Homogenization, truly a curse word in this 22nd century, yet it’s a curse that our globalized world is succumbing to more deeply with each passing day. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Losing your individuality is most definitely a bad thing, and strip malls, Starbucks, and Home Depots are a part of that lost sense of community. One community on the outskirts of Barcelona used to be as different from one on the outskirts of Seville as Miami is from Chicago. They all had cultural identity. Now everyone knows what happened in Paris...Hilton.
I’m going to miss that cultural identity, probably more than the next guy. But as the worldwide homogenization slowly consumes the cultural identities of the world we will still have cultural markers.
As barriers of distance are removed and baring a complete retrogression of society, there is no way to wall off the world seeping in through cable, internet, and wireless connections. If you can’t beat them, join them...right? Technology will never stay hidden, the Chinese won’t horde gunpowder to themselves for a thousand years just as we can’t keep the Chinese from hacking into an iphone today.
People naturally want to improve their condition and define themselves as unique. So as we stand on the shoulders of giants who are going to be ever closer to us (just think the giant whose shoulders you stand on tomorrow might be uploading his genius today) and cultural differences get washed into the malaise of consumerism, people will search harder for the unique souls able to stay afloat in the mire...THE CREAM SHALL RISE.
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