Convergence of Cultures in the Convergence to One World

[pythicnome]

There is no sign of any long term slowing in the rate of growth of the world population. If population increases by 25-50%, one of the possible outcomes will be substantial structural change in the global societies. That would be a stable growth model as opposed to major instability and conflict. In a stable growth model, of whoich there are a number of variants possible, all or most would seem to involve further movement toward the emergence of global values and a global society. That, in turn would imply substantial convergence of some major cultures, including possible diminishment of some, but also a transformation of society due to greater complexity and greater requirement for higher degree of coordination in the use of resources, control of population and amelioration of environmental change.

In this general outlook - that is not more than a few decades out, that some intellectual effort is devoted to considering what that converged, more complex, one world society might comprise and to try to consider the values it would tend to endorse. Or should we just stumble along blindly and so which culture will win?

[BadgerJelly]

The common pattern in societies has been a decrease in population growth in more “modern” societies.

The last predictions I saw all pointed to the global population leveling out at around 9-11 billion, and maybe even peaking prior to this at around 14 billion. I would imagine that moving to Mars and even further afield would lead to further beaches of culture.

I don’t think “culture” is something that sets upon itself. There will always be a “locality” or habit from family to family, neighborhood to neighborhood, town to town etc.,. It is interesting that right now, due to mass communication, we find ourselves in something of a huge mixing pot of ideas and opinions that is slowly filling up as more and more people exchange thoughts and ideas. I don’t think one singular cultural pattern will emerge and even if it did then entropy would break the damn thing up again quickly enough.

[pythicnome]

I take it then that you probably do not buy into Edmund O. Wilson's newer ideas on the societal conquest of the Earth - that society has taken over aspects of evolutionary selection - selecting for social abilities. And his parallels to hives.?

[BadgerJelly]

I take it then that you probably do not buy into Edmund O. Wilson's newer ideas on the societal conquest of the Earth - that society has taken over aspects of evolutionary selection - selecting for social abilities. And his parallels to hives.?

Never heard of him before. At a glance an idea comparing hives to human society coming from an entomologist isn’t really that surprising.

I am sure he has many interesting and intelligent things to say though. He’s new to me, but if you’d like to share anything specific I’m always happy to hear about different ideas.

[pythicnome]

Well I would recommend that you have a look at (I thinkit's titled?) "THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF THE EARTH"by Wilson. It is profound and addresses one of my interests which is how the interests of society take over from the interests of the individual. What is difficult to grasp is that society is not a living thing. It has no organic life, it is invisible, but is increasingly directing gene selection.
Back on the world population projection. Remember that China has had a 1 child policy for decades and if anything it may let up on that and India has no policies and India has something like 300 milion people living in poverty in its interior and they are not part of the modern world.
On top of that various forms of chaos have been driving a great many millions to the borders of North America and Europe. There are signs that the 1st World nations are themselves becoming destablized by this immigration. Global warming will also shrik coastlines and empty some coastal cities. And then there are diseases, objects in space, super-volcanoes etc. The entirety of recorded human history - circa 5,000 years has been within a relatively stable bubble and our population growth became unstable under those conditions. This is a tiny slice of human history and unlikely to last. We are due for more population "bottlenecks" in the future.