Technology, Genius, and Dirt

Publication Date: July 2009

Publisher: National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (U.S.)

Author(s): David Kraemer

Research Area: Culture and religion

Keywords: Jewish Values; Technology

Type: Brief

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

The author discusses what he sees as the limitations of new technologies. He states the most significant of these is the limitation of human imagination and genius. He evokes God's act of creating the world, stating that God's creativity, for the most part, depended not on something new but on forming and creating new combinations with substance that, by the second day of creation, was already old. God's "creativity" is exemplified by taking dirt, created early in creation, and forming it into a human, a work of art that is unparalleled. He argues that we would do well to be instructed by God's example.