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Good morning. Fifty years ago, programmer Ray Tomlinson sent a message between different computers. While there remains debate of whether this was the invention of email, he used the @ sign which has been used in email addresses ever since. He did it simply ‘because it seemed like a neat idea’. The email was never preserved because as Tomlinson observed, ‘test messages were entirely forgettable and I have, therefore, forgotten them’. In the subsequent fifty years this neat idea has been both a joy and a pain, as the pressure of an overfull inbox and the expectation of an immediate reply now dominates my life, even if most of the messages are indeed entirely forgettable. Technology changes the world rapidly. In a new book, Exponential, Azeem Azhar, sees unparalleled and destabilising change in the present due to the accelerating development of computing, AI, renewable energy, biotech and manufacturing. He suggests a growing exponential gap between new technologies and the ability of societies and especially their political leaders to cope. He asks about the extent to which such technologies can be harnessed in the service of society or whether their momentum will simply leave us behind? Some react against the power of technology by resisting or rejecting it. Some religious thinkers have used the story in Genesis of God’s judgement falling on the people of Babel who pushed the limits of their skills to build a vast tower. But as the story makes clear, the folly is not the building of the tower in itself but the motives behind it - the desire to be seen as great and the false sense of security that technology might give. For me, the Biblical idea of human beings, made in the image of God, with the gift of creativity is to be celebrated as much in engineering and technology as in art or music. This gift is to be treasured but also used responsibly and unselfishly for the good of all and the glory of God. Technology is at the heart of future of humanity, whether in the presence of new nuclear submarines in the contested South China Seas or in both the cause and mitigation of the climate crisis. How it serves the world for good is a question for all to engage. Ray Tomlinson never achieved the fame of other inventors yet like others his playing with a neat idea changed the world. Later in life he commented, ‘I think the only “dismay” I feel is over the tendency to blame the medium for what is a human tendency to misuse or overuse certain tools’. Challenging words for political leaders and my use of email this morning!