36019¥314 on the other hand, technology often ....

Q
DEFINES THE SCOPE AND LIMITS OF OUR RELIGIOUS VISIONS, like a waiter
that demarcates our appetites by handing us a menu?! New technologies kill old gods &
give birth to new gods! That's why agricultural deities were different from hunter-gatherer
spirits, why factory hands fantasised about different paradises than peasants and why the
revolutionary technologies of the 21st century are far more likely to spawn unprecedented
Religious Movements than to revive medieval creeds! Islamistical fundamentalists may con-
stantly repeat the mantra 'Islam is THÉ ÀNSWER' ("Allahuakbar, Inshallah, Laillahailah and
muhammadrassulallah" etceterara), but all our religions that lose touch with the techno-logical
realities of the day forfeit their ability even to understand the questions being asked! What will then
happen to the job market once artificial intelligence outperforms humans in most cognitive tasks? And
what will be the political impact of a massive new class of economically useless people? What will then
also happen to our relationships, families & pension funds when nanotechnology & regenerative medicine
turn 80 in the new 50? What will happen to human society when biotechnology enables us to have designer
babies, and to open unprecedented gaps between rich and poor? You will not find the answers to any of these
questions in the QUR'AN or sharia law, nor in the Bible or in the Confucian Analects, because nobody in the
medieval Middle East or in ancient China knew much about computers, genetics or nanotechnology. Radical
Islam may promise an anchor of certainty in a world of technological & economic storms - but in order to
navi-gate a storm you need a map & a rudder rather than just an anchor! Hence radical Islam may appeal
to people born & raised in its fold, but it has precious little to offer unemployed Spanish youths or anxious
Chinese billio-naires! True, hundreds of millions may nevertheless go on believing in Islam, Christianity or
Hinduism; but these nùmbers alone don't count for much in history: history is often shaped by many small
groups of forward-looking innovators rather than by the backward-looking masses.
26 sep 2019 - bewerkt op 28 sep 2019 - meld ongepast verhaal
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Asih, man, 80 jaar
   
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