Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 888 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

The State of the World, Communications – Ask Gramps

Thank you for joining us for our five days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 888 of our trek, and it is time for our Philosophy Friday series. Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.

As we continue on this trek called life, sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time when we can “Ask Gramps.” Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason are unable to. No matter how old we are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.

We will address areas such as finances, relationships, health/fitness, business/work, home repairs/renovations, seasons of life, spiritual/Biblical questions, and any others areas that come our way. As your fellow sojourner and mentor on this trek that we call life, it is Gramps’s goal to provide you with practical wisdom and advice about any area of life. It is crucial that I receive a constant flow of questions, so please submit your questions to guthrie@wisdom-trek.com. And Gramps will answer your questions on our Friday podcast.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. This week we will continue with part 3 of 3 for our question from last week which was…

“Hey Gramps, listening to most news sources and even many preachers, it seems like the world is getting worse each year, but is that really the case?”

The State of the World, Communications

Nearly everyone in the western world, and even in many developing nations own a smartphone or at least a mobile phone. One of the most prevalent areas where we have seen great advancements and improvements in our world is in the area of communication.

Many of us take it for granted now, but in 2017, we had 3.8 billion people connected on Earth. That is ½ of the entire world’s population, including all children. In the next five years, we’ll see the deployment of the 5G global network that Qualcomm has been developing, which will enable many more types of connected devices.

We’re about to see Facebook and Google launch large amounts of balloons, drones, and satellites. The company, OneWeb has plans to deploy 900 satellites leveraging a $1.2 billion Softbank investment. In addition to that 4,425 satellites are being launched by SpaceX. Within the next 5-10 years, it will provide connection capability to every single human on the planet with a gigabit connection speed. This will be a gigabit connection for everyone, effectively for free.

That connection represents a lifeline for health sciences. It’s an ability to upload data or enable AI support. Imagine doctors in the US or other countries being able to perform advanced surgeries remotely to areas where health care is limited or unavailable. Think of all the good that can be brought about by these advancements in communications and connectivity. Imagine how much easier it will be to reach the world to build God’s kingdom through the proliferation of His Good News to every tribe and nation. This is truly great news.

And it doesn’t slow down. With the “Internet of Things” and a proliferation of sensors, by 2020 we’ll have 50 billion connected devices with a trillion sensors in the world. By 2030, we’ll see 500 billion connected devices with 100 trillion sensors.

Regarding health, every single person will have the ability for real-time monitoring. Every single element of their lives – their glucose, their blood pressure, their microRNAs, their vitamin D levels – will be able to be uploaded to an AI that can convey their exact health status.

We’ll all have a version of JARVIS from “Iron Man.” These personal AIs can collect our data and enable us to be the CEO of our own health. The longer we live, the more impact we can have on the world.

The acceleration continues with genome sequencing. Back in 2000, the price of sequencing a human genome – all 3.2 billion letters of your life – was $100 million and took 9 months’ time. Today, it’s $1,000 per genome, and within two years, with Illumina’s newest machines, it will cost about $100 and be completed in 1 hour. This will provide the gateway to proactive healthcare and health maintenance by preventing major diseases from starting. This is equivalent to a trillion-fold increase in price-performance capability, which is, in turn, driving a revolution in cellular medicine, stem cells, natural killer cells, and all types of cancer cells.

While some people may be fearful because of the potential abuses in these technological advancements, as with most fears, they are in our minds and really not grounded in reality. To most of us, a sneeze isn’t too scary, but in centuries past, it was full of deadly possibilities. In the Middle Ages, besides being a possible harbinger of the Black Death, a sneeze was thought to put you at risk for accidentally expelling your spirit. Hence, it became custom to say “God bless you” to keep the spirit within.

We have the ability, with access to these technologies, to say, “This is the problem I want to solve.” We often talk about our desires and our abilities. We are currently living in a time a day and age that within our lifetimes, we will truly have the ability to meet the physical and spiritual needs of every man, woman, and child on this planet.

At no other time in history did we as individuals and as the Church of Jesus Christ have the opportunity to reach everyone in the world for building God’s kingdom. Even this podcast reaches thousands of people in dozens of countries throughout the world. This would not have been remotely possible just a few years ago. Within a few years, communication and connectivity will be available to every person in the world. Instead of being fearful of the real or potential problems in the world, let us move boldly forward to impact the world for good and for God.

Even if we face opposition and difficult times, let us take advantage of the truly good opportunities that we have in our world today. Let us move forward as the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesian believers in Ephesians 6:18-20, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike. I am in chains now, still preaching this message as God’s ambassador. So pray that I w...

Day 888 – The State of the World, Communications – Ask Gramps