"Hello, I'm Ava."

Something To Think About

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT   High-tech has reached a new low--maybe.  In addition to being poked, prodded and Xrayed before we get on an airplane, now we will be given instructions by a person Airport Avatar Demonstration who isn't there.  That's right,  Sci-fi fans, it's a computer generated image of a person projected on a piece of plexi-glass.  I heard that Quark is opening a holodeck for the public any day now. Maybe not, but it looks like to me that this represents one more step in the increasing isolation of Twenty-first Century life.  When I see Ava, Airport Virtual Assistant,I think of the mechanical taxi driver that the Arnold Schwarzenegger character dealt with in Total Recall.  We already buy food and drinks from machines.  I buy my medications from a machine.  Even my car tells me when the doors need to be locked and its oil changed. . . . I'm typing on a computer, and this will reach you via the technological marvel known as the internet.  I just had a conversation with a friend in another country.  I like much of what technology brings me.  My hope in evaluating things--and make sure we understand that they are things--is to maintain a technological neutrality.  The latest-and-greatest is really no different than the older-and-not-so-great-anymore.  Communications, and information transmission advancements are not a recent thing.  Mail service, libraries, telephones, printing presses, even the lowly pencil, all represent major steps away from dependence on face to face communication for the transference of information.  Is Ava just one more--nothing more than a jazzed up sign? I'm sure some of you have opinions.   If Ava is a tool to free up airport authorities and airline personnel to actually have time to talk with customers, then she might be our virtual-friend.  If she is part of the increasing isolation in our culture, then she is a projected-enemy.  In reality she is neither.  Just like in Oz, there is a person behind the curtain. Some things are sure:  God loves and desires to fellowship with people. Christ died for people. God's plan is for people to reach people. As God's people we must treasure people.  They are irreplaceable. It's STTA     http://covingtonbiblechurch.com/lifesmostimportant.html