Lately I've been getting the feeling that we could achieve great or terrible things in the near future. Our economy, our world politics, and our rapidly advancing technology all seem to be coming together to say, "Something big awaits just beyond the horizon." But will it be good or bad?
The Bible says no man shall know the end of days, and maybe that's why things seemed so "normal," even while unprecedented actions were being taken by our President, both at home and abroad. What if we're just accepting it all as not an "end of the world" kind of thing because we simply don't see how it all fits together? I realized that there is a definite possibility that there's a method to this madness, and that everything that's happened in the news has taken place for a reason. But of course, that's how pure paranoia is born. "Everything matters! It's all a massive conspiracy!!" Haha, right.
Ok, so if we forget that road for a minute (the idea that we're already on the path to Armageddon), and focus on a more golden scenario, what do we get? A pretty awesome outlook. That's right, even in the face of famine, war, poverty, climate change, and disease, we can still be optimistic because we've got something that just might have the power necessary to trump all our woes. Technology. We keep moving forward at an ever-increasing pace. Pretty soon, we'll likely have a global wireless network powerful enough to provide poverty-stricken nations with the ability of linking to information and resources that can pull them up and greatly improve and enhance their lives. If we made an effort to do something like that a few years ago, we'd have had to lay a ton of cable. Now, with satellites and new "I'll beam you the movie in 2 seconds" technology, a massive effort like that will be far easier.
But of course, anything that is powerful is not necessarily good, or even bad. It's what is done with it that is good or bad. Sure, we've got incredible technology, but we could seriously screw things over for everybody by not using the foresight to prevent the undesirable scenarios. We might clean up the planet and improve the standard of living for all 6 billion residents…or we could dig ourselves a deep hole of war, omnipresent surveillance, and misery. I guess it's really all up to us. Let's hope we don't blow it!
