Week 6

This idea of governments and religions fearing these technologies is an important part of history. As Johnson states in The Invention of Air, new technology causes a shift in history from there on out. This is important because of the threat it creates to the present entities. Governments may worry about what this change will do for their standing within a society, while religion may worry about the validity of their practice. Technology gives the individual more power, while governments and religions rely on the conformity and belief of the group. His combination of science and religion opened up discussion of how the two are intertwined and the advances of technology creating a change in how religion is viewed and discussed. These ideas intertwining allowed technology to explain religion and religion to have an affect on technology. While this may not be common idea today, it mattered back then and was a huge part of science advancements in the search for religious understanding.

The shift in technology creates a whole new future which results in a new history. This creates a question of what history would look like without that technological advance and how it shifts. Johnson looks at ideas that are important throughout history, and even today, and shines a new and different light on them. All technologies can be looked at through a lens depending on the context we use it in.