Church/Future Reloaded (Pt. 1)

Church/Future Reloaded (Pt. 1):
From Here to Where?

Alwyn Lau


A United States general once said, "If you don't like change, you'll like irrelevance even less." We in the church, far from reverting to our traditional immutability (of thinking, of identity) must boldly face the task of reexamining our role, our methods and our priorities, in the light of a world changing at the speed of thought.


This series invites you – the reader, the community – to narrative loopy voyage into a future which is already the present.


Did You Know?[i][1]
· Sometimes size does matter. If you're one in a million in China, there are 1,300 people just like you. (In India, there are 1,100 people just like you)
· The 25% of the population in China with the highest IQ's is greater than the total population of North America. And more than 10 times the population of Malaysia. In India, it's the top 28%.
· Translation : They have more honors students than we in Malaysia have adults.


Did you know?
· There are over 110 million registered users of MySpace[ii][2] and if MySpace were a country, it would be the 11th-largest in the world (between Japan and Mexico)
· There are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month. To whom were these questions addressed B.G.? (Before Google)
· The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.
· There are about 540,000 words in the English language, about 5 times as many as during Shakespeare's time.
· More than 3,000 new books are published - daily.
· It's estimated that a week's worth of a daily newspaper from a developed country contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.
· It's estimated that 40 exabytes (that's 4.0 x 1019) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year. That's more than in the previous 5,000 years. The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. It's predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010.
· What does the church value most? How is information linked to truth and perspective?


Did you know?
· Third generation fiber optics has recently been separately tested by NEC and Alcatel that pushes 10 trillion bits per second down one strand of fiber[iii][3]. That's 1,900 CDs or 150 million simultaneous phone calls every second. It's currently tripling about every 6 months and is expected to do so for at least the next 20 years. The fiber is already there, they're just improving the switches on the ends. Which means the marginal cost of these improvements is effectively $0.
· 47 million laptops were shipped worldwide last year. The $100 laptop project is expecting to ship between 50 and 100 million laptops a year to children in underdeveloped countries[iv][4].
· Predictions are that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capability of the Human Brain.. By 2023, a $1,000 computer will exceed the computation capability of the Human Brain . . .
· Predictions are that by 2049 a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the human race.


Interactives:
1. How do you feel after reading the above? Share your feelings with someone.
2. What part does/should the church play in this exabyte era? How is the church absorbing and constructing new information? Or are we generally passive players?
3. Futurist Alvin Toffler wrote that, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." Do you think he's right? How are you as a Christian – and how are we as a church – learning, unlearning and re-learning?
[i][1] The following is adapted from http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/. Visit the link for updates on the facts and figures.
[ii][2] http://www.myspace.com/
[iii][3] http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/ereport/2007/may/technotes.html
[iv][4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6224183.stm


Alwyn Lau is a Researcher and Teacher at KDU College. Being an astute theological thinker, he is interested in theological methods, emerging theologies, as well as the relevance of the Christian faith to the emerging generation. Alwyn is also concerned about issues pertaining to education. He is presently studying for a Master of Business Administration degree after having his first degree in BScHons Economics (University of London, UK);. He blogs on http://www.alwynlau.blogdrive.com/.