Wolfire Games Forums

Nah im actually quite serious ...

Ask yourself this question "What has allowed mankind to be able to grow from small groups of 20 or so people to countries that contain billions of people that work together?"

Other than answers such as the poseable thumb and our intellect, communication plays a large role in how people get along ... if they don't communicate, they most likely don't get along ... which is a problem if they can't communicate ...

Communication facilitates advancements in science as well as mutual understanding with each other ...

Throughout history the size of "unity" is pretty much a direct cause of the communication technologies at that time ...

Those small groups of 20 or so of cave men we only able to communicate primitively through body language, but eventually complex language was developed and those groups got bigger ...

Now (just recently in terms of human development as a whole ... like the last 100 years), we have been introduced to huge advancements in communication technology, giving us the capabilities to talk to almost anyone, anywhere ...

Id be willing to bet that it results in some unity ...

Of course you are right, that communication is vital for complex societies and the internet is a great step forward in communication technology and is a very disruptive technology, that will have great influence on our society. But you are seeing it far too simple here.

Your first mistake is that you assume causality from correlation.

Assaultman67 wrote:Throughout history the size of "unity" is pretty much a direct cause of the communication technologies at that time ...

What makes you so sure, that it wasn't the other way around? What if mankind used social structures of greater size and from that the need to communicate in a new more efficient way arose and new techniques were developed?

Then, you see the whole thing a bit mono-thematic. Advances in science, the development of new technologies, progress in general and not necessarily only in the human race also has adversity and competition as an important factor among many others. Companies develop new technologies to sell more products than their competitors. Your 20 caveman raided the first farmers, that settled down, and the farmers were forced to build bigger groups to defend better because they were much more immobile.

Your whole theory, that the internet will result in world peace and unity(something that kills adversity off BTW) is only a dream, I suppose.

tokage wrote:Of course you are right, that communication is vital for complex societies and the internet is a great step forward in communication technology and is a very disruptive technology, that will have great influence on our society. But you are seeing it far too simple here.

tokage wrote:Your first mistake is that you assume causality from correlation.

Assaultman67 wrote:Throughout history the size of "unity" is pretty much a direct cause of the communication technologies at that time ...

What makes you so sure, that it wasn't the other way around? What if mankind used social structures of greater size and from that the need to communicate in a new more efficient way arose and new techniques were developed?

How the hell would larger social structures (outside of parent/children relationships) ever form with our instinctive fear and distrust of the unknown? There must have been some initial language (probably body language) that let humans see that they were not a threat to each other.

Its true that necessity for larger groups would drive people together ... but that's all they are ... a non organized paranoid group ... its the ability to communicate between them that makes them trust each other and act/work in unity and thats a society ... theres a pretty big difference between a group and a functioning society (i should have not used the word "group" in my previous post ... society would of been more appropriate)

tokage wrote:Then, you see the whole thing a bit mono-thematic.

I guess you're right ... human intelligence as well as the physical anatomy of a human (we wouldn't get as far as we are now without things such as our hands) are also factors that contribute to the goal of global peace ... it would be better for me to say that without the internet, global peace would not be as nearly likely to happen.