anthropological reflection on the websites of the Jesuit Antonio Spadaro
ROME, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 (ZENIT.org) .- Here is the interview with Father Antonio Spadaro, editor of The Civilization Catholic , appeared PaulusWeb (Year II No. 20 - May 2010).
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Paolo Pegoraro
on Wiki have kindly nicknamed "The Jesus 2.0". If you think a writer is not the person best suited to reflect new technology, you should make the acquaintance of Father Antonio Spadaro. In love with her white paper not less than iMac or iPhone that slips in your hand suddenly, Spadaro is a Jesuit vocation, critical for passion, new media expert for provocation. In the sense that his reflections on the Net approaches avoid the most common type of strictly technical or sociological. Is clear: "I think what maybe is missing at this moment, and think more broadly anthropological, consider that within the web of human experience and not as a" bubble ", an episode untied." An invitation a key to broader, so it probably comes from his own peculiar backstage ...
Father Spadaro, its formation does not immediately think of computer science. How did this passion for new technologies?
"I started going to the net a few years ago when my former student asked me to build a site with Geocities . Until then, it was quite alien technology. The thing I became curious. I felt that the interest in literature and one for the network were walking hand in hand, because the internet world was a world fundamentally text, though different from the linear communication of the written page. Later, writing for The Civilization Catholic, I looked at the online literary journals, that is how the interest in creative writing and the critical size were developing in the Internet By the way I was created in 1998 a, BombaCarta - www.bombacarta.com - which has since developed and evolved over time. Since then my interest has become more specific and has been progressively extended to other fields. Biological evolution, I would say, in which the worlds of literature and science have always intertwined, fertilising with each other. "
In his book Web 2.0 networks of relationships (FSP 2010) she points out that the Internet is not a half, but a context and environment. A turning point in the very conception of communication, therefore, that forces you to rethink the category of traditional media as mere "tools" to relate?
"Yes, the Internet is a tool that can be used or not, but an environment determining a style of thinking and learning of knowledge, and to develop relations. Both the knowledge that the reports are in fact modified by the use of the Net can not therefore be regarded as a mere tool, because it only serves to shape, but those who use plasma.
A second consideration. With devices like the pocket ' iPhone, which does not require access to, say, "formal" to the Net - how could it be turning on your computer, start a program, etc.. - Today the perception of the Internet is changing. From environment alongside other environments, the web is being increasingly integrated with the environment of ordinary life. Internet as a reality in itself is increasingly disappearing, as more is being integrated into the process relational, cognitive and communication of everyday life. "
His analysis on the web are very positive and emphasize the strong potential. However - with the advent of Facebook or Wikipedia - there was no lack of raised shield ...
'In this case threatens to divide the world between apocalyptic and integrated, but we try to consider things in their entirety. I do not see the Web primarily as a revolution. Or rather, if it is, is a revolution from the roots old. The web is a revolution in technology that does nothing, however, if not deepen and give new shape to desires that man has ever had. As the plane permission to fly as man has always wanted, so the network can create, or even better, heal and develop relations of friendship despite the distance that prevented a first contact often. The web has incorporated the standard size of writing and reading. So be careful to consider a completely new technology to answer a deep human desire.
addition, the technology is not separate from humanity deep man. The technology is very human. I'd also say that technology is a form of human spirituality. A person who had sensed with great strength and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ... perhaps the only author who has provided the categories ahead of time for a spiritual understanding - and sometimes even theological - the Network
Sure, there are many shadows on the Web, but in a process that he says need to report communication and deeper. In this sense they are optimistic the greater the progress, the greater the ambiguity, that we must not hide, but they are inevitable in a process that, in my opinion, is precisely a result of spirituality of man. "
web platforms are evolving quickly, and sometimes equally fast decline. But to make room for something more. A process that changes, then, but does not stop ...
'In the network there are realities to disappear into thin air, but rather the excess and integration into new forms and new elements. There is an evolution that does not proceed, however, to jump. Despite some attempts, crashing, usually the big trend not interrupted, but are absorbed by other phenomena that incorporate them, even correcting them. "
A setback is impossible, in fact. Indications of new anthropological scenarios?
"The only thing I see with some clarity is the supply voltage to be less and less a separate thing, something that occupies a specific space and a section of time in people's lives. Today we dedicate time to the web restricted (by this time to that other), and confined spaces (the presence of terminals), and is a good thing and that there is an education in this sense. But the tendency of the network is to disappear, that is fully integrated with the lives of ordinary people. That's because it is a great challenge for the Church.
How are we changed? We take the information process, for example, now systems like Twitter allow for instant communication on significant events and are difficult to news coverage. The information online does not make the newspapers do nothing, but the "Notes" to question their role and their significance.
This is also in personal communication: a time a letter takes days or weeks to come, not now. This change greatly our emotional impact. If, moreover, are constantly accessible online via a smartphone , my horizon relations changes. "
... but with the distances will not burn out the sense of suspense? Not everything turns into a dizzying cosmic synchronicity?
"Absolutely. It is potentially so. But this can be understood as a problem or as a resource. Let me explain. First, in the case of asynchronous communication, like email, will not necessarily respond immediately to a person who receives mail: indeed, it is usually not the case. The expectation remains. Then, in the case of synchronous communication - chat, Skype calls, etc.. - It is true that we need to create contexts suitable for communication. In short: the call or the chat can be waiting for hours or days. Innovation does not abolish the wait, as the net does not abolish the gap: it gives the possibility to overcome them or, better, to experience them differently. It gives them a different form, which requires certain, specific education and awareness. In the end even the invention of the automobile, train or aircraft have reduced the time travel, but I do not think this has not automatically translated into a deterioration of human relationships and their quality. "
The next big step will be carried out online from the web syntactic to the semantic web. What is it?
"Although still evolving, it begins to be interesting on the web that you can begin to specify their research questions. The research so far were syntactic, that is linked to the presence of certain words, dropped from their specific context. Now searches are increasingly specified by the mode of asking the question, through their context, sometimes even by the place where they are asked. So some search engines give answers geo , that is, that change depending on the language and place in which they are asked.
An interesting example is the engine Wolfram computational knowledge ", which interprets the words of the proposed application for an answer as accurate as possible. The semantic engines and then give clear answers, while the traditional syntactic engines do not pick and offer a wide range of answers as vague. It is an interesting passage, which will be studied better in the coming years to see the results. "
What are your impressions on the Message for 44th World Day of Social Communications?
"Certainly it is a very important message, because it focuses on the relationship between priest and pastoral ministry in the direction of the Network must therefore be read as an internet environment ... consideration that the Pope did in last year's Message. And being a human environment as others, the web is called to accept the Gospel.
This message also shows that there is an underlying genetic compatibility between the Network and the Church. The network is based on relationships and communication of a message, the Church is founded on relationships of communion and the message of the Gospel must be preached to all nations. The network also has a universal dimension radically, then Catholic ... In short, there are too many compatibility between the Web root and the Church. And the Holy Father's message marks a definitive reflection of this track. "
Is there a specific role for the priest, on the web?
"It depends on how you define" specific "and the contexts in which we find ourselves. But I think a part, including specific and defined, there is and there can be. "
Witnesses digital the conference, you mentioned the need for a "new form of apologetics" that considers the "changing categories of understanding the world and access to knowledge." In what sense?
"It is my belief that the Net, by modifying the knowledge and skills of reports, effectively implement change or at least the categories of understanding of reality as a whole. If this change has an impact on the ability of intellection of man, can not it also the ability to self-understanding of faith and the Church by Christians. We must therefore start a new reflection on how the logic of the network may have an impact on the logic of theology, that is the way to understand the faith. A challenging task, but also fascinating. "
About categories, the title of the meeting of the CEI - Witnesses digital - has highlighted a specific: the category of testimony.
"The witness becomes a fundamental category, because the logic of social networks is the basic element used generated content, that is user-generated content. Facebook would not exist if individual users uploading content that is, after all, the testimony. The content of press is no longer something objective in the sense of separate and independent, but still is closely tied to those who enter. Content placed in a social network is systematically testimony. "
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