“Honey, I Shrunk the World”*

Do you remember the movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? The 1989 Disney production features Rick Moranis as Wayne Szalinski, a wacky inventor whose shrinking ray accidentally reduces his children to one one-hundredth their normal size. The movie traces their adventures until they are returned to normal. The movie makes us laugh and perhaps think a little about what it would be like to be the size of a grasshopper; but aside from some silly sequels and spin-offs, the story does little to impact our lives beyond the moment.

Now Wayne Szalinski has not pointed his shrinking ray at our world, but the inventions of thousands of others over the course of centuries have had that very effect; and their collective shrinking ray is still at work, rapidly transforming our way of living. In fact, the effects of a shrinking world are actually accelerating. The earth, of course, has not gotten physically smaller over the years. It is still 7,926.4 miles in diameter at the equator (a fact I know because it is easy to find out such things in our small world). However, it has gotten smaller in terms of the time it takes to travel, in the speed and cost of communication, and in the amount and accessibility of information.

So let us travel back in time and see what happens when Szalinski’s predecessors get up from their collective workbenches and say, “Honey, I Shrunk the World!”

Let’s start at about the time of Abraham, about 1900 years before Christ. Abraham and his family (and most others) are nomads. They don’t so much travel to go somewhere specific as we think of it; rather they wander on foot with their flocks in search of forage and water. They live in tents that they carry with them as they wander. Merchants of the day almost certainly carry their goods on pack animals, or in wagons or sledges drawn by animals. There is no security, so everyone travels in groups.

Sea and river travel are limited. Early boats and ships are powered by oars, sometimes aided by a square sail that assists when the wind happens to be blowing in the right direction. Navigation is such that mariners generally follow coastlines to get to their destinations, and the uncertainties associated with wind and waves make sea-going difficult, dangerous, and limited.

Communication is verbal—either in person or by messenger—and information is stored in memory and conveyed through oral tradition. As a result, there is little accumulated knowledge; everyone is home-schooled, and college is the school of hard knocks. Remember, this is six or seven centuries before Moses, seven or eight centuries before Homer, and 14 or 15 centuries before the ancient philosophers Plato and Aristotle.

Now let’s take a look at our shrinking ray device. On the front, I can imagine a tachometer (like the one in your car that tells you how fast your engine is turning). It reads just above the left peg in Abraham’s day. I’ll bet it’s above zero, because God has started a mighty work in Abraham, but otherwise, change is mighty slow at this time.

Next, flash forward about 38 centuries, to about 1700 A.D. People have made major innovations in land travel, namely: roads, particularly during the Roman era; maps, so that we can know where we’re going and how to get there; and government, to provide some measure of security. Land travel is still by foot, animal, or animal-drawn vehicle.

Sea travel has advanced much more. Ships are bigger, faster, safer, and able to sail (or point) more closely to the wind. We’ve got new ways to determine our position and direction at sea; with latitude and longitude, new charts, accurate timepieces, and other instruments, we can use celestial mapping and navigation theories to explore the entire globe and trade with people everywhere.

Written communication is now developed. Scrolls and books are penned; letters become common, and postal services make it possible to communicate over great distances. The printing press now makes it possible to accumulate and disseminate a tremendous amount of knowledge that libraries, colleges, and universities can share, store, and organize. From early in the 17th century, the scientific method has sparked a quest for understanding and an approach that results in the accumulation of knowledge at ever-increasing rates.

It has taken nearly 3,600 years—not exactly speedy by our standards—but these inventions have shrunk the world enormously. By the 18th century, travel is faster, safer, and much more common. Trade is now worldwide, and much safer where there is good government.

Now let’s take another look at what’s been happening to that tachometer on our shrinking ray. First, the Greek philosophers have gotten it up to a couple of thousand rpm. Next, the Romans have driven the rpm higher, with the spread of political stability, roads, and shared currency, all of which have fostered travel, trade, communication, and knowledge accumulation. Now comes the fall of the Roman Empire, which causes that tachometer to drop way back for a while. (Evidence suggests, for example, that there is more ship traffic on the Mediterranean during the Roman Empire than we see again until the 19th century.) After the fall of Rome, the tachometer needle fluctuates some, but it really starts to rev up again when we get to the invention of the printing press, the time of the Protestant Reformation, and the development of the scientific method.

Professor Szalinski’s predecessors have turned up the intensity of the shrinking ray several notches. How? By learning how to accumulate, expand, and communicate knowledge and the technology they beget. Even as far out as the 21st century, these same factors are continuing to increase its intensity. (But now we’re getting ahead of ourselves.)

Another milestone in time is the early 18th century, when the all-new steam engine energizes our shrinking ray once again. It takes the next two centuries, but eventually engines set many of the world’s people free from the limitations of wind, water, and animal power, driving the industrialization of society. The steam engine powers railroads, ships, and mechanical operations of countless varieties, and eventually leads to other innovations in power (like electric generators, the internal combustion engine, the jet engine, rocket propulsion, and nuclear power) that have driven our vehicles and society ever since.

By the time we get to 1873, Jules Verne can imagine a world small enough that he writes his then-still-somewhat-fanciful novel, Around the World in 80 Days. At this point, eighty days is still a radically short time frame. Consider, if you will, that only three centuries earlier, Magellan’s crew has taken three years to circumnavigate the globe. Three more centuries beforehand, Marco Polo has spent three-and-a-half years to travel the 5,600 miles from Venice to Beijing. Less than a century after Jules Verne, in 1962, astronaut John Glenn orbits the world in about one hour.

Also, beginning in the 19th century, the shrinking ray performs a series of radical acts to transform our world in the areas of communication and information. The invention of the telegraph in 1825 and radio a century later free people to communicate instantaneously over great distances. The development of the computer, in the middle 20th century, is a particularly radical act that makes possible the processing, organization, storage, and retrieval of tremendous amounts of information. Finally, the Internet combines the technologies of computers and communications, at very low cost, and we have only begun to imagine and realize what is possible.

Thomas Friedman, a New York Times reporter and author of The World is Flat, has done more thinking about this than most of us. His book provides a compelling argument that the shrinking ray I’ve been referring to has been cranked up to maximum power. I can picture our ray’s tachometer needle, after the throttle has been rotated to maximum, pushing well into the red (or danger) zone.

Friedman tells us that our world is about to change at a rate that will challenge America’s ability to sustain its standard of living and its political stability. He argues that personal computers, combined with the Internet, combined with fiber-optic cables connecting all the continents, have empowered individuals to an unprecedented extent, at the same time that the fall of the Berlin Wall, China’s turn to capitalism, and India’s retreat from socialism have together released some 3 billion—that’s billion with a b—people into the marketplace of ideas and trade.

Let’s look at our timeline another way. For millennia, people live as nomads. Then, for more millennia, most people live as farmers in the agricultural age. The shift from nomads to farmers takes a very long time, but gradually, the way people earn their living and relate to each other is transformed. Next comes the industrial age, which lasts only a few centuries; the transition is much more rapid, in many ways it is wrenching, as again the way people earn their living and relate to each other changes radically.

In the early 21st century, we are now in the first decades of a transition to the information age. We are destined to see an even more rapid transition, one that will again change the way we live and relate. It is sure to be more rapid because the factors that power our shrinking ray are greater than ever before. Travel is fast, and relatively cheap and easy; communication is global, instantaneous and nearly free; information is abundant and easily accessible; and, with some notable exceptions, the world is politically stable and open.

We can see the early effects of transition clearly in North Carolina. Once known for tobacco, the Piedmont region is now known for banking, research, and education. Our western part of the state has been known for textiles and furniture, but those businesses are rapidly dying, and they are being replaced by health care and tourism.

Just as before, the current transition will be wrenching—perhaps more so because it will be faster. There will be winners and losers. Those who win will gain wealth, power, and status. Those who lose will struggle to make it in a world that no longer seems to work for them. In order to be a winner, one must have the preparation and skills to succeed in the new marketplace, and access to opportunity. This story is familiar in the history of the world. What is new is the scope of competition, as access to opportunity has dramatically expanded, almost overnight. (Use of the global network of fiber-optic cables, laid during the dot-com boom, has become very low cost following the dot-com bust.)

Today, and surely even more so tomorrow, the world has shrunk so much that we compete with nations, companies, and even individuals in China, India, and all around the globe. We’re not just talking about manufacturing. Your call to Microsoft or Dell tech support may be answered in Bangalore, India; your taxes can be done there, too. How about software design? Or analysis of your chest x-ray? Yes, even knowledge jobs will go to those with the best education, the best work ethic, and the best value per dollar.

So what does this mean for us? In a knowledge economy, what we know, who we know, and our ability to make creative connections between what we know and who we know are vitally important. Also, because our context is constantly and rapidly changing, we can never rest on what and who we already know. Education is vitally important. We must not only learn, but also become very good at learning. We must not only know how to tap into the wealth of information that is available, but also become very good at discerning its reliability and usefulness.

Passion is important. We need to love learning, or at least to start by developing a taste for it. I was a junior in college before I acquired that love, so I know it doesn’t always come naturally. We need to love learning: because it doesn’t stop when we graduate; because we must continue to learn if we want to continue to be dynamic, contributing members of our communities; and because to do something forever without loving it is drudgery. The best way to come to love learning is to find out what it is we love, what God made us to be passionate about. It’s in there; you can find it. So figure out what you love and learn about it with a passion.

Friends are important. Friends make life worth living. People with good friends live healthier, happier lives. Friends connect us to their worlds; they create opportunities for us to do good for others and to do well in our own lives. My family always laughs at me when I say I am shy. I learned in high school and college that I don’t naturally reach out to others, yet I am happier when I do. So I have sought roles that have made me reach out. The friends I have made have helped me learn how to be a better friend and how to reach out more effectively. So my message for you is to get engaged with others. If people seem to avoid you, find out why, and work on changing those habits that push people away.

Work is important. God ordained work when he told Adam to keep the Garden of Eden. He made it hard after the Fall. Because we all must work, and because work is likely to consume a very large part of our adult lives, those of us who seek meaningful work that we can pour ourselves into, and that will enrich us spiritually, mentally, and materially, have a much better chance of enjoying satisfying, productive lives.

Take charge of your education and your life. God did not make you a billiard ball, simply reacting to the actions of others. Seize the opportunity you have been given at Montreat College and make the most of it. I have heard students say they don’t read the books in their classes, that they rely on their professors to spoon-feed them the material. I have heard students brag about writing several papers in one night. Don’t waste your potential that way. Don’t be a C student in a world that requires A performance. If you are not studying two to three hours outside of class for every hour in class, you are almost certainly not getting what you need from your education.

Our college is working hard to keep up with a rapidly changing world. We have structured our curriculum and support to give you the flexibility you need to make your education your own, and to help you develop the skills and habits that will allow you to make an impact in your life. We are seeking ways do these things even better, and we will continue to make changes to help you. But you are responsible for how well you take advantage of the wealth of opportunity you have here.

Seize the opportunity. The shrinking ray that is changing our world has never been more powerful. Its tachometer is revving into the red zone. Life has never been more competitive on a global scale. And (hear this) there has never been more opportunity for people to take control of their lives and to make a positive impact in the lives of others. So take charge; find your passion; work hard; build good friends; have hope, and don’t worry. Remember the admonition of David to his son Solomon regarding the building of the temple in I Chronicles 28:20:

“Don’t be frightened by the size of the task. Be strong and courageous and get to work. For the Lord my God is with you. He will not forsake you.
He will see to it that everything is finished correctly.”