We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby!

We are almost two decades into the 21st Century. Remember the predictions and panic about Y2K? The computers were not programmed for the year 2000 – all would be lost. The utility grids would all fail leaving us without electricity and communications. Our office networks and personal computers would fail, wiping out all available data. It equated to the ancient world’s sacking of the library at Alexandria. We would be plunged into darkness. But the year 2000 came and 2000 went – and, amazingly, the computers were still humming along. So, what predictions did the world make at the beginning and mid- 20th Century about modern times? Remember, they were using the knowledge of their time. At the beginning of the 20th Century there were no telephones, radios or televisions in homes, and some of these inventions had not even come about yet. But Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, told the world that one day people would be able to walk around with telephones, talk to people all over the world and do business remotely. Mr. Bell hit the center ring of the bullseye with that prediction! What would he think about people ringing your door bell and you answering that door miles away? Amazing, yes. People predicted that photos of current events could be sent to the newspaper within an hour. They were correct, to a degree, but surely it would send them into orbit if they could see how easy it is to live stream and watch events all over the world as they unfold. All of this we owe to technology, and the forecasters were positive that technology was the evolution of the future. Another prediction was common after WWI of using armies of iron robot soldiers instead of humans to fight wars. Terminators, here we come! A chilling thought, but through modern technology there are now robotics in our armed forces on the land, air and sea. Other predictions have not been invented yet. With the advent of the automobiles, people thought we would be able to have flying cars and levels of highway in the sky. Others thought by now we would have cured cancer and the common cold. Some thought a 25 to 30-hour work week would become common place, which sounds good, but these days if you only work 40 hours a week, you have it easy. Yes, we have come a long way, and our daily lives are being changed rapidly, but one part of us cannot be changed by technology. The love we carry within us has not changed over time. I salute the hard-working men and women of the modern era and wish this New Year to be filled with blessings and bright moments of happiness for all of you.