(H) (535-546) Wishard, caught between the Ages

This chapter is mainly discussions about the trends that take us from one age to the next. Wishard discusses three important trends: globalization, technology development and long term psychological and spiritual orientation. Capitalism has taken over as the economic motto worldwide, Wishard makes the statement that globalization is the next big change facing the world’s society. Nations across the world would come together to be unified as one. This means cultures would adapt to one another; same goes for politics and economics. This could be good because it will bring all humans together. There will be no nationalities to fight over etc. Some people on the other hand might find this to be a plan of world domination by the elites of the world. This conspiracy is known as “The New World Order.” The second big change coming our way is technology development. Wished talks about technology advancement involving human living conditions and about robotic A.I.s (Artificial Intelligence). The fact that technology is advancing so quickly can be beneficial but it can also have some scary outcomes, like Wishard expresses. I believe that the power of the internet is where our greatest change will come from. The change has begun already; the internet is a powerful place where tons of information can be found. No longer will physical libraries be an option to us because we can find much more information online and a lot quicker. All this can be found at your fingertips, information for all, knowledge for all. I completely agree that technology development will bring upon change, but not through A.I.s, rather through the internet. We technically don’t have a private life if we have a screen in front of us. Our information can be sold right in front of our eyes but we wouldn’t even notice a slight bit. This is what happens when we have technology and media. The last significant change will come in the form of long-term psychological and spiritual reorientation as Wishard put it. What he means by this is that we are so lost in today’s day by so many religions and beliefs. We are a lost society searching for the answers we believe we’re seeking. In fact, there will be a huge shift in our psychological belief system where we are reassigned to different ways of living, something like a spiritual change. This is quite scary to think of because I believe there will be great resistance in having such a vital change in society. Next thing we know is the technology will be living our lives.