Deja Vu

Atonement 2.0

Tags:

Catholicism,

computers,

religion,

technology

2011: Just weeks after Pope Benedict gave his blessing for the use of social media among Catholics, a confessional iPhone app hits stores this week, approved by senior church officials. With an option to tick through the ten commandments and highlight your particular shortcomings, the app “encourages users to understand their actions and then visit their priest for absolution.”

Described as "the perfect aid for every penitent," it offers users tips and guidelines to help them with the sacrament.

Now senior church officials in both the UK and US have given it their seal of approval, in what is thought to be a first.

The app takes users through the sacrament—in which Catholics admit their wrongdoings—and allows them to keep track of their sins.

It also allows them to examine their conscience based on personalized factors such as age, sex and marital status—but it is not intended to replace traditional confession entirely.

1994: In the beginning, the war between Apple users and PC users resembled less a choice in technology and more a choice between deep-set spiritual beliefs. This according to Umberto Eco, who saw in these disparate new technologies a parallel in religious schisms.The following is excerpted from an English translation of a column by Eco in Italian newsweekly Espresso.

Insufficient consideration has been given to the new underground religious war which is modifying the modern world. It's an old idea of mine, but I find that whenever I tell people about it they immediately agree with me.

The fact is that the world is divided between users of the Macintosh computer and users of MS-DOS compatible computers. I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant. Indeed, the Macintosh is counter-reformist and has been influenced by the ratio studiorum of the Jesuits. It is cheerful, friendly, conciliatory, it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach—if not the Kingdom of Heaven—the moment in which their document is printed. It is catechistic: the essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons. Everyone has a right to salvation.

DOS is Protestant, or even Calvinistic. It allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user, and takes for granted the idea that not all can reach salvation. To make the system work you need to interpret the program yourself: a long way from the baroque community of revelers, the user is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment.

You may object that, with the passage to Windows, the DOS universe has come to resemble more closely the counter-reformist tolerance of the Macintosh. It's true: Windows represents an Anglican-style schism, big ceremonies in the cathedral, but there is always the possibility of a return to DOS to change things in accordance with bizarre decisions; when it comes down to it, you can decide to allow women and gays to be ministers if you want to…

And machine code, which lies beneath both systems (or environments, if you prefer)? Ah, that is to do with the Old Testament, and is talmudic and cabalistic...

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