Carpe Deus

One of the things I always do is examine my computer to see what the kids have been up to. I make sure they're just playing videogames and doing Facebook, etc. My son's formspring is hilarious. There's one website that's cynical and borderline (failblog) but I allow it because it's really funny and they share the really good ones with me. And they are full-blown teenagers now. Things change.

I found this in the history yesterday: the wikipedia entry for Deus ex Machina. I was so proud.

The way I've seen it in popular culture I thought it meant either artifacts that systems accumulate that cause unintended consequences and give things a mind of their own: ghosts in the machine, gremlins, bugs. Or I thought it was perhaps like the cliche of robots taking over the world. I thought I knew what the saying meant but not really, so I'm glad I read that.

It's helpful to me because I am in a ladies discussion group where we talk about this kind of thing a little bit. Trying to come to terms when neither religious dogma nor skepticism nor nothing at all quite fit the facts as you see them. Deus Ex Machina: God by your own hand.