On today’s show, Chong and Dan look back on an eventful year. Along major dimensions - in technology, in geopolitics, in our socio-emotional lives, it feels like things are accelerating and spinning out of control. This leads to a discussion about peace - what is it, and how can we achieve it? Why does it seem like peace is only ever temporary? Where does chaos and disorder come from, that disturb the peace? Dan concludes with reflections on where ultimate peace is found - yes, Jesus - but goes to great lengths to explain this in the least-trite way possible.

Music by: Julian Wan

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Show notes

Big things have been happening (2:55)

• Social-technological - AI, medicine, Internet-mediated life...
• Geopolitical - Breakdown of Pax Americana
• Emotional-psychological - Awareness, acceptance and exploitation of disorders within the heart
• The external things affect us individually, and vice versa

The Nine Breakthroughs of the Year

How Anxiety Became Content

What do we mean by peace? (26:05)

• Absence of bad stuff; presence of good stuff
• Can we be at peace, even when things around us are bad?
• "Shalom" - the way things ought to be

What causes chaos and disorder? (37:50)

• Left-Right answer, circa early 2000s - individuals vs society
• Left-Right answer, circa 2020s - Common-Enemy politics
• The upshot - we are being affected both too little and too much by the outside world

Conclusion (53:20)

• Peace comes from an external intervention into the broken human world
• Peace requires a change in perspective - cosmic, eternal
• People are looking for peace; Christians can help them find it

On today’s show, Chong and Dan plant their flag on the next transformational change facing society: Artificial Intelligence (AI). After a decades-long pursuit, pioneering researchers and organisations have been releasing AI products into the world, with amazing and unsettling results. We provide a primer on AI, focusing on ChatGPT and its Large Language Model relatives. Then Chong provides Dan with three near-future, AI-driven scenarios, to spark a discussion of what could come next. AI seems set to disrupt society, but we are still unsure by how much, given that so much of society still operates in the physical world. To be continued…

Music by: Julian Wan

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Show notes

Something big is happening (1:41)

• Human technology as (i) fire, (ii) sharp sticks and (ii) our brains
• The biggest upgrade to our brains is happening right now
• Planting the flag on AI - not exploring all the issues, but rather what it is and what it could mean for us

Existential risk, AI, and the inevitable turn in human history

AI primer (11:43)

• Neural networks, Large Language Models (LLM) and generative AI
• Intro to ChatGPT - how it works, what can be done

How to Become an Expert on A.I.

How Does ChatGPT Really Work?

What all this could mean (31:44)

• Scenario 1 - Disruption of “knowledge work”
• Scenario 2 - Teaching and learning overhauled
• Scenario 3 - “Her” will be real life
• How much does all this matter? Torn between “not as much” and “a whole lot”

Tinkering With ChatGPT, Workers Wonder: Will This Take My Job?

Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It.

Replika users fell in love with their AI chatbot companions. Then they lost them

You Can Have the Blue Pill or the Red Pill, and We’re Out of Blue Pills

Conclusion (1:07:09)

• We should be careful when wielding words…

On today’s show, Chong and Dan share what’s been going on in our lives during a busy 2022. This gets us to unpack the concept of “busyness”, and how we in modern society constantly strain against our limits and wonder if we are doing “enough”. Drawing on insights from the book You’re Only Human, we consider how limits are not an inherently bad thing. We also explore the root of our busyness, namely pride in pursuing our own interests and seeking to be the master of our own lives. We conclude with a call to not be everything, everywhere, all at once.

Music by: Julian Wan

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Show notes

Year in review (2:01)

• Dan’s “sophomore slump” in ministry
• Chong’s priority stack - core, primary, secondary
• Primary responsibilities (children, church, work) expanding and crowding out other things

Concept of busyness (16:31)

• Why do we feel like we are never doing enough?
• Introduction to Kelly Kapic’s book
• Ultimately a theological problem - misunderstanding who we are and what we were made for

You’re Only Human by Kelly Kapic

Finitude is not sin (25:17)

• God created us with limits (and it was good); he did not create us with sin
• Cautionary tale: Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Time management techniques cover up the core problem

IGF 11: The Crisis of Freedom

Pride as the root cause (45:05)

• We want to do more and be more, want mastery over all things… i.e., to be like God
• Humility as the antidote - to think less of ourselves and to think of ourselves less
• Giving thanks for our limitations

Conclusion (1:02:09)

• The insidious effect of busyness - robbing us of joy in the present

On today’s show, Chong and Dan examine the elephant in the current affairs room - the Russo-Ukrainian War. We start by introducing the frame of the End of History, the famous work of political philosophy which posited liberal democracy as the final form of human government after the Cold War. The 1990s and 2000s were great, but now History is back with a vengeance. Rather than discussing the intricacies of the war, we unpack why the war matters by reflecting on four ideas:

1. There is such a thing as good and evil
2. Decadence is bad… war is so much worse
3. Be wary of righteous fervour
4. Don’t take peace and civilisation for granted

Music by: Julian Wan

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Show notes

The End of History (3:32)

• Francis Fukuyama’s thesis - liberal democracy as the end state
• The 1990s and 2000s were very good!
• History returns… 2016, COVID-19, war on continental Europe

Wikipedia: The End of History and the Last Man

There is such a thing as good and evil (20:15)

• Genuine heroism - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian defenders, good samaritans helping Ukrainian refugees
• Evil is revealed - Russian President Vladimir Putin, foot soldiers and atrocities on the ground
• Reflections - we gravitate to moral complexity (e.g., in art and media), but war clarifies what is good and what is evil

How Zelensky Tamed Ukraine’s Fractious Politics and Stood Up to Putin

Decadence is bad… war is so much worse (34:03)

• Definition of decadence - economic stagnation, political stalemate, cultural exhaustion, demographic decline
• War is certainly not decadent, neither is Russia’s descent into a totalitarian state
• Be careful when you wish for suffering to strengthen resolve, or excitement to remove boredom…

The Age of Decadence

Be wary of righteous fervour (43:33)

• Economic sanctions, calls for military escalation, actual cancellation of Russian culture
• Being blind to reason, discriminating on the basis of group identity, demanding loyalty oaths - this is what “liberal” ideals are meant to mitigate

Don’t take peace and civilisation for granted (50:45)

• The mechanisms for peace are shockingly fragile… you will always need walls manned by guns
• Jonah Goldberg: “History… is always out there… staring at us with feral yellow eyes that are hard to see through the light pollution of modern civilisation…”

Chesterton’s Defense

Conclusion (1:00:36)

• After the Berlin Wall fell, we were supposed to progress to peace, love and freedom forever… how naive we were
• The Bible takes a longer view - the whole creation is in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:18-25) until Jesus returns and brings history to an end

On today’s show, Chong and Dan plants the flag on a topic that is looming large on the horizon: the metaverse. We begin by exploring how previous technologies have transformed society and worship, including automobiles (leading to megachurches) and smartphones (leading to Instavangelists). The metaverse looks like the next “big thing”. What is it, and why should people (including Christians) care about it? Drawing on a Gospel Coalition article, we critically examine the metaverse through three lenses: (i) identity, (ii) physicality and (iii) limits, and call for more wisdom in how people interact with the metaverse.

Music by: Julian Wan

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Show notes

Technology and worship (1:31)

• What do McDonalds, Walmart and megachurches have in common?
• What do Instagram, Uber and Airbnb have in common?
• Automobiles and smartphones have profoundly shaped society and worship

What is the metaverse (10:42)

• TL;DR - The metaverse is an extension of the internet where we interact inside digital worlds
• Recent developments - Facebook/Meta rebrand, Web3 technologies, VR and AR

Framework for the Metaverse

Meta-thinking about the problem (19:58)

• “Traditionalists” - cautious with new tech; characterised by the Jurassic Park quote: just because you could, doesn’t mean you should
• “Progressivists” - excited by new tech; it is good to push boundaries and do new things
• IGF approach - use new tech thoughtfully, give thanks for the good, think critically about the downsides

How to Prepare for the Metaverse

Consideration 1: Identity (26:56)

• “What happens when we identify more with a virtual version of ourselves than with our real selves?”
• As Christians, celebrate our received identity that is given by God

Consideration 2: Physicality (35:57)

• “It will be easy to begin to see the infinite possibilities of our virtual world and bodies as better and more real than the physical world”
• As Christians, resist constant digital connection; intentionally disconnect to be physically present with others

Consideration 3: Limits (43:32)

• “The metaverse will present us with the opportunity to experience glimpses of power only God has” - omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent
• As Christians, embrace God-given limits - including on who we are, where we live, and what we know

Conclusion (58:05)

• Robert Nozick’s Experience Machine and the Matrix - “plugging in” was seen as a bad thing; that is not the case today
• The metaverse is about the normalisation of “plugging in”
• We need to seek wisdom and ask the right questions

Wikipedia: Experience machine

On today’s show, Chong and Dan commemorate an important milestone - after 10 years, Dan has completed bible college! The main topic of our show is “belonging”. We reflect on what is special about this word - it is passive (we don’t “do” it), and it is always in relation to something or someone else. Belonging is also a core part of our identity. Therefore it is no surprise that in our individualistic culture, there is a “crisis” of both belonging and identity. What is the “solution”? Dan boldly claims that true belonging cannot be fulfilled by this world, but rather granted by God.

Music by: Julian Wan

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Show notes

Dan finished bible college! (1:54)

• Reflections and quick-fire questions
• Huge personal lesson: everyone is walking their own path, you cannot plan for life

Meditations on belonging (7:11)

• You can’t “do” belonging
• You belong only in relation to other things - family, place, nation, etc.
• To belong is a fundamental aspect of human identity
• To belong is to have an obligation to others

The modern crisis of belonging (26:00)

• (Young) people who are lost - we all feel it
• Self-sabotage - showing up is hard, so we don’t do it, therefore sacrificing our long-term identity
• External obstacles in modern life

What is the solution? (45:46)

• We can’t get belonging just by trying harder
• Dan gets preachy - only Christianity offers true belonging through a God who sent his son into the world to find us

Conclusion (56:06)

• Parable of the Prodigal Son - belonging that is lost and found again, by grace
• Merry Christmas - please tell a friend about our show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts :)

On today’s show, Chong and Dan begin with some special news (which explains why we're a bit late with this one). We then reflect a little bit more on the topic of slack, which really resonated with our listeners. From there, we delve into the practical matter of "knowing yourself" - how do you know how you are going? Dan and Chong discuss four sources of information:

1. What your body tells you
2. What your mind tells you
3. What your conscience tells you
4. What others tell you

NOTE: We are conducting a short survey to better understand and serve our listeners. Please access the survey here: http://tinyurl.com/IGFsurvey2021 Thanks very much for your help!

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Show notes

We’re back! (3:19)

• Follow-up: thank you to our listeners for the Slack episode reception
• Chong’s reflections on slack in the era of three kids

Knowing yourself (11:22)

• General vibe in listener feedback and culture that we’re not going so well
• How do you know how you are going?

There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing

What your body tells you (17:05)

• We are embodied beings - signals include tiredness, pain and hunger
• Look after your own body, and show grace to the physical state of others

What your mind tells you (28:10)

• What does your mind dwell on
• Worry and anxiety - looking to the past (“if only”) and the future (“what if”)
• The inner voice / core beliefs

What your conscience tells you (44:08)

• Your moral sense of right or wrong
• Like pain - don’t ignore your conscience, it might be telling you something important!

What others tell you (55:16)

• Valuable because we can have our own blinders
• Requires giving people permission and willingness to be vulnerable

Conclusion (1:03:32)

• Stop hiding, stop running, stop covering up - be real with how you are going
• It’s OK to not be OK
• Honour your body
• Don’t neglect your relationships (A faithful friend, who can find?)
• Go deeper - what are your core beliefs?

On today’s show, Chong and Dan follow up on the topic of building by addressing one of the barriers to it - lack of capacity. We begin by surveying the cultural and economic landscape, where “efficiency” reigns. Dan gets real by sharing about how the pursuit of efficiency is impacting his personal life. We then dive into the antidote to efficiency: slack. What does it mean to have slack and what does the Bible have to say about it? Dan and Chong then ride their respective hobby horses - ministry and finances - in applying slack to our own lives.

NOTE: We are conducting a short survey to better understand and serve our listeners. Please access the survey here: http://tinyurl.com/IGFsurvey2021 Thanks very much for your help!

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Show notes

Efficiency, efficiency everywhere (5:11)

• Productivity in the Industrial Age and the Internet Age
• The dark side of pursuing efficiency and cutting costs - “costs” can be a good thing
• Dan’s personal lament

What is slack (18:44)

• Slack consists of excess resources that are not spent in the present, for future benefit
• Importance of slack - allows us to adapt and grow; enables us to handle the inevitable ups and downs of life; helps us to prioritise what is important and effective

Efficiency is the Enemy

Slack in the Bible (28:47)

• Rhythm of build and rest in the Creation account - efficiency as “build” gone awry - Genesis 2:1-3
• Gleaning - don’t gather up every single crop, but leave some for others - Leviticus 19:9-10
• Jesus took his time - to rest and pray (Luke 5:15-16), and to help the least of these (Mark 5:21-43)
• Fulfilling the greatest commandments requires slack - Matthew 22:36-39

Applying slack to our lives (41:46)

• Church and ministry - people are the most inefficient part of ministry, but they are the very substance of ministry
• Finances - major financial commitments can wipe away slack and cripple your spiritual life; be careful!

Conclusion (57:00)

• A good litmus test for whether you have slack in your life - do you have time for your family; do you have the capacity to love those from whom you stand to gain nothing