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Monday Miscellany, 9/23/24

Monday Miscellany, 9/23/24

Last updated on: September 23, 2024 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

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Monday Miscellany, 9/23/24 2024-09-19T15:32:52-04:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“We’re going to have supervision”; snowflakes in the workplace; and church buildings going traditional.

“We’re Going to Have Supervision”

Artificial Intelligence has so much potential to change our lives for the better, we keep being told. One application will be to keep us all on our “best behavior.” So says Larry Ellison, the co-founder of software giant Oracle and the world’s third wealthiest man.

Here is what he said at a company meeting, as reported by Benj Edwards in Ars Technica , happily describing a wonderful near future:

“Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on,” Ellison said, describing what he sees as the benefits from automated oversight from AI and automated alerts for when crime takes place. “We’re going to have supervision,” he continued. “Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there’s a problem, AI will report the problem and report it to the appropriate person.”

There will no more need for high speed chases, he adds. Drones, which are “much faster than police cars,” will chase us. Hear him yourself here.

To be fair, he’s talking primarily about fighting crime, with the added benefit that police brutality will also be eliminated since they too will be “supervised at all times.” And it shouldn’t be a violation of anyone’s rights, he implies in the video, since human beings won’t be watching our every move, just AI machines

He seems oblivious, though, to any problems with this brave new world–such as those raised in 1984, another dystopian novel Ellison must not have read, with all of those two-way video screens with their supposedly comforting message “Big Brother Is Watching You.” Or those raised with what is happening in China where the communist government is already subjecting the population to total surveillance as a way to keep them in line. Edwards says that China is already doing what Ellison is recommending:

In 2022, Reuters reported that Chinese firms had developed AI software to sort data collected on residents using a network of surveillance cameras deployed across cities and rural areas as part of China’s “sharp eyes” campaign from 2015 to 2020. This “one person, one file” technology reportedly organizes collected data on individual Chinese citizens, leading to what The Economic Times called a “road to digital totalitarianism.”

Snowflakes in the Workplace

Companies are finding that the recent college graduates they hire are bad at interpersonal communication, project a sense of entitlement, have bad manners, and get offended too easily. In addition to lots of other problems that make them poor workers.

Intelligent.com conducted a survey of nearly a thousand hiring managers. Here is an overview of the findings:

75% of companies report that some or all of the recent college graduates they hired this year were unsatisfactory
6 in 10 companies fired a recent college graduate they hired this year
1 in 6 hiring managers say they are hesitant to hire from this cohort
Hiring managers say recent college grads are unprepared for the workforce, can’t handle the workload, and are unprofessional
1 in 7 companies may refrain from hiring recent college graduates next year
9 in 10 hiring managers say recent college graduates should undergo etiquette training

Specifically,

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of hiring managers surveyed believe that recent college graduates are entitled, and 63% think they get offended too easily. Additionally, more than half (55%) believe they lack a work ethic, and 54% say they don’t respond well to feedback. Similarly, 53% feel that Gen Z college graduates are unprepared for the workforce and believe they have poor communication skills.

Other complaints are that their new Gen Z hires come in to work and to meetings late, that they don’t dress professionally, and that they use inappropriate language. They also have problems handling their workload and are slow in completing their assignments, often missing deadlines.

An article on the research in the New York Post by Deirdre Bardolf followed it up with some interviews:

Jessen James, an international entrepreneur, business mentor and speaker, said some Gen Zers struggle to articulate themselves, don’t look you in the eye, and don’t project their voices.

James has seen what he calls “snowflakeism” — some Gen Zers “crumbling” under even a little pressure.

“It’s almost like you have to walk on eggshells around them, being super sensitive when managing them, in case you offend them, upset them, or push them too far,” he said.

In defense of these recent college graduates, I would just like to say that, contrary to what some have been saying, this research shows that at least our schools are effective! These were good students who learned their lessons well. These dysfunctions are exactly what they were taught in grade school, high school, and college.

Church Buildings Going Traditional

Traditionally, church buildings were designed to convey a sense of the transcendent and the sacred. Though there were actually a number of different styles–Gothic, Romanesque, Byzantine, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, and 19th and 20th century revivals of all of these–they all in some way pointed to the heavens, were filled with light, and were highly symbolic.

In the 20th century, when churches were concerned to present themselves and Christianity as addressing the modern world, churches were built following the tenets of modernist architecture–showcasing their materials of concrete and metal arranged in unique shapes and cutting back on ornamentation, while still making use of symbolism.

More recently, with the church growth emphasis on attracting religious consumers, churches were built to resemble shopping malls–huge structures, bare on the outside but welcoming on the inside, surrounded by a vast parking lot–with sanctuaries that resembled entertainment venues, complete with theater-style seating and a stage, complete with spotlights and the band’s speakers and drumsets.

Today, as the culture gets more and more secularized, church architecture, paradoxically, is getting more and more traditional again.

Mariya Manzhos writes about this in her article Amid declining church attendance, a different religious renaissance is underway, with the deck, “Commissions for traditional churches are on the rise: ‘These buildings speak to the human soul on a very fundamental level.’”

She quotes church architects who say that the vogue of experimentation has run its course and that the need now is to construct buildings that stand the test of time and that can “speak to not just the time but to the human soul on a very fundamental level.”

She accounts for this new trend by referencing the growing theological conservatism (in times of secularism, the only ones who go to church will be those who take their religion seriously). She even credits the “resurgence of classical education” for bringing a new appreciation for “time-tested” styles and principles.

Her article focuses on Catholic churches and Mormon temples (her article appears in a Mormon publication, Deseret News), but I can see the phenomenon in Lutheran, evangelical, mainline, and even the new megachurches being built. Those who go to church prefer to worship in churches “that look like churches.”

I want to emphasize, though, that the Gospel can be proclaimed in any style of building–including the modernist and the theatrical, also in inexpensive structures buildings built of cinder blocks or sheet metal–or in no building at all.

Having said that, I think it’s healthy that Christians are rediscovering the richness of their heritage and the possibilities of a “sacred space” where God is present in His Word, His Sacraments, and His people.

artificial intelligence

church architecture

generation Z in the workplace

recent college graduates

secularism and religious conservatism

surveillance state

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