It's funny how an idea simply pops into your head for the simplest and often mundane reasons. I was waiting in line on the MRT escalator and was wishing that I could teleport - that's right, instantaneous travel, to the top of the stairs because I was already late. Then I began to think - will we ever come to the point where teleportation technology is so commonplace that it will replace motor vehicles? Is it not probable that what we thought we could never control can be harnessed in the future for even such a simple means as travel? If you think about it, a thousand years ago, men were amazed at lightning and thunder and even further in the past, we worshipped the forces of nature as gods. Now we can easily say that we have harnessed the power of lightning for routine purposes as ventilation, lighting, entertainment, and even bathing. We take for granted what our ancestors used to worship. Back then, it was impossible for man to fly, now we are developing hovering cars and planes are commonly seen above our skies. Communication was almost impossible long ago without personal presence or messages, now we use an invisible medium to communicate by cell phone. Technology is truly amazing, but one begins to wonder, does it have its limits? A lot of movies today are themed such that we are warned of the dangers of too much technological advancement. Clone movies such as "The Sixth Day" and recently "The Island" have made us privy to the dangers of cloning technology but also to the possible medical applications of the same. Movies like "The Matrix", "I, Robot", "The Terminator" trilogy, and even countless cartoons show us the dangers of using Artificial Intelligence that may become too advanced for us to control. Of course, this can all be dismissed as Hollywood crap, but ideas have to come from somewhere, right?
The thing is, with all the calamities happening worldwide, a lot of people may be thinking that the end times are coming. With the advent of such events, which include 9/11, the Tsunami, our current economic crisis and the countless natural and manmade(terrorist) disasters around the world, mankind could be inclined to think that the world is folding in on itself - that if this escalates there would soon be no world to even speak of. For Christians, this day of reckoning is when Christ will soon come back and we shall be swept up into paradise with him. If that is so, will there be time for us to pursue technological advancement? If Christ is indeed coming soon (Religiously speaking), then the world would be no more and all mankind would simply be divided between heaven and hell (sorry, no purgatory here ;p).Personally, much as I would like to be in paradise soon, I would also like to see the extent to which man can invent. How he can think of possibilities to increase the efficiency and convenience of currently burdensome activities such as construction, worldwide travel, etc. I want to see the limits to which man can reach, the lengths to where he would go to achieve his dreams; to put it in my own words - I want man to hurry up and invent teleportation technology so I won't be late anymore. hehehe.