When I was a teenager my use of computers revolved around AIM conversations, graphic design and animation, and questioning the curious dominion that felines had over the internet. I grew up around computers. I was the child of a computer scientist, and I am a child of the digital revolution. I am also a Catholic. From this vantage point, as the Fourth Industrial Revolution draws us all further into its midst, topics that appear to need the most illumination not only concern the environment, economics, and technology, but also spirituality. Specifically, mercy seems to be a necessary element of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that ultimately succeeds at lifting up humanity, rather than bogging it down.
The information we use is packaged as bits, but represents sound bites of real stories from people’s lives—something that is quite easy to forget. With big data it is possible to aggregate and generalize more than ever before. Data allows us jump to helpful assumptions about local conditions, and where to intervene with social services more effectively. We can locate blocks in cities where there have been higher rates of overdoses or domestic violence incidents in the past year, for example. As we act informed by data we must listen to the people behind the data and find solidarity for their conditions, understanding that terms like “overdose” and “domestic violence” are much more than part of a query - they are stories about families being ripped apart and people becoming homeless and hurt that are all too often swept up in our large, fascinating data narratives without respect for the underlying humanity.
Social data and media are creating maps of the emotional, social, medical, and
economic landscapes of all our lives. The news occasionally contains stories about the experiences of today’s teenagers growing up with the internet. What we can learn from these stories is that there are unprecedented opportunities for growth and learning alongside vulnerability to predators and exposure of humiliating error and pain that are only recently possible with more powerful social media networks.
Technology can be used to reach a kid in dire situation and help them learn how to actualize his or her capacity for creativity, innovation and/or leadership through technology outlets that were once never available. However, we encounter the negative side-effects of the “panacea” of technology through stories, such as those about cyberbullying, conspiracy, and sexting. These things are becoming an unfortunate but almost inevitable part of the fabric of technologically immersed youth’s lives. This rough fabric is something those of us hiring people from this forthcoming generation must contend with as we profile potential employees, it is also something that those of us analyzing marketing schemes and social services must contend with, and the only way we can contend with it is mercy, and mercy is also the only way that everyone who has carved errors into the internet and datasets will be capable of moving forward and growing.
The use of any technology that enables a level of deep information collection and profiling must be connected with a population capable of reflecting and understanding information with equal mercy. Pope Francis eloquently spoke of Mercy in his homily on March 17, 2013:
The Pope says Jesus may forget, but the internet and our datasets do not. I cannot help but think that during this Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy Pope Francis brings a message desperately needed for all of us, regardless of belief, our big data, and a generation that has grown up in a world with regular personal life news coverage streaming to a technology tabloid of social media - broadcasting personal idiosyncrasies, errors and angst. We must embrace the use of technology with our humanity, and with that bring the call to be merciful to the messiness of the new digital realms we are exploring. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has, and is, changing our world forever. One only needs to read the comments section of any article to know that mercy is more necessary than ever.
“It is not easy to entrust oneself to God’s mercy, because it is an abyss beyond our comprehension. But we must! … ‘Oh, I am a great sinner!’ ‘All the better! Go to Jesus: He likes you to tell him these things!’ He forgets, He has a very special capacity for forgetting. He forgets, He kisses you, He embraces you and He simply says to you: ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more’” (Jn 8:11).
Molly Burhans has a B.A. in Philosophy and an M.S. in Ecological Design. She grew up in a house full of robots and was taught by Jesuits.
Learn more at: http://goodlandproject.org/
