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The Flat World and Human Evolution

May 16, 2005 at 06:02 |

Here is a disturbing, though long-term, potential implication of the Flat World: decreasing cultural diversity with attendant adverse consequences on the biological evolution of our species.

(So much for my love affair with broadband.)


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2 Responses to “The Flat World and Human Evolution”


  1. May 16th, 2005 at 08:23

    Long term is, of course, relative. Language researchers suggest that the number of languages spoken in the world could drop from about 6500 today to 3000 in one hundred years and some estimates have it at less than 1000 languages by 2100. The question here is what effect does this have on cultural diversity. One hundred years is long term by technology standards, but not that long if you consider that my 15 month old son might see the next century. (Evolutionary changes will, of course, take somewhat longer to play out.)