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TRANSCULTURAL FRIENDSHIP: OUR POLITICAL FUTURE Chapter Three: Change as the Status Quo Section 3: The Acceleration of Change
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"Bow Dance" performed by the Academy of Chinese
Performing Artists, starring (left to right) Kelly Ju, Jeffrey Chen, Alex
Hung, Jennifer, Alvin Hung, and Safyre Anderson. Video still taken at
photoshoot in 1996.
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The most important point of this section is that these developments are not going to slow down. Each technological development inspires and creates the need for other developments. We have only begun to experience the spill-over from microcircuits. Theoretically, circuitry can be shrunk another hundred times -- and this implies corresponding increases in the speed and complexity of future information-processing systems.
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Each new level of complexity permits new levels of knowledge which, in turn, generates more technology. Computers are achieving new heights as they design lenses, cars, and even other computers. Energy may run out, but information feeds upon itself.
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Now, if each of these developments is going to invite or require changes in our societies, values, and ourselves -- well, that's a lot of changing. The next chapter discusses how societies might develop so as to cope with this change. The fifth chapter discusses the kind of person this society will require. However, we have not fully explored the dimensions of this process of change until we assess the impact of the various cultures of the world on each other's development.
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Transcultural Friendship: Our Political Future |
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The Evolution of Societal Structures |
Change as the Status Quo |
Autocracy and Democracy |
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Age of
Information
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The Acceleration of Change |
Small World Syndrome |