Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor
March 17, 2017
The comforts provided by modern technology speak for themselves in terms of how our quality of life has generally improved. Some of us who’ve been around for a while have watched technology transition from rotary dial phones to “Dick Tracy”-style smartwatches with Bluetooth capability.
And the rate at which technology is expanding is shocking!
Thomas Frey, senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute and Google’s top-rated Futurist speaker predicts on his website that “By 2030, the average person in the U.S. will have 4.5 packages a week delivered with drones. They will travel 40 percent of the time in a driverless car, use a 3D printer to print hyper-individualized meals, and will spend most of their leisure time on an activity that hasn’t been invented yet.”
Understand, when I speak against the progressive movement, I’m not referencing modernization.
Progressivism is a conforming ideology, not an advancement in technology.
But the insurgence of technology, especially as it relates to cyber crime, has taken its toll on society. Many of us are at a loss for how to respond or to even believe what we hear or see!
I’m concerned there’s a criminal element, existing at multiple levels, intent upon capitalizing on this uncertainty and perverting, via weaponization, modern technology against mankind.
And it’s growing at a rate the government can no longer hide.
Through the years, we’ve watched shows like “Star Trek” and movies like “Star Wars” provide a frightfully accurate view into our present day. Film visionaries, striving for originative scripts to ensnare audiences, later gave us “The Terminator” collection of films about a futuristic conflict between humans and cyborgs controlled by a self-aware computer.
This isn’t so futuristic now.
In addition to the “Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!” terrorists, I’m confident they’re more subtle, next-gen terrorists engaging in “hack-a-thons” where people come together and use technology to transform ideas into reality.
Except, these are bad people, with skewed perceptions of life’s journey.
Imagine an invisible terrorist cell leveraging advanced technology to build a cyberspace army capable of engaging and decapacitating the enemy on a level playing field where all the ships, fighter jets and tanks in our arsenal couldn’t win.
Scary? Absolutely. Inevitable? Certainly not!
Albert Einstein was quoted as saying, “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
While I don’t entirely subscribe to Einstein’s ubiquity of evil, his thoughts certainly resonate. The canker and corruption we face daily have driven too many intellectual people into the shadows of apathy and ignorance, either too disgusted to act or too fearful to try.
And in some cases, solutions have become antiquated and ineffectual.
Is it time to send Arnold Schwarzenegger back in time to save the world?
Not yet.
But it is time to pull together the most brilliant and innovative millennial minds among us to help arrive at solutions befitting our technologically savvy enemy.
Because the enemy’s face is evolving. And we simply aren’t prepared.
Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
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