When we look at the concept of faith, it’s a topic that a lot of folks are familiar with, but I’m not going into the exegesis of faith this time around. What this piece is about locks into the arena of Faith and the Future and I hope this blesses your heart.

The first key thing to highlight in the context of Faith and the Future is that Faith stems from the place of identity consciousness, it stems from the state of knowing who you are as a child of God, and it rests on the understanding of your state in Christ and what He has done for you and the implications of it. This is very important because this is what enables you to grow in what is called the righteousness consciousness.  

We have lots of Christians out there who are saved yes, but they cannot live the reality of being a true believer because they are more in tune with what is called the sin consciousness and not the righteousness consciousness or the Christ consciousness.  Our identity as sons (daughters) of God overflows from this righteousness consciousness.

Now taking it further in the context of this episode on Faith and the Future; Why do we need to have righteousness consciousness?

We live in a world where a lot of things are happening, we are in the digital age, a time where events can be accessed and experienced easily through the Internet, through the media and every other digital channel that we use in getting information. This process creates some kind of collective perception because of the pervasive nature of these media technologies. By just swiping through your smartphone you are able to access every event in the world.

This collective perception of human activities aided by media tech will evolve a type of future many may not have envisaged. I will say it like this, the Future is collective and I’m going to explain what I mean by this later but let me go back to where I started from.

The place of faith in terms of identity and righteousness consciousness is very important because this creates a spiritual substance of value that is powerful and it is what I call divine hope.

Hope is a very powerful weapon. The most influential event in world history where we've seen revolution, if you look at the root of it you’ll see that hope is one of the virtues that spurred it. When people are at the fringes of losing hope they might do anything or will do anything to fight for it and if they lose hope they become destructive.

Now we are in a time where people are being collectively informed, people are being collectively exposed to specifically targeted information to create a kind of collective perception or consciousness in the world. I say it is collective because it captures the culture-shaping process of when a lot of people are exposed to the same series of information again and again and again. This repetitive process of exposure to certain information, be it through movies, songs, art, or sport, inspires in people a picture of how they expect the world should be or is going to turn out. This is the collective perception I am talking about that eventually leads to a collective expectation or hope which eventually evolves into what I call Collective Consciousness.

I will say this 'cause I'm speaking to believers. Collective Consciousness is the future. The phrase may not sound churchy but it is spiritual. The trust is, as believers we are already practising this thing called Collective Consciousness, it is what we call the Mind of Christ. Having the mind of Christ is essential for every believer that aims to practise Christ. This is how Christ aims to bring his body to perfection, ensuring we function organically putting the body first ahead of individualism.

But here is the point I am trying to make, we know that the devil the accuser and deceiver will always take what is original & of God and pervert it or re-do it into something of his own kind. So when we see for example the collective consciousness I have been talking about which is the mind of Christ in the context of believers, we will also see in full maturity a type of unrighteous collective consciousness in the world in people who do not believe in Christ as Lord. This is so because billions of people around the world are also being collectively exposed to have collective expectations in their hearts of what they think the world will turn out to be. Where the substance of their heart that is responsible for hope will be turned towards a particular direction to bring forth a reality based on whatever force that is controlling them. This is going to be a powerful weapon in the hands of the devil.

As believers in Christ, we know the reality that is the anchor of our heart, which is Christ and extensively that we are the righteousness of God. But I’m saying this so that like men of Isacchar we know the times that we are in and we understand what we must do.  The powerful force released through collective consciousness is not only going to be practised by the church of Christ. It is also evolving in the hearts of billions around the world and it’s going to be powerful. We will see collective consciousness evolve as a way of life amongst people of this world who are not of Christ, it is going to be based on the same nature of diverse information being perpetuated through the media and it’s going to be organic.  It will look harmless but it is not, and this new way of living is going to be creating a powerful force that when billions of people are having a collective expectation of how the world will turn out to be, then it is something to be ignored. Of course, we reckon much more with what we are, which is that we are Christ we are the righteousness of God and this informs our own expectations of the future.

This heart pondering continues in the second release of this episode on Faith and the Future.

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How does a believer function and live purposefully in today’s world? Living righteously and ethically when it seems disruptions via technological innovations are redefining human civilization making people believe more in life without God.

You might be wondering, why technology? Why should we talk about it? Are we not meant to focus on the things of God as believers? Yes, we should. But, the things of God should not be limited to religious stuff. God is not a Christian, He is God. He is absolute and we must learn to see from His perspective. God is Love. He is a creator and a magnificent one at that.

Stewardship and Redemption

We must be concerned with Technological Systems because it is a part of our responsibility. The original mandate that was given to Man, starting with Adam, still stands though there are different layers on how it is to happen. As faithful stewards, we must continue to manage or take care of God’s creation. God wants us to manage His creation in every possible way because there is value in His creation.

Jesus taught that non-human creation is valuable. He did this in His sermon on the Mount by bringing the attention of His listeners to the fact that God is not only conscious of humans, He also cares and provides for the least significant of His creations. Matthew 6:26–34.

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Emphasis mine).

Genesis 1:28 says,

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

When Adam fell, this assignment was aborted (to a major extent) because the fallen Man could not reveal the knowledge of God to every creature. Then the second Adam — Jesus Christ — came,

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:18–20, emphasis mine).

This was a recommissioning of Man, but this time, it was referring to believers who have become reconciled to God. They were told to disciple the nations through the knowledge of God. Nations here include geographic territories, ethnic groups, institutions, systems of government, and technological systems.

Jesus had to downgrade himself from His Godhood state to become human so that Man can be redeemed to become sons of God. Hebrews 4:14–15 (TPT) says,

So then, we must cling in faith to all we know to be true. For we have a magnificent King-Priest, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who rose into the heavenly realm for us, and now sympathizes with us in our frailty. He understands humanity, for as a Man, our magnificent King-Priest was tempted in every way just as we are, and conquered sin. (Emphasis mine).

This shows that He had to identify with the creation He wanted to redeem. He came down to our state of existence. This is the same approach we must have. Believers are meant to ascend, grow, and mature in God. As we do so, we descend into creation for redemption (for creation awaits the manifestation of the sons of God — Romans 8:19). We must descend into society to redeem the hearts, thoughts, ways, systems, and technological systems of men through the Gospel of Christ. We must descend into sectors of the economy to redeem it as part of God’s plan. God is a God of order, government, and systems, and He expects us to be systemic in our approach to redemption. Starting from an individual level (which is foundational) until we institute righteousness into systems.

The heart of Man, and Man’s inventions await redemption. God is a creator and He made Man in His image. This is why He cannot stop us from creating and inventing things even though Man fell. If He did, He would be defying the laws He set in place for Man. The heart of Man has been twisted since the fall and such corruption plays out in our inventions. As people are redeemed, the inventions that come forth will take on a righteous nature. Do you not think that we will invent and create things when all is redeemed? What shall inventions look like then? Will it have the capacity to be used for both good and evil as we have today? Do you not think that it would be rooted in the order of life and righteousness and not good and evil?

Genesis of Science

The remarkable scientific achievements of Isaac Newton (1642–1727) were neatly summarized in poet Alexander’s famous couplet:

“Nature and Nature’s laws lay hidden in the night and God said, ‘Let Newton be!’ and all was light.”

Alexander’s laudatory (expressing praise) verse affirms a point known to every student of physics. Newton discovered some of the fundamental laws of nature.

“The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things. It is the heart that experiences God, and not the reason. This, then, is faith: God felt by the heart, not by the reason.” — Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

Blaise Pascal, who was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian theologian, Michael Faraday, Isaac Newton, and so on have greatly contributed to the advancement of science. The technological inventions that came out of them proved that the Church had a lot to do with the start and advancement of the scientific revolution.

The mathematician, Isaac Barrow, who was Isaac Newton’s predecessor in the famous Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge said,

“…the only reason for having confidence that repeated experiments will yield general principles that hold true is because we can be assured that the laws of nature that God has instituted are constant. We have no reason to believe that nature is inconstant, for that would imply that the great Author of the universe is unlike himself”. (Emphasis mine).

The early modern scientists were inspired by their faith to make discoveries, and they saw the study of God’s creation as a form of worship. This led to a respect for nature and the attempt to find simple and economical solutions to problems. Unfortunately, over time, such history has been intentionally swept under to make people believe that the Church was always against science. For instance, it was fabricated that the medieval Church taught that the earth is flat. The church authorities never even ordered the burning of anyone at the stake of scientific ideas. Yet, all these stories are regularly used as proof of the Church’s stand as relating to science.

The Church was the major sponsor of scientific investigation for centuries. Until the French Revolution, the Roman Catholic was the lead sponsor of scientific research. They paid for the study of priests and monks in the universities. By the seventeenth century, the Jesuit order had become the leading scientific organisation in Europe, publishing thousands of papers and spreading discoveries around the world. Modern genetics was founded by an Austrian devout monk while growing peas in the monastic garden. Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk who discovered the basic principles of heredity through experiments in his garden. Mendel’s observations are the foundation of modern genetics and the study of heredity. He is widely considered as a pioneer in the field of genetics. Mendel was deeply rooted in his Christian faith, and he passionately tried to always convey his conviction and experience to others. Testimony of this attitude is shown in various outlines of his sermons that can be found on the internet.

Science only began to have practical applications in the nineteenth century. Before then, the only reason people studied science was out of curiosity or a form of reverence to God. Christian scientists believed that God created the universe and ordained the laws of nature, therefore, to study the natural world was to admire the work of God. This form of religious duty inspired science when there were only a few reasons for people to care about it.

Given that the Church pioneered science, it is less surprising to find that any era dominated by the Christian faith (for example, the Middle Ages) was a time of innovation and progress. Inventions like the mechanical clock, glasses, printing, and accounting — which was the system of double-entry bookkeeping (a forerunner of the triple-entry accounting system — blockchain technology) — all burst onto the scene in the late medieval period. The false idea that Christianity had been a serious impediment to science took root during the “age of enlightenment” (seventeenth and eighteenth century).

The clerics and Christian monks of the medieval or Middle Ages ushered in the renaissance (age of discovery) which brought in a period of scientific revolutions and discoveries. It was their scientific discoveries that led to many technological devices that were invented decades later. This period where many technological devices were invented within a short time brought in the experience of singularities.

This article is part of an ongoing series of stories connected. Find here the entire table of content if you wish to read the whole in order.

I don’t do religion. Its not a representation of God, it’s contagious and it destroys the soul. It’s basically dangerous.

It sounds ironic right. How can I attempt to talk about something that has to do with believers and be against religion. Truthfully, being a believer has nothing to do with religion. It is basically a relationship with God that matters above all else. It is having a God-consciousness to all things, and believe me Christ-living has nothing to do with religion. It is basically living the kingdom of God in you here on earth.

Religion is basically man attempting to define God to man. Relationship with God is God defining himself to man. This is why religion seemed to have caused many harm than good to many believers and non-believers.

Christ has called us to love. The love of God is something that even the stack sinner and atheist can’t resist if truly they have been exposed to it. Scaring people about hell doesn’t work in a civilized 21st century and that even misrepresents God.

This brings me to why I am writing this.

In this rapidly evolving civilization human civilization. It is seems to me that some (not all) believers who still cling to anything God are confused on the stand of the church in face of many happenings in the world today. From thought-provoking movies that aim to re-define existence to life transforming technological breakthroughs that makes people feel the lesser need for dependence on God.

What must we do? Are our clergymen giving us the strategy of God in such a time as this? Like the men of Issachar, do we truly understand the times and know what to do?

Hope it isn’t just that we want to be heaven-worthy and remain heaven-bound, such a mindset literarily makes our current existence on earth useless.

Some months ago I was writing to a group of energetic teenagers who were faced with this reality. Church was boring and they needed a circle that could bring meaning and fun out of life. It was painful to me because they don’t know that in God there are eternities of adventure to explore beyond what Netflix can fathom to offer in their widest imagination.

Believers must come to that place where they truly understand their eternal purpose and how it is to express itself in this side of eternity here and now.

Questions such as;

• Why didn’t I disappear to heaven the moment I was saved, why is God still allowing his children to remain here on earth?

• Why can’t God just wipe out all evil in the world and let righteousness reign, since he is the almighty?

• Why does it seem being a Christ-faithful feels like being a secluded one amongst social statuses?

Questions such as these should keep us awake at night if we truly aim to know our relevance in the scheme of things.

I won’t attempt to answer all of this question in one article, but beloved believe this, the answers to these questions have already being presented to us more than 2000 years ago. Now lets take it home from here to give a brief answer to the first question. Why didn’t I disappear to heaven the moment I was saved?

Salvation onto What?

The word salvation in the Hebrew language means deliverance, healing, and save from perishing. But the word salvation on its own will not make sense if we do not put into consideration what it points to.

If salvation means deliverance, healing, and save from perishing, then it means that we are saved from a bad state or condition into something better. Having a complete understanding of the purpose of salvation is crucial if we aim to be functional as sons of God. It is important to note that salvation happens to the human spirit first. The day you truly committed your life to Christ and called him Lord was the day you got saved. You did not turn blue or grow taller, neither did your face glow like a bulb, but that does not mean nothing happened to you. Whether you felt it or not, the greatest miracle happened. You were reconciled to God. Your spirit (the real you) was regenerated and you received the right to call God your Father. Hallelujah!

Fortunately, salvation does not stop there. Man is “spirit, soul, and body”. If salvation is to have its full manifestation, then it must be all-encompassing. But how can a person be saved? The Scripture says, “For this is how much God loved the world — he gave his one and only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life.” (John 3:16, TPT).

The Purpose of Salvation

The desire of God is for us to be one with Him. He wants to bring us back to and beyond Adam’s state before the fall. He wants to restore us to the state of sonship. God wants to reconcile Man to Himself. He wants us to truly be His image and likeness. In short, He wants a race of Himself who will be with Him forever.

Adam’s disobedience to God’s command was a type of rebellion and God’s justice system punishes rebellion in all its forms. This resulted in the fall of man. (You may get a Bible and read Genesis 3:1–24 to get a full understanding of this). The implication of the fall was that Man died. This was not initially a physical death. The death here means that Man was instantly disconnected from God which is the greatest of all deaths. This was what God referred to as death. Since Man was disconnected from God, he could not interact and experience God, nor have access to the wisdom flowing through Him. He truly died.

The good news is, God wants us back — all of us. He wants everyone, including the worst sinners. This was why Christ came to execute the plan of redemption that was conceived in God. Kindly pay attention to this Scripture. (Colossians 1:12–27, TPT ).

As believers who were saved by God’s grace, we are also expected to always function as kings and priests.

That means that believers are in the position of kingship and priesthood unto God. This is a great blessing. We are the blessing that God has given to all sectors of the human economy and civilization. God’s redemption doesn’t stop at individuals but it extends to entire nations and human culture and the earth.

We are a channel for them to experience Christ in all power, all riches, all wisdom, all strength, and all honor, and glory, and blessing forever. This is who we are. This is the truth about our identity and we must seek to understand and live it to the fullest.

For us to successfully live as Gods envoy in the earth (because Gods intent is that the earth be redeemed back to its place before the fall), we must function and receive the ministry of wisdom.

Wisdom, the Believer and Creation

Wisdom primarily brings revelation of the Truth to the heart of the believer.

O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions — (Psalm 104:24).

He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion (Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15).

The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; By understanding He established the heavens; By His knowledge the depths were broken up, And clouds drop down the dew (Proverbs 3:19–20).

God’s creation testifies to His attributes (Romans 1). The way the world is ordered is evidence of God’s wisdom (Proverbs 8:22,24).

The ways of wisdom are sweet, always drawing you into the place of wholeness. Seeking for her brings the discovery of untold blessings, for she is the healing tree of life to those who taste her fruits. The Lord laid the earth’s foundations with wisdom’s blueprints. By his living-understanding all the universe came into being. By his divine revelation he broke open the hidden fountains of the deep, bringing secret springs to the surface as the mist of the night dripped down from heaven. (Proverbs 3:17–20, TPT).

Wisdom for Witty Invention

How can we access Wisdom to gain an understanding of witty inventions?

“I Wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out (reveal) knowledge (history) of witty inventions.” (Proverbs 8:12, emphasis mine).

For I am Wisdom, and I am shrewd and intelligent. I have at my disposal living-understanding to devise a plan for your life. (Proverbs 8:12, TPT).

There is nothing new. Whatever Man invents is only a rediscovery. Wisdom brings us into the understanding of the history of creation, of who we are, and what we can do. From the Bible verses we have read about Wisdom, we can see that Wisdom was important in the creation of the universe. This same attribute of Wisdom can be functional in our lives. It is Wisdom’s nature to reveal. She reveals the mysteries of God to the believer. She also reveals knowledge of witty inventions, but this is not limited to the believer. Any human that sets his/her heart to create something that will benefit mankind will surely receive the ministry of Wisdom. The inventors, innovators, and scientists all received inspiration from Wisdom even if they do not know it.

Wisdom operates in the realm of eternity, not in time. When you study the word of God and you begin to gain understanding, you are engaging your heart (which is not bound to the realms of time). People that do not believe God exists can also be inspired by Wisdom.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts… (Ecclesiastes 3:11, emphasis mine)

This means that the earth is spiritual and Man is spiritual. Man is a spirit, soul, and body. Man is trans-dimensional. When you imagine, you are engaging your soul, which is a part of your heart. When you express emotions, you are also engaging your soul. All these are not bound to time. Your thoughts are not bound to time. Man (believer or not) cannot decide to stop using his/her heart. The difference between an average person and a genius, innovator, or scientist is that one can actively engage his/her heart to receive disruptive ideas and inspiration at will. One is very selective about what gets into his subconscious while the other is careless about it. A person can get a grasp of God or conceive evil with his heart. The heart of Man is powerful. An entire series of books can be written on this.

Understanding the physical realm and scientific discoveries has more to do with the Spirit of wisdom than we have admitted. The Spirit of wisdom reveals mysteries in creation. Technological inventions, new tools, devices, and much of the digital revolution would never have been made available to fallen Man without the ministry of Wisdom. It does not matter if the scientists and inventors are not believers. The point is, they invented things that disrupted the world. We have seen some of the smartest inventors say that they do not believe in God.

The good news is, the believer has the advantage of “first”. 1 John 2:20 says, “…But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know (perceive/discern) all things.” (emphasis mine).

Examples of Saints

The Scriptures vividly gave stories of men that received and developed architectures, machines, and devices via the operation of wisdom.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. (Exodus 31:1–11).

Bezalel and Oholiab were imparted by the Spirit of wisdom, that gave them the ability to craft and develop the tabernacle of God the way God wanted it. Another example can be found in 2 Chronicles 26:14–16 (emphasis mine).

Then Uzziah prepared for them, for the entire army, shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and slings to cast stones. And he made (technological) devices in Jerusalem, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and large stones. So his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped till he became strong.

When we watch epic movies, we sometimes see ancient towering devices shooting fireballs. This king and his men invented it. He received wisdom for this witty invention.

In Proverbs 8:15 Wisdom boldly says, “By me, kings reign and rulers enact just laws”. Genesis 37 and 41 show the story of Joseph who God gave discernment (an enlarged heart) and wisdom to counsel Pharaoh. He eventually became the prime minister of Egypt which was the world power at the time. Daniel is another example that was imparted by the Spirit of wisdom. He served as one of the highest-ranking officers under four kings. There are also people in modern-times who did wonderful things and attributed the glory to the God of wisdom.

But of course I can’t exaust everything i Have to say in a reading. You may stay tuned when I release more posts in this line of thought. Gracias.

While you may think this is an article about some MCU movie where you have the friendly neighborhood superhero spiderman. Sorry to burst your bubble, no it isn’t but I can assure you the same euphoria that follows the thrill of enjoying the MCU should be followed by the new possibilities on the horizon with the advent of the next wave of the internet.

Some call it internet 3.0, while others call it Semantic Web or Web 3.0, others may argue to call it the 3D Internet because of Virtual Reality bringing in immersive experiences. The fact is that none of these opinions or perspectives about the next wave of the internet is wrong. Because this next wave isn’t powered by just one technology but by at least three which are Blockchain & Digital Assets (NFTs), web 3.0, and Virtual/Augmented Reality.

Now let’s make it more visual and interesting. You remember the movie right. I mean you should know the one I am talking about by now. Yeah, Ready Player One.

You remember how Wade Watts, Samantha, and their friends were earning coins and increasing their virtual arsenal while trying to win the ultimate price set by late Anorak, the creator of the Oasis (kind of like a metaverse). It says a lot about how we will see many things play out in world economics in the years ahead.

To take it step by step, in this article let’s demystify what is called Web 3. I am sure when I mention Blockchain or Crypto at least some understanding comes to mind. When I also mention VR/AR imaginations erupt in our minds. But Web 3? Blank I guess.

Web 3 refers to a potential new iteration of the internet that runs on public blockchains, the record-keeping technology best known for facilitating cryptocurrency transactions. The appeal of Web 3 is that it is (ideally) decentralized so that instead of users accessing the internet through services mediated by the likes of Google, Apple, or Facebook, it’s the individuals themselves who own and control pieces of the internet. Web 3 does not require “permission,” meaning that central authorities don’t dictate who uses what services, nor is there a need for “trust,” referring to the idea that an intermediary does not need to facilitate digital/virtual transactions between two or more parties. Web 3 theoretically protects user privacy better as well, because it’s these centralized Big Tech and Regulatory authorities and their intermediaries that are doing most of the data collection in the current Web 2.

To get a deeper understanding of what Web 3 is and the rationale behind its formation, it is important to start from the beginning — the first and second generations of the web and how they’re different from the imminent third generation.

The Begining

Web 1 is the earliest version of what we call the Internet today. The Web was introduced by Tim Berners-Lee in late 1989. He envisioned the Web in three ways: a Web of documents (Web1), a Web of people (Web 2), and a Web of data (Web 3), I will add a 4th (here is my trillion dollar idea for the next wave after the next wave) a web of spaces ( Web 4). Smile, nothing is impossible.

Web 1 was referred to as “read-only web” as there were very few visuals besides text. Unlike today’s Internet that allows users to interact with information online, users of Web 1 were more passive and only read things online.

The 2nd Wave

What technology benefits more than 3 Billion people for 80% of their waking hours every single day? Web 2.0.

Web 2.0, coined majorly by O’Reilly and others between 1999 and 2004, moved the world on from static desktop web pages designed for information consumption and served from expensive servers to interactive experiences and user-generated content that brought us Uber, Airbnb, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc. The rise of Web 2.0 was largely driven by three core layers of innovation: mobile, social, and cloud.

Web 3

While the Web 2.0 wave is still bearing fruit, we are also seeing the first shoots of growth emerge from the next paradigm shift regarding the internet, logically entitled Web 3.0. An even more fundamental disruption. It is a leap forward to open, trustless and permissionless networks.

‘Open’ in that they are built from open-source software built by an open and accessible community of developers and executed in full view of the world.

‘Trustless’ in that the network itself allows participants to interact publicly or privately without a trusted third party.

‘Permissionless’ in that anyone, both users and suppliers, can participate without authorization from a governing body.

This is what Web 3 coupled with Blockchain technology is able to do on a global scale without knowing the persons you are transacting while also not sacrificing the Trust needed for transactions to take place. Web 3 underpins the idea behind the creation of cryptocurrencies which is simply decentralization. The technologies behind cryptocurrency, such as blockchain and cryptography, will also be a crucial part of Web 3.

Like Web 2, Web 3 ideally will make the Internet more inclusive while taking control away from Big Tech and Centralized Government. It aims to do this by decentralizing the Internet.

The Promise of Web3 and Digital Assets

Truth be told, I can’t write everything in one article. I mean I am just about to touch on another hot topic that can keep this article ongoing like a never-ending journey. I am talking about NFTs. NFTssssss (with an effect). We will talk about NFTs in a later series.

Ok, so what are the promises of this semantic web or web 3?

The forthcoming wave of Web 3.0 goes far beyond the initial use case of cryptocurrencies. Through the richness of interactions now possible and the global scope of counterparties available, Web 3.0 will cryptographically connect data from individuals, corporations, and machines, with efficient machine learning algorithms, leading to the rise of fundamentally new markets and associated business models. The result can be likened to a village.

For instance, In ancient village lifestyles, people could trade value, information & work with the small group of counterparties they already knew — their set of counterparties was limited by geography but rich in personal trust. This small scale meant individuals frequently had multiple roles in society e.g. farmer, fisherman, hunter, warrior, and father. Consequently, transactions were focused on food, security, and leisure, and included little coordination beyond largely self-sustaining families.

Vith Web 3, this can be done on a much larger and global scale supporting an ever-increasing myriad of human and machine skills specializations and possibilities.

In part 2 of this article on Web 3, I will dive deep into present use cases and speculate future use cases of web 3. I do hope you enjoyed this article that was written on a whim.

“Zeitgeist” a German word that literarily means “ the spirit of the times”. What do the times tell us? It says a lot. Especially if you are in Nigeria, a lot has been happening that may make you sad if you are not a naturally optimistic person.

Just recently the Nigerian government through its apex bank the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) banned anything that relates to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and the numerous other digital coins out there. Of course, we know they don’t have the power to ban crypto, they never created it in the first place. What they did was to ban businesses and their bank account that deals with anything cryptocurrency. But why is that happening just around the time America's apex Electric Vehicle producing company Telsa bought $1.5bn worth of bitcoin and speculations about Mastercard considering adding some cryptocurrency as a legal form of payment.? What really is the fuss about cryptocurrency or crypto-money as some may like to put it.

If you read our first series on New Money democratizing wealth, then you need no explanation on the concept of cryptocurrency and how it all began. Here we will discuss further into the purpose of this article, how New Money is given everyone a level ground to own new wealth i.e. democratizing wealth if they one is smart and relentless in building their wealth.

In order to believe in the crypto revolution, it’s important to understand the fundamental aspects of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology that make it so revolutionary. Cryptocurrency has a lot of characteristics to it, some of which mimic characteristics of commodities and representative money from centuries ago. The 3 key characteristics of cryptocurrencies are that they are trustless, immutable, and decentralized.

In summary of these characteristics, it is trustless because it was designed in a way that nobody has to trust anybody else in order for the network to function. The Representative money and Fiat currency before bitcoin required a central authority that you had to trust in order to use it. In all cases, that central authority becomes the central weakness that leads to the demise of the currency.

It is immutable simply means it cannot be undone, and this is powered by the blockchain technologies it operates on. These 3 principles follow;

• It is highly difficult to rewrite history.

• It is impossible for anyone but the owner of a private key to move funds.

• All transactions are recorded on the blockchain. (to effect the above 2 principles)

It is decentralized because many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology — a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.

How then is it democratizing wealth?

One phrase for them all, New Business Models.

New Businesses models are rising out of the cryptocurrency space. In fact, many new startup owners loosely use the term Cryptocurrency Revenue Business Model when discussing and planning strategies for their venture. Questions like What crypto business model works best with my idea?. The crypto business model is gaining roots into the core of many new successful startups because no matter how cool an idea is or how unique something may seem, a startup must have a new way of making money that is worthy enough for future investment and to sustain itself. These are the areas that have begun to generate wealth for youths who are taking advantage of it especially from Nigeria the second largest P2P Cryptocurrency market in the world just right behind the U.S.A.

These Crypto Revenue/Business Models are helping lots of youths especially here in Nigeria make money since the economy of our dear nation won’t expand to create jobs under a failed leadership. The few ways this is creating wealth are

• Cryptocurrency & Altcoin Development,

• Cryptocurrency/ Bitcoin Forking,

• Crypto MLM business models,

• Cryptocurrency / Bitcoin Trading & Exchange Model

and many more. Nigerians have benefitted a lot from these last two mentioned above. So I will summarize the first two and dwell more on the last two.

Cryptocurrency & Altcoin development

Just by typing on google cryptocurrency development and you will see lots of website of different startups offering cryptocurrency development services. These type of companies have highly skilled blockchain technology developers. Over recent years, cryptocurrency has been rapidly gained its market and make it easier for users to do secure and fast transaction. So most of the startup to the large enterprise is interested in crypto coin development. A crypto coin designed to work as a medium using cryptography to secure transactions. Crypto coins are generally used in the same way as real-life coins.

Crypto/Bitcoin Forking

Bitcoin Forking is the easiest way to create a new cryptocurrency. To create a new cryptocurrency like bitcoin one has to have certain skills and abilities in programming. Changing a couple of lines precisely in the bitcoin source code can give birth to a new crypto coin like bitcoin.

Crypto MLM business models.

The Network Marketing/Multi-Level Market (MLM) business means many things to people everywhere including Nigerians. At the mention of this word some interpret it to be Ponzi scheme/scams, while some think they are legitimate business models. There is a thing line between Ponzi and an authentic MLM business but truly MLM businesses are authentic and now they have entered the crypto market. In fact, because of the nature of the crypto market, it has become a union like no other.

The simple concept of MLM is a strategy some direct sales companies use to encourage existing distributors to recruit new distributors who are paid a percentage of their recruits’ sales. The recruits are the distributor’s “downline.” Distributors also make money through direct sales of products to customers. We have seen MLM merge with eCommerce and now it has seen a new wife to marry, the cryptocurrency trading.

Cryptocurrency trading is similar to Forex trading where you trade normal Fiat Currency pairs against each other, in cryptocurrency trading you speculate on crypto-currency price movements via a CFD trading account, or buying and selling the underlying coins via an exchange.

So this is ideal. Just like how it works with a forex trader or group of forex trader trade people’s money for them and give them a certain percentage of their capital every week or month depending on the agreement. This is how it is also done with crypto MLM business models.

A new company starts off with the intent to use people’s money to trade crypto-currency, but they bring it out in form of an MLM model where you join them by paying some amount and you can earn monthly passive income from your capital.

Then they encourage you to join their affiliate program in which when you bring in more people you get different kinds of mouth-watering bonuses. These type of businesses also pay you back mostly in crypto-currency like Bitcoin or Ethereum but sometimes with the option to withdraw in dollars, then it goes on and on. The more people join in the more they have investment capital to trade and share the profit. I bet they make a lot of many than the amount they give people back as passive income per month. But that’s totally ok, everyone agreed to it.

These type of businesses are not immune to the skepticism its forefather (MLM business) receive. But that doesn’t mean people (Nigerians) are not making money from being part of these programs.

Few examples of this type of Crypto MLM business models is Starbit MasterCoin Plus, Chymall (eCommerce and Crypto trading), QubitTech now QubitLife, Beaurax etc. If you aim to join any of them do your due diligence.

My personal opinion from my observation is this, so far some (not all) of this MLM businesses models or the crypto-MLM business models don’t last longer than three years. Not because they are not profitable or don’t have a good strategy, but most often times the founders/directors greed kills the companies faster. But then nothing is perfect, if you wait for perfection you will wait forever. Taking advantage and leveraging on opportunities happened most times when things are in their imperfect state.

This merging of industry from eCommerce to Network Marketing to crypto industry will produce more millionaires and billionaires like never before.

P.S — The mention of a few Crypto based MLM businesses above is not a promotion of such brands, they are mentioned purely for example-purposes.

Cryptocurrency / Bitcoin Trading & Exchange Model

Cryptocurrency exchange work similar in a way to the Foreign Exchange (Forex) or the Stock Exchange. On a stock exchange, traders buy and sell assets to profit from their changing rates, while on crypto exchanges, traders use cryptocurrency pairs to profit from the highly volatile currency rates. While stock exchanges have set working hours, crypto exchanges are also open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The top four crypto exchanges currently as of this writing according to coinmarketcap.com rankings are Binance, Huobi Global, CoinBase Pro, and Kraken.

Back in the early days of crypto money, the only way one could have any cryptocurrency as a personal digital asset was either you digitally mine them or you buy it directly from another person that is willing to sell to you. It will help you to visually understand this concept when you take your mind back to how the Trade by ̷B̷a̷r̷t̷e̷r̷ Commodities works, mentioned in the first part of this series on new money.

This means of owning a crypto asset was effective when there were few people in the crypto space in its early days. But after the value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum started skyrocketing, people started looking for a simpler, faster and safer option to get cryptocurrencies. This is where early cryptocurrency exchanges come in, contributing to billions of dollars in trading volume due to ease of buy and selling of these digital assets.

Crypto exchanges make profits from different revenue streams, the most popular four are commissions, listing fees, market making, and fund collection for Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs), Security Token Offerings (STOs) and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). In summary

• Commissions: Perhaps the most well-known monetization method for exchanges (cryptocurrency and traditional stock exchanges alike) is to charge commissions on trades. Exchange charges a fee per trade, accumulating revenue as more users trade more money.

• Listing Fees: ewer cryptocurrency exchanges will inevitably struggle with minimal volume during their early stages. As such, it is unrealistic for these exchanges to rely solely on commission revenue during this phase. Exchange charges new coin projects a listing fee to trade the project’s coin or token on its platform.

• Market Making: Exchange yields a profit while providing liquidity to users.

• Fund Collection for IEOs, STOs, and ICOs: Another method for driving exchange revenue is to equip the platform with an IEO module, allowing other companies to organize token sales. Basically, an Exchange hosts an early stage crowdsourced fundraising round for a project, receiving a percentage of total proceeds as compensation.

In the beginning of this article, I mentioned the word — Zeitgeist. We are in interesting times and one must be informed enough to maximize transiting opportunities. The financial sector is experiencing a new shift never experienced before in the last 100 years. New money is democratizing wealth. Cryptocurrency is not going to be the same in 10 years from now as it is today and like this current Fiat system losing relevance so will crypto but till that time enjoy and maximize the decades it will last.

Originally published at Futurspark.org

https://gatehub.net/blog/how-cryptocurrency-exchanges-work/
https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/cryptocurrency-basics-3-key-characteristics-and-why-they-matter-7348242abe18
https://qoden.com/how-does-a-cryptocurrency-exchange-make-money/

Money is one of the most important topics that can stir the interest of the most tired persons. At the mention of money, ears pop up. It’s really true that where your treasure is there your heart and your rapt attention is. But what really is Money? What is the new money being talked and how can you tap into this new wealth?

Due to the evolution of money over centuries, its definition has evolved. But present-day money can be defined as something that’s widely accepted as payment for goods and services. Money has 3 properties that make it desirable to use it as a medium of exchange. Money provides:

• a means of payment,

• a unit of account,

• a store of value.

For us to really understand the present state of money we have in today’s financial system, we will need to be a good student of history.

Before Money, there was Trade by Barter

If you go back in time about 5,000 BC, the barter system was prevalent in the Mesopotamian empire — at least according to official internet records even though there are other twists to how it began — bartering allowed people to trade goods of value amongst themselves. Barter refers to the act of exchanging goods or services for other goods or services. Long before the appearance of money as we currently know it, we understood that we could trade our goods for the goods of others. This was the simple way people exchanged value.

Let’s say person A is very good at fishing, person B is good at raising livestock and poultry, and person C is a grain farmer.

So, if person A the livestock/poultry farmer needs certain measures of grain and person C the grain farmer need some livestock, wonderful, then a trade can occur between both parties. Depending on how person A perceives as value what person C has to offer is what will determine how any grain and livestock will be exchanged.

Unfortunately, it won’t always be so simple, because there is a big problem here. What if person C the grain farmer doesn’t need livestock but needs fish, and person A the livestock farmer needs grain, and person B the fish farmer needs livestock. What then can be done? None of them will be able to help each other because of un-matching interest. These were the problems people faced in the early days of trading goods for each other’s best interests. The phenomenon is known as the coincidence of wants in economics. Bartering works well when you have something that the other person wants, and vice versa. It fails when parties don’t need goods belonging to the other.

This then led to the next type of money people found more effective than the Barter, called Commodities.

Commodity Money (Collectables)

Often there’s a commodity in high demand throughout an economy, and that commodity starts dominating trade. This commodity could be cattle, yams, rice, tobacco, cowry etc. If this commodity becomes widespread enough, it effectively becomes a form of money, known as commodity money. But most forms of commodity money are not very scalable, and the most valued commodities tended to differ across early societies.

For instance, tobacco was declared to be legal tender in Virginia back in the 1600s. In western Africa, shell money was the usual legal tender up until the mid 19th century. Before the abolition of the slave trade, large shipments of cowry shells were sent to some of the English ports for reshipment to the slave coast.

It also made more sense for commodity money to evolve from the use of big and heavy commodities such as cattle, tubers of yam, heavy stones to the use of portable commodities such as cowry, rice etc. These small commodities called Collectables tend to be durable, easy to store or hid by one’s person, and easy to appraise in value. This made them more robust forms of money relative to many non-portable commodity forms of money like cattle.

Now looking at it, trading in commodities might not look too different from trade by barter. Since, if you have a shoe and offer to sell it for cowry, isn’t it the same thing we discussed with barter? Technically No. In commodity trading, you would need to calculate what your shoe is worth depending on what you could buy with Cowry. You accept the cowry, not necessarily because you’re going to eat it, but because you can trade it for other goods. Commodity money solves the problem of coincidence of wants experienced during Barter Trading because you can take the commodity money and use it in another trade later.

Commodity Money (Precious Metals)

The evolutionary lineage of modern money really begins with precious metals. The first use of metals as money is believed to begin around 1000 BC, at the advent of the Iron Age.

It might seem obvious now that precious metals are valuable, but it’s worth asking: why did so many societies converge on metals as a form of money? There are some intrinsic reasons why precious metals made better money than collectables. Precious metals are:

• visually striking for decoration and jewellery

• scarce (which leads to low supply inflation)

• durable and difficult to corrode

• hard to fake

• divisible (by breaking them into smaller quantities)

Initially, chunks of gold and silver metal were used directly as forms of money. Eventually, coinage began around 600 BC in modern-day Turkey. These first coins were minted out of a gold and silver alloy. Even today, gold coins and bullion are regarded as the quintessential store of value. Investors park their wealth in the precious metal to be able to access it at a later date. There are many reasons for which gold is revered — we explore the functions of money that it fulfils in Why is Bitcoin rapidly being perceived as a Store of Value like gold?

Commodities haven’t gone away, but as currencies, they’ve been largely replaced by other forms of money. This takes us to the next form of money that evolved, Representative Money.

Representative Money

Commodity money was an improvement over the barter system, but it still was not effective enough as trade continued to expand. You could fit a small amount of gold or silver coins in your pockets and use them to make small purchases, but can you imagine trying to make very large purchases with coins today, probably to buy a mansion or large expanse of land. How would you effectively carry that expensive metal all around without you hiring a trailer to carry your money? It just doesn’t make sense.

Representative money is paper currency that can be exchanged for a fixed amount of a valuable commodity, usually gold or silver. Paper currency is convenient because it weighs little and much larger denominations can be printed that weigh no more than single units of currency. For instance, in 1715, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia issued tobacco notes which could be converted to a specified amount of tobacco on demand, these representative notes but were much easier to carry and to make large payments than carrying about the tobacco (commodity) they represent.

However, the problem with representative money is that its acceptance depended on the reputation of the issuer.

Fiat Money

Representative money is no longer the dominant form of money. The death of the gold standard saw a new kind of money adopted globally — one totally detached from commodities.

Fiat money has no intrinsic value nor can it be redeemed for commodities the way you could formerly do with paper (representative) money. Its value originates from government decree or fiat. The best example of fiat money is Paper currency. The paper itself has very little intrinsic value, so fiat money can only serve as money if its production is tightly controlled.

The value of fiat money is highly dependent on the decisions of governments and central banks. At its core, a fiat banknote is a piece of paper that only has value because the government of the day says so. This is the current type of money that is prevalent in today’s financial system.

Governments maintain this control by using printing methods and materials that are difficult to reproduce, and by punishing counterfeiters with harsh penalties. For instance, in 12th century China, where the 1st paper currency circulated, the penalty for counterfeiting was beheading, and this was printed on the currency!

People use fiat money only if they believe that it can be used in the future and that it will not lose value. The government will also usually encourage the use of its money through the force of law. For instance, since 1862, all United States dollars were printed with the phrase “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.”

Depending on how you see it, this is either its greatest strength or its greatest weakness. Proponents of fiat money systems argue that the ability to inflate the money supply gives governments more flexibility for tackling financial crises or managing the overall economy. By controlling the money market and interest rates, the government has a high degree of control over the country’s financial affairs.

Electronic Fiat Money

Most money in most countries today exists only in electronic format, as records in the databases of financial institutions, which is why the United States Treasury no longer prints currency in denominations greater than $100. Law-abiding citizens use checks or electronic transfers for large payments, while organized crime and terrorist networks use cash. Hence, the elimination of large denomination bills is considered a potent weapon against organized crime and terrorists by making it inconvenient and risky to transfer large amounts of cash. Some people have even suggested lowering the top denomination to $20 instead of $100; likewise, other countries, such as Europe, are also considering reducing their denominations, since criminals. often use currencies with the highest denominations. For instance, 1 million dollars in €500 bills weighs just 2.2 pounds, while the same amount in $20 bills weighs 50 pounds.

Now, where do Cryptocurrencies come in?

During the age of the Internet, privacy became important to many people, especially the privacy of their financial transactions. Furthermore, many people wanted to perform financial transactions without the mediation of a third party, such as banks. Banks earned a bad reputation during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, since they were a major cause of the economic downturn. In 2008, a white paper was published under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto explaining a new type of currency using cryptographic techniques that allowed financial transactions without a third party, a peer-to-peer transaction where one party could send or receive money from another party directly, securely, and anonymously. This new currency was called Bitcoin, the 1st of the cryptocurrencies of which there are now thousands.

Bitcoin has been labelled as both digital cash and digital gold. On the one hand, it mimics many of the characteristics of money seen in commodities — remember commodities money — (i.e., fungibility, divisibility, portability), making it an ideal medium of exchange.

A cryptocurrency must solve a number of problems. The creation of cryptocurrency must be governed by strict rules to limit the supply, which is necessary for it to retain any value whatsoever. It must provide a means of transferring money from one party to another securely and keep a record of the transaction to prevent double-spending, spending Bitcoins more than once by the same person. Transaction records must be secure from hacking so that they cannot be altered. Bitcoins solve this problem by using a blockchain to create and store Bitcoins and to record transactions. All Bitcoins and their transactions are stored in the blockchain, and nowhere else.

On the surface, cryptocurrencies appear to fall under the category of commodity money. While they don’t have any use outside of their protocols, they’re not backed by anything or issued by government entities. The value of money, where digital currencies are concerned, stems from the valuation given to it by the free market.

In Conclusion of this Past 1 series of Money and democratizing wealth

As we’ve seen, money takes many forms. Most of us are used to thinking about value in our national fiat currencies, but these are relatively recent inventions. The payment apps you use today are a result of thousands of years of monetary evolution.

Cryptocurrencies are a promising experiment in the next chapter of money. If Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies were to be widely adopted, they would be the first real examples of digital commodities. Time will tell whether cryptocurrencies will displace the current reign of fiat currencies around the globe.

Are you interested in learning more and how to tap into the wealth of this new money? Click here to continue the series — Is New Money Democratizing Wealth? (Part 2)

Originally published at Futurspark.org

Why Organic Intelligence is a superior form of intelligence and why we humans will gravitate towards it.

It was an interesting week and I was really looking forward to seeing the Avengers End Game movie. Everyone was talking about it. But somehow when the day of its release to the cinemas got closer I began to lose interest and my anticipation to see the movie went south since there was just so much hype over the movie.

Fast forward a month later, I downloaded the movie on my PC and after watching for some 30 minutes, I got bored. Yeah right? I am sure you are wondering what kind of person I am. Bored with the End game movie?

But I did get bored. Simple. Probably because I had other pressing work deadlines that didn’t put my mind at rest to really relax to see the movie.

Another five weeks later, I thought of watching the movie again and this time I really wanted to see what everyone enjoyed in this overhyped movie. So I started watching and observing intensely what I could learn from the movie apart from pure entertainment. Then it got really interesting, that “AHA” moment came when I got to this point in the movie where Tony Stark was reminding Bruce Banner what to instruct the stones — that were attached to the gauntlet he wore — to do.

Tony Stark: You remember– everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, today. “Don’t change anything from the last five years.”

I mean, he really did intelligently instruct the stones to do something and not just by snapping a finger. But how did he instruct the stones?

Then it dawned on me that these stones were operated via Intent (Thoughts) or “consciousness” and even though Tony Starks’ tech aided in the operating of it via the use of an advanced gauntlet, the stones themselves were far more advanced than all the AI, Bio and Nanotech Tony Stark had. I was literarily wowed. I mean who thought of this concept? These guys are really thinking. This is some advanced stuff.

This concept of intelligence by consciousness, even though was in a so-called sci-fi movie, is a concept to really ponder on. This brings me to why I am writing this article.

I have seen so many articles littered all over the internet talking about the future of everything hinging solely on technology.

Don’t get me wrong, I am an enthusiast of advanced technologies of any type. In fact, I experimented with a prototype of Magnetic Levitation of objects when I was just about age 11 using Magnets and threads to suspend blades in the air just for fun. I am also a Microsoft Certified Data Analyst and I love talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI), in fact, it took an extra effort to ensure people don’t think all that there is about me is just AI since I was called the AI guy.

In recent times, there has been so much hype about how AI, IoT, Virtual Reality, Blockchain, Quantum Computing and even Gene Editing will revolutionize the world. With many of this information over the internet, future thinkers have come out with different speculations and predictions.

Having read quite a number of them it has been exciting to see what others think about the future even though majority of these predictions have centred solely on a technology-centric and technology-driven world. It easy to think in that direction actually. Why not? Since the most disruptive factors in today’s human civilization can be credited to the advancement of technology.

But then we live in an information age where everyone is expected to think critically and not always follow all information we see online without questioning.

It seems to me that some futurists are neglecting the most important factor and driving force in human civilization. Human.

Technology will continue to play a vital role in human civilization, no doubt about that, but that isn’t all there is to predict about the future. Our evolving civilization will eventually shift from total dependence on technology to the advancement of human capabilities and abilities. We will experience a whole new human transformation.

What do I mean? Before I establish my exact point, let’s gain some broader perspective from history.

Modern vs Ancient Civilizations

Egypt is part of what’s been called the “cradle of civilization.” This ancient civilization had their Pharaohs referred to as god-kings and the stories of their culture etched on rocks and materials of what formed paper that we use today.

This civilization successfully evolved over thousands of years, and its people have contributed greatly to our present-day appreciation for math, science, and art.

But then, what is civilization?

To follow the normal path of definition. Google dictionary defines it as the stage of human, social and cultural development and how it relates to our organizational advancement. Civilization has always been defined about humans, how for millennia the human race has evolved in “its” consciousness of reality while relatively building empires that reflect such state of mind throughout history.

In modern times, modern civilization is perceived to be superior. Our sense of superiority emanates from our conclusion that, since our modern infrastructure and medical breakthroughs seem to be more advanced and sophisticated than the ancient world this makes us more civilized and advanced.

Some scientists and social anthropologists have even gone further frequently using the term “ancient civilization and modern civilization” and this subtly creates an ideology in the minds of people that ancient naturally means inferior.

But is that true?

By mere observation from archaeological expeditions, archaeologists are still uncovering and demystifying ancient sites, ruins, architectures, and the culture that the ancient world practised in such a time, and the discoveries by these archaeologists have been nothing short of mysterious and amazing.

From the English countryside outside Salisbury, Known as Stonehenge, to the Teotihuacán’s Pyramid of the Sun rising-up against the cobalt sky in Mexico City, to the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt.

These discoveries have demonstrated in many ways that the people that developed the ancient world practised an advanced civilization we are yet to fully understand in our own scientific terms. Perhaps our science is still catching up to understand how such ancient civilizations were built without the aid of our modern technology as we expect.

Here are excerpts from National Geographic Blog.

But how, exactly, did the Egyptians build these things? The Great Pyramid is made of millions of precisely hewn stones weighing at least two tons each. Even with today’s cranes and other construction equipment, building a pyramid as big as that of Pharaoh Khufu would be a formidable challenge.

…over centuries, a mix of cultures including Maya, Zapotec, and Mixtec built the city that could house more than 100,000 people. With its murals, tools, transportation system, and evidence of advanced agricultural practices, Teotihuacán is often considered much more technologically developed than should have been possible in pre-Aztec Mexico. 
7 ancient sites(2017)

In this sense, their civilization shouldn’t even be measured by the sophisticated physical architectures built (without modern technology) but by the state of mind and organizational advancement displayed by the humans in that era.

By this understanding, then we must give credit to the minds that conceived and built such complex architectures during their time when they had no physical point of reference of previous architectures to learn from as we have in abundance today.

They were truly civilised in mind and understanding. In my opinion, they were actually far more civilised than we thought them to be.

Line upon Line, Knowledge upon Knowledge

Modern technology seems to be more sophisticated, but truthfully our understanding and knowledge today was built upon knowledge accumulated over centuries.

This means we had a point of reference to learn from while advancing further in scientific and technological breakthroughs that brought about new inventions, and innovations.

We built on existing knowledge, but what did the ancient world build from? Did they have as much data to infer from as we do today?

They actually built from scratch and like all beginnings, we know that to start a thing requires much more energy, creativity, and ingenuity than to scale it. This would mean they actually had to exert more creative intelligence to build some never existing solutions or theories with no reference point, as against the information age today where information abounds all over the internet.

We might put to the argument that we are actually doing well and better than they did because of our current level of technological advancement, but can we truly say we are operating at the same level of creativity and ingenuity they did? Could we have advanced as a society scientifically or technologically if not for their work done which served as a starting point for us?

The Days of Future Past

Currently, our constant research aided by advanced technology points to one thing, we are re-discovering a type of knowledge that has been lost and it doesn’t matter how advanced Artificial Intelligence or other emerging technologies may become, it still will not reflect humanity as a progressive race.

It is our state of mind and increasing levels of consciousness of reality that determines a higher order of living, and how advanced our civilization will be.

It is because of these perceived setbacks that Elon Musk is championing the idea that humans need to fuse with machines so they (machines) don’t outsmart us. By doing that Elon the son of Musk has admitted to it that we humans need to advance beyond our current abilities and intelligence.

Our constant and insatiable desire to research and develop advanced technology is only a pointer that humanity is unconsciously practising something.

Subconsciously we are experimenting with intelligence, now we have artificial intelligence but much later when AI and Blockchain decentralized economy continues to mature making lots of people earn passively, leaving people with more free time for idleness and boredom even in the midst of plenty virtual entertainment. We will begin to see humans longing for something more. People won’t be satisfied with the perks of technology when the human mind begins to stretch beyond technological limits.

So then humans need to advance in intelligence which I agree with Elon Musk, but I do not agree with the suggestions that we fuse with machines before we can be smarter and display intelligence at a higher level.

Organic Intelligence

When the AI and Blockchain driven economy matures we will transition fully into an imagination age — thanks to AI doing almost all tasks for us — when all is left for humans to do is directly connected to creativity based work.

Humanity’s quest for more will come to that point where we will seek knowledge to transcend, human organicness (a finer and subtler principle of existence) will be the truest and most sophisticated intelligence there will be on earth and we are in the process of rediscovering the depths of it. Which is our ability to transcend to a post-materialistic existence.

Its intelligence by consciousness. Only then will we function at a rate beyond the threatening intelligence of General AI as it is predicted today.

The future of human civilization is beyond technological intelligence, it is organic, it is conscious intelligence.

What do you think? I will be glad to get your perspective on this. Thank you for reading and sharing!

originally published at futurspark.org