 introduce Bob Reese. He has been around for a while. We are very excited to have him speak today. But yeah for those coming in if you can come up to the front so that we can be as close and involved as possible. Bob. Yes he has been around a while. Maybe too long. We'll see. I know that the scriptures say that you shouldn't take the upper seats at the feast but today we will suggest you violate that and move closer because I feel like there's this great chasm that separates me from you and I'm I would normally as a teacher come down among you but since this will only stretch a few feet we're we're stuck with this. When I started teaching in the former Soviet Union I found that all of my students were afraid because they lived into the Soviet system to ever venture a an opinion or to give a private expression and I found the only way I could get them to do it was to walk right down in front of them and ask them a question and speak to them. I can't do that to you because of the yeah it's so interesting we're talking about technology. I feel like we're in about 1850 with the system that that we've got. Anyway thank you very much for being here. This you know it my my children and my grandchildren would be laughing that I am talking about technology because they are they kid me unmercifully about how little I know. Anyway I do know a few things about some things related to technology and so therefore this this session beginning with the development of primitive tools humans have wrestled with the question as to whether technology represents peril or progress. The same tool that Cain used to kill an animal for food or thwart a threatening beast to use to kill his brother Abel. In his poem the fury of aerial bombardment written during the Second World War the poet Richard Eberhard writes you would feel that after so many centuries God would give man to repent yet he can kill as Cain could but with multitudinous will no further advanced than in his ancient furies. Our highly developed arsenal of military weaponry currently employed in the Middle East confirms Eberhardt's judgment. Reading the morning news one has to agree that we can and do kill as Cain could but in much larger numbers and with much greater efficiency and through more technologically advanced and though more technologically advanced we are no further morally advanced than in our ancient furies. Similarly the same technologies that allow General Conference to be broadcast live around the world in over a hundred languages also makes possible the multi-billion dollar industry of pornography and drug addiction as well as many other activities that undermine society and destroy human lives. Computer data storage systems that greatly enhance ancestral research and genealogical work are also employed in fraudulent and deceptive criminal schemes that rob the poor as well as the nation's coffers. The same iPads that missionaries now use to teach the gospel can lead to inefficient and inappropriate use including by missionaries including accessing sites that can be counter productive and even spiritually dangerous. Some missionaries have been sent home for spending time on the wrong sites. It is worth noting that along with their iPads missionaries are given a booklet quote standards for using technology and missionary work in the digital age something that the first missionaries who went out with their copies of the Book of Mormon didn't have to deal with. And the same smartphones allow for the reading of scriptures in sacrament meeting also allow the same people sitting in sacrament meeting to watch videos on YouTube movies or a million other visuals during that sacred hour. I've been I was thinking about this not too long ago sitting in sacrament meeting with everybody out with their iPads and their iPhones and wondering if the bishop had some kind of a technology in front of him you could say who's really reading the scriptures and who's looking at the thing it might be interesting. Anyway from the beginning the LDS Church the LDS Church has used technology to advance its interests. A 2007 article on LDS in the LDS newsroom titled technology used by church in early years states that quote in 1867 the church had an installation of a 500 mile telegraph line connecting outlying settlements to the hub of the church in Salt Lake City and then to 1996 when the church entered officially the World Wide Web the church has historically implemented communications technologies in a timely way. Quickly taking advantage of the telegraph in 1867 the telephone in 1876 radio in 1922 television in 1948 the church the church's use of technology has significantly expanded with the development of computers digital technology satellites and other inventions. According to the article quote for a number of years the computer services department of the church this is something I didn't know until I read it ran a three shift 24 hour six day a week schedule to manage the workload generated by the exciting new technologies. In 1974 Spencer W. Kimball said I believe that the Lord is anxious to put into our hands inventions of which we laymen have hardly a glimpse when we have used the satellite and related discoveries to their greatest potential then and not until then shall we approach the insistence of our Lord and Master to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. In a 2014 BYU education we addressed David A. Bednar spoke of the wonders and blessings of modern technology which he also saw as a direct blessing from heaven. We are blessed to live learn and serve in the most remarkable dispensation an important aspect of the fullness that is available to us is a miraculous progression of innovations and innovations that enabled and accelerated the work of salvation an almost endless list of technologies and tools that bless our lives and there are a million people down in Silicon Valley currently at work on a million more. All of these advancements are part of the Lord's face hastening his work in the latter days. It is no coincidence that Elder Bednar that these powerful communication innovations and inventions are occurring in the dispensation of the fullness of times. Social media channels are global tools that can personally and positively impact large numbers of individuals and families and I believe the time has come for us as disciples of Christ to use these inspired tools appropriately and more effective. Like many modern organizations the church currently uses technology in a number of positive constructive and expansive ways especially in terms of information and communication unlike churches like the shakers in the Mennonites that assume modern improvements for simpler less technologically oriented lifestyles the Mormon church retains a cadre of highly trained specialists and technicians who employ technology in both ordinary and in creative ways to serve the church's fourfold mission. For example the church has developed the most comprehensive and sophisticated genealogical research and storage system in the world. With the advent of personal computers and the internet this system which has its own website familysearch.org is available in homes libraries and chapels to millions of people throughout the world. An article in the LDS examiner this week titled Mormon Church uses technology to reach youth around the world Kelly Foss reports quote partly because of the centralized structure of the Mormon Church it has been an early and effective adapter of technology in fulfilling its mission. This is especially true of the youth of the church. The worldwide faith has members in over 150 nations and leverages technology to stay connected with even small church branches and faraway nations across the globe. An article in the Charlotte technology examiner titled the eldest church's Mormon message in this Brent Jackson observes quote in the last few years the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made quantum leaps in the use of technology and communicating to its members and to the world causing many churches to look on with Mormon envy. Even the Roman Catholic Church with over a billion members worldwide doesn't compete with the exposure and efficiency in communicating the LDS communication the LDS church is reaching. More than most churches the LDS church has caught the vision of utilizing technology to accomplish its goals. Jackson notes especially the church and church affiliate groups and individuals have created sophisticated sites which get priority ranking on Google searches quote today if you Google the words to Mormon Joseph Smith and Latter-day Saints you will see that the majority of page one results are some of the most well done sites on the internet done by the LDS church or its members. They even dominate the most widely used name in all of Christianity Jesus Christ. Jackson noting the church's sophisticated use of broadcast website casts and mobile devices including apps concludes clearly the LDS church is laser focused on communication with its borders and the world and clearly it's working with the appearance blitz from seemingly every direction you would have to live in a cave not to be exposed to information about this church. As smartly and as successfully as the church is using technology as hopeful as it is in spreading the gospel and managing the myriad activities that take place within the church and through the church the church is increasingly cognizant of the perils and potential misuses of technology. In April 2008 General Conference address President Utdorff's book of the advantages of modern technology but warned be cautious these same technologies can allow evil influences to cross the threshold of your homes. These dangers traps are only a mouse click away. Pornography, violence, intolerance and ungodliness destroys families, marriages and individual lives. These dangers are distributed through many media through magazines, books, television, movies, etc. The General Conference address entitled Let Our Voices Be Heard, Elder Bednar, Elder Ballard said that the addition to avoiding negative influence, the eliterity saying should be active in opposing them. The question under consideration here is the extent to which technology enhances or imperils our lives and advances or retards the ultimate flowering of the kingdom of God. Take climate change for example many moderns some moment like many moderns so Mormons believe that whatever mess we make of the world eventually Christ will come and clean it up. Our refusal to acknowledge and take responsibility for the devastation to nature and the environment much of us caused by modern technology will have a dramatic effect on the church's ultimate mission. The church is our inheritance and we are its stewards. For this reason I believe that the tenth article of faith should be changed from its current passive the earth will be renewed to receive this parodicycle glory to we will renew the earth to receive this parodicycle glory. Same as true with peace we have a choice of turning our vast technological weaponry into plowshares. However given Mormon's pensions to be a war like people as President Kimball characterizes such a peaceful future seems like a pencilful dream. Another way in which technology can have a negative effect is distracting us from important matters by dominating our attention and occupying our affections. In an article in the June 2010 Ensign titled things as they really are. Eldner Bednar addressed the negative impact of media on relationships. Sadly some young men and young women in the church today neglect eternal relationships for digital distractions diversions and detours that have no lasting value. My heart aches when a young couple experience marital difficulty because of the excessive addicting effect of excessive video gaming or online socializing. And I think that that is a clearly a danger that is affecting our families. I'm not suggesting all the technology is bad he said but it is it is not. I know am I saying we should not use as many capabilities to communicate to lift and bite lives but I'm raising a warning a warning voice. The Bednar seems to be giving warning voice a lot these days which I think in this case is certainly well deserved. One of the problems with our constant obsession with social media and electronic devices is that they lead to what Linda Stone calls continuous partial attention. It's a wonderful term continuous partial attention which means that we're not paying full attention to anyone to ourselves to God or to others. When the transatlantic cable was finally finished in the middle of the 19th century. Henry David Thoreau observed with our hundred quote modern improvements. There is an illusion about them. There is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are want to be petty toys. We are in great haste he said to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas but Maine and Texas it may be it may be have nothing important to communicate as if the objective were to walk fast and not to talk were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We're eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the old world some weeks closer to the new but perchance the first news that will leak through the broad flapping American ear will be that the princess Adelaide has the hoop and cough. After all the man whose horse trots a mile a minute does not carry the most important messages is not an evangelist nor does he come nor does he come around eating locusts. As Thoreau said these are improved means to an unimproved end. Well there are many other such devices that we all are aware of. One of those seems to me that we should have some concern about is the extent to which modern technology allows for the surveillance of private and personal communications. According to Lewis Lappin since 1911 the apparatus together intelligence on American citizens has grown to include more than 3,000 government and private agencies involved in intelligence gathering at 17,000 locations across the United States and there is a huge national database that facilitates mass surveillance in the United States. According to the ACLU the Patriarch the Patriot Act passed in 19 in right after 9 11 as allows a government to monitor phone email communications like bank and credit reporting records and track the activity of innocent Americans on the internet. There is no evidence that the church employs technology to keep track of private the private lives of members but given its response to criticism and the example of governments and corporations it is possible that in the future it might be tempted to do so. As Brett Jackson observes quote no church in the world knows more about how their members are doing and where they are than the LDS church with the home teaching program the leaders of each local congregation have an insight into each member status and needs. Enter the LDS church leaders secure resources about members utilizing the internet leaders have access to non-sensitive data hopefully not sensitive about each member wherever whenever they need it in addition leaders have instant access via web or device to any other leaders information in the world if they need to contact them. The ironically named strengthening church members community established under the direction of President Ezra Taft Benson who had a penchant for suspecting conspiracy in high and low places suggests a possible use of technology to collect information on critics and suspect of apostates of the church. According to church spokesman Don Lafieva the committee quote receives complaints from church members about other members who have made statements that conceivably could do harm to the church passes those on to local leaders says it makes no judgment on such communication that leaves us up to the discretion of the local leaders based on my experience and I do have a file the church strengthening church members committee and it's been there for some years and this may be going into those. Based on my experience it is a rare leader who upon receiving such communication from the strengthening members committee which is headed by two members of the quorum of the 12 chooses not to act and the church is threatened from within or without history shows that such threats can cause not only defensive but a punitive reaction as I say there is no evidence that the church uses or plans on using technology for such purposes but the fact that the strengthening members committee was secret until inadvertently relieved revealed in 1991 gives one pause. Given where we are in the history of the world it is impossible to conceive of a world without technology or without new technological inventions. Crones that carry nuclear weapons machines that think automobiles that drive themselves medical advances that exceed significantly extend life brain to brain communication time travel who knows what the future holds. What we do know is that if we use technology intelligent and righteously it can be a blessing if we don't it certainly will be a curse as BF Skinner said the real problem is not whether machines think but whether men and women do and we could add the real problem isn't whether we can construct machines at the field but whether we can continue to feel. We can't make it back to the garden or into the future without listening to our own and to one another's hearts. No technology is a substitute for that. No electronic media are capable of empathy and compassion at least not yet. No technology produces holiness. No machines are capable of giving and accepting love. Machines may be able to approximate some of the functions of the human brain but only gods and humans have hearts capable of deep and enduring love. Thus when we stand before the keeper of the gate the holy one of Israel he will not he will not ask how many tweets we send a day how quickly we can find something on the internet or how many friends we have on Facebook rather like the Egyptians he will weigh our hearts. Thank you. You now have time for questions. Okay. Yes I agree. I wonder what else I've agreed to. So the statement was for this recording is that on the the scripture the app that you download apparently there is a statement there that indicates that the church wants to know how many times you read first third Nephi as opposed how many times you read first Nephi over and over and over again. I don't know what technology is available to keep track of all of the things that research on the internet. It certainly makes a lot of people nervous to think that anybody would be tracking just it's just on the website. Okay. So everybody's safe. We hope for the minute. Yes ma'am. She asked a very good question. I am on the national board of a group called no bully and we deal with bullying in the schools and cyber bullying is one of the really big problems on the internet and in our society it has led to suicides. It is just a terrible problem. I don't know about cyber bullying within the Mormon blogosphere but given the vitriolic communications that go on between Mormons and anti-Mormons between pro and con between all of the what one might expect. Certainly there is a lot of nastings on the on the website and it's on both sides of people actually communicating one another electronically and and so I I don't know I what I do know from my work with the no bully foundation is that it is a common problem and it's a huge problem because people can be anonymous and and can use that anonymity to bully other people. There is a kind of you know implied thing I was reading this morning not this morning I got up to early do that but reading last night that I was reading comments on Ella Bednar's address to the students of BYU Idaho and and maybe it was the one about the church's policy and people were were taking you know it's very there's very little middle ground in Mormons in these days and people run to the one pole of the other and cast stones and verbal abuses across this widening gap but there were some things with that that basically said anybody who doesn't accept this new policy which was a subject of a panel that will be this afternoon is not following God is not righteous doesn't support the brother whatever there is a tendency and that happens on both sides each side calling the other side idiots and whatever else so there is if there isn't direct bullying of what person there certainly is a disrespect and a trashing of anyone who doesn't agree with the person's but I would guess that there is bullying but since I am probably wouldn't surprise you that I was on Facebook for a day years ago but and I even understand I've got hundreds of friends there but I don't know anyway it's a very good question in time yes but I read it was about a year ago with the back of some of the patients that happened in the past 500 years they said it took some of the 1800s and dropped them in the 19th and it would have been shocked by what was available they wouldn't even know what to do with themselves and he used to talk about everything and all this all the new tech right but if you took someone from even the 19th groupie and dropped them into today have a dramatic change all of our relations have been online right it's all the wireless stuff that I don't know but so I wonder will it take the filming of times why is everything else so sad and that's basically about our priority are we making something you have to make the innovation to make them to be at ease or even helpful or I feel like we get so caught up on the technology and the law that you do but actually the experience is not a rallying better thing well I think you are making the statement was about all of these technological innovations that many of them are using basically radio waves to do to communicate but the fact of the matter is that we can do so many things better and faster than we could even a few years ago if you look at the line of technological developments over human history it goes like this and then it goes like this it's still going into the stratosphere the question is are these improved means to improved ends are improved means to unimproved ends or unimproved means to unimproved ends and this comes back to what I was saying that whatever Jesus didn't use technology to preach the gospel and yet he was the most powerful teacher in all of history am I grateful that I can carry the scriptures on my cell phone instead of that big quad yeah do I read it the same as I did before that's a question do we read it do we live by it how is it affecting how is technology affecting our lives and I think this to me would be the challenge of any church or organization if you can keep track of people I mean certainly missionaries using the iPad to teach I think is a helpful innovation if in fact the message is a good message and if the messenger is giving that in a loving way so we can be in love with technology we can be enslaved to technology technology can govern and ruin our lives and I think there isn't enough emphasis on the way in which we can constructively use technology in a way new technology is neutral technologies what is cars are great convenience cars to be used to kill no no technology without a human being doing something with it at least with this point with robots I have no idea what's going to happen but but it is it is a moral question that's a question I'll be talking about a little bit in the afternoon session on imagining there I'm asking us to imagine what kind of technology there's going to be 20 30 years and now if you could right now do that I thought I'm saying which it makes your point it's almost impossible if you go back 30 years and I was born in 30 so it's as helpful as I am who I couldn't have conceived of the world I live in and take the gratitude can we conceive of the world 25 30 or 50 years from now and what it will be like will we look back on this the same way we look back on the pioneers and are we as incapable of looking forward as they were of seeing our day yes these are back this afternoon I'm going to be talking about what we call human technology and human technology is the use of spiritual emotional intellectual tools it is no love compassion empathy the this is human technology and it is the combination of human technology with electronic or mechanical or other kinds of technology that makes the difference so yes and it may be that we will have access that is one of the things that I know the the ability to access the quantum world could absolutely be an astonishing revolution and there are people who believe that we are on the verge of being able we already can access that that a scientist can how can that become something that we do that may be an astonishing technological revolution and so yes those things that we are capable of that machines aren't at least yet all of them and some of them I think machines will be should be part of our discussion about technology yes and that's that's the definition of a miracle is a something that happens according to laws we don't understand thankfully I think we can say God understands physics post Einstein rather than pre Einstein and who knows what's going to be post whatever we are the laws of physics that God understands or to be able to make a command and have something come into being yes we are still we we see ourselves as living and highly advanced and enlightened age we will be looked back on in people in the future to say my gosh they were they were doing what with you know and look at our medical technology how far we've advanced and yet there's so many things that we don't know how to solve a lot of medical problems today but we know how to solve more than we did a decade ago I have two grandchildren who are live because of neonatal research as a medical science to save their lives when they were born one two and a half pounds now a beautiful 15 year old kid doing beautiful things so I am very grateful to live in such a technology but I think we also have to look at the dark side of technology we have drones that are killing thousands of innocent people around the world our weaponry is destroying lives and civilizations our technology is often used to nefarious and evil ends we have to be responsible for that and how we be responsible I think is going back to having this dialogue between our heads and hearts and between our souls and whatever exists out there in the world we inhabit you know the question has a question back here you highlighted in the vet nurse comments that addressed the person are there any deep sources of thoughts towards what they can be to prevent these larger uses the use of the government and the use of the organizations focusing too much on human lives I thank you Chase, Chase is working on a PhD here at UC Berkeley and I mentioned to him the newest issue of the Lapham Quarterly I don't know if you know this journal LAPHAM started by Lewis Lapham the former editor of Harper's magazine anyway his newest issue which just came this week is on spying and the use of technology by governments and groups and individuals to gather information almost always for ends that turn out not to be as they are promised there is a lot of research done on that but because so much of the surveillance is secret and unknown it is difficult sometimes to have reliable research but there is research on that and I again I only know about the strengthening the members committee and don't know other than whether that's still I assume since when I first found out 40 years ago that there was a file on me which I was surprised naïve as I was that such a file existed on me that was before the internet and I assume that some member of my board who thought my gospel doctrine class was a little edgy wrote a letter to some apostle or whatever but now that we have the internet is so much easier so my file is probably not grown fatter but deeper electronically than it was before but I have no idea I really don't know I just know that my state president reported to me when I asked him do you think there is a file and he said let me find out and he said yeah there is one and so I belong to some kind of a special fellowship and all of you may be a part of it since you showed up here and you registered online yes I've never been in our statement of the technology of the day being part of pasting the work because it seems to me from my observation current information technology has been disruptive to the church may be more disruptive than useful I want to talk about that that's a very good question and I think church is clearly facing this whether or not the internet is no question the internet has been a terribly disruptive technology for the church the church controlled this message before the internet pretty much that is few people take deep into the journal discourses or read all of the articles that you couldn't Google whatever and even though the church does influence as this as Brett Jackson said there is a way to influence what comes up first on Google and the church is clearly strategically controlling that because there are a lot of anti Mormon groups that tried to do that as I think some of you know that the on the Wikipedia there is an underground battle going on on Wikipedia between the evangelicals and the anti Mormons and the Mormons for the narrative about Joseph Smith because you can change things on Wikipedia so if you think somebody's done too polished a job you can come in and affect that so there is no question that the genie is out of the bottle whatever you want to call it however you look at that genie and we are now in a world in which I think the church is I think the church is not simply aware of it very wary of the potential uses of this technology and when instantaneously things that might have been spoken within a smaller group can now be broadcast across the world and there is a certain positive aspect of that which is the gospel message can be broadcast to the world but also a negative message can be broadcast so I think the church is highly aware of it I think if you were talking about this in the panel session this afternoon on the church's change of policy you know how quickly that was leaked how quickly there was seemed to be damage control how quickly that damage control was attempted to be tamped down with Elder Nelson's address but we are not going to put that in back in the bottom very quickly one more question yes the question is the church's interest in technology more to spread the gospel or to correlate its message I tend to be more optimistic and I am a very trusted person which has gotten into trouble but I think the essential impulse of the church is to fulfill its full mission through any means possible and so I think it is also the initial use of the telegraph and the telephone and radio and television was to get that message out that was before correlation much of it post correlation I think it is both part of it is to control the message part of it is to get it out I think there is a certain I am sure within church leadership there is a struggle between those two things and how that comes out I think we will just have to perform the group of tonight to find out thank you all very much