On: Civilizational Collapse, Part 4

[whatshisface]

For that to happen our current civilization would have to be defined as every civilization on Earth.

[cookieswumchorr → whatshisface]

there currently is one single civilization earth. All the cultural diffences between countries are far less than it would take to define different civilizations

[ekianjo → cookieswumchorr]

> there currently is one single civilization earth. All the cultural diffences between countries are far less than it would take to define different civilizations

What is your definition of a civilization then? As far as i know there is no "global" culture, you can live in many different places and have a totally different everyday life experience.

[pygy_ → ekianjo]

Science and technology (and maybe trade?) are our global culture.

[ekianjo → pygy_]

I just said there is no such thing as a global culture. It's not because you have Starbucks in every big city that the experience of living in different places is the same.

[pygy_ → ekianjo]

There are local peculiarities, but we share a common core built around science an technology. You can learn to drive a car anywhere on earth. You'll learn the same maths, physics, chemistry and biology. You can use phones everywhere. That is culture, globally shared.

[mcv → whatshisface]

Only the civilization that uses the current hard drive standard and related electronic and digital standards.

There are no hard lines between civilizations of course, but societies that agree on common standards for a number of things sounds like one of the better definitions I can come up with.

[mannykannot → whatshisface]

That's pretty much where we are going, if we are not already there.