Buck Rogers, St. John, and Zoom

I grew up hearing about the science fiction figure of Buck Rogers, but I never actually knew anything about him. All that changed a month or so ago when I found in a used bookstore an old copy of the first book in the Buck Rogers series. I quickly made the tough decision to spend the grand total of $1.50 to add it to my cottage summer reading list. 

At the same time, I was reading 2 John and 3 John, two letters written by the apostle John.
 
Surprisingly, there was a moment of synergy in my reading of the two very different genres. It seems that both Buck Rogers and St. John would not have been so enamored with our virtual world – especially our reliance on technologies such as Zoom to fulfil our need for human contact.
 
Buck Rogers woke up in an America 500 years in the future. It was a world ruled by the mighty Han, a highly advanced people who were part-Asian and part-alien. Their vastly superior technology allowed them to suppress their pesky and supposedly inferior human opponents, but when Buck Rogers was captured by the Han he saw that their reliance on technology was their Achilles heal.
 
Here is Buck Rogers’ description of the Han and their technology:
 

• “For slight additional fees a citizen of Lo-Tan might, if he felt so inclined, ‘visit’’ the seashore, or the lakes, or the forests of any part of the country, for when such scene was thrown on the wall of an apartment, the effect was precisely the same as if one were gazing through a vast window at the scene itself. The full four-wall effect, with quadrophonic sound, was quite convincing – and even more gratifying to the Han mentality, the whole ‘world’ literally revolved around the viewer.”
• “It was possible too, for a slightly higher fee, to make a mutual connection between apartments in the same or different cities, so that a family in Lo-Tan, for instance,  might ‘visit’ friends in Fis-Ko taking their apartment, so to speak, along with them, being to all intents and purposes separated from their ‘hosts’ only by a big glass wall which interfered neither with vision or conversation.”
• “This demonstrates the utter depth of laziness into which the Han had been dragged by their civilization. There was no incentive for anyone to leave his apartment.”
• “Why should he leave his house? Food, wonderful synthetic concoctions of any desired flavor and consistency…came to him through a shaft, from which his tray slid automatically on to a convenient shelf or table.”
• “At will he could tune in a theatrical performance of any kind. He could visit and talk to his friends. He breathed the freshest of filtered air right in his own apartment, at any temperature he desired, fragrant with the scent of flowers, the aromatic smell of the pine forests or the salt tang of the sea, as he might prefer. He could ‘visit’ his friends at will, and though his apartment actually be buried many thousand feet from the outside wall of the city, it was none the less an ‘outside’ one, by virtue of its viewplate walls.”

 
In Buck Roger’s opinion, the lack of human exercise and engagement – real face to face contact – was a vital weakness that undermined the vitality of the Han people.
 
The real world of the apostle John was very different from the imaginary world of Buck Rogers. Yet surprisingly a point of synergy is that the real John agreed with the imaginary Buck Rogers on the need for and superiority of face to face communication.
 
In both 2 John and 3 John the apostle wrote that while his written letters were important, of utmost importance was his follow-up personal visitation:
 

• “I have much to write you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.” 2 John 12
• “I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.” 3 John 13

 
Remember that John’s letters became part of the canon of scripture, what became called the Holy Bible. Yet, even for John, receiving and reading his written word was not enough. There needed to be real human physical connection for “their joy to be complete.”
 
This is not to say that Zoom is to be rejected outright. It is also not a rallying cry to become luddites and smash all our expensive technology.
 
It is, however, to be reminded that actual human physical contact is vital to our health and existence. If you don’t believe Buck Rogers, you should at least heed the words of St. John.