Will we one day breathe life into our own creation? This is an interesting question.
In the mid 1990s, I first started using the Web and learning HTML. Back then I was confronted with the fact that www = 666. To test this theory out, I asked a Jewish friend of mine what number www was in Hebrew given that the numerical system used letters. He thought about it and said that there was no W but that W was actually V or vav, so www = 666. Just recently someone pointed out to me the three sixes in the Google Chrome icon. Although clearly there, I am not sure it actually means anything, but I remain open minded on this.
Back in the early days (early 2000s) of the Heaven Net forum on this site, I pondered the idea that the Web and the Net could turn out to be significant tools used against us in the last days. My argument was not only that www=666 but that the word ‘web’ and ‘net’ both described something that catches prey and it could easily turn out that the Web may become a trap one day. (There is much I could write about that point alone, but for the sake of keeping it simple, I will not expand on that point.) Everyone who participated in the discussion at that time thought I was barking up the wrong tree because their view of the end times was already sealed in their minds and gave no room for new things. Although I think one person came round to the idea to some degree.
I further made the point that the Internet was running out of Internet addresses and the new address system that could number everything from websites, manufactured products, even people, and for thousands of years to come was and is called IPV6. Was this all a coincidence, I didn’t think so because of these words in Revelation.
This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
Although the verse says ‘a man’, there is no indefinite article in Greek, thus it could equally be saying, “number of man”.
The main thrust of what I proposed was that the Internet and Web might be the image of the Beast spoken of in Revelation because it says that the image of the beast is breathed into by man and given life. We now know that the Web has a similar amount of connections to a human brain, and thus the idea was that the Web could become AI and sort of think for itself without actually being alive becomes possible. There is even a translation of the Bible that says that “men would breathe life into a machine” when it was quoting the verse about the Image of the Beast. I further proposed just as God has the book of life and other books that record humanities actions, the Web would be humanities version of the book. All their ideas, inventions, sins, and wisdom would be written in the pages of the Web. A type of image of man containing all his ideas and beliefs.
The way this could play out was that in order to partake of a future Internet, in order to combat fraud, spam, and all manner of attacks, people would be legislatively given an IPV6 number and only upon acceptance would they be allowed to connect to the modern world which by this time is connected to the Net. So the Internet becomes the network by which modern world works. Machines and services are connected, and a person without a static IP number who was allowed to connect to the network could wreak havoc with the modern world, thus no permanent number, then no access to the modern world. Doors will not open for you, cars won’t start, and you cannot buy, sell, or save anything. In the future, you basically off the grid or on it. You are either a zero or a one.
Just a theory of course, but to my mind, the fact that the biggest network on the planet, and perhaps the greatest invention for the advancement of knowledge for mankind is abbreviated as ‘www’ which is numerically (666), was quite a big coincidence.
For your convenience here are different translations of the main verse that talks about the image of the beast.
NIV
The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
NLT
He was then permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. Then the statue of the beast commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die.
ESV
And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
KJV
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
HCSB
He was permitted to give a spirit to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could both speak and cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
ISV
The second beast was allowed to impart life to the image of the first beast so that the image of the beast could talk and order the execution of those who would not worship the image of the beast.
Jubilee
And it was given unto him to endue the image of the beast with spirit, so that the image of the beast should speak, and he shall cause those that do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
