EDITORIAL: In The Digital World

The world is a witness, beneficiary as well as victim of the non-stop industrial revolution. The rate of change in science and technology is blinding and accelerating.

Global internet connectivity has changed the systems in education, commerce, government, and the workplace. Access to government and private business and social transactions is now required to be online. Global climate change is adding to the confusion and threat in our daily lives.

This kind of change is affecting our lifestyles. It is forcing us to live and follow a new kind of existence in an alien digital environment. Digital transformation is pushing a new global political and economic order that only a few will manage.

The change also forces people to use IT systems, software, and apps for all human interactions from engineering and product designs, communications, writing, augmented virtual reality, and less tangible technology such as the Internet. All of which need adapted skills, knowledge, and of course plenty of money to acquire. To catch up and join the global trend, the acquisition, and ownership of devices such as personal computers, laptops, tablets, digital cameras, and WIFI stations are becoming urgent economic necessities.

The competition for skills and talent is inevitably increasing and will continue to continue exponentially. Those who will have no, or less education and training in IT and the new technologies will suffer from Intellectual poverty and bullying. Those who have the technical knowledge and skill in utilizing the system will accumulate more wealth and power.

The digital world has hastened the rise and popularity of social media, the cashless society, and the advent of artificial intelligence. It is causing a cultural transformation into the gadget family. A breakfast table is no longer a place for family stories, but for app chats, Prayers before eating have been replaced by photo apps to be posted on Facebook, Instagram, or Tik-tok. Family members are having contests on the number of social media followers, not family relatives, and friends.

And the most horrible thing is the use of science and technology for the destruction of mankind through the surge of weapons for military warfare.

Where this digital area is leading us is only certain for those who can quickly switch capabilities, and are skilled in personal adjustments. Those who cannot will be left behind and will become orphans of this modern revolution.

What can we do? We cannot stop this global trend; we cannot change the course of technical and scientific innovation. But we can continue to use our God-given gift of human emotions, and the universal ethical principles to influence the people who are in the saddle of change, to incorporate in their inventions the interest, health, and safety of humankind.