Comfort and Technology

[Warning: Late night kind of rambling post. I like to actually post these from time-time as an exercise in humility and curiosity.]

Something I've been mulling over for a while is the use of technologies to produce comfort. There is a lot here to consider. And this is going to be one of those hopelessly fragmented and shallow blog posts that does not do justice to the topic. But sometimes casual conversations about deep topics are valuable.

Random thoughts from the Bible about comfort and technology. Remember the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus? In the parable a poor man named Lazarus lives by the gate of a rich man's house. Both Lazarus and the rich man die. Lazarus "was carried by the angels to Abraham's side," and the rich man goes to "Hades" where he is in torment. The rich man looks up and sees Lazarus next to Abraham and pleads, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame." Abraham replies, "Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish."

I find two things curious about this passage.

While the rich man's torment is explained ("I am in anguish in this flame"), Lazarus's comfort is not. The rich man wants some relief for his body ("dip his finger in water and cool my tongue"). But there is no indication that Lazarus's comfort is primarily a sensual (as in the senses) comfort.

Why is the rich man concerned about comforting his body? He is in Hades. In biblical terms, not making it to heaven is a matter of an unrepentant heart. Is it possible that the rich man, having been sent to Hades, still does not understand? He still is concerned with his sensual comfort and unaware of his unrepentant heart?

Maybe. He does after all plead for the sake of his brothers, thinking that they will "repent" if Lazarus returns from the dead and warns them of the torment in Hades. But the focus is still on avoiding sensual discomfort.

Does consumer culture offer us a drop of water on our tongues? I wonder. I wonder if the prioritization of consumer products is on comforting our senses. And I wonder if the "comfort" that products offer is about as useful as a finger full of water in Hades.

I've been trying to think of products that are not made to offer us some kind of sensual comfort. And so that is my question. What products  available to buy focus primarily on comforting our spirits and not out bodies?

Comments

[Jennifer]

Music, books, plane tickets to wonderful places, photos/photography equipment, national park entry passes, family vacations are the first things that come to mind.

[Somebody]

I've been pondering about the concept of "value", and how we define it. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_things_which_are_neither_production_nor_consumption for a perhaps partly related idea, or an approach about trying to understand "economics" in a broader context.)

But I don't know.

Can you even compile a list (of what you're asking for), or is it different for each of us?

But what I do feel myself is (along the lines of the quote by Wendell Berry you show on the right here) that technology is not much comfort. "About as useful as a finger full of water in Hades" is a strong metaphor!