Technology in the World Tomorrow
Today the world is in a race to build AI. The people building AI say it could harm people and destroy the world. But they say if they don’t build it, someone else will, so they build it anyway.
Many of the people who are building AI have a vision of the future where AI robots will do all of the work. They say most people will not need work anymore. They will just watch videos and play video games all day.
In fact, many young people already have no job, and just watch videos all day. But they are not happy. Instead, many of them are very depressed. So they ask AI for mental health advice, and talk to their AI friends.
This is how people live today.
But what will people do in the future? We already read this on day 4, but let’s look at it again…
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
(Amos 9:13-14)
This prophecy describes people working on farms and stepping on grapes. Today people don’t step on grapes to make wine. They use machines. But this is a true prophecy about the future, and it describes people doing jobs that most people consider obsolete.
Why?
In the book of Revelation we read about high-tech weapons of war that will be used before the return of Christ. If the world during the 1000-year reign of Christ is going to be high-tech, the prophets could have found some way to describe it.
But the prophecies about the millennium don’t describe high-tech robots operating huge corporate farms.
Instead, we read a lot about small-scale, low-tech agriculture. We read about people working on family farms. We even read about oxen and donkeys used for plowing (Isaiah 30:24).
This may seem very strange. But there is a reason for it.
God’s ultimate purpose is to bring people into His eternal family. In the world tomorrow, God will organize society in the best way to accomplish that purpose. And technologies like AI don’t help people learn to live God’s way.
God has a better way to teach people to trust and rely on Him.
At the beginning of the millennium, God will give every family their own land, as we read in Ezekiel 47:21-22:
“Thus you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. It shall be that you will divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves, and for the strangers who dwell among you and who bear children among you. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.”
Every family in the whole world will inherit land, except for the Levites. Everyone can be a farmer if they want (except the Levites, because they will work for God).
If you gave everyone their own land today, it would only be a matter of time before a few rich people owned most of the land again. But God has a law that will prevent this from happening:
“The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. And in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land. If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold. Or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it, then let him count the years since its sale, and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession. But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of Jubilee; and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.” (Leviticus 25:23-28)
The Israelites never really obeyed this law. It will be followed for the first time during the 1000-year rule of Christ, and it will completely transform society.
Let’s consider how this law will change the world.
Today, there are a lot of people without jobs. In the world tomorrow, everyone who wants to work can grow their own food on their own land.
Today there are many poor people. In the world tomorrow, every generation will have a fresh opportunity to own their own land.
Today, many people don’t own a home. In the world tomorrow, everyone will have a place to build their own home.
Today, children often move far away from their parents. In the world tomorrow, children will inherit land from their parents when they become adults, so families will stay close together.
Today, many people move to cities for opportunities. In the world tomorrow, most people will stay on their family lands, because that is where the opportunities will be.
Today, the rich get richer by buying land. When they own the land, they control housing, food production, and the raw materials for clothing. In the world tomorrow, the rich cannot buy other people’s land forever.
Today, most people don’t own land. Even when people buy a house, the house usually actually belongs to a bank. So today most people are servants. They serve a boss and they serve a landlord or a bank. In the world tomorrow, everyone will own land. Everyone will have a place to build their own house. Everyone will have a place to grow their own food. So most people won’t need to work for someone else.
Most of the technologies we have today are like the pyramids in Egypt. They can only be built in a society where a few rich people control thousands of servants. In the world tomorrow, the structure of society will make it difficult or impossible to build and support many of the technologies we use today.
Most of us remember a time without AI, without smart phones, without the internet. When we didn’t have those things, we didn’t need them. But once we start to use them, we begin to rely on them.
In the world tomorrow, people will live simpler lives, with fewer distractions. People will actually work with their hands. People who grow their own food will learn to rely on God to bless them with rain and a good harvest:
For the open pastures are springing up,
And the tree bears its fruit;
The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And rejoice in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the former rain faithfully,
And He will cause the rain to come down for you—
The former rain,
And the latter rain in the first month.
The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,
And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. …
And it will come to pass in that day
That the mountains shall drip with new wine,
The hills shall flow with milk,
And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water;
A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord
And water the Valley of Acacias.
(Joel 2:22-24; 3:18)
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