Every technology gives you something. Every technology takes something away. The problem is we're usually so focused on what we gain that we don't notice what we've lost until it's gone.

Joel and Tim open with new creation theology and the deep physicality of what Christians are actually looking forward to — then trace that thread through rally driving, unwrapping CDs, the washing machine, the microwave, the self-driving car and Zoom meetings that left everyone exhausted for reasons nobody could explain.

Mike Dicker's framework for thinking about technological trade-offs is the practical anchor. Alan Noble's theology of presence is the theological one. And the question underneath all of it: are we trading away what makes us human?

Timestamps
00:00 Welcome, rambunctious toddlers and Square One talks on new creation
02:00 What the age to come actually looks like
09:00 Rallying, sights, smells and what we miss when it's taken away
12:00 Not all technology is progress
14:00 Mike Dicker's framework — enhancement, obsolescence, retrieval and reversal
20:00 The Spotify trade-off
23:00 Theology of creation and physicality
27:00 Alan Noble on presence
33:00 Yann Martel's bad stories
36:00 The microwave and the family dinner table
38:00 The car, the 20-minute circle and the loss of geographic embeddedness
42:00 Zoom fatigue, pheromones and what we didn't know we were processing in person
45:00 AI and the wisdom of refusing the easy answer
47:00 Navigating technology with wisdom

Discussed on this episode
Mike Dicker — Navigating Technology
Alan Noble — Presence in an Age of AI Reproduction

Andy Crouch — The Tech-Wise Family
Andy Crouch — Culture Making
John Dyer — From the Garden to the City
Yann Martel on the How I Write Podcast
Alan Noble — Disruptive Witness

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