Communication, Collaboration: Cellular Calling

I am always amazed at how technologically advanced we have become over previous generations.

Man has come a long way since the days of simply finding food, shelter and clothing.

Invention of fire, bow and arrow, metal-working, the wheel, hieroglyphics, alphabets, sea navigation, the printing press, steam engine for boats and trains, the assembly line, radio waves, sound recording, electricity, the automobile, airplane, rocketship, telephone, television, computers, air-conditioning, refrigeration, spacecraft, internet, lasers, nuclear technology, biotechnology, the space station and recently the mobile smart phone has proceded with dizzying pace.

In my youth, I thought that we had already discovered all possible inventions. Man had recently stepped on the moon, and it seems that there were no more spheres to conquer. Yet the past few decades have practically seen more inventions than the last millenia combined. This dizzying pace, confounded by the various "Springs" in the Arab World do not bode well for peace.

Yet for the believing Jew, they fit well into the prophecies of old. A grand battle of Gog and Magog is shaping up. Once thought to be the USA vs. the USSR, the battle now seems to be defined as the West vs. the Islamic World. Not only will the conflict be fought with unconventional weapons, but we are getting closer and closer to a technology war, whereby the fighting will be with our computers against theirs.

The dizzying pace of the technology race is one to be noted. I recently re-read a few pages of a popular mystery series from my youth, only to discover that the the villains cut the phone wires to prevent communication with the authorities. I laughed. Today's child would not understand, which explains why these books need to be updated every so often, to replace the roadsters of old with the modern equivalents.

A recurring theme on this blog is how technology is fueling a floundering belief. There was a time when people accepted as an act of faith that the arrival of Moshiach will be known throughout the world simultaneously. As time went on, there were those who questioned how such a thing will be possible; yet today's savvy technologically advanced youth will accept it as par for the "smartphone" course.