The "mechanism of world inter-communication"

Pages about the Baha'i Faith have been on the Internet since almost the beginning.

In November 1994, I started the site called "A Baha'i Faith Page" to be a listing and index of Baha'i sites. It started with links to just a few dozen sites.

Over the following months, I worked regularly to add links to new sites as they came online. Within a couple of years, it got to the point that many additions were needed every day. (The snapshot here is of the oldest version that the http://web.archive.org/ site has, from June 1997.)

Today, I don't think it is even possible to have a comprehensive listing of web sites and blogs developed by Baha'is!

(You can see the current version of this site at: http://www.bcca.org/bahaivision/. It was enhanced by Cary Enoch Reinstein is now operated by Larry Curtis.)

Many groups of people became interested in the Internet and the "world wide web" when it began to emerge from its early beginnings in the "technology sector" and began to prove useful and interesting to society in general.

I think Baha'is in particular realized something big was happening, even if no one quite knew what to do with it. And that's because when Shoghi Effendi described in a letter, from Haifa on March 11, 1936, his vision of what the future of the human race would be like, he mentioned this:

A mechanism of world inter-communication will be devised, embracing the whole planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with marvellous swiftness and perfect regularity. (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 203)

So Baha'is were "expecting" the Internet. (However, it will only be in distant hind-sight that we'll know for sure if it is our current Internet that Shoghi Effendi envisioned, or whether something better is still to come.)

As wonderful as it may seem, this "mechanism of world inter-communication" is only one small part of the world expected by Baha'is. In that same letter, Shoghi Effendi detailed many other parts of the future he was envisioning. Some seem to be coming soon, others we might wonder how they could ever happen.

And Shoghi Effendi did not originate the Baha'i enthusiasm for the future. It is a core part of the religion that was introduced to humankind by Baha'u'llah Himself.

Baha'u'llah wrote much about that future, describing how and why the world was changing. He explained the root cause for all the changes that we have seen since the 1800's and are still seeing:

The world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System -- the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed. (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, para. 181)

The Internet. I think it is just the tip of the iceberg - a glimpse of the changes that are coming, as our "ordered life" is being revolutionized!

The world as we will know it

I'm actively watching the Internet grow.

I remember my excitement the first time I saw a web site address in any sort of advertising. I'd been watching and waiting for the Internet to break into common awareness. And now, web sites seem to be mandatory on every napkin and TV commercial.

We used BITNET to instant message with a contact on the other side of the world, and my friends were all amazed that it could be done. Today, we expect to chat for free and share pictures and videos as much as we want.

Science fiction has always looked to the future, and still does. But the future we are moving into has rarely been imagined quite the way we find it. Everyone using the Internet is living a life that a dozen years ago was only being hinted at in SF, and of course, many features were never predicted.

So where are we going from here?

There are many visionaries busy trying to plan and predict humanity's future. I'm not one of them. But I do think that there are a couple of basic assumptions that many of them are missing.

One of them has to do with religion. Many visionaries don't consider the visions that are presented by religions. However, that is not too hard to understand, since the vision of most religions is now history, or ancient history. And most were vague and don't seem to apply to today.

I'm sure that many recent religions and groups talk about the future, but the one I know best is the Baha'i Faith. Everything in that Faith has happened or been written in the last 160 or so years. So the vision of the future that is presented by the Baha'i scriptures is fresher and more relevant for us now.

I'm actively watching the Baha'i Faith grow.

Like the Internet in 2007, the story of the Baha'i Faith is not done yet. It's been amazing up to now, but the future will be even better!

As for humanity's future, from my perspective, the Baha'i Faith does not give a lot of detailed predictions that we need to wait for, but does set out the general direction where we are heading. Concepts - like "unity", "world commonwealth", "personal freedom and initiative", "refinement of the human brain" - hint at a "nice" future.

The other assumption is that human nature can get better and that a "nicer" future is possible. Books like "1984" and "Brave New World" assume that there will always be insurmountable problems in society. But we are social creatures, and our moral standard is held in relation to society around us. An individual's moral outlook cannot be forced onto them, but they can change it. And, like some changes, the more people making the change, the more who want to make the same change. Yes, people are still people, but our standards can improve.

So what will the world be like during the rest of our lifetime?

Better!

Technology will continue to make life better. We can't even imagine yet what it will really be like. Will it all be good? Probably not, but I have no doubt that most of it will be!

And society will become better too. Today, it depends on where you look and focus your attention - is it getting better or worse? There is evidence for both. The Baha'i Faith acknowledges and examines that concept, and promises that it will get better.

So, am I excited about the future? Yes. Will it all be rosey? No. Why am I excited? A combination of the promises of technology and religion!