↔ Cathedrals or computer chips: which way Western Man?

Modern achievements are pretty awesome. We should acknowledge that

Aug 29, 2024

I’m not a tremendous world traveler, but my various journeys, such as they are, have brought me to some impressive places of worship. Among them: Notre-Dame de Paris, Westminster Abbey, Hallgrímskirkja (Reykjavik), Idgar Mosque (Kashgar, China), Nieuwe Kerk (Delf, Netherlands), Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal), and St. Giles' Cathedral (Edinburgh) — where they shot some key scenes for Avengers: Infinity War. Even not-particularly religious folks (I am a believer, though) see these structures as awe-inspiring architectural achievements and testaments to human creativity, craftsmanship, and even spiritual longing. It wasn’t just Christians who wept when Our Lady of Paris burned in 2019.

It was a cathedral that played a role in spurring me to write my 2023 book, The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised. In early 2020, I’d finally gotten around to watching Civilisation, the highly regarded 1969 BBC mini-series written and narrated by British art historian Kenneth Clark. Over thirteen episodes, Clark presents the history of the West through its art, architecture, and philosophy, from the Book of Kells and the Dark Ages to Renoir and the Atomic Age. In Civilisation‘s first episode, Clark asks a definitional question: “What is civilization? I don’t know, and I can’t define it in abstract terms, yet. But I think I can recognize it when I see it, and I’m looking at it now.” He then turns and gestures to Notre-Dame de Paris behind him. I was hooked and wanted to see more.

I didn’t use that bit from the documentary in my book, but I did include another moment that really struck while watching. It’s when Clark quotes nineteenth-century English art critic John Ruskin, who once posited, “Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.” Clark adds this pithy addendum: “If I had to say which was telling the truth about Society, a speech by a minister of housing or the actual buildings put up in his time, I should believe the buildings.”

Let’s explore Clark’s twist on Ruskin, particularly as it applies to cathedrals such as Notre Dame. A common meme on social media — at least one that frequently appears in my timeline — will contain an image of some majestic medieval cathedral along with some Decline of the West snark — something to the effect of, “Look what glorious and lasting monuments were built by medieval men using hand tools. What do we construct with all our modern technology? Soulless glass-and-steel buildings and superstores?”

Of course, these sorts of posts quickly attract cheeky responses, including images of modern marvels such as the Sydney Opera House and Wrigley Field, home of the 2016 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs. But for my money, the real zinger is when someone responds with an image of a computer chip. It’s upon that bit of silicon that the modern world rests. Perhaps the chip is even the cathedral of our modern era, a testament to human ingenuity, precision, and technological advancement. Just as medieval cathedrals were marvels of engineering and artistry for their time, today's microprocessors embody the pinnacle of human achievement in miniaturization and computational power.

But I think there’s more to it than that. In the lively and readable A History of Christianity, British historian Paul Johnson explains how the common believer interacted with the grand cathedrals of Europe that, I found out, were largely inaccessible to common believers. Cathedrals mainly served the clergy, wealthy patrons, and the upper classes. The emphasis on relics, commemorative masses, and architectural grandeur further distanced them from the spiritual needs of ordinary people.

Johnson:

Indeed, it is hard to see the cathedrals as serving Christians as a whole. They were built essentially for the clergy and the upper classes, and to some extent for well-to-do townsmen. … The laity had no part in the services, and indeed when they stood in the nave (which had no benches or chairs), the high altar would be obscured by the screen or pulpitum. Sometimes no nave was built at all, as at Beauvais. Usually, it formed a vast vestibule for the choir, used for professional purposes. It was not intended for lay worship except where, as in a few cathedrals, building it had involved knocking down a parish church. Then an altar would be set up and function. But most naves were big, empty and dirty places, not elaborately decorated like the ‘clerical’ part of the building. …
In some cases the public could get into the transepts. More often these and other parts of the cathedral were filled up by chantry chapels, paid for from the wills of wealthy people for the saying of daily masses for their souls, and to which only the donors’ families were admitted. Chapels gradually occupied all the empty space, together with extra altars for the saying of masses for the dead – these, too, had to be paid for. …
Then, in 740, the papacy decreed that archbishops might be buried within their cathedral, and thereafter the rule was broadened until from about 1250 it was a matter of cash – thus the rich and well-born cluttered up the interior. Over this ocular assertion of the fact that money might count in the next world, as well as in this, soared the dramatic battlements of the edifice, the needs of stone architecture – stone progressively replaced timber – to a large extent dictating shape, while size became, as it were, an arrogant assertion of the power and distinctiveness of the clerical class, and of their lay benefactors whose bones were housed below. … No wonder; an analysis of the building, growth and functioning of the cathedrals explains many of the reasons why the Reformation occurred.

Just keeping it real here: The computer chip is a far more accessible and universal human achievement. It powers devices that are used daily by billions of people, from smartphones and laptops to household appliances and automobiles. Chips have helped democratize access to information and communication. They have enabled ordinary people to connect globally, access vast amounts of knowledge, and participate in the ever-growing digital economy. In this sense, chips represent a technological revolution that has been far more inclusive and transformative for the average person than the architectural and religious monuments of the past. The title of George Dyson’s 2012 history of the modern computer is apt: Turing's Cathedral, referencing the father of computer science, Alan Turing.

(I should also note that the Digital Revolution, driven by Moore's Law — which observes that semiconductor sizes have been decreasing by a factor of 50 percent every 18 months since the 1960s, leading to more powerful and affordable technology over time — accounts for perhaps a fifth of productivity growth from 1960 to 2019 with this effect highest during the 1990s and early 2000s, according to economist Pablo D. Azar of the New York Federal Reserve. Others credit Moore's Law with a third of U.S. productivity growth during the multi-decade. And if the Digital Revolution spawns a true Age of AI, those numbers really start to get wild.

None of this is to say that building grand monuments to celebrate humanity’s achievements is unimportant. Perhaps Silicon Valley needs to build a giant statue of the Greek sun god Apollo, multiples taller than the Statue of Liberty, off the San Francisco coast to symbolize progress and the Information Revolution. (Wait, this actually might happen.) Or maybe Steve Jobs.

What I don't like is the ideological diminution of what the West has achieved since the Age of the Cathedral, especially over the past quarter millennium — heck, over the past few years, from new vaccines to large language models to reusable rockets. I think there’s a lot of truth to what Clark said about the link between what society builds and the state of its spirit. It’s my hope that we are entering a new age of building, both grand monuments and productive capacity.

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↔ Cathedrals or computer chips: which way Western Man?

Modern achievements are pretty awesome. We should acknowledge that

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