It’s interesting that dark ages are not necessarily all negative. I think that’s a kind of illusion. We have the idea that nothing goes well in a dark age. It’s a time of horror. But, actually, in the Middle Ages and in other dark ages there were tremendous technological advances. I found that very intriguing.
I think that we are really in the midst or on the cusp of defining our own dark age. When we pander to our machines rather than look each other fully in the eye, when doctors interrupt, on average, after 18 seconds of listening to the patient, when two-thirds of the children 18 and under grow up in homes where the TV is on most of the time, which is an environment linked to attention difficulties — when we can’t think — when, in a knowledge economy, we can’t find the time to think deeply, to wrestle with an idea or a problem — well, we’re really facing a dark age on many scores. So a dark age can be a wonderful time, but the costs are steep.
That’s an unfortunate equation of “dark age” and “Middle Ages”. It’s also an unfortunate implied point that things-going-well means technological advance. The Middle Ages had times of great intellectual and theological ferment that had little to do with technology and a lot to do with people reading books and taking ideas seriously.
Let’s don’t shortchange technology (or rise in reading). One of the aspects of the dark ages was the shortage of book learning since the larger portion of the people could not read. Development of reading ability came hand in hand with the increase in technology.