LEARNING DAILY

 

Daniel 12:4, But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. “ (the bold type is my emphasis)

 

Yes, I have written on this verse before. I refer to it because I am constantly amazed at the knowledge there is in the world. Most of you know my passion for reading and some times I read things that just send those shivers up and down my back. I have mentioned the book I just finished in another page of the blog; I will give you the name again in case you want to read it -- The Final Fight for Freedom, How to Save Our Country from Chaos and War. Sounds menacing, doesn’t it!? Let me share just a few things the book explains that are in our world today.

 

The first thing is known as CRISPR (or CRISPR-Cas9) which is gene therapy that aims to add, delete or correct genetic material in order to treat a disease. That sounds like a great advancement to treat some terrible diseases many people have to live with.  According to the authors of the book this works by “using a collection of proteins that can be programmed to do one thing: identify a particular sequence of DNA molecules (as determined by the scientist), and to remove the particular DNA from the cell. After the undesirable part of the genetic blueprint has been removed, CRISPR then fills the gap in the DNA sequence with whatever piece of genetic code it was loaded with by the scientist.” This is not something on the horizon, genetic alterations are already being done in vegetables. Scientists in China are already using CRISPR with monkeys and genetic code responsible for human intelligence. The authors did mention something about the movies Planet of the Apes! The frightening thought here “is the application of this technology is limited only by the creativity of the person who designs them”.

 

Let me just mention the technology that has developed with cybercrime. We have seen more and more stealing from people by those who use cyber technology. These people are very intelligent and can quickly counter any attempts by law enforcement to find them. Take this to a greater level and think about other nations who are using extremely advanced techniques to steal secrets of all kinds from our government. We cannot fool ourselves in to thinking this is not being done by those countries who want to see our country’s downfall.

 

Think about the advancements of artificial intelligence (AI) and how much faster AI can do the work humans can do. Those of you who have or have played with drones need to know how they are being used. There is not enough space in this page of the blog to explain nor am I smart enough to explain what is being done with them. All I know is that drones are able to form clusters, “feed” off each other to become more intelligent. From the book: “The key to effectiveness of drone swarm is what is called collective consciousness, or shared organization, or the hive mind: the ability of AI-controlled machines to make individual decisions based on collective consciousness and the shared sensory input of the entire swarm, and then to carry out the mission based on an intelligent assessment of the situation.”

 

This is just some of the information in this book. It has certainly opened my eyes and made me think of the verse from Daniel above. But let me share some encouragement. Psalm 56:3-4 says, “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His Word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” I have spent a lot of time writing on placing our trust and our faith in the Lord. The things we see happening all around this world must occur before the Lord Jesus Christ returns for His Church. Look to Him as the “author and finisher” of your faith. Do not fear!  Let me close with more encouragement from The Revelation 22:20, “He who testifies to these things says “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus.”