Are we still in the information age?
 

I don't believe so. I think a new age has been ushered in. I call it the age of globalization. Walls continue to be torn down, and earth has bascially reached critical mass. War will become obsolete between countries. The only wars we will fight will be the wars against the intangible. Man will start to think less of himself as a member of said country, and more of a member of planet earth.

Is this the new "I'm drunk" thread?

No, we are in the age where nearly everyone (in developed countries) is physically tethered to a personal electronic device, not for information, nor communication but for a false sense of security.

I believe we have left the 'information age' and entered the 'need for information' age.

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius.

Welcome to the New World Order :(

My cat's name is Mittens

I think (call me an optimist) that Airhog is basically right, though I'd say we're in a transitory phase. Let's say that we're in the transition out of the Age of Information, and into the.. oh, I don't know... Age of Enlightenment? Too cheesy, maybe, but what I'd hope for. *

I think the transition began with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the crumbling of the U.S.S.R. empire, such as it was. The Cold War was really the last remaining thing from letting mankind start to come together to work for a common advancement and good. *

China, Castro's Cuba, and the Koreas are the only Communist states left. Kim Il Jong will die soon enough. Castro's been on his deathbed since, what, 1979? The rest will follow along, I think. Not to open a whole new can of worms, but the Islamic extremists and Christian extremist, well, let's just say religious extremists will be the final hurdle. *

* This post endorsed and fueled by the original NyQuil - coming to you in the original green death flavor and still at roughly 3000 proof.

Have a nice day.

I thought we were in the Golden Age of the Spread Option, but apparently I was wrong.

I don't know. I watched this episode of In Search of, and according to Leonard Nimoy there is a coming ice age. Could be here as soon as 1980.

I'm not sure globalization will ever happen. The United States has peaked, China's influence and power is rapidly growing. Eventually there will be a clash there, which will be far from the last. There will always be governments with conflicting goals. Something rather drastic will need to happen for one country to gain such an edge that they can successfully unite the world under them. Nuclear or biological war with one side somehow winning?

Once Hogan spraypainted the belt, you knew nothing good was going to come of this.

This is assuming totalitarian Communists states are/were the only major impedement to this goal. And that seems so far from the truth. Sure, one obstacle got knocked down but there are a lot more out there.


Unfortunately, it seems our people are only capable of great unity in the face of adversity. It will take some sort of outside force (global war, massive environmental catastrophe, alien invasion- I dunno)- somethat that threatens all of us to unite as a member of planet earth.

To sound quite crazy, the biggest competition to this notion is that we all live under a capitalistic/social darwinistic state in every facet of our lives. I'm not saying there's something better that we have conceived but when you live your daily life viewing others around you as adversaries for the same resources as you, that's going to cause natural divisions. It's perfectly ok and normal to be richer, buying that third tv for your house while there are people starving even in our own country- one of the richest in the world, and we placate ourselves with the notions that it's somehow their fault and they deserve it. I don't mean to sound trite and overdramatic but if we can't get past letting people die in our own backyards, I think we have a long way to go before we can unite and do anything. Also, I'm not necessarily condemning the notion of healthy competition but it's when we use it as a justification that it's ok to let others die or live in poverty because we are better people.

I was actually talking to my wife about something similar the other day. There have only been a few times in history we've been fully united behind a cause (at least statistically- I think there will always be dissenters to everything but I mean a large majority): events like World War 2 and the moon landing. We got fairly close to this after 9/11 but it quickly dissolved because of the actions taken to follow it up. We're in an Orwellian political landscape where we are told to undyingly love one side and hate the other. I think if we made great political strides towards world peace- one side wouldn't even believe the other had done anything. If we found a cure for AIDS, no one would believe it works while drug companies would put an exhorbitant cost on human life. If we went to Mars- it wouldn't even be that big of a deal for a lot of people.

And it's so frustrating as people have such a capacity for greatness yet squander it on every day frivolities (myself included- 10K posts on a message board don't write themself). If told we have a greater enemy to defeat, we can almost certainly beat it. But that same capacity is used to divide us, set us against one another. That is what is standing in the way of being united and until there is a fundamental shift in the way people think to a more utilitarian slant, the only times we will be together is when we are facing great trials.

Wow- now that's a rant. Nothing to see here, move along.

SI

First off, I did say that the fall of the Berlin wall and U.S.S.R. were only the start of the process. I'm not so naive as to belive a rival political system is the only thing standing in the way of gobal unity and trade, etc. To be fair, though, I think that capitalism certainly isn't the right way to go, either.. for all the reasons you specified. It's as devisive in it's own ways as socialism/Communism.

I think that eventually there's just going to be a sort of critical mass reached, caused by things like constantly spiking gas prices, the rapidly growing gap between the rich, REALLY rich, and barely scraping by (*raises hand*). At some point, there's going to be a revolution of sorts, not to sound overly dramatic, but the average person just isn't going to tolerate this shit anymore. *shrug*