What in the World?
Introduction: The Technological Explosion
In their book titled, The Second Machine Age, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee make a startling admission in the book's introduction that explains the rapid technological advancements taking place in our world. Please read carefully this opening paragraph of their book.
In the two years since we published The Second Machine Age, the pace and breadth of technological progress has continued to surprise us. We feel a little ashamed at this. Understanding where technology is headed, after all, is what we're supposed to do for a living. We take some small comfort in the many prominent geeks who have admitted to us that they, too, chronically underestimate how fast things are moving. Some of the entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, and executives that we trust most have told us the technologybased future is arriving much faster that they thought (The Second Machine Age, p. xi).
Throughout the remainder of the book, the authors attempt to explain the degree to which the white ‒ hot technological advancements are affecting everyone on the planet. The authors close their book, in part, with the following statement.
The technologies we are creating provide vastly more power to change the world, but with that power comes greater responsibility. That's why we aren't technological determinists, and that's why we devoted three chapters in this book to a set of recommendations that we think will improve the odds of achieving a society with shared prosperity (Ibid., 256).
Among the things these opening and closing paragraphs have to say, there are some points we should consider. The first is the speed at which technology is developing ‒ a speed that even those who daily track the development of the technology industry cannot keep pace with. Secondly, the degree of impact the world will experience due to such advancements will be significant, possibly impossible to fully appreciate at the present moment. And three, there is a real possibility that current and developing technologies will be used for purposes that are not beneficial for humanity. In light of this, the authors committed three entire chapters discussing the need to avoid those potential threats.
In Klaus Schwab's 2018 book, Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the forward is provided by Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, who summarizes the technological transformation underway. We should listen his words carefully and reflect upon where this might lead (italics added).
The confluence of data with massive computational storage and cognitive power will transform industry and society at every level, creating opportunities that were once unimaginable from health and education to agriculture, manufacturing and service. My company and others are betting on the convergence of several important technology shifts-mixed reality, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing.
(https://www.ysk-books.com/app/books/Shaping%20the%20Fourth%20Industrial%20Revolution.pdf)
This is no insignificant matter. Our society is being transformed. How is this transformation occurring? Satya Nadella says the transformation is occurring through 3 primary means: confluence of data (gathering and merging data), massive computational storage (massive amounts of digitally stored data and information about people), and cognitive power (that is, artificial intelligence capable of accessing, analyzing, and utilizing that digitally stored information at incredible speeds for decision making). Nadella's statement about a transformation of "industry and society at every level" is occurring at an unprecedented pace and scale never before even considered possible prior to recent years. Everyone from Satya Nadella to Klaus Schwab to every scientist, entertainment mogul, corporate executive, and anyone else paying attention, is telling us a technological transformation is taking place...rapidly.
The situation is rapidly changing
Some months ago I was watching a Ted Talks video where an AI expert, an entrepreneur who owned his own AI business if I recall correctly, made a statement that illustrates the rapidly changing technological situation across the planet. While attempting to communicate the matter to his audience the speaker said, “There is a tsunami coming towards the world, and the world does not even know it.” Of course he is correct. People who are on the bleeding edge of AI and technological advancement understand the developing situation far clearer. Such people, because of their greater insight into the world of technology and its implementation, often say things such as, "People will not recognize their world (or their society, or their country, or their lives)...in three to five years.” What is more concerning is that because the mainstream population does not quite understand the technology, it is much more difficult to get a good grasp of these changes and comprehend their implications. Nevertheless, the changes are coming and the best insight available is to listen to those who do know, and try to understand what they are communicating.
Could you explain this?
If you were tasked to write to someone living 2700 years ago to explain what is transpiring on planet earth in our time, how would you explain this digital and electronic transformation? Think about that for a moment. How would you approach your task? Would you not be forced to explain it in the most simplistic terms possible? Yes, you would. The reason for this is because if you explained the matter to any real-world degree, no reader would understand what you were describing, much less believe you. And consider, if someone living 2700 years ago was tasked with writing to us to explain what our world's technological capabilities would one day become in the future (the future we now live), how would the writer communicate his thoughts? The answer is the same ‒ in the most simplistic terms possible ‒ because unless you lived during that period (the future we now live), you could not possibly comprehend. We understand it only because we now live within that transformation.
And that is exactly what has taken place.
One primary example of this is found in the writings of the prophet Daniel. In the book that bears his name, Daniel is shown visions of the future and he is directed to write those things. He does so in the most simplistic manner possible. As the book concludes, Daniel is told to write and he provides an overarching description of the time of the end: "Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be greatly increased" (Daniel 12:4 KJV).
Our world has transformed into what appears to be the time Daniel writes (and other biblical writers as well). In fact, when Daniel's description is joined with the scenario clearly stated in the Book of Revelation, we find for the first time in history, the capability to fulfill these writings and the scenario the Bible states will exist at the end of the age. This is the first time in history where technology has progressed to the point that we now can understand what the biblical prophetic writers were describing.
Sound strange? It is not as strange as it may appear. And it is well worth considering.
During this discussion about technology and the transformation of the world currently taking place, let's mull over three primary points.
1. We will discuss the recent rise of highly sophisticated and ever-increasing technological advancements.
2. We will discuss how the biblical announcements and current technological events point strongly to the biblical scenario that such a development would occur in the final days of human history.
3. And third, we will discuss how the developing global governance rests on the back of these technological advancements. Such predicted global governance is achievable only because of the technological explosion that has taken place within the last decades and even within the last few years. The final technological pieces necessary to conclude the end-times biblical scenario are being developed and implemented as we speak.
One final thought
It behooves us to recognize what is being constructed in our world. A technologically advanced global system that will allow for the rise and eventual control of an individual repeatedly discussed and described within the pages of the Bible ‒ the Antichrist. His efforts to subvert God's authority prior to the return of Jesus Christ is a world-encompassing undertaking that has eternal significance for each person alive.
With that said, let's get started!
To Next Section Homepage