Bible engagement and technology …
Have you ever wondered what the impact of technology will be on Bible engagement in the future? When Star Trek visualized the holodeck, holosuite and holoprograms, it opened the eyes of my imagination. I pictured a hologram with me in the crowd, watching Elijah face off with the prophets of Baal. I envisioned bringing him a bucket of water to drench the offering and altar. Then, as God sent fire to consume the offering, the sensors in my holosuit ignited feelings of heat, causing me to shield my face involuntarily.
Far fetched? Maybe not. Technology is developing by leaps and bounds. Kevin Kelly, editor of Wired, believes our technological advances will make the previous 20 years pale in comparison (cf. Business Insider).
Thirty years ago, computers and the World Wide Web were in their infancy. E-commerce was being launched, and CD-ROM drives were replacing floppy disks. Smartphones didn’t exist. Their forerunner, the IBM Simon, was available for $899 (US). It had a battery life of one hour.
Twenty years ago, the Bible was mainly accessed as a printed document. Bible Gateway, a website for reading and searching for different Bible versions and translations, was in the early stages of making the Scriptures available online (started by Nick Hengeveld in 1993). Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) existed, but it was only in 2004, with the creation of Facebook, that we could easily share Bible texts with multiple friends via social media. The YouVersion Bible App didn’t exist (Bobby Gruenewald launched it in 2008).
Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of the Intel Corporation, observed in a 1965 paper that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. “Moore’s Law” is still proving true. At the current rate of Moore’s Law, laptops will soon compute at the same rate as the human brain. This will potentially pave the way for synthetic human brain transplants.
iRobot and friends will extraordinarily impact society. Robotics and artificial intelligence technology is advancing rapidly. The decade of biotech is in the past; this is the decade of AI and robotics (cf. Mashable).
“Big data” now releases data from language to make it machine-readable and recombine it in an infinite number of ways that we’re not even thinking about (cf. Kelly). Universal translation is commonplace in mobile devices.
Augmented reality glasses, ultra-thin, flexible OLED screens and self-driving cars have arrived. A Sony engineer told me that small projectors will replace televisions and form virtual screens against any physical background. And according to two analysts with the IP & Science business of Thomson Reuters, solar power will be the largest source of energy on the planet, electric micro-commercial aircraft could serve as taxis, and research into quantum teleportation will be underway (cf. Pacific Standard).
So, will there be a holographic Bible? Maybe! Oculus Rift Technology is exploring “immersive cinema … with real-time story-driven VR experiences that let the viewer step inside and become part of the story.”
Microsoft’s existing technology, HoloLens, also holds potential. It enables texts and images to be placed on real-world backgrounds (cf. Christianity Today). But the technology has a long way to go. Software design is outpacing hardware development. Existing holographic glasses are in their infancy. Yet even in these early stages, it’s speculated that HoloLens could usher in “widespread, transformative, digitally assisted Bible study” and “a holographic Bible or Bible study library” (cf. The Christian Post).
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Summary
Bible engagement and technology: The future of Bible engagement may be significantly influenced by emerging technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence. As technological advancements accelerate, immersive experiences like holographic Bibles or virtual reality-based Bible studies could become a reality, transforming how people engage with Scripture. Technologies such as Microsoft’s HoloLens and Oculus Rift offer potential for immersive, real-time, story-driven Bible experiences, though hardware development still has hurdles. With rapid advancements in AI, robotics, and big data, the possibilities for Bible engagement in the future are vast and ever-evolving.
© Scripture Union Canada
