Time Saving

What do magic and technology have in common? They save us time.

 

Do they really? Is that a good thing? Maybe, and I’m not sure.

 

Let’s tackle magic first. Need something or need something done? Just cast a spell! With reference to the Harry Potter books: Yes, you’ll need a wand to channel your energy, the correct incantation, and likely sufficient energy or will in yourself. Assuming you’re successful, you could cast Accio, the summoning spell, whenever you need something. To make something bigger, just cast Engorgio! To generate a protective shield, Protego would be very useful. And if you forgot your car keys, there’s always Alohomora. Or if you’re a car thief, that could also work. Unless the locks are electronic – then your magic might not work.

 

I picked these spells because they’re not the easiest to replicate immediately with technology. I suppose you could connect Siri/Alexa to a drone to bring you stuff, although you’ll have to describe it exactly so that your Internet of Things system can do what you ask. Resizing objects is no easy task. Nor is creating a force field out of thin air – you don’t want to be lugging around a thick heavy shield or wearing heavy armor. And for breaking locks, I suppose there are manual and more destructive ways to do so. But then what’s the point of the elegant magic spell?

 

Today we have technology that can easily replicate Lumos. Just carry your cellphone around and make sure it’s charged. Your phone can also point you around in a maze. Nor do we need Floo powder for a fireside chat. I suppose there are various ways to Stupefy a foe. Chucking your phone at an enemy would certainly be a surprising move. Roomba is a low-level version of Scourgify, but more advanced robots could do much more. The one unlikely thing we’ll ever be able to do that I would personally love is to teleport physically so I can save traveling time. Ah, that would be wonderful! Teleporting myself virtually isn’t interesting – it’s exhausting, as we learned through Zoom fatigue.

 

Since I’m a Muggle living in what seems like a totally non-magical world, I’ll just have to make do with technology. I’m personally very thankful for electricity and piped running water in my home. Not sure how I would manage without them. Well, everything else would just take up so much more of my time. Just the basic need to keep myself alive by eating food and drinking water, and not getting myself killed while doing it, isn’t easy. I’m happy not to be a hunter-gatherer. But does this mean I have more time to spare? Well, maybe, because I am privileged to have the cushy job of a tenured professor at a university in the U.S. of A.

 

Let’s explore how technology has helped in my work. The research portion is easy to see because I’m a computational chemist. Back when I was doing my Ph.D., hardware and software were nowhere as advanced as today. I could finish the computations for my entire dissertation an order of magnitude faster today. Maybe more. But my thinking wouldn’t have been any faster. Today, I can quickly churn out “results”. I can write scripts to analyze those results more quickly. But are they meaningful? I still the time to mull over things, and my brain hasn’t gotten any faster. If anything, I might feel more rushed in my thinking with the results whizzing in. Previously, I took the time to read and think while waiting.

 

In teaching, it is unclear if technology has saved me time. I could probably teach chemistry just as effectively without most of the technology, as long as I could still meet with students and we have basic writing implements. I first started teaching in a classroom with no computers or internet. Some didn’t even have an overhead projector (a useful technology back then). Today, I’ve learned how to teach online with Zoom, the learning management system, and the online textbook and homework management systems. Are my students learning more? Are they learning better? I think that depends on them more than it does on me and the technology that I use. Am I glad that I have a computer with word processors, spreadsheets, slide-creating-presenting tools, and e-mail? Yes, yes, yes and yes. Have they saved me time? Sort of, but it’s not like I’ve found increasingly more time to do research over the years. Maybe, it’s because service/administration has gone up in time – the paperwork, the trainings, the meetings… ugh.

 

Technology, like magic, promises to be a time-saver. But is it truly time-saving where it counts? And is time-saving worthy to be counted? Is focusing on how efficient I’m going to be, and how I can do more in less time, a good thing? I’m not so sure. If I’m trying to save time on something, it’s likely because I consider that activity a drudgery. Housecleaning is a drudgery. Commuting is a drudgery. Grading problem sets can be a drudgery, which is why online homework systems have proliferated. But I don’t consider my teaching time in the classroom or my office hours a drudgery. In fact, I’m surprised how quickly the time passes. (I really enjoy teaching! It’s less clear if students enjoy learning chemistry.) Whenever I’m doing something I love doing, time is the least of my worries. I forget about time. Especially if I get lost in a good book. I’m not going to speed-read Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. I’m not going to fast-forward through an excellent movie. I’m not going to gobble my food down. I’m not going to rush some wonderful interactions with friends and family. When you’re in the zone, no one cares about saving time.

 

In Peter Kreeft’s book, The Philosophy of Tolkien, he has a requisite section on ethics titled “How does evil work?”

 

[Evil] works only by our cooperation. It removes our freedom, but only freely; we forge the bonds of our slavery with the strength of our freedom. The Ring’s temptation, in one word, is “addiction”… Pleasure is only the sugar on the bait of power. Any addict knows that. “I’ve got to have it” is his philosophy. Not I but It is the Master. Gollum is believeable because we know him; … he is every addict, which means every man… We are weak because we no longer understand the power of weakness; we no longer understand that the greatest power is in self-abnegation, renunciation, and martyrdom… But our heart still understands this power; that’s why we recognize it when we meet it in Tolkien… [who] makes clear the connection between addiction and technology in the strategy of temptation. We scientific magicians demand not only gratification but instant gratification.

 

Kreeft goes on to quote from Tolkien’s letters how the basic motivation for technology (which he called “machinery”) and magic is “immediacy: speed, reduction of labour, and reduction also to a minimum (or vanishing point) of the gap between the idea or desire and the result”. There’s an insightful discussion contrasting Denethor and Gandalf and how pride, power, doom, the unforgivable sin (“impenitence… because it will not be forgiven”), immortality, life, and death. (It’s all in section 10.4, pp188-191, for the interested reader.) Reading it reminded me why I enjoyed the Harry Potter series as much as I did. While Rowling is not as masterful as Tolkien, there are common underlying threads at the crux of both stories. Kreeft will say it better than me so I’ll quote him in closing.

 

The false immortality that the heroes must renounce comes from the false magic of the Ring, which is unlimited power and even the power over death. Power over death is the power to extend your present self and will indefinitely, not only in space… but also into time… The Ring turns God’s good gift of life into the object of an evil addiction. The Ring, of course, gives only a false immortality – that of the Undead, the Nazgul – just as it gives a false power and a false magic, for ultimately the Ring is the false Christ, the Antichrist. He is the world’s ultimate drug dealer.

 

The quest for efficiency, for time-saving measures, may seem neutral or even a possible good. But it is also a possible evil under certain conditions. Are we addicted to our own scientific magic of technology? We should pause lest we enthroning immediacy and convenience as our new gods.