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Is the spiritual profile of the Silicon Valley different from

other parts of the country

In so far as that hunan beings are the same Human beings

are the same wherever you go and thats what makes an ancient

tradition worthwhile because people living 2000 years ago

were dealing with lot of the same challenges as the people

of today You know the same--fear felt the same way

challenge felt the same way the need to--to build life and

get through life was you know similar

Uh the technology that shaped life 2000 years and life

ago

today is really the--the primary difference between what

makes human being there--there--what makes human being

spiritual focus different And so if we remember that then

we canwe can look at temporal difference between 2-

people living 2000 years ago and people who are living

today Likewise we can make the same distinction in terms of

geography person living in one--a certain geo-

geographical setting and demographic setting will have

different kinds of challenges pursuing their issues in faith

than someone in different context So for example someone

living in the south in rural setting that is homogeneous in

population urn has different way of engaging in this issue

than someone living in Mountain View or Silicon Valley

because the issues of urn technology and working in that

enviromnent Silicon Valley attracts wide diversity of

people from lot of different regions of the world and so

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theres unique challenge for person pursuing trying to

seek to understand their faith in this area than their might

be somewhere else But because technology is spreading all

over the place feel that urn lot of the country in the

United States is beginning to struggle with the same kinds of

things that were seeing here all the time

Describe the issues that youre seeing that are unique to this

area

couple of things for those who work in--in

Urn high

technology uh one of the challenges is the nature of the

production cycle Its so quick they need to move to market

very quickly and as you know the--the product cycle is about

18 months and in the--in the high tech corn--competitive world

everybody is racing to market because the first one to get to

market gets to define the standard and gets to reap the

financial benefit of that That puts tremendous stress and

pressure on peoples work life so theyre challenged to work

long hours and work hard And--and the danger is that they

become my--myopic in their thinking They get so locked in

and so focused on--on being the first to market that they

sacrifice lot of their humanity to that end And thats uh

its pervasive in this valley

The other thing that adds to that business dimension is uh

the isolation that these people live with the--the

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nature of their job is that they are specialist in what they

do They are urn of high value to their company because only

they can add the kind of value to product that that company

is The result is because theyre working in highly

specialized field theyre isolated They--they cant come

home and talk to their wives or their husbands about what

they did all day And they--and they both--the--the husband

and the wife may be both working in high tech field but

maybe two completely different areas And so its very

difficult to share crosstalk about what their life was like

in specifics the person--their neighbors may be in

high tech field but working in completely different areas

And so this leads to sense of isolation that is sometimes

uh difficult to break You dont--you dont uh talk over the

head of your neighbor about what you did at work that day

because there--theres no intersection Theres no way to

really understand that--a that--that role that the people

play

Also the fact that these people are connecting to machine

Theyre relating to machine for eight nine ten hours

day if theyre--if theyre writing code the with

tim working

that technology does or has risk of who

urn shaping

they are as people They begin to interact with machine

rather than with people and its different dynamic Now

know that its true that they work with people in the office

all the time Its not that they become machines but

there is the 1w-i was--I was speaking with the vice

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president of uh human resources and development for tech

company and he notices how--he was describing how he goes

through the offices and you have individuals sitting alone in

room staring at screen for hours on end and its a--its

isolating experience that people live with and the danger

is that urn the--the--the race to get to market the focus on-

-on getting the product out the isolation in the--in the

cube--working in their cubicles connecting to machine has

risk of--of reducing their humanity Reducing their

humanity And thats the challenge that the high tech worker

faces when it comes time to think about what it means to be

human being in the whole sense of the word including the

spiritual aspects of their lives And they need to be--tech

workers need to be intentional about pursuing avenues of

their life that can nurture other parts of who are

they

What are the consequences of this isolation

think theres two things one would be an affect on

them as an individual Another would be the affect see

they

in our community The the suffers that

way community is as

people become more and more isolated in their work and in

their lives the--the social infrastructure that makes for

healthy community begins to break down And you see this in

the valley in sense in terms of--of into

people coming

their homes going in and shutting the door and no longer

being concerned about whats happening outside their walls

And you can drive up and down the valley you can see signs

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of social of decay in the social infrastructure For

example the public schools Urn the schools in Silicon

Valley they need paint they need just physical maintenance

they need uh staffing Public schools in our area are in

deplorable condition In part its because the isolation of

the tech worker takes them out of that social arena and they

dont feel connected and--and invested in that education

process and its ironic because high tech people know that

education is the key element that drives their business

forward and keeps them profitable But all around them the--

the uh public education is--is in decline And the reason is

because their isolation has kept them is--disconnected from--

from that communal good And so they dont feel it theyre

not connected to it And so thats one way we see it

Now can make--I can mention other things tjh the other

thing that uh they can experience from the isolation is

deep what call soul loneliness Now these people may have

friends they have colleagues at work but the nature of the

isolated soul is such that conversation becomes superficial

experience The--the um challenge to talk about whats most

important to you the urn--the invitation to talk about who

God is if God is if God is what does that mean for me

These--these deep deep difficult questions take a--take time

and conversation to explore And if--if am rushing through

my life if dont take the time to connect with other

people if dont find safe environment where can

explore who am as spiritual person over hours and hours

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and over days and days and weeks and months and years and

begin to atrophy inside and experience this deep

loneliness And its urn sometimes people experience it as

very subtle pain very subtle emotional longing Sometimes

its not so subtle Sometimes its right up front And urn

often when--when new person comes into our parish what they

express is just a--a--a loneliness that urn they need to

connect to people

One person asked urn uh some time ago said What brought

you to St Tims And he said Well Kevin he said as

the world gets darker the light of the church shines

brighter Now hes experiencing growing darkness in his

life dont experience that because Im embedded in this

community Im imbedded in relationships and substantive

conversations that keeps the light shining in my life but an

isolated person this particular person began to describe

this darkness that he felt he was being enveloped in And

that think was the experience of the soul loneliness

More sensitive people can recognize that and they uh move to

do something about it The risk is that other priorities urn

vocational arnbition--uh the risk is that other priorities

like vocational ambition will--will draw them from

away

that And so the soul becomes smaller and smaller and

smaller and the capacity to engage in substantive

conversation that really matters begins to be lost

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And so we find here that one of our--one of the most

important things that we do is we teach people how to engage

in this substantive conversation again And think its

what the old world used to call wisdom Wisdom is communal

function Wisdom is function of people gathered in

community to share lifes struggles to engage lifes pain

together and in that shared conversation and in that shared

struggle among people who trust each other wisdom emerges so

the individual can participate in this wisdom community if

theyre connected So isolated from that community they can

be brilliant technically brilliant in their jobs but lose

access to that most important -i4jj capacity for perceiving

what lifes about

Can technology help us address the bigger questions

ViiJ Technology is tool and tool needs to be used with

wisdom The internet you know people talk sometimes about

the Internet as--as means of connecting people The

problem with the internet and the problem with any technology

that seeks to connect people together is that the technology

defines the--the mode of engagement And just like in

television when you point camera at something you record

certain information You record information that the camera

can pick up but theres whole world of information

Theres whole depth to what the camera is looking at that

the viewer cant see and thats why you need narrative

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line You need story with the picture in order to bring

depth into focus Now thats television as technology

5jthe

Computer with technology--computer as communication

technology also has limitations and uh the primary limitation

that view in building relationships on the internet is that

there is uh distance that the machine creates that

is very difficult to close

when--when Im sitting in room with person and Im

communicating Im sharing my story My facial expressions

are involved my hands are involved my whole body is engaged

in telling the story Theres emotion that moves me as

engage my story can start to cry can start to laugh

can become angry And all that stuff is communicated without

language without words

Now it takes C--it takes very good writer to capture

that kind of emotion and that kind of depth in using--using

print medium which is basically what electronic medium is

And so urn the connecting with person across the internet

snt prof ide--provide for the same kind of depth of

gement thatct connecting in real life does So dont

think the computer is solution at all And it may be for

some people an escape That is to say in an inner--in--in a-

-in relationship in have

relationship through the

internet may connect sufficiently to satisfy shallow

kind of ache but not connect sufficiently to really feed and

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nurture who Iwho am as person So there are real

limits to what internet relationship can--can do to--to

sustain and form healthy people

Is there seductiveness about technology that can appear to solve

big problems

Yeah the danger in technology is very simple and that is

anthropologists have known for years and years that the

technology culture uses shapes the culture technology

that people use define who that people is So theres

formative power at work in the machines that we use

shape machines using our own creativity once the machine

becomes part of our culture the machine begins to shape us

Thats the danger of technology7l We know that if you have a-

-a--a people using stone age people using stone ax if you

introduce steel axe into that culture theres radical

transformation that takes place Theres radical

dislocation that happens in the--in the power systems of

that--of that--of those people

Well for us we need to find way to use our

40
technology and develop technology thoughtfully and

intentionally social philosopher named Jacques Oroul

wrote book 0-40 years ago now called Technology in which

he described situation where he described our--our

situation in the 50s as one where thumanity has reached

place where we could no longer evaluate the value of

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technology We were creating--we were using technology

because we could not necessarily because we should and the

race to market in--in the Silicon Valley Oi the danger is

that the--that the speed our speed of our development is

preventing us from adapting and growing into the technology

and understanding the--the full impact that technology

really has on our society

1c5

You know the best example we have in recent history is the

television set and when the television set was introduced

into peoples homes in the l9SOs no one could imagine the

kind of dislocation it would make in families And in--in--

and in peoples ethnic identities Even in--in the way we

use language Television has created to the loss of--of the

unique access and all across the world were all beginning to

sound like like newscasters and thats an impact of

technology that we couldnt anticipate

Well we dont know what the impact is going to be of the

computer We dont know what the impact is going to be of

other technological innovations until were already fully

invested in it Until--until were--our society is already

dependent on it The automobile is another example Who

could have known that the automobile would define Americans

urban architecture No--we--we dont stop to ask is

this good thing because the race to market the--the--the

lunge for establishing the standard the technical standard

for new us
product sometimes gets away from And so we-

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end up creating world blind Not knowing fully--we

can never know fully what that impact can be so theres

danger and theres risk in that

Are you aware of greater enthusiasm for technology as means to

make financial gain

The s--one of the unique--one of the unique things that

were experiencing in Silicon Valley is how quickly wealth

can be amassed by individuals at young age We--when--one

interesting thing about technological development is that

when you are youngster teenager growing up youre

growing up with the current technology And so as junior

higher and high school person and person in college you

are living with tech--technology that has--has defined your

generation and you adapt very very easily and very very

quickly to that technological innovation Your life becomes

shaped to it

So when you come out of college or even high school

sometimes you if you are young hacker your life has been

shaped by this technology so you are already on the cutting

edge of technological innovation In sense are ahead

you

of where some 40 45 50 year old engineers may be who have

been working to maintain technology of former

generation

The result is that when you come out of colleges you may
add..

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