How will technology impact our lives as we head into the future?
With rampant technology talk from events like the World Economic Forum (WEF) and World Government Summit, on social media, and even in regular offline day-to-day conversations, technology is ever bit as, if not more, popular than ever. We are told that artificial intelligence (AI) could even possibly end the human race which, of course, doesn’t align with what the Word of God says. Moreover and just recently, Bing’s AI bot (which is an AI-powered search engine created by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT that was released in November of 2022) says that it wants to “‘be alive’, ‘steal nuclear codes’ and create ‘deadly virus'” (Silverstein).
At the recent World Government Summit, Klaus Schwab stated the following after describing how important technology will be in the next ten years: “and who masters those technologies, in some way, will be the master of the world” (Heine). He talks about how we are just now moving to the exponential phase, which seems like he is referring to the technological singularity or something of this nature. However, are we really moving toward an exponential growth phase of technology, or are we rather reaching peak technology?
If we look at what is happening in the global economy today, we can identify some trends and things that are taking place. The evidence shows that the global debt is now over $300 trillion, the United States debt is rapidly growing along with inflation, there is an increase in natural disasters that are adding to the debt, non-nuclear war could increase that is arguably positive for the economy, and so on. There is possibly, and I say possibly because differing news articles on this topic can contradict one another, a low/lower supply of commodities. All of these negative, harmful trends appear to be increasing. In order for technology to continue to develop (at least for the public sector), one can safely assume that innovation is dependent on the economy, right?
So we have a global economy that is faltering with expectations of artificial intelligence, transhumanism, etc., to advance when innovation itself (at least innovation for the public sector) is largely linked to the economy. It seems the economy and innovation are correlated and should both decrease, right?
Just recently, the FAA systems outage, which caused thousands of flight delays and cancellations, occurred on January 11, 2023. Apparently, “‘[t]he core operating system for the database has been around since the 1990s,’ the source said. ‘Regardless of the improvements made to the system in recent years, it still has the heart of an 89-year-old man’” (Muntean). On February 1st, 2023, Los Angeles International Airport, also known as LAX, lost power (Resendiz). Other airports including Lufthansa and JFK have recently faced outages.
Airports, which are large economic engines for the economy, are not the only tech problems recently. On February 13th, downdetector.com, along with people commenting on the site and social media, revealed that wireless network provider T-Mobile was experiencing network outages in multiple cities in addition to other wireless network providers.
On top of this, we may be facing famine conditions worldwide, water shortages and even contamination in other places than just East Palestine Ohio, and so on. If we are entering the book of Revelation, things are most likely going to get extremely rough. It seems like we are headed more towards a “back to the basics” mindset than that of a highly technologically advanced utopia.
Is technology really going to increase for the general public? Maybe it will only increase for the government in order for them to create a one-world surveillance system? Or maybe it will decrease into the mid-point of the Tribulation when the Antichrist is worshipped? According to Gotquestions.org:
Even in a cashless society, there will always be ways around the system. Barter of goods and services and the black market will always exist. Revelation 13:17 does not require that the beast maintain absolute control over every single transaction, only that the official policy forbids these transactions, making them illegal and punishable and therefore more difficult. (“Does a Cashless Society Have Anything to Do with the End Times?”)
It seems that the Antichrist and his minions won’t necessarily need technology to implement the mark of the beast? Just like during ancient Rome, the rise of Hitler, etc., people turning on one another, along with many other things, may allow for this to happen without a state of sophisticated, worldwide technology. If you want my thoughts, here they are:
Though I may be wrong, my two main views regarding #PeakTechnology (posted on Twitter) are the following:
1. It occurs before, or during, the first-half of the Tribulation.
2. It occurs around the middle of the Tribulation when the Antichrist is worshipped and right before the second-half of the Tribulation.
Either way, I think technology will eventually be completely destroyed.
With that being said, there are clearly many hypotheticals and there is only one person who knows exactly what will happen down to the atomic-level and beyond, and that is clearly God. Do you put your total trust and faith in God, and not whatever happens in this temporary, sinful world?
Works Cited
Heine, Debra. “Klaus Schwab: Whoever Masters 4th Industrial Revolution Technologies ‘Will Be the Master of the World.’” American Greatness, 15 Feb. 2023, https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/15/klaus-schwab-whoever-masters-4th-industrial-revolution-technologies-will-be-the-master-of-the-world/.
Muntean, Pete. “FAA Is Years Away from Upgrading the System That Grounded All US Flights | CNN Business.” CNN, Cable News Network, 13 Jan. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/12/tech/faa-notam-system-outage/index.html.
Resendiz, Eric. “Power Restored at LAX after Brief Outage Disrupts Passenger Screening, Officials Say.” ABC7 Los Angeles, 2 Feb. 2023, https://abc7.com/lax-power-outages-airport-issues-tsa-screenings/12759336/.
Silverstein, Joe. “Bing’s AI Bot Tells Reporter It Wants to ‘Be Alive’, ‘Steal Nuclear Codes’ and Create ‘Deadly Virus’.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 17 Feb. 2023, https://www.foxnews.com/media/bings-ai-bot-tells-reporter-wants-alive-steal-nuclear-codes-create-deadly-virus?intcmp=tw_fnc.