Thursday, May 3, 2007

No More Wafers, Just Chips



The other day, I blogged about an image of Jesus purportedly spotted on a Google satellite map. Today, I bring to you the face of Jesus in a flash memory chip, as rendered by transmission electron microscopy. Some of the people who have chimed in about the face at Engadget.com think it more closely resembles Gandalf or Rob Zombie, both recognizable cultural icons, I guess.

In my last post, I touched on my fascination with how several of these visual manifestations are linked intimately to our high-speed technological landscape. This example takes it to a whole other level, however. An online map is an interface, while this flash chip is a part of an infrastructure that is becoming as natural as our biological makeup. That I can even string together "Jesus" and "transmission electron microscopy" bowls me over, though I really need to stop being surprised by any of this, as it clearly indicates the extent to which technology influences how we understand the world and our place in it.

At the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples "This is my body" and gave them bread. Today, it seems that technology sustains us more than food. I wonder if Christ would have handed out iPods had then been now.

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