FUTURE EVENTS WE WANT TO AVOID 22 DEC 2013

This post is based on where current trends are taking us, even though many of us don’t want to go there. (Recently, it brightened my day when a clerk laughed when I said, “Old is good.” Obviously, she was not impressed with the all-too common notion that “new” is better.) No matter how dire the predictions & trends may seem, we are offered peace & joy through the Spirit of God. Rather than isolating & hiding, I encourage everyone to rise to challenge of doing noble deeds for humanity,…further, even simply gardening helps restore a person’s sense of peace.

FAKE BECOMES MORE REAL THAN REAL. This trend has already started. Show both the real thing & the fake and many people who are unacquainted with the real think it is the fake. This trend can only continue as society & the World gets increasingly strung out on fantasy. Some concepts are disappearing. The definition of marriage was a man & a woman joining in union for life. With the fake concept of gay “marriage”, I won’t be surprised if they don’t begin offering renewable short term marriages, further diluting the real definition of marriage. The nuclear family will continue to disintegrate & people will increasingly be living more alone & having fewer real friends. Superficial relationship will continue replacing deep genuine ones.

NATIONALISM RISES IN CHINA & RUSSIA, (& hopefully not India). With the dilution of communism in Russia & China, something to unify and motivate the people will replace it. Already signs appear that this will be militant nationalism. Russia has not done well after communism collapsed. Many Russians feel like it is now worse than during the worst of communism. Their criminalocracy is not democracy but they have been told it is, so like in Germany in the ‘20’s, they will be glad to dump “democracy” for a strong nationalism that restores their empire & can control the Russian mob. Red China would fragment without a strong govt., but they want economic success, so it stands to reason they will turn to nationalism, which they have been doing. India, in the BRIC alliance with Russia & China keeps it 700 million wretchedly poor people in line by using Hindu nationalism. But the gap between the 300 million middle class & rich with the 700 million poor is growing. India may develop leaders who think militant nationalism will prevent problems. So we have the future possibility of 3 militant nationalistic powers aligning together just as Germany, Italy & Japan did. That would be a hard combo to beat. Japan is heavily invested in no. China, Taiwan in so. China. Both fear China, and are dependent upon the umbrella of our military protection. The days of that security which the USA provides are numbered due to America’s own problems.

SMART EVERYTHING, (or out thinking ourselves). The inanimate objects around us will get smarter. The bugs flying may actually be govt. bugs! There will be smart dust, smarter cars, smart front doors telling us who is there, smart food, smart clothes, well you name it, & it can be given intelligence. A Japanese co. has already produced computers that respond to voice commands eliminating the need for a mouse. But where is the rise of machine intelligence going (A.I.)—toward the sci-fi picture of smart machines taking control from people…I can see it happening. Especially since the military is making transhumans. And if they start down loading a person consciousness into a robot—we humans (the ones left alive) are most likely are going to serve the transhumans.

HIT BY AN ASTEROID. We will know more in 2029 when we see the orbit of Apophis, which returns in 2036. At present, we can only hope the news will be good because it is a 500 meter asteroid that flies close to the earth periodically. We have had a few “close calls”: in Mar. ’89, it was asteroid “1989 FC”, in May 1996 it was the minor planet “1996 JA1”, and in Mar. 2009 it was another asteroid that flew very close. Our telescopes watched Jupiter collide with parts of the comet Shoemaker-Levy. Such an event would ruin everyone’s day. From what I can determine, our ability to spot, predict & then protect us from such collisions does not exist. World-wide we have 7 observatories intentionally watching near-Earth orbiting (NEO) objects, 3 of which are in AZ. NEOs will continue to whizz by the earth…there are perhaps 12,000 of them, but only 4,000 have been spotted & are being watched.

Somebody recently told me that with all these horrible things hanging over our heads people should want to turn to God. I can’t help having several verses come to mind: Seek the Lord while He may be found (ISA 55:6), except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish (LK 13:5), and a final but sad one, “in those days men shall seek death”. REV 9:6 May we be instruments of God’s Spirit in the upcoming times of stress & destability, bringing life to a dying World.