From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Mon Jul 23 2001 - 18:14:51 MDT
On Mon, Jul 23, 2001 at 12:19:03PM -0700, Brian D Williams wrote:
>
> From: Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>
>
> I agree, I would like to believe that what most of the G-8
> protesters are really concerned with is a loss of diversity.
A lot of globalization critics of course think they are fighting
diversity loss - they see a world that has turned into McWorld. I would
argue that this is untrue, that we are in fact getting a far more
diverse world where there is both McDonalds *and* traditional
restaurants, where both pop culture and traditional cultures go global
and where creolization runs rampant.
I am sitting here in Stockholm in the middle of the night mailing across
the world while my video shows _Ghost in the Shell_, which is right now
quoting the Bible but referring to transhumanist ideas. In the
background of the anime there is techno music that probably derives from
some western source mixed with ancient Japanese music. My various
computers participate in distributed computing tasks that have no real
allegiance to any culture save the scientific culture. My meal included
indian elements but was likely made somewhere in Denmark. I love it! If
this is McWorld, I want fries with that.
But the critics of course doesn't view it like that, and would probably
think that I have lost touch with my Swedish soul. And since they think
that soul is the most important thing (even if I don't value it or even
think it exists) they feel they have to save me from myself.
> >World trade, of course. I believed in world government when I was
> >a kid, but I have gradually come to realise the strength in
> >diversity and the need to have different solutions being tested in
> >different places.
>
> I went through a socialist/world government phase myself, and once
> again we seem to agree.
I think a lot of people do. It is one of those big, simple ideas that
seem to make so much sense. Reality is complex and messy instead.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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