Today's Wisdom

Those who do not pass from the experience of the cross to the truth of the resurrection condemn themselves to despair! For we cannot encounter God without first crucifying our narrow notions of a god who reflects only our own understanding of omnipotence and power
Pope Francis

Friday, August 31, 2018

The Future is Here !


The pace of change in human relations has been accelerated in view of high technology that invades the minds of children as much as it does the minds of their parents. For example, many children are given iphones by their parents. At the same time, parents are busy everyday in their jobs until they come home while the children have time to go on playing games or, worse, access the internet for indecent shows, or pornographic sites that attempt to lure teenagers or older persons into joining them online or physically. This is a moral problem that modern technology contributed in accelerating. On the positive side, the Internet is a very good online medium for those who wish to learn more or develop their skills. Many Christian sites are available for those who wish to learn about the Bible or Christian history. Some blogs have been created by Biblical scholars. For example, Fr. Felix Just, S.J., Ph.D, is a Biblical scholar who has been maintaining a website for Bible studies, Church Mass, and sites related to the Society of Jesus. See http://catholic-resources.org See too Ignatian Spirituality here. Another site founded by the Biblical scholar Scott Hahn, Ph.D. that would help students in free online courses can be found here. Of particular interest to Christians is "The Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club" site here which contains important lectures by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) on the moral imperatives required by Christians today.  Pope Benedict XVI had a keen knowledge of the relationship of faith to reason in modernity which he addressed to his students at the University of Regensburg in September 2006 here. In his address he referred to a conversation around 1394 between the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Muslim Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam concerning holy war. This took place when Constantinople was besieged by the Ottoman armies. Benedict XVI's Lecture contained a reference to the emperor's point that spreading one's faith through violence is unreasonable. Muslims reacted to the Pope's address by condemning him - In some primitive countries such as Pakistan, violence broke out against anything Christian. In Egypt, Al-Azhar stopped the dialogue with the Catholic Church. One Muslim author wrote a polite reply to Benedict's Lecture here.  In his reply we read about the Jesuit scholar Fr. Samir Khalil Samir and other Jesuit scholars too. Obviously the daring Pope was concerned about the future of Christianity in the world after the 9/11 infamous attack in 2001 by jihadists who hated the West's superpower.
I have been reading a copy of Joseph Ratzinger's "Introduction to Christianity". It is the revised edition that Ratzinger updated when in 2004 he was the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during the papacy of 
Pope Saint John Paul II. Ratzinger dedicates 22 pages writing about the Jesuit scientist Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. for his prophetic and evolutionary views on the development of consciousness which is found in Man. He also shows much interest in quantum mechanics and Schrodinger's findings that show the particle-wave superposition reality in particles. This confirms that each individual lives in subjective relational character - The individual can then say "I believe" to God...The Creed is based on the community's belief that God is with us...
Quantum mechanics has already been studied by scientists. Recently I accessed a TED talk given by Professor Harry Cliff at Geneva in 2015 where he spoke about Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, the age and expansion of the universe, and the work at the Large Hadron Collider i.e. LHC (
here). In October 2016, the Nobel laureate Professor Steven Weinberg gave a long lecture here on quantum physics and understanding matter in the universe. In November 2017, I wrote on "The Quantum Universe" here. In fact, in July 2018, LiveScience publication reported here new findings of scientists at Harvard University that String Theory may conceivably not allow as many mutliverses as thought earlier. In June 2018, it was reported that scientists at CERN found quarks that made up the missing bond of the Higgs Boson (here). On August 31, 2018, CERN reported here that scientists working at CMS, that is part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), came much closer to Dark Quarks that cause Dark Matter in the cosmos.   But is this really the end of physics? Not really -Artificial intelligence is already here. The next wave will be the use of robots to help in manufacturing. Intelligent engineers will need to learn how to design and use them.
Based on courses given by professors at MIT in 2012-2013 (published through Coursera), computer engineering students and computer engineers need to be familiar with the following: 
1.       Big Data Technologies: Map Reduce, Hadoop, PIG, HBase, Dremel…
2.       Machine Learning: Classification, clustering, rule Mining, Deep Learning…
3.       Artificial Intelligence (AI): Logic, reasoning, rule engines, semantic web…
Intelligent machines mimic human brain and eventually through statistical patterns intelligent computers achieve an operation that mimics human intelligence in commercial applications for marketing such as Amazon.com and ads in YouTube.com which is part of Google that has become a powerful American-based web-based intelligence. This technology may very well be the very future of powerful influence of the United States in many countries and possibly used against human moral values. The dilemma remains when competition between nations evolves into space wars via intelligent machines. The Russian President spoke early in 2018 to the legislators in Russia saying that Russia has advanced technology in Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency (here) while radical Islam has already made in-roads in Europe. Germany leading the European Union has already been suffering because of this phenomenon that in March 2018,  the interior Minister said 'Islam does not belong to Germany' (see here).  Merkel has won re-election after achieving a political compromise with opposing parties in Germany. But Germany is not the only industrial nation that suffers from leadership that is "politically correct" although it is the leading technologically-advanced country in Western Europe. There is much going on as both the United States and Russia have strategic stakes in Europe. On the negative side, in November 2017, The Pew Forum released its statement on growing Muslim population in Europe (see here). In October 2017, the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad speaking in France warned Christians in Europe about the new ways radical Islam is establishing itself and encouraged Christians to rediscover their roots (homily in French here). On advanced technology China too is not lacking in progress. Its ambitions to land astronomers on the Moon have been published since June 2017 (see 
here). In an interview with Professors Michio Kako and Antonio Damasio published in 2016 they emphasized the genetic, economic proliferation in competition, and quantum mechanics (here). Today nanotechnology is being used in new medicine. What future do we expect?
  

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"Behold I make all things new." (Revelation 21:5)







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