arts & ideas IN THIS SECTION: Anthroposophists’ mixed feelings about technology seem to be more mainstream these days, but Steiner’s insights on the future evolution of technology remains surprising. Some of Rudolf Steiner’s images of our human future beyond the physical domain are hard to grasp in our modern ways of thinking and perceiving. Yeshayahu Ben‑Aharon has been working out the transformations that will open up that future of disciplined imagination. “The Growing Imagination” at the heart of Ben‑Aharon’s work is differently central to Steiner’s guidance for painters; our gallery this time shares some paintings from a working group in New York City.
Spiritual Science & Technology Reflections on a Recent Retreat by Gary Lamb In early December, thirty six people with a “strong connection to anthroposophy” met for three days in Chestnut Ridge, NY, to consider the dramatic advances in modern technology taking place, their impact on virtually every aspect of human life, and how we as anthroposophists can help guide this development in an ethical direction. Everyone was required to read the first four chapters of Paul Emberson’s book, Machines and the Human Spirit, in which he gives an overview of some of Rudolf Steiner’s main indications on technology, along with his own perspectives.1
Three types of technology One of Emberson’s most intriguing interpretations of Steiner’s perspectives on technology is his division of it into three types: atomic, resonance, and moral. Nearly all conversation about technology today focuses on atomic or digital technology, which operates mainly by electricity, and, according to Steiner, has an affinity with the 1 Appreciation of Emberson’s work did not imply that these were the only valid perspectives on Spiritual Science and technology. Also, it was not always clear when Emberson was expressing his own views or Steiner’s, due in part to a lack of referencing.
completed or finished dead thoughts mirrored in the brain rather than living thinking. That is, the generative activity of thinking itself. Steiner also suggests that the development of this type of technology, driven to a large extent by egoism, will eventually implode on itself. Resonance technology rises above the subnatural realm of electricity and physical forces to the level of the human etheric body. Resonance technological devices or motors will operate through resonance with the vibrations of human etheric bodies. Thus, these machines will work for good or ill depending on the moral qualities of the inventor/operator, and operate only at the instigation of the creator. The inventions of John Worell Keely, and the Strader device portrayed by Steiner in his Mystery Dramas, are steps in the direction of resonance technologies.
Moral technology The highest form of technology that Steiner speaks about is characterized by Emberson as moral technology. It will operate on spiritual forces found in nature and the cosmos. To harness moral forces of this higher type, Steiner suggests researchers
Presenters included (from left) Virginia Hermann, Michael Howard, Gopi Krishna Vijaya, and Gary Lamb.
28 • being human