Tuesday 31 October 2017

Martin Luther 500 years on and time for a change.

Undoubtedly, the as yet unknown German scholar Martin Luther had no idea that 500 years to the day he posted his 95 theses on the door of his local catholic church in Wittenberg would there be a fishing boat 50 miles south of Waterford bearing his name. The boat, an ex Belgian beam trawler, is currently fishing along with other Irish and French vessels in the Celtic Deeps.


Technology has evolved so quickly and to such an extent that this modern-day Martin Luther's whereabouts can be monitored and contacted from a device small enough to fit in the palm of your hand - the introduction of printing at the time allowed for the spread of information which in turn eventually led to the Reformation and sowed the seeds for the Western world we live in today - maybe now it is the turn of the internet to sow the seeds for the second Reformation as this article in the Guardian suggests:
In other words, we are all members of the Church of Technopoly, and what we worship is digital technology. Most of us are so happy in our obeisance to this new power that we spend an average of 50 minutes on our daily devotion to Facebook alone without a flicker of concern. It makes us feel modern, connected, empowered, sophisticated and informed.
In this article, a discussion and link to a modern twist on challenging the norm - in this instance our total immersion in technology - the website 95theses has 'nailed' 95 technology challenging theses to a virtual door.