirely group, but they only allow you if you identify with a, a higher animal, a mammal. 00:49:30.305 --> 00:49:34.645 You can't identify with a crocodile if you're a Therian. 00:49:35.970 --> 00:49:39.110 And others identify that they're called furries. 00:49:39.730 --> 00:49:42.290 Maybe all of you have gone to hear about the furries now. 00:49:42.290 --> 00:49:45.990 These are people who identify with furry animals roughly. 00:49:46.610 --> 00:49:48.210 But let's take a look at some of them. 00:49:48.210 --> 00:49:50.470 I wanna show you now the first one. 00:49:50.585 --> 00:49:55.725 This is a Frenchman who now calls himself a black alien. 00:50:00.105 --> 00:50:03.165 Normal French face, whatever we wanna call it. 00:50:03.305 --> 00:50:04.845 But look what he's once done. 00:50:06.290 --> 00:50:08.530 In his identification, he's changed his nose. 00:50:08.530 --> 00:50:16.630 He's put, bumps on his skull all over the place and colored his skin entirely. 00:50:20.415 --> 00:50:21.875 That's in the search of identity. 00:50:23.935 --> 00:50:29.875 He's upset that some people won't won't let them into their restaurant because some people don't wanna sit by him. 00:50:36.730 --> 00:50:39.310 Here's a man who's identifying him as being a parrot. 00:50:40.810 --> 00:50:46.525 He's cut off his ears, enlarged his nose, tattooed himself with feathers. 00:50:50.185 --> 00:50:50.685 Oops. 00:50:53.065 --> 00:50:54.925 Oh, here's a dragon lady. 00:50:59.170 --> 00:51:07.030 The dragon lady, I think that this is the one, was born a man, transitioned to a woman, and then transitioned to a dragon. 00:51:08.450 --> 00:51:09.705 Now let's look at this. 00:51:09.785 --> 00:51:13.405 He said, at first, I was a he, then I was a she, and now I'm an it. 00:51:14.745 --> 00:51:21.085 But you notice, as far as I'm concerned, a dragon has never existed, or at least we don't know what they look like. 00:51:21.545 --> 00:51:24.045 It's a fictional animal for all practical purposes. 00:51:24.360 --> 00:51:27.100 So he's decided that his identity is nonhuman. 00:51:37.715 --> 00:51:43.255 Missing one. 00:51:47.955 --> 00:51:58.800 Here's the, black alien, and he's cut off three of his fingers in his right hand because he wants his right hand the other two fingers to be more like a claw. 00:52:07.155 --> 00:52:09.095 Oh, there's another dragon lady. 00:52:09.715 --> 00:52:12.775 She's you know, she's cut her tongue in half. 00:52:18.195 --> 00:52:18.695 Oops. 00:52:23.630 --> 00:52:25.890 These are three men who wear dog costumes. 00:52:26.270 --> 00:52:28.370 And all day they run around like a dog. 00:52:29.390 --> 00:52:30.670 I know one of them is married. 00:52:30.670 --> 00:52:34.370 His wife has it puts him on a leash for at least eight hours a day. 00:52:35.915 --> 00:52:39.535 They try to eat out of bowls on the ground. 00:52:43.915 --> 00:52:47.695 I have another dragon lady in there somewhere, but I can't seem to find one. 00:52:48.235 --> 00:52:49.935 And that's the parrot man again. 00:52:55.790 --> 00:53:00.530 So in that sense, transsexualism is just another example of the same thing. 00:53:00.830 --> 00:53:02.370 At least they're staying human. 00:53:02.590 --> 00:53:10.195 I have somewhere a picture of a cat woman as she walks around on the ground with some facial changes to look like a cat. 00:53:10.495 --> 00:53:13.395 She said she said, I'm really a cat. 00:53:13.695 --> 00:53:17.315 I was accidentally born in a human body. 00:53:23.650 --> 00:53:37.495 So the transformation of the human body as we search for identity is, in this case, I I consider it analog hunger in it's showing itself in an incorrect way, in a pathological way. 00:53:38.275 --> 00:53:44.935 In a smaller much smaller way today, many people are are have, tattoos. 00:53:47.870 --> 00:53:49.810 And that's a way of getting a new identity. 00:53:51.230 --> 00:53:53.490 And that's because the old ways have faded. 00:53:54.910 --> 00:54:10.675 But in fact, the digital systems that we're in are pushing us more and more toward an away from natural identity, from analog identity in a natural sense, into an identity that we try to discover in some strange way, usually using digital systems. 00:54:15.190 --> 00:54:16.490 Here are some other people. 00:54:21.990 --> 00:54:25.690 Eric lives his life underwater with a latex tail as a merman. 00:54:27.495 --> 00:54:32.155 The woman who says she is a cat born the wrong species and hisses at dogs. 00:54:33.735 --> 00:54:36.955 A half naked web footed woman claims to be a mermaid. 00:54:37.655 --> 00:54:42.635 A woman lived as a horse every day for seven years by trotting on all fours and eating grass. 00:54:48.350 --> 00:54:48.850 Okay. 00:54:52.830 --> 00:55:01.305 That's the identity crisis showing up in a pathological way, But it shows up in all kinds of other ways too. 00:55:03.765 --> 00:55:04.265 Secessionism. 00:55:06.005 --> 00:55:11.945 You want your local identity so you get away from the big nation state. 00:55:14.650 --> 00:55:15.450 Many other ways. 00:55:15.450 --> 00:55:20.910 Let's let me I I think one of the real fields of the gay life is that you get a gay identity. 00:55:21.930 --> 00:55:22.990 You get a flag. 00:55:23.930 --> 00:55:31.045 You get parades like they used to have for the Irish and the Polish and, Italians. 00:55:33.265 --> 00:55:34.405 So you get an identity. 00:55:37.025 --> 00:55:44.110 And particularly if, you know, if your identity in terms of, I think one of the things that's happened also that's very clear is friendships have declined. 00:55:44.970 --> 00:55:47.070 And friendships are an analog thing. 00:55:47.370 --> 00:55:51.230 They're developed through their actual interaction with another person. 00:55:51.690 --> 00:55:56.325 And if we have digital friendships, we never met the person. 00:55:56.545 --> 00:56:00.645 And what we have met is an image created by that person, which may be very unrepresentative. 00:56:02.065 --> 00:56:03.825 Of course, we can have digital friends. 00:56:03.825 --> 00:56:10.870 We can count them in terms of the number of likes, But that's a very digital understanding of of a friend. 00:56:11.970 --> 00:56:15.970 You never know whether they really like you and etcetera etcetera. 00:56:15.970 --> 00:56:18.870 And the number is not a measure of how much you're liked. 00:56:19.475 --> 00:56:24.455 Although people seem to treat it that way because they're very upset if the number starts to go down. 00:56:28.195 --> 00:56:37.410 And as I would say, one thing to keep in mind is that this crisis of identity is especially a problem for the young. 00:56:39.470 --> 00:56:41.490 It's really the problem for the young. 00:56:49.315 --> 00:56:49.815 Okay. 00:56:53.155 --> 00:56:55.335 I will now just say a few quick quick words. 00:56:56.035 --> 00:57:02.370 We could call the recent dominance of our society by things like Amazon and metaverse. 00:57:03.230 --> 00:57:11.410 Is there a metaverse now with anyway, web anyway, Amazon, Google, all the rest of them is what I call digital imperialism. 00:57:12.430 --> 00:57:15.730 They're controlling us more and more, these huge digital systems. 00:57:16.935 --> 00:57:21.915 And that's caught gonna continue to cause us to have identity crises even more and more. 00:57:32.470 --> 00:57:41.450 And the problem with it is this the the digital people the digital class seem to think that analog people are not real people. 00:57:42.245 --> 00:57:53.605 Blue collar workers, people who are you know, people who you can still see what they do by what they wear and how what they're be how they interact with their environment are now looked down upon. 00:57:53.605 --> 00:57:56.425 The the governing class is a digital class. 00:57:59.190 --> 00:58:05.930 And the and and I I I could go into that for twenty minutes, but we don't have that twenty seconds left to do. 00:58:06.550 --> 00:58:07.050 Okay? 00:58:10.475 --> 00:58:12.415 And what are we gonna do about all this? 00:58:12.955 --> 00:58:14.095 What can one do? 00:58:15.515 --> 00:58:20.635 Well, first of all oh, by the way, we know there are negative effects from overuse of cell phones. 00:58:20.635 --> 00:58:27.140 TikTok has a has negative effects, and people are quite aware of that now more and more and more and so on. 00:58:28.000 --> 00:58:32.660 But what we have to do is figure out what are we gonna do with this digital imperialism. 00:58:34.800 --> 00:58:38.935 And the first thing is we have to go back to the real, to reality. 00:58:39.875 --> 00:58:42.135 And there's already a lot of people doing that. 00:58:42.515 --> 00:58:49.415 Going back to the real can be involved in things like going back to really making things, you know, manufacturing, building things. 00:58:49.555 --> 00:58:51.415 It can be going back to the land. 00:58:52.490 --> 00:58:56.170 It can be women doing things like saying I'm gonna I'm gonna make quilts. 00:58:56.170 --> 00:58:58.330 I'm gonna make, jewelry. 00:58:58.330 --> 00:59:01.790 I'm gonna make real things for real people that I know. 00:59:02.570 --> 00:59:06.590 There's a lot of sort of underground analog activity going on like that. 00:59:07.515 --> 00:59:20.175 It can be people who, in extreme cases, decide to go off the the web because they're not going to deal with the digital system at all. 00:59:20.560 --> 00:59:24.900 They're gonna they're gonna go back and live like people always lived fifty years or more ago. 00:59:26.960 --> 00:59:28.820 That's one way to get more real. 00:59:35.595 --> 00:59:42.975 One of the more and and there one other way to get more real is to, try the Benedict option. 00:59:45.355 --> 00:59:54.330 Go back into communities of people of, of like religion and and, where you make your own food and where you help each other out. 00:59:54.330 --> 01:00:03.150 And it's a community that's real, not a digital community that's made up of people communicating over vast distances who don't know each other. 01:00:03.565 --> 01:00:10.865 So there are many positive ways where people are beginning to search for their analog, for the real as a as a as an answer. 01:00:12.525 --> 01:00:18.065 But the negative ways, I've already mentioned some of those transsexual, trans species. 01:00:19.540 --> 01:00:24.280 And there's another group that's even more extreme, and that's the transhumanists. 01:00:26.260 --> 01:00:28.420 And this is a group that's been going for quite a while. 01:00:28.420 --> 01:00:29.300 They have their own journal. 01:00:29.300 --> 01:00:33.880 They have a large number of intelligent people, and they wanna leave the human being behind. 01:00:35.435 --> 01:00:48.510 They want to create a new being which will be smarter than us, more developed than us, and for which if we're even allowed to exist, we might be their pets, be their lap dog. 01:00:49.290 --> 01:00:58.510 The smart these smart new transhuman forms of life they're trying to create through artificial intelligence and other kinds of technology. 01:00:59.450 --> 01:01:03.335 It's very big, actually, and they're very clear about it. 01:01:03.335 --> 01:01:20.840 If you were gonna tell me that you were gonna develop a new a new technology that would get rid of all, all Jews or all white people or all black people or all Asians, we would all say that was hate speech, and rightly so. 01:01:21.620 --> 01:01:26.280 But if you want to get rid of the whole human race, it's considered progressive. 01:01:29.395 --> 01:01:30.435 And they really mean it. 01:01:30.435 --> 01:01:33.235 They wanna get rid of our body, and they're very clear about it. 01:01:33.235 --> 01:01:43.040 They want it's the body that gives us restrictions, and those restrictions are what alienate the the the left hemisphere and the digital system. 01:01:43.040 --> 01:01:45.300 They wanna escape all restrictions. 01:01:48.320 --> 01:01:50.020 They wanna escape your body. 01:01:51.520 --> 01:01:57.140 And that's what the transhumanists are after, a a world where our body has been left behind. 01:02:02.575 --> 01:02:04.335 Well, I think that's, of course, correct. 01:02:04.335 --> 01:02:07.475 Not well, first of all, I won't go into it, but I think it's not possible. 01:02:07.935 --> 01:02:22.870 But in any case, the the digital push toward more and more digitalization of the human could create a kind of upper class of hyper digitalized humans who control the rest of the society. 01:02:23.570 --> 01:02:30.885 I can assure you that most of us for thousands and thousands of years were designed to survive in an analog way. 01:02:31.425 --> 01:02:42.310 As hunters, as farmers, as cooks, as mothers, as fathers, we did things with our body that were important and which we were trained for and we were developed for. 01:02:42.530 --> 01:02:50.870 And to get rid of the body is to get rid of who we are or to make us in that new society a very dangerous underclass. 01:02:55.535 --> 01:02:57.135 But what's the ultimate answer? 01:02:57.135 --> 01:02:58.915 Not just going back to the real. 01:02:58.975 --> 01:03:00.495 We can't get rid of the digital. 01:03:00.495 --> 01:03:02.275 We shouldn't get rid of the digital. 01:03:03.215 --> 01:03:04.495 And here I wanna say this. 01:03:04.495 --> 01:03:10.810 The digital has many good things, such as writing. 01:03:12.390 --> 01:03:12.890 Okay? 01:03:13.030 --> 01:03:13.930 Many things. 01:03:14.550 --> 01:03:20.330 And so what I would like to argue is that the digital and the analog have to get back together again. 01:03:23.155 --> 01:03:29.075 They have to be first of all, they have to tolerate each other. 01:03:29.075 --> 01:03:32.135 Some people think the red and blue states are digital and analog. 01:03:40.930 --> 01:03:42.310 We won't go with all of that. 01:03:42.370 --> 01:03:47.830 The digital and the analog has they each have to tolerate each other, and then they have to learn to cooperate. 01:03:49.735 --> 01:03:52.955 And let me say something about cooperation of digital and analog. 01:03:53.895 --> 01:04:02.635 I would like to propose that all powerful and genuine creativity is the integration of the analog and the digital. 01:04:04.940 --> 01:04:09.360 What I mean by that, take something like Newton's physics. 01:04:10.060 --> 01:04:16.240 In physics, a theory has to be it's a it's an abstract left hemisphere digital theory. 01:04:17.065 --> 01:04:23.965 But it's only a bit it's it's just a useless fantasy unless you can map it into empirical observable events. 01:04:24.425 --> 01:04:31.005 And when you can make the mapping into the concrete and into the analog, that is a really creative contribution. 01:04:34.330 --> 01:04:40.270 In a very simple way, a cook has an idea of about what kind of thing they want to make. 01:04:40.730 --> 01:04:46.350 They have to map that abstract understanding of a pie or a stew or whatever into its concreteness. 01:04:48.295 --> 01:04:50.875 Pick each of the pick each of the components. 01:04:51.095 --> 01:04:56.775 And if they do a good mapping, they've created a new stew or a new pie or something like that, which is wonderful. 01:04:56.775 --> 01:04:59.275 And at the very least, it creates something that's tasty. 01:05:01.470 --> 01:05:02.930 That's a successful mapping. 01:05:04.110 --> 01:05:15.315 In addition, almost all science is a mapping of abstract mathematical models into the concrete predictions that are justify it. 01:05:15.875 --> 01:05:23.735 As long as it maps into something predictable, it's it's bringing the analog and digital together and integrating them. 01:05:27.155 --> 01:05:28.515 Music is the same way. 01:05:28.515 --> 01:05:34.620 An abstract concept is mapped into sound through the body making movements. 01:05:37.640 --> 01:05:39.260 I'm going very fast now. 01:05:40.040 --> 01:05:41.020 It's time to quit. 01:05:42.455 --> 01:05:44.775 Let me put it this way. 01:05:44.775 --> 01:05:54.875 Religions, at least the traditional religions of Judaism, Protestantism, and Catholicism, I call those religions now mature religions. 01:05:55.590 --> 01:05:55.830 Why? 01:05:55.830 --> 01:06:07.450 Because all of them have gone through the fiery critique of modernity, which has burned away a lot of their analog absurdities, their superstitions, falseness. 01:06:10.475 --> 01:06:11.535 But they're now mature. 01:06:13.195 --> 01:06:18.335 And if you look at the real a good religion, it always is an an integration of analog and digital. 01:06:21.930 --> 01:06:23.870 I'll just now jump to the mass. 01:06:23.930 --> 01:06:26.490 The mass is an integration of analog and digital. 01:06:26.490 --> 01:06:28.590 The first part of the mass is mostly digital. 01:06:29.770 --> 01:06:38.425 It's the creed I mean, it will be reading, from scripture then then a homily, then the then the creed. 01:06:39.685 --> 01:06:44.025 There'll be some analog in there with some songs and so forth and so on. 01:06:44.245 --> 01:06:48.745 Then the second part is is the Eucharist, which is a meal. 01:06:49.260 --> 01:06:51.660 It's bow it's kneeling. 01:06:51.660 --> 01:06:52.480 It's bowing. 01:06:52.620 --> 01:06:53.520 It's eating. 01:06:53.580 --> 01:06:54.320 It's drinking. 01:06:56.060 --> 01:06:59.760 It is the integration of the analog and the digital together. 01:07:00.700 --> 01:07:03.760 It is faith and reason in that integrative sense. 01:07:04.765 --> 01:07:10.385 And this happens in Protestantism in different ways and it happens in Judaism in different ways as well. 01:07:12.045 --> 01:07:41.535 But these three religions, I think, are mature, and they are potentially an answer for the the future where you could argue this, that since creativity is the integration of the digital with the analog, what this really means is that the the model of the growth of the digital and you can still continue growing digital, but the digital has to be in the service of the analog, not in the service of itself. 01:07:44.715 --> 01:07:49.580 And the best example of that is, and the word was made flesh. 01:07:53.800 --> 01:08:00.300 God's word became an actual observable, touchable human being at a particular time and place. 01:08:04.075 --> 01:08:21.570 And all of the history of Revelation starting in from the very beginning is the history of God's of the abstract of God in the service of humanity by becoming concrete in an observable event on earth that that is proposed. 01:08:23.230 --> 01:08:32.735 And the culmination of that in my judgment is the Word was made flesh and that's therefore a model of all creativity for all of us during our lifetime. 01:08:33.355 --> 01:08:37.295 And that therefore, the faith offers an answer to this dilemma. 01:08:37.915 --> 01:08:49.020 Partly, it will encourage people to reestablish analog life, but it will also recognize that the integration of analog and digital is the highest form of living. 01:08:49.640 --> 01:08:50.380 Thank you. 01:08:50.760 --> 01:08:51.080 Alright. 01:08:51.080 --> 01:08:54.780 So, doctor Vince, you have, you have a handful of questions there. 01:08:54.840 --> 01:08:55.240 Yes. 01:08:55.880 --> 01:09:00.460 When you reach a point where you'd like to take questions from the room, we can do that as well. 01:09:00.765 --> 01:09:08.065 But maybe we can respond to the to the written questions there first, and then we can open up, questions to the room. 01:09:08.285 --> 01:09:09.025 Thank you. 01:09:09.965 --> 01:09:10.465 Questions. 01:09:11.005 --> 01:09:17.380 One, could code also be anything we can see and not just perceive, perhaps in the imagination? 01:09:17.840 --> 01:09:18.080 Yes. 01:09:18.080 --> 01:09:20.020 You can develop an imaginary code. 01:09:21.440 --> 01:09:25.940 That is something in your imagination that you then use to refer to something else. 01:09:30.675 --> 01:09:34.855 Can we say that analog is associative well, digital is disassociative. 01:09:38.595 --> 01:09:40.435 To some degree, I think so. 01:09:40.435 --> 01:09:48.330 But exactly how these two words are associative and disassociative are defined would be the issue. 01:09:49.670 --> 01:09:54.010 But it sounds like there would be a way in which those two words could be appropriately used. 01:09:59.215 --> 01:10:00.095 Question three. 01:10:00.095 --> 01:10:06.355 I noticed in my work with children that those on the autism spectrum tend to be very good at computer studies. 01:10:07.135 --> 01:10:13.620 Even Temple Grandin, writer about autism, noted computer expertise favored those like her. 01:10:13.920 --> 01:10:18.740 How does this digital pervasiveness influence our affect affective nature over time? 01:10:19.120 --> 01:10:22.500 Do we become more more on the spectrum as a society? 01:10:23.835 --> 01:10:32.015 I know some schools which have introduced a subject, how to manage non digital time, as students were so overwhelmed by the digital world. 01:10:32.875 --> 01:10:39.800 Do we need to introduce something like this in all primary, secondary, tertiary education institutions as a matter of urgency. 01:10:41.300 --> 01:10:41.620 Okay. 01:10:41.620 --> 01:10:43.240 Well, the first part is yes. 01:10:43.300 --> 01:10:48.840 It is true that autistic children are more they have problem with interpersonal relations. 01:10:49.140 --> 01:10:56.155 It's as though they do have a hyper developed left hemisphere and not quite so developed, right hemisphere. 01:10:57.095 --> 01:11:05.435 And the problem is to get them more involved in understanding that people are not objects but are have feelings and emotions and intentions. 01:11:06.750 --> 01:11:20.210 So to the extent that we become more digital, we do, as a culture, become more, if you will, on the spectrum, and we become less attentive to the personal relationships of people and emotions and things of that kind. 01:11:23.715 --> 01:11:26.515 Second, nondigital time. 01:11:26.515 --> 01:11:28.275 I wouldn't call it nondigital time. 01:11:28.275 --> 01:11:36.135 I'd call it analog time, obviously, but, do we need to introduce something like that? 01:11:39.670 --> 01:11:40.870 I think probably so. 01:11:40.870 --> 01:11:42.250 I haven't thought of that. 01:11:42.790 --> 01:11:52.105 But I think it would if you could find ways to introduce analog activities into, education that would be very helpful. 01:11:52.965 --> 01:11:58.185 Let me mention one theory of education that does this very much, and that's Montessori. 01:11:59.925 --> 01:12:07.680 And Montessori education has a heavy emphasis on the analog form of learning for its, students. 01:12:08.460 --> 01:12:13.760 And so, there must be other forms of analog learning that could be introduced as well. 01:12:15.180 --> 01:12:19.065 But you probably have to do it in a private system on your own. 01:12:19.065 --> 01:12:31.005 But if you could develop ways to to increase the analog life of children who are otherwise being deprived by the digital influences in their life, I think this would be very helpful. 01:12:31.945 --> 01:12:33.165 Is there an urgency? 01:12:35.840 --> 01:12:38.420 It all depends on how urgent we think it is. 01:12:39.680 --> 01:12:43.300 Fairly urgent in some ways, I expect, with the with the very young. 01:12:49.045 --> 01:12:54.665 I noticed in our digital age, explanations of anything have to be short and direct. 01:12:56.405 --> 01:13:05.950 So our consciousness increasingly wants instant McDonald type information aided and abetted by the Instagram and Twitter communication in short form. 01:13:06.650 --> 01:13:14.750 So searches for identity often have little depth, ignore cultural history and context, yet influenced by media takes on a subject. 01:13:15.355 --> 01:13:24.175 Do we do we oppose this by simply repeating the forgotten history, spiritual legacy, emphasizing the positive in our cultural memory? 01:13:24.955 --> 01:13:30.080 Some media people violently do this, but isn't it enough in a digital onslaught? 01:13:30.620 --> 01:13:32.720 How would you recommend addressing this? 01:13:35.020 --> 01:13:55.635 Well, I recommend it some ways in terms of getting back in touch with the real real you know, learning real skills, learning to to cook with real items so you you don't just buy it and turn a knob on a on a machine to heat it up for thirty seconds and then take it out. 01:13:56.335 --> 01:13:57.455 That's modern cooking. 01:13:57.455 --> 01:13:58.675 That's digital cooking. 01:14:00.250 --> 01:14:04.270 Even being too worried about calories is another digitalization of food. 01:14:07.370 --> 01:14:12.255 The price, the calories, and how many milliseconds and what temperature you need to cook it. 01:14:12.255 --> 01:14:16.355 And that's that's what we what we're getting in the digitalization of eating. 01:14:17.855 --> 01:14:19.055 So what to do about it? 01:14:19.055 --> 01:14:33.450 I guess, the returning to the real in many ways, How you could do this particularly with children would be one way to get real is to develop friendships. 01:14:33.590 --> 01:14:47.415 One way to get real is if you go to summer camp and not allow the person to take their digital phone with them, which is exactly what some of the very high, executives in in Silicon Valley did with their own children. 01:14:47.415 --> 01:14:52.770 They knew that if the child went there with their digital phone, they wouldn't enjoy camping at all. 01:14:52.770 --> 01:14:53.730 They wouldn't learn to swim. 01:14:53.730 --> 01:14:55.330 They wouldn't learn to play volleyball. 01:14:55.330 --> 01:14:57.430 They wouldn't learn to go camping and hiking. 01:14:57.810 --> 01:14:59.810 They wouldn't learn to make a fire outdoors. 01:14:59.810 --> 01:15:02.470 They wouldn't learn to cook a meal on a fire camp. 01:15:02.610 --> 01:15:03.490 Any of those things. 01:15:03.490 --> 01:15:08.915 They'd just sit in their room and talk on the digital phone with their friends back no more than they came. 01:15:09.455 --> 01:15:10.415 So they didn't let them. 01:15:10.415 --> 01:15:13.475 They knew that would happen, and they knew that would be harmful. 01:15:14.415 --> 01:15:21.795 I call people I have an expression for children, particularly, but people who don't have enough of the analog life. 01:15:21.890 --> 01:15:31.270 I call them analog empty, and we need to find a way to fill the emptiness with analog activity that's solid. 01:15:32.290 --> 01:15:35.430 That means bringing back everything from friendships to chores. 01:15:38.535 --> 01:15:39.195 You know? 01:15:39.495 --> 01:15:39.995 Hooray. 01:15:42.055 --> 01:15:43.755 You know, doing things. 01:15:44.135 --> 01:15:45.755 Everybody has to do something. 01:15:46.055 --> 01:16:00.800 Bringing back for example, even eating at a the the family dinner table instead of as isolated and watching only a digital system that you're you why well, you're not allowing, let's say, digital conversations at the at the dinner table. 01:16:04.025 --> 01:16:04.185 Look. 01:16:04.185 --> 01:16:06.685 All of that this is an unexplored territory. 01:16:07.545 --> 01:16:18.205 I I hope all of you will or most of you will find some ways to find analog substitutes that will replace people who have analog empty lives. 01:16:26.420 --> 01:16:32.280 Are there any theoretical orientations that you would say tend more towards an analog approach? 01:16:33.060 --> 01:16:50.105 Theoretical, well, all those that emphasize contact with the real, relatively speaking, engineers are more analog than theoreticians because they're always trying to make sure that the theory will fit the the particular physical landscape or something of that kind. 01:16:50.590 --> 01:16:54.210 But, there's theoretical orientations. 01:16:54.270 --> 01:16:55.410 I'm not so sure. 01:16:55.470 --> 01:17:00.450 One thing I do wanna say is that completely analog life is would be a disaster. 01:17:02.030 --> 01:17:22.140 Not only would you have to get rid of reading and writing and and anything that was a digital symbol, we would go back to the primitive life before that we had before them, which was very, you know, very analog, but filled with a lot of violence, filled with a lot of superstition. 01:17:22.600 --> 01:17:33.020 By the way, analog, is given to super its its error is superstition or seeing meaning where it isn't there. 01:17:34.295 --> 01:17:37.515 Real analog life, any one of your dreams. 01:17:41.495 --> 01:17:53.240 It's not boring, but it isn't actually necessarily true in any important sense other than its literalness literalness. 01:17:58.900 --> 01:18:01.880 You mentioned that artificial foods are digital. 01:18:02.405 --> 01:18:02.565 Yes. 01:18:02.565 --> 01:18:03.205 I would. 01:18:03.205 --> 01:18:06.585 Does role playing in therapy constitute digital code? 01:18:08.165 --> 01:18:08.485 No. 01:18:08.485 --> 01:18:10.745 Role playing is an analog activity. 01:18:12.245 --> 01:18:14.245 You are acting out something in the past. 01:18:14.245 --> 01:18:16.425 In fact, that's one of the important things. 01:18:17.430 --> 01:18:25.290 Role playing in therapy is an analog way to get back in touch with your right hemisphere and early memories and other experiences. 01:18:26.550 --> 01:18:28.570 It's therefore an analog experience. 01:18:30.355 --> 01:18:33.015 Being an actor is to being an analog person. 01:18:34.995 --> 01:18:37.975 That doesn't mean all of you should be actors or actresses. 01:18:38.195 --> 01:18:39.895 None of that, you know, necessarily. 01:18:40.035 --> 01:18:48.590 But acting is a form of analog communication, and you have to be an analog internal processor to do it. 01:18:55.850 --> 01:19:00.445 You mentioned that people are losing their religions and are thus losing their identity. 01:19:00.985 --> 01:19:03.885 Could you speak to being spiritual but not religious? 01:19:04.025 --> 01:19:07.085 Does that fit into digital analog or not at all? 01:19:17.450 --> 01:19:20.990 I would argue that all real religion must have an analog component. 01:19:22.090 --> 01:19:32.095 What happens when you go spiritual is many people who go spiritual, what they go into is not something that has a character except as they choose it. 01:19:32.715 --> 01:19:39.615 They constantly choose what spirituality is, and they will change often from year year to year. 01:19:40.420 --> 01:19:50.760 And one way to think about it is a pure spiritual being has no body, and we are bodies. 01:19:51.380 --> 01:19:53.080 God made us with bodies. 01:19:54.705 --> 01:20:01.365 And if we wanna get rid of our body, we are trying to say, I will make I will make my own identity. 01:20:03.025 --> 01:20:06.885 And if the human species wants to get rid of its bodies, that's transhumanism. 01:20:09.220 --> 01:20:13.720 In other words, the human species has decided to be God and to create itself. 01:20:14.980 --> 01:20:18.600 Otherwise, as individuals, we can decide to be God and create ourselves. 01:20:20.260 --> 01:20:34.535 And we have to be careful that even in spirituality by itself without an analog part to it such as the actual belief in Jesus or the meaning of the spiritual life and the, you know, the, spirituality is related to to spiritual practice. 01:20:35.315 --> 01:20:39.580 Kneeling, praying, fasting, all of these things. 01:20:40.440 --> 01:20:48.140 If it becomes pure spirituality, it becomes, like a pure spirit and nothing you become disembodied. 01:20:49.025 --> 01:21:02.085 And to become disembodied is you, in that sense, use your own spirituality to create who you are, and you've created yourself without a body and therefore have rejected God's creation of you with a body. 01:21:07.080 --> 01:21:08.460 Questions from the house? 01:21:09.400 --> 01:21:10.600 Anybody have them here? 01:21:10.600 --> 01:21:17.740 And we also have three, three additional questions that you can also select from, but, feel free to pick and choose. 01:21:18.760 --> 01:21:20.140 Questions from the floor? 01:21:23.135 --> 01:21:31.295 Did you doctor Vince, have you incorporated incorporated St. 01:21:31.295 --> 01:21:34.915 Thomas Aquinas faculty psychology into your work? 01:21:37.840 --> 01:21:38.320 No. 01:21:38.320 --> 01:21:41.540 If anyone would like to, I welcome it. 01:21:49.615 --> 01:21:52.755 Could you speak of how digitalization may affect the military? 01:22:00.415 --> 01:22:34.760 Digitalization digitalization of your enemy, which is what happens in the military, and digitalization of your own weapons makes it easier to kill other people because you're not killing a person that you know or met even if you're only killing their for example, one thing that's common today on the media is to see a a Russian tank that's just been blown up by some digital weapon. 01:22:35.620 --> 01:22:38.280 They never show you the dead man inside the tank. 01:22:39.220 --> 01:22:47.735 There were three young men or four, depending on the tank, that were cremated with that, destruction. 01:22:48.595 --> 01:22:50.375 And that's true of every tank destruction. 01:22:50.835 --> 01:22:52.455 They don't wanna show it to you. 01:22:53.315 --> 01:22:55.555 In any case, digitalization makes it easy. 01:22:55.555 --> 01:22:57.015 You're not killing another person. 01:22:58.880 --> 01:23:00.320 You're just killing a number. 01:23:00.320 --> 01:23:02.560 You're killing a a distant you you know? 01:23:02.560 --> 01:23:04.980 Well, we're gonna we're gonna up the body count. 01:23:07.920 --> 01:23:13.395 So I think the danger of digitalization is you don't think of what you're actually doing. 01:23:13.395 --> 01:23:17.575 It's an easy you're you're you're not cutting somebody's throat. 01:23:19.155 --> 01:23:20.935 You're just pressing the red lever. 01:23:21.475 --> 01:23:24.135 That means means that a nuclear weapon goes off. 01:23:25.800 --> 01:23:26.940 It's so much easier. 01:23:27.000 --> 01:23:28.300 It's not so personal. 01:23:28.760 --> 01:23:29.820 It's so abstract. 01:23:30.680 --> 01:23:36.760 It doesn't have the meaning of killing other people that it wouldn't if you actually had to do it. 01:23:36.760 --> 01:23:40.300 In the old fashioned days, if you had to kill somebody, well, you had to kill them. 01:23:42.935 --> 01:23:45.515 And even with a rifle, you had to see them at a distance. 01:23:46.455 --> 01:23:50.635 And you saw their dead bodies afterwards when you walked by or they saw yours. 01:23:51.655 --> 01:23:54.375 But in any case, now you don't see any of it. 01:23:54.375 --> 01:24:11.625 You can sit entirely in a outside of any visual experience of the battlefield and create destruction on another battlefield, which is bloody and kills lots of people, but it's just a just a different body a higher body count from this weapon now, so we'll go for that. 01:24:12.825 --> 01:24:15.565 So that's the danger of digitalization in the military. 01:24:16.025 --> 01:24:23.165 The loss of understanding that you're actually involved in the process of killing people and becomes much hard, harder when it's analog. 01:24:32.560 --> 01:24:37.780 Would you care to comment on the framing of abortion as a movement from analog to digital? 01:24:44.675 --> 01:24:52.535 There is modest evidence that abortion has been treated by those who are in favor of it in a digital way. 01:24:53.155 --> 01:24:53.655 Why? 01:24:54.115 --> 01:24:56.055 They they say it isn't a person. 01:24:57.470 --> 01:25:01.170 It's just a a mass of tissue. 01:25:02.190 --> 01:25:08.190 And so therefore, by saying it's not a person, they are digitalizing it. 01:25:08.190 --> 01:25:12.845 And they're and they're talking about it as an abstraction. 01:25:13.945 --> 01:25:15.725 But that would be the major way. 01:25:17.305 --> 01:25:27.330 There might be other ways in which they turn it into a number of, the things, you know, some number that they then throw at you as being unacceptable. 01:25:29.790 --> 01:25:40.050 But it is getting it is a way of denying the very one thing about a baby, a baby is sure analog. 01:25:46.085 --> 01:25:49.145 A baby is about as analog as a human being can be. 01:25:50.325 --> 01:26:00.600 It just sits there and wants to be fed and cleaned and hugged and talked to and all the right you know, it just it can't you know, it it has almost no digital life. 01:26:02.340 --> 01:26:06.200 And, of course, that's one of the things about why some people might wanna be animals. 01:26:08.340 --> 01:26:15.975 Animal if you if you become an animal, you if you actually you know, as an animal, you don't have any digital life. 01:26:15.975 --> 01:26:17.755 You have only an analog life. 01:26:19.895 --> 01:26:21.175 They have only their body. 01:26:21.175 --> 01:26:27.000 They have no, functional, in our sense, digital left hemisphere. 01:26:27.860 --> 01:26:34.280 They may have a left hemisphere in some sense, but they don't have the digitalization of life that humans have. 01:26:35.620 --> 01:26:38.120 Digitalization seems to be a human convention. 01:26:41.755 --> 01:26:42.255 Enough. 01:26:42.635 --> 01:26:43.135 Enough. 01:26:44.795 --> 01:26:45.355 Thank you. 01:26:45.355 --> 01:26:46.815 You've been great as an audience. 01:26:47.275 --> 01:26:49.695 I can tell because I can see you. 01:26:51.195 --> 01:26:52.335 I can hear you. 01:26:53.420 --> 01:26:55.020 Please join me in another round of applause. 01:26:55.020 --> 01:26:57.120 And above all, I can't smell you. 01:27:05.500 --> 01:27:08.480 One one slide to pull up on screen here if we close. 01:27:09.555 --> 01:27:15.815 As we conclude, please do note that our next Newman lecture will in fact be on a Wednesday night. 01:27:16.355 --> 01:27:21.975 So as you're as you're preparing and thinking about it, please save that date, March 22. 01:27:22.280 --> 01:27:32.780 We will be pleased to welcome virtually doctor Robert Enright on how injustices can fracture the personhood of the victim and how forgiving restores that personhood. 01:27:33.400 --> 01:27:34.760 This concludes our evening. 01:27:34.760 --> 01:27:35.900 Thank you very much.