Kester Brewin

[ Lock In [1] ]  [ Lock In [2] ]
Finally got my hands on Lanier’s book. Been devouring it like a good doughnut.
In the last post I explained how Sartre sets up this paradox: we are what we are, but precisely part of our being is that we are not simply what we are.
Having got some way [...]

[ Lock In [1] ]
In the previous post I raised the idea of technological developments giving rise to ‘lock in.’ Gadgets do not evolve in the organic sense ‘free’ that we might imagine: because of protocols and standardisation (think USB / railway gauges / HTML / Lego) their evolution is guided along particular lines. Other [...]

One of my favourite podcasts is Material World – a science review from the BBC. In a recent episode, Jaron Lanier discussed his recently published manifesto: You Are Not A Gadget. I’ve ordered it, but not read it yet, but was very much taken by one line of thought he introduced in the interview – [...]

Alongside the piece on Alan Turing, I also have another short article in Third Way this month as part of their ‘icon of the month’ series. Following the much-feted launch of the iPad, it’s about Apple.
Apple are an increasingly intriguing company. They are a huge multinational – bigger than Sony or Samsung – yet constantly [...]

Every once in a while something comes along that leaves you with so many questions it’s just impossible to know where to start. The promo video for ‘After The Rapture Pet Care’ is one such thing: (HT the very Darwinian Head of Biology, Mr Simon King )

How does one begin to unpack this? [...]

In the previous post I blogged about a fascinating book review in The Believer in which the reviewer was given just the text – no author, no past publications list, no endorsements and no well-designed cover. The text had to literally speak for itself, and, as someone who is about to be published again, I [...]

This month’s issue of The Believer is one of the best for some time, and carries one of the most interesting book reviews I’ve read for ages.
The book being reviewed is Momus’ Book of Jokes, but what makes the review so interesting is that the reviewer was given no information about the book at all, [...]

Last year was about writing the book, due out in June. There’ll be more of that here in good time. But I think it’s clearer now what this year’s focus could be.
From some of the embers of Vaux a few of us began Apple, a series of conversations around ideas of technology and theology. We [...]

A few weeks ago I was asked to guest post something on the site for the forthcoming ‘Evolving Church’ conference in Toronto in April this year. The theme of the conference is ‘the Kingdom Economy’ and it is this that I explore a bit in the post, which you can find here.
It connects to the [...]

In the previous post I tried to explore how Christian community could move away from the sociopathic tendencies it naturally develops in worship of an omnipotent God by a passive congregation directed through a ‘hero’ priest.
In doing so I proposed that what we find in the radical Marxist view of Christianity is a community gathered [...]