FORBIDDEN PLANET - THE FATE OF THE KRELL...
Will technology save us or damn us?
In another forum, my friend Fish -
- sent along a link to Michael Milken’s recent interview with Elon Musk:
BREAKING: New Elon Musk Interview Milken Institute (youtube.com)
In the Milken interview, speaking about going to the stars, Musk commented:
"You wanna have some sense that the future 's gunna be better than the past."
For Musk, a better future for mankind lies somewhere out in the cosmos…
My question is, if one wants to get a realistic idea of what’s coming down the pike, what would such a rosy "sense" of the future be based on? Apart from wishful thinking, why would a thoughtful person think things are going to be better in days to come?
Musk, I think, is consumed with his vision of advancing technology. Not necessarily a bad thing. However, as a man of the world (eleven children by three women), he, I believe, has no grasp of or has not focused on the real forces that will determine and always have determined what lies ahead.
The driver of the future, as I have long argued, is the individual and collective intellectual, moral and spiritual substance of mankind - and by those dynamics, things are not looking particularly good for us right now.
Technology, no matter how advanced, will never have power to regenerate the corrupt soul of man - the "natural man" in all of us that is an "enemy to God" (Mosiah 3:19) - the evil, destructive spirit that has from the beginning, no matter what the current stage of technology, raged up and down in the earth and wrought havoc, blood and horror on mankind.
Existing only in the physical, tangible dimension, technology has no power to drive and will not drive a future that is determined by forces in an intangible dimension of things - the human mind, character and spirit - indeed a dimension - especially the moral and spiritual aspects of it - that many technologists - atheists - deny even exists.
If there is no God, then there are no absolutes of good and evil, no morality, no spirituality...
Man must make his own salvation…
In this realm, the Natural Man reigns supreme...
Though the Godless work hard to convince themselves otherwise - some even believing it is technology, not God, that will grant them eternal life - technology will not be mankind's savior. The future of the human race will depend not on technology but entirely on what it has always depended upon - the quality of our collective intellectual, moral and spiritual substance.
All technology can do is what we have already seen it do throughout history, ancient and modern. It provides us new and better tools that can be used to both good and bad ends - aspirations and purposes, again, that spring most often from the corrupt workings of God’s enemy, the unregenerate human soul - the Natural Man. If that soul, individually or collectively, orients itself to reality - the way things really are and really work - in a self-destructive way (you can’t fool Mother Nature) - then technology, which has no mind of its own, will, as it has throughout history, accommodate and facilitate that self-destructive impulse with ever better tools to get the job done more rapidly and efficiently.
One futuristic, dazzling example of technology now at our doorstep jumps to mind - the coming "Multiverse". Created by AI technology, this will be a fantastical realm, indistinguishable from reality but separated from true reality - where people can immerse themselves and indulge their wildest fantasies.
You think booze, tobacco and drugs are addictive?
Just wait for the Multiverse…
Will this technology save us or damn us?
Who will want to live in the boring real world?
This reminds me again (I may have made reference to this before) of an early sci-fi movie (1956) produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - "Forbidden Planet". The film - which can be watched free online HERE - has one of the most creative and imaginative sci-fi plots ever - and, though dated, the special effects aren't really that bad. The story is so good, in fact, that, IMHO, it deserves a remake utilizing the best special effects technology currently available.
A key element in the plot (spoiler alert) is this distant planet's ancient race of people, the Krell, who were extremely technologically advanced and constructed in the interior of their planet a limitless power source. Drawing upon that power, they were, by means of their advanced technology, able to create physical objects simply by taking thought. Then, in one night, they were all destroyed by fantastic creatures - monsters they themselves had created out of the depraved, unregenerate depths of their subconscious minds - "monsters from the id" - "the 'id' [another word for the Natural Man] being the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche that responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs, and desires..."
The film makes my point while providing good entertainment. Technology by itself is neither good nor bad. It all depends on how it is used - and how it is used is dictated by the intellectual, moral and spiritual substance of the people using it.
As history so richly attests, the rule of the Natural Man is utterly incompatible with a better future. The Germans in Hitler’s time - a time when the Natural Man ruled their country - arrogantly envisioned a glorious future for themselves - to be obtained by brutalizing, subjugating or outright exterminating the non-Germans - the “untermensch” - the Nazi term for “subhumans” - living around them. What they got instead was a Germany burned to the ground:
Thus, we cannot address the question of our future without considering the extent to which the Natural Man is at work among us - in ourselves, our families, our communities, our government, our nation. To disregard this critical, pivotal dynamic would be a truly colossal mistake with immeasurable negative consequences - yet there are powerful forces at work among us seeking to deflect our attention away from it… indeed, to ridicule and discredit those who even raise the issue…
But, if we somehow manage to get so far as to acknowledge the existence of the Natural Man and the need somehow to confront him in ourselves and our society, what means are available to us to do that?
Like it or not, when it comes to our great existential conflict with the Natural Man - the unregenerate, uncontrollable Mr. Hyde lurking in all of us - there is only one way out, only one hope for success:
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:19
That part about being "willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father" makes it very clear why your typical Natural Man will have none of it. Being "submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love" are not characteristics of the Natural Man - and that word "inflict" sounds particularly uninviting - unless you know that God loves you, is your friend, your Father:
"Endure your suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you do not experience discipline, something all sons have shared in, then you are illegitimate and are not sons. Besides, we have experienced discipline from our earthly fathers and we respected them; shall we not submit ourselves all the more to the Father of spirits and receive life? For they disciplined us for a little while as seemed good to them, but he does so for our benefit, that we may share his holiness. Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness for those trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your listless hands and your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet...
Hebrews 12:7-12 (New English Translation)
Sorry, Elon. If there is a better future ahead for us, it will not be found somewhere out among the stars, in the distant cosmos, reached by some fantastic new technology, but quietly, right here, from the workings of the reborn, transformed human heart and spirit.
You can’t fool Mother Nature…
Accordingly, as is true for each of us individually, the fate of America, our collective fate, will be inexorably determined by the nature of our relationship with God, who alone has power to overcome our innate self-destructive propensities, put down the Natural Man and transform the human soul, creating a new creature, reborn, “childlike, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father…”
Right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, reality vs. fantasy, order vs. chaos, law vs. lawlessness, patriotism vs. treason, liberty vs. tyranny, light vs. darkness, good vs. evil, happiness vs. misery, God vs. the Godless…
Time to choose…
If you can be fooled, you will be…
These are the times that try men’s souls…
Torquemada