Computers
What Do Waldorfs Think?
An indication of the Waldorf view
of computers: They enable
demons to incarnate.
[Rudolf Steiner College Press.]
Q. Why do Waldorf Schools want to reduce the amount of time children use computers?
A. There are good reasons to keep children from sitting for hours on end in front of computers, TVs, and other high-tech devices. But the Waldorf reasons for downplaying modern technology are not always good reasons.
Waldorf schools are wary of computers and other electronic gadgets because Rudolf Steiner warned against modern technology in general. The mere use of electricity is potentially demonic, Steiner said.
◊ "[E]lectric atoms are little demons of Evil ... [I]f we acknowledge Nature in this form, we raise Evil to the rank of the ruling world-divinity." [1]
◊ "[E]vil will invade the earth by coming in an immediate way out of the forces of electricity.” [2]
According to Steiner and his followers, all technology creates the possibility for demons to incarnate on Earth. Simple steam engines threaten demonic invasions, and more modern devices — such as televisions and computers — are even worse.
◊ “In constructing steam engines an opportunity is...provided for the incarnation of demons ... [W]hat has been said here about the steam engine applies in a much greater degree to the technology of our time ... [T]elevision, for example. The result is that the demon magic spoken of by Rudolf Steiner is spreading more and more intensively on all sides." [3]
Waldorf schools associate computers with the arch-demon Ahriman.
◊ “Ahriman finds...favourable conditions especially in the world of the computer and digital industry.” [4]
◊ “[T]he computer has taken a giant step in furthering its ability to imitate the human being. In particular, the technical basis for a separate, incarnating consciousness has been laid — but a consciousness of a purely intellectual, mechanical (albeit self-aware) nature. With the achievement of the stored program computer [i.e., a computer that carries its programs internally], it begins to be possible to talk in terms of a (macrocosmic) incarnation vehicle capable of sustaining the being of Ahriman." [5]
There are good reasons to limit children's use of computers. And then there are the Waldorf reasons.
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[1] Rudolf Steiner, “Concerning Electricity” (General Anthroposophical Society, 1940), GA 220.
[2] Rudolf Steiner, “The Overcoming of Evil”, ANTHROPOSOPHIC NEWS SHEET No. 7/8 (General Anthroposophic Society, 1948).
[3] Anthroposophist Georg Unger, “On ‘Mechanical Occultism’” (Mitteilungen aus der Anthroposophischen Arbeit in Deutschland nos. 68–69, 1964).
[4] Anthroposophist Sergei Prokoffief, “The Being of the Internet,” PACIFICA JOURNAL (Anthroposophical Society in Hawaii), no. 29, 2006.
[5] David B. Black, THE COMPUTER AND THE INCARNATION OF AHRIMAN (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1981), p. 33.
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