this second machine age. a lot of things are out of our power. getting in the political system, changing the taxation that we do have got things that we can do individually and our panel. what can people do themselves to condition themselves? >> three pieces of a glass. first a look at those kind of skills that machines are not -- we already touched on some, creativity, interpersonal relations cannot motivating people, caring for other humans, and those are areas that we continue to have in demand. the second piece of vices of the two blacks. the nature of technology is constantly evolving. andrew and i have continued to be surprised about the advancements that are happening. it is unlikely that anyone career, to be able to coast on

that. you have to adjust. the third piece of advice is, do what you love and do something you are excited about it, not because it is more fulfilling those kinds of winner-take-all markets, you know, there will be a reward for being the very best in something, and there will be a lot of reward for being average or above average. there are few people that can be the best bet anything unless they really love it and enjoy doing it and in some time on it. those pieces of advice are probably the best kind of guidance for anyone going forward. >> the second question is apparent question very often about college-age kids. two pieces of advice. the first point is for the kids, it that damn bucks. one thing that we came across as about this -- the amount of hard

work going on on a college campus these days. and a concurrent slide in which people are actually -- i guess they should be in class and instead they're playing pierpont. these things, they're really appears to have been a slide. so hit the books and spend time on both sides of the campus. by all means, go hang out with the drumming teach in the english peaks. that is awesome, but then walked to the other side of campus and go hang out with applied math geeks or computer science geeks or physics geeks. have both halves of your brain worked out, some of the best possible preparation for the world we're heading into. >> okay. very quickly, yes or no, are we going to figure this out? >> definitely. >> i think it all depends upon how we react.

there is no inevitable future either positive or negative. one of the reasons we are glad all of you came to this room and are open to change the conversation is, yes, we will figure out. but we want if we just sit back and coast. >> that is a better answer. [laughter] [applause] >> our thanks to booktv.org and andrew mcafee 42 we also want to thank our audience is here and on radio, television, and the internet. i am andrew leonard. and now the place where you are in the know is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> you're watching book tv, starting now craig detweiler talks about his book "igods" in which he looks at the impact of technology and social media and our culture today. this interview as part of book tv college series from pepperdine university. >> and. >> host: and you're watching book tv on c-span2 on location at pepperdine university in malibu, california as part of our university series. we like to visit universities and colleges and talk to professors who are also authors. joining us now is craig detweiler. his book, "igods: how technology shapes our spiritual and social lives". here is the book cover.

professor craig detweiler, buffalo begin to that, what do you teacher at pepperdine? >> guest: i am a school teacher first. i help the students navigate the entertainment industry. >> host: also the director for the center of entertainment. is that part of your professorship? >> guest: it is a bit of the think tank looking at how media and culture impact each other. al found shapes our public conversation and how maybe, you know, students can figure out how to read contribute to the greater good. >> host: your book, "igods," is listed and classified as christianity and culture. why is that? >> guest: well, i am also trained as a theologian. i am a graduate of -- graduate of the theological seminary. i had always been interested in how religious feelings are

transmitted across culture. i am a person who has been moved by moving pictures. so this is a chance for me to consider how the small screen that we carry in our pocket is slowly over taking that big screen. >> host: the big screen of cinema, but also of religion. >> guest: well, that's right. what i do in the book is look at these new companies that have essentially overtaken our lives, whether it is apple, google, facebook, amazon, those are sort of the big four held -- for who at this point we are spending so many hours in a given date either on their devices are in their platform that i wanted to figure out how they have built their software, how does that affect our relationship to each other and even our relationship to god. >> host: and you have a

quotation from kevin kelly, we tend to see got it reflected in nature, but technology is the better mirror of god and next to that is a picture of jesus. [laughter] >> host: with a laptop. >> guest: he has a whole world in his hands. kevin kelly is such a fascinating character. he was one of the early editors of wired magazine. and he also comes from a position of faith. and so i think he has looked at technology and how we organize our lives, how engineers structure things as a way of may be talking about the ways in which god might be the original technologist. and when we look at our dna, you know, which that human genome project with sir francis collins , to what degree is the affirmation that we have in our

bodies sort of fair reflection? are we sort of wired or encoded in an organized fashion? and what will -- what role does god, the technologist, play and all of that? >> host: are you worried about how much sounder spending with technology from a christian point of view? >> guest: as a parent of a 14 and 12-year-old, we deal with a lot of technology in our household. the day that my kids said of what a cell phone i had to think, well, what does putting a smart fun with access to all of the world's information do? what does that do? and what kinds of cancers, might we need is to help them understand how we deal with that onslaught. i think all of us are feeling the effects of too much information. so, you know, how do we sort through all of the props, all of the interruptions, of the things tugging at our attention.

less urgent from what matters. >> host: you right to my jesus was more than a carpenter. he was at techie. [laughter] >> guest: indeed. it is funny. everyone knows that jesus was the son of a carpenter. they don't realize that it is the word for tech time. they could be that we will come to think of jesus as more than somebody did with his hands seen as more of a designer, maybe if we understood what he looked like, to the french horse of the back patent always figure out what to trick thanks. ♪ -- and. >> host: are we idolizing technology? >> guest: when i allowed it to

be the first thing that i interact with in the morning and the last thing that i do 9i have allowed it to order monday. from the monks actually invented the clock as a way of the mechanical clock as a way of ordering our days so that we would understand there is a time for work and prayer and food. so now we are allowing our smart phones to sort of dictate the hours of our day. and i wonder if our relationship is a little too intense, it is our closest companions. do we need to turn it off occasionally, to take back the power in our lives, perhaps to power down in order to power up. >> host: do you power down? >> guest: yes. my family, i think, loves to leave our phones behind. we live here in california.

and so it's an station might be to take it to the beach. but that is supposed to be time to awaken much time apart. you know, time to think, time to not be interrupted from time to wonder. they're is a need for space in our lives to, i guess, make room to be surprised by what is in front of us rather than this device telling us what is next. >> host: is that tough to do? >> guest: it is hard to separate ourselves from technology. i have an assignment in class whereas my students to put it away for 24 hours, computers, laptops, even the television set, and it almost drives them crazy. what they discover is, they might begin that activity to

dealing harry, but as they turn off and actually make more space and suddenly get a little more clarity and focus they might to one week's worth of homework in months -- one afternoon. there suddenly able to concentrate on one thing rather than being fragmented and distracted. >> host: are there students who cannot? >> guest: all of them are supposed to. some of them confess how hard that it is. you know, that they might have sneaked a peek and tried to, you know, pick up, you know, a little bit of an update when they heard that click. but what i find is they in that kind of remarkably relieved, of little bit freed by this device always beckoning them. and i think that they start to wonder if there is the possibility of recovering a little bit of an electronic sabbath, putting on pause.

>> host: craig detweiler, is it possible to be a good christian and still very tech tech-focused? >> guest: open eyes steadily hope so. i am. i am on facebook, twitter. no one interacts with social media more than i do. again, and is trying to help us to refocus, to appreciate the geniuses of the "igods", people like steve jobs and the engineer of google and facebook that have redefined our world in amazing ways and help us solve the problems of abundance, too much information, too many songs, too many friends, they of the above address bring order into the chaos of our world. and yet life still feels a little chaotic. and so i guess i am trying to challenge all people, not necessarily just people of faith, but all people to question to what degree we have

made technology and idle and perhaps to realize the limits of what it can and cannot do for us . >> host: you point out, and i want to know the significance, both steve jobs and geoff bass's did not know their real fathers. >> guest: it is an interesting thing. you have such talented and a sense superior and driven people behind these companies. why is it that apple and amazon and the visionaries behind those companies were so relentless and restless and their pursuit? his, it is interesting that they did not know their fathers. i feel like and a sense they have all become our fathers now in a sense, the fathers of technology. and i just -- there was this relentless pursuit to be at the top, to be number one.

i respect them, but i also wonder at what point there would be satisfied, happy. >> host: you have a subchapter in here called the problem with life. what is the problem? >> guest: well, one thing is there is really not a dislike. so all the time even if you have bad moods to it share people's only option is to like it. yes, i agree you lost your job. wait. i'm not supposed to like that. what do i do? it forces you to make all of your news positive. even if it is something bad you have to frame it in a way where people will say, oh, i'd like that. i think that is a little bit of a problem when you sort of limit human emotion and possibility in a certain kind of way. much like the power that allows us to, you know, a comment on this thing that might be bad and to sort of, you know, play with that a lit