The Computer
Revolution
"The computer is a bicycle for the mind."
— Steven Jobs, founder of Apple Computer
In 1981 my wife and I moved to Europe as missionaries. Shortly after our arrival in Austria, I touched a computer keyboard for the first time: a Radio Shack TRS Model. Within weeks, my new boss in Vienna told me, "Hans, you need to buy yourself one of these."
"Me, buy a computer!? Whatever for?" I asked in amazement.
That was in the early '80s. Today, few people question the value of using a computer. Times have changed dramatically in less than a decade, and now homes across our land have not one but two picture tubes glowing in their homes at night: the TV and the PC.
It is getting harder and harder to resist contact with the buttons and video screens of computers. They show up everywhere. The change in just the last five years has been staggering.
Here is an example of what a day might look like for me: In the morning, on the way to the office, I stop by the bank
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money machine and punch a few buttons for some cash. Of course, most of my work at the office is on a word processor, and I am linked to our other offices by fax and electronic mail. At noon, I go to the library to look for some books, checking the optical laser disk on the new computer card file for my titles. Later, I stop by the mall and punch in the kind of merchant I'm looking for in the mall directory. In the record store, I punch up an audio/video search for the album I might want to buy. Even if I don't know the exact name of the album or the artist, a close guess will find the selection on this "smart" system. Stopping by the gas station, I punch in cash and amount on the pump and pay with my ATM card. Donna called me and asked me to stop by on the way home and pick up a few groceries. Yes, you guessed it! The grocery store has electronic checking at the checkout; they just swipe my card through and punch in my secret code, and the groceries are paid for. In the evening, I can call the bank and talk to its computer by pushing buttons on my phone to see if I still have money for all those transactions! Then I record the bills I've paid on the spreadsheet in my PC.
It is impossible to avoid the computer revolution.
The Technological Wave of the Future
Personal computers are taking the place in our generation that cars used to have. People used to talk about their automobiles. But today men and women are just as likely to be talking about megabytes, floppy drives, optical laser disks, laser printers, and the comparative values of various color monitors.
In 1982, I bought my first computer, and for my money I got a black and white screen, two floppy disk drives, and 64 thousand bytes of internal memory. And I was very excited about that computing power. But in 1988, for less money, I purchased a new generation of computer with 256 colors in the screen, processing speeds thousands of times faster, two
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floppy drives, 2 million bytes of internal memory, and a hard disk drive with 43 million bytes of memory! We are clearly in the middle of a technology revolution. The drastically cheaper and more powerful computers are fueling the information revolution as it gets easier for more and more people to process vast amounts of information.
Baby boomers are leading the charge into the technology revolution. In fact, in many ways we're causing it, starting up company after company that feeds the fuel of the technology transition. Steven Jobs, famous baby boomer, who was worth millions before his 25th birthday, began it all when he and his friends invented the first mass-marketable PC, the Apple computer. John Sculley, CEO of Apple Computer, in his book Odyssey, chronicles that exciting adventure: "The personal computer industry was an industry created by and for a new generation" (Sculley 1987:141).
Personal computers are not just the sophisticated expensive toys of a spoiled generation, they are what the future is all about. They are helping to usher in what Alvin Toffler calls the Third Wave of revolutionary social change in Western countries. In his book The Third Wave (1980), Toffler describes three great waves of change in human societies, the third of which is upon us now. They are what he calls periods of great ruptures of social forms in civilization.
The first great wave of change on our planet occurred at the end of the agricultural era of society, a stable period in the history of man that lasted for thousands of years until the end of the seventeenth century. At that time Western societies experienced the upheaval which swept across most of our planet as the industrial revolution began. That period, according to Toffler, lasted about 300 years — until our present generation. It is now coming to an end. In the mid-twentieth century, the third great transition period began, bringing upheaval in areas of technology, economics, politics, family life, energy use, and many other areas of
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social life (Toffler 1980:13-14). Though harder to label than the agricultural and industrial revolutions in Western society, I would label this transition that is upon us as a global technology/information revolution.
The place we feel these changes most is in our jobs. Work is an integral part of life in every comer of our globe. And as we saw in the chapter on careers, the way we all work is changing dramatically. Very few of us will ever have the kind of jobs our parents did.
In the agricultural era, we had what would be called no-collar workers. Everyone worked the earth by the sweat of their brows to make a living. No one wanted or needed aerobics classes or jogging shoes. Then the industrial revolution brought the masses into urban areas and ushered in the blue-collar workers, the great industrial centers, and labor unions. Finally, in our generation, we are seeing the demise of industry and the explosion of high technology and information, producing a nation of white-collar workers.
It is interesting to notice the way people have resisted change between these eras just described. It is human nature to resist change. The farmers fought the industrialists during the expansion of industry, especially in the late nineteenth century. And now, many of the older, traditional, heavy industries are fighting the onrush of the information revolution. Blue collar jobs are unfortunately becoming unnecessary, so many workers must be retrained or lose their jobs.
The same tension that existed between the old farmers and the new industrialists also exists today between the old industrialists and the new technologists. Members of the older generation aren't so sure they want their world changed that much. But most baby boomers, as a generation, have accepted this third wave of the future enthusiastically.
Transition to Technology
Technology is making dramatic strides in our generation —
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enough to leave all of our heads spinning as we try to keep up. There is a growing fear among many that if they don't keep up, they will be left behind in the technology revolution. Old jobs done manually for decades are disappearing weekly, and those who are not boning up on how to make the transition to technology and the PC may just be out of a job forever. John Sculley writes of this transformed way of working:
As we move into the information economy, the desktop, not the factory floor, is becoming the workplace of the future. Increasingly, workers are at desks utilizing their minds, instead of at factory machines using their hands (Sculley 1987:377).
A good case in point is my friend Jim, whom I have known for about 10 years. When I first knew him, he was an expert at working with sheet metal fabrication. Every day when he came home from work, he was dirty from working out in the shop and often had cuts and bruises from the metal work. I talked to him the other day and was amazed at how things have changed in his shop. He doesn't get dirty anymore. He does all the design work on a computer. And most of the fabrication is done by computerized machines as well. A clean factory floor of button pushers.
Marvin Cetron, President of Forecasting International Limited, gives us these interesting and revealing facts about the nature of work and communication in the not too distant future:
By the year 2000, 88% of: the population will be involved in service industries. Half — 44%, will be in the information fields. Half of those people will be working at home or be able to work at home because of interactive cable. What accounts for these changes? Between 1969 and 1984, for example, 90% of all medical advances took
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place — meaning that a doctor, researcher, or surgeon who hasn't read the literature only knows 10% of what is going on. If you take a look at materials for instrumentation, cars, houses, automobiles — 90% of every single thing we have in materials research came out in the past ten years. So the information component becomes extremely important, and, therefore you've got to be able to communicate, write, read, analyze, and solve problems (Johnson 1988:86).
Personal Productivity and the PC
Yes, the computer has in many ways added to our uneasiness about the changing world in which we live because it is one of the prime culprits of change. But the computer is here to stay, and many of us have no choice but to get computerized. Most of us are drowning in information. The total amount of information in our world is multiplying and quadrupling at a staggering rate. Can any of us keep up with the paper and print messages thrown at us daily?
Because so much information is flooding into our lives, it is imperative that we learn how to use computers to weed through the information in order to use that which is necessary. If we ignore the technological revolution, we will at best be left in isolation and ignorance; at worst we might lose our jobs to those who know how to handle information.
I don't know how many times I have said to my colleagues, "I'm glad that I am living in the age of personal computers — otherwise I could not get a third of the work done that I do." Christians are often the last ones to take advantage of new tools for their mission. We can use the computer, like the printing press or the airplane, to more effectively reach our world for Jesus Christ. For the church and those boomers being asked to lead it, ignoring the technology revolution will create an enormous gap between Christians and the world they are trying to reach. The problem will be twofold: they will be less able to relate to their world, and they will be less efficient in reaching it with their message.
The Bible and the PC
During the late 1970s and into the 1980s many Christians resisted computers on spiritual grounds. I recall reading articles that warned churches not to computerize, using the rationale that the Holy Spirit should not be limited by such worldly inventions. I'm sure there are still a few fringe groups who would condemn its use. But I can't recall the last time I've been in a church office and not seen a computer busy at work keeping records and disseminating information crucial to the church.
Many pastors today are creating their message outlines on computers, giving them the ability to polish and repolish their thoughts at lightning speed. After the sermon, they can go back to their study, call up the outline from the disk, and instantly zap the illustration that just didn't work right. Next time, the message will be better, thanks to the new ease that a communicator has to polish his thoughts before and after presenting them.
As with all of man's inventions, the computer can be used for good and evil.
The Limits of PC Power
George Orwell was wrong. Nineteen eighty-four came and went, and Big Brother did not take over our society with the power of the computer, even though the computer has advanced far beyond the dreams of Orwell. But we are certainly living in an age of computers, and I can safely say that there is a computer in your future.
As Christians living in an age of computers, we must be careful. Those who have vast amounts of knowledge through their use of computers can certainly control individuals in a tyrannical way. The computer can indeed bring into society great dangers to personal freedom. It can also
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foster pride in people who become skilled in manipulating this tool.
But the computer, used appropriately, can help both the church and individual Christians gain knowledge that will yield greater productivity for the cause of Christ and His church. As helpful as computers may be, we do need to keep our use of them in perspective with the kingdom of God. We must be careful not to make an idol of this helpful tool. Consider the following statements:
1. Computers may or may not increase our effectiveness. Efficiency is defined as doing things right, whereas effectiveness is doing the right things. I know I have wasted many days trying to be efficient through the use of my computer, while I neglected more important tasks that God wanted me to do to be effective for Him. We might want to post the prayer of Moses above the monitor of our PCs:
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Ps. 90:12).
2. Computers are not a cure-all and should never replace the human and divine aspects of problem solving. Some people would like to think that computers will solve any problem. Their motto is: if the organization has any needs, throw a computer at them. But technology and information do not solve all of man's problems.
We should remember that the power of prayer and the working of the Holy Spirit in a life, a family, and an organization must take precedent over any human tools invented to solve problems. Could it be that at times we are robbing ourselves of a blessing because we are not waiting on God to work for us? Instead, we are busy engineering our own feeble solutions. Can you imagine Joshua and his followers trying to build a bridge across the Jordan instead of waiting and watching as God dried up the flooded river for His people? (Josh. 3)
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David, the mighty warrior, learned the secret of true power in problem solving. In his day, the horse and chariot were symbols of superior strength for warfare; whoever had the most ruled the land:
Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He answers him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God (Ps. 20:6-7).
3. Computers can become a nuisance in our ministry and family. I have seen the computer become such an obsession in some lives and organizations that it destroys relationships and good working conditions. In an organization, the computer can get more attention than the needs of the people, which is wrong. Perhaps a worker will not get a new desk, but the computer will get a $2,000 disk drive.
Much to my dismay, I learned right after I bought my secondhand computer from a man in California that the computer was the source of his separation from his wife. He had become so obsessed with that machine that he spent his family's limited income on more and more additions to the computer system. Finances destroyed the marriage.
I know that Donna has the hardest time getting through to me when I am deeply engrossed in a computer project. It is as though I am engaged in combat with the machine, unable to give up until I solve the problem. At times I must simply turn off the computer and tend to the needs of the people around me.
4. Computers can become a dangerous source of pride. We know that knowledge is power, and he who controls knowledge is very powerful in any organization. It is humorous to watch the power that a secretary can have over the boss because she knows how to get the information he needs
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out of the computer, and he doesn't.
The danger comes when the power of knowledge is used in a prideful way. This is exactly the danger Paul was warning the Corinthians of when he said, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up" (1 Cor. 8:1).
Later in Corinthians, Paul sets all of this in perspective:
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor. 13:2).
Thinking It Through
1. Why does the author so strongly make the point that computers are not just expensive toys but the building blocks of the future?
2. Describe five advantages and five disadvantages of becoming computer-literate.
3. How has becoming familiar with a PC at work or home helped or hindered your relationship with God, family, friendships, work, and recreation? How can a computer best assist you as you seek to grow in the Lord and keep up with our ever-changing world?
