Are digital systems becoming the god of this world?

[JoeMo]

I didn't know where to put this, cuz it's a little weird...

I've been watching this show called Revolution" on NBC. It's about a "apocalyptic" period where all the electricity in the world is out because it is being absorbed by trillions of networked microscopic nano-bots in the atmosphere; and they control, monitor, and manipulate mankind to do their collective will. Weird far-out science fiction - right?

I got to thinking, what are digital systems (the internet, mass storage, the cloud, and governmental surveillance) becoming? Technology is capable of monitoring every keystroke on your computer and every cell-phone call or text message you ever send. Every post on every blog site (including this one) is archived somewhere out there in cyberspace. You cannot walk through an urban area without being caught on a security camera. Every credit card and bank transaction you have made in the past 20 years is in digital storage somewhere.

Look at some of the characteristics of God:

1. He's all knowing. It's getting to the point that digital systems are almost there - at least in advanced countries. If they wanted to do a complete backwards investigation on you, they could look into a classified search engine with your name and find out almost everything about you.

2. He's everywhere. So are digital systems. Even the most backwards countries have cell phones and internet now.

3. Here's the weird one - He know's the future. The next big thing in security and surveillance software is called "predictive analytics"; where they search for certain "red-flag" communications or activities; and incarcerate you based on the predictive analytics' "prophecy" about your future activities.

Basically, digital systems know when you are sleeping; they know when you're awake; they no if you've been bad or good; so be good for goodness sake!

(Sounds more like Santa than a god)

Am I thinking straight, or am I an overly paranoid schizophrenic?

[JoeMo]

One more characteristic of God comparison - if the Spirit of Christ were to depart the earth, mankind would be doomed. If the world wide web were to shut down or be segmented, all financial transactions and many interutility (power, phone, water, gas) functions would cease. Society would devolve into chaos; and who knows what would happen? We are at a point with technology that society would come to a halt without the internet and the cloud.

[CoAspen]

About that final question...

Weeell......, let me say this about that......on 2nd thought, ain't going to touch it!!

[CoAspen]

Technology quite often gets the blame for humans problems! Why do we fear an increase in knowledge and understanding?

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

sounds likes a Star Trek episode, but I can't put my finger on which one...

[JoeMo]

I don't necessarily "fear" it; but I frequently see what it can do in my work; and I see what can happen when things like Heartbleed, the Target breach, and Stuxnet can do; not to mention the things that Snowden's brought to light.

[Tom Wetmore]

I think perhaps the technology of today is catching up with the systems of God to keep track of and know everything. Maybe it is an effort to be as God to know the knowledge of good and evil, or in other words, everything from A to Z, from one extreme to another, beginning to end.

CoAspen, I like your question about fearing the increase of knowledge and blaming technology for the evils of the world. They are both useful tools that can be use for any purpose from good to evil. I think the fear of increased knowledge is a combined misunderstanding of the serpent's words in the Garden of Eden and the prophetic statement of increasing knowledge at the end of time. It is a guilt by association sort of thing where the increased knowledge is lumped with the other increases of bad things as a sign of the end. But maybe the bad thing is not the increase of knowledge, but that it can be used for both good and evil and our sin is presuming to act like gods to act as if we are wise enough to know the difference. That was the temptation in Eden, to take a good thing and try to be like God when we don't have his wisdom to get it's use right.

We should seek to be able to put it all to good use rather than evil.

[JoeMo]

We should; but we don't. It's not just crooks either; in some cases it is an orchestrated effort by enemy governments and terrorist organizations. Just because people are bent on evil doesn't mean they are incapable of putting together sophisticated malware. And just because they are masters at writing sophisticated software doesn't mean they are good people or good countries.

There have been instances where routers from other countries have malware built into the routers they send us.

Our own good old USA is involved in this type of activity as well, if people like Snowden are to be believed. I believe him.

[CoAspen]

True from the moment sin entered. Each age would qualify. From the beginning of the entrance of evil.

[JoeMo]

OK CoAspen; I must concede that point to you. There has been something that the world (or at least different cultures in different times) have seen things as gods. I appreciate your feedback.

You and MT need to have a runoff election for guru.

[CoAspen]

Nah.....by fear I am think more along of lines that some people are always looking for something to point at as being 'end of time' or 'this or that' shows how evil something is or how bad the world is getting.

I do understand your parallels.

[phkrause]

Anything can become a "God" JoeMo. In and of itself there is nothing wrong with Digital systems. As TV, or any other thing, they can be used for good or bad.

[M. T. Cross]

There was a great sci-fi series of books written by Jack Chalker that kind of addressed this. In this series what the people worshipped as their God was indeed a computer - though they did not realize it. Very well written, if you can find them the books are a great read and will make you think. Its called the Soul Rider series - but its out of print.

[JoeMo]

Hey MT,

I found a used paperback set of the novels on amazon; but it was $100. Must be a good read...

If you like that sort of stuff, you ought to check out "Revolution" on nbc.com.

[joeb]

I really dislike much of what our current, and future, technology is, and will be, used for. That said, I don't fear the technology itself for, as CoAspen said, it is simply knowledge. I dislike what evil men will do with the great increase we now have in knowledge/technology.

I think that much of the fear of technology is actually the fear of what evil will be done with it by unscrupulous people.

[CoAspen]

If you look back at history, fear was always there. Why, because its change and that is the difficult part. It is only a small minority that worries about the use for evil, evil has always been here. We get comfortable with the ways things are and when change comes, we invent reasons why not to change or become very negative about them. The fear of change is in every aspect of life. Those that don't fear are the forward thinkers, the researchers, the what if people. To the them the future is exciting, new exploration of ideas, new ways of doing, the future hasn't arrived so they want to shape it. It called he creative process, never should it be feared!

[JoeMo]

I also think one of the problems is that humanity has not advanced socially and spiritually nearly as much as he has advanced technologically. Many futurists view the enrichment brought about by technology assuming a utopian society where almost all men work for the good of the "enterprise" rather than to their own advantage. We still live in a society where the most popular radio station is WIIFM (What's In It For Me?) I am a risk manager by profession; so a large piece of my job is to think of what can go wrong and trying to determine the likelihood and impact of a "worst credible scenario". Frequently, the "worst credible scenario" involves an action by an unscrupulous or inadequately trained insider.

Usually though, it's the things you don't think about (or don't want to think about) that get you.

[Naomi]

It still comes down to "Is the glass half-full or half-empty"

We can embrace technology while accepting the potential it has for miss-use or we can say, "this has the potential to be a dangerous and deadly trend; something to fear"

So we fear the potential, avoid having it in our homes and lives, talk to others ... what have we accomplished?

Historically mankind has found ways to use "technology" or "new information" for good and for evil. Nuclear energy, lazier beams, various disciplines of chemical research, GMO, etc

Directly or indirectly each of the above listed are the result of the technological age/digital systems. There is not one that has not or cannot be used for evil ... yet have been used for good. Making something a "god" is an individual choice, We each have the choice of creating our personal god in our own individual or perhaps even in a closed discipline of like-minded followers. God (with a big G) is still in control. If we consider the historical accounts of evil plots (not Sci-Fi) but documented Biblical incidents ... many are also recorded in documentation which are not Christian ... we see that God (The Divine, etc) has only allowed the evil to advance in a limited capacity.

Sure be concerned; in the US, as in other countries, we lost our personal privacy years ago. They may have advanced to a more sophisticated level, but none-the-less existed and were used.

My Bible tells me this is all going to happen ... BUT GOD is still in control.

As for myself, I very much enjoy the good, accept the potential for evil, do what I can as an individual to effect a safer world ... without creating a fear-based atmosphere, pray .... and dance in the sunshine.

[Bravus]

I suspect TV is still the most insidious 'digital system'...

The other point I would make is that what we do on this site and Facebook has almost nothing to do with 'digital systems': they are just the medium. What we do is connect with other human beings. Just as in the face-to-face world, we need to make good choices about our human companions... and perhaps I'd extend that to fiction as well as social media.

[tigerwillow]

Trying to imagine how God could keep track of every detail of this planet is mind-boggling to me. This brings to my mind that text in Isaiah 55:8,9 that says His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are as high as the heavens from the earth compared to our thoughts (paraphrasing).

I agree with you that the increasing of knowledge can be both a good and a bad thing depending on how the knowledge is used.

But I think the verse that talks about knowledge increasing and people running to and fro could also be applied to end time prophecies. In the end times, people have the opportunity, through Ellen White and others, to understand the prophecies better than people could in any other age in history. Also I think people are "running to and fro" spiritually with all the confusing interpretations of what the prophecies could mean.

[debbym]

[what Ecclesiastes 1:18 says,] i find to be true.