CFC Blog #120: Being There
Ironically enough, I read Lauren's blog below right after spontaneously deciding NOT to attend one of my technology classes this week where the topic also happened to be about robotics. My nerd-self felt a huge sense of guilt afterwards for not showing up to it. I spent the afternoon wondering what I could've learned if I had been present... But then I looked through the PowerPoint slides I missed on the topic that day (robots), and realized that although I could've shown up there and taken notes on a screen, I instead spent my time being present with my roommates on a long walk with our pup before we all graduate in a month and won't see each other much. I realized this week, through my first-ever class absence & also through Lauren's piece, that it's pretty important to be present..but it's ESPECIALLY important to be present in the places & with the people that allow me to most easily and HAPPILY feel present...if that makes sense :) Thanks Lauren!
- Amanda
Being There
You may have heard that the other week in California, a virtual doctor (think iPad live streaming a doctor one of those Double Robotics bodies) was the one to deliver the news to a patient and her daughter that there was nothing they could do to further her treatment and she would most likely not live until the end of the week (he was correct).
Understandably, the family was quite upset about this.
The more I learn about technology, the more conflicted I am about whether we are progressing as a human race onwards to greater things, or if we are digging ourselves in a deeper and deeper hole that we will one day regret.
But I’ve been thinking about why in this particular case? Especially in light of what the good technology has seemed to do in the health sector, like being able to quickly contact GPs or mental health counselors through your phone.
There are some people who are convinced that we one day may actually worship technology as it reaches this point of ‘singularity’ - when we have created something self-conscious and with a more all-knowing intelligence than our mere human brains could ever reach. But, as one researcher recently pointed out, ill health or just overall stupidity and error are not what plagues the human experience– rather it is the shortcomings of the heart. As I read in one of my course readings yesterday, we have replaced hospitality and generosity with hostility and suspicion.
One of my favorite Christian writers and pastors has a big tattoo of Mary Magdalene on her arm to remind her of what she calls as ‘the art of showing up.’ In the Bible, Mary Magdalene was the last one at the cross during Jesus’ crucifixion and was the first one to find that the tomb was empty after his resurrection. ‘Showing up’ could also mean ‘accompaniment.’ Paul Farmer, a doctor who works in low-income countries, is famous for practicing this with his patients. ‘”To accompany someone,” he says, “is to go somewhere with him or her, to break bread together, to be present on a journey with a beginning and an end…There’s an element of mystery and openness.”
When it comes to matters of life and death – matters of the heart – maybe only humans can practice the art of showing up. A robot could never do this. We could never send a piece of machinery in our place (even if our face was live-streamed) to be with a friend in times of tragedy – or in times of celebration. Even as we breach the realm of programming emotion into robots (which still is the freakiest part of all for me), there seems to be growing consensus that this emotion will be on a completely different plane than that of human emotion. There is a certain power of just ‘being present’ that is only reserved for us, and is something that we all have; we must not lose it.