One World Language , the Tower 0f Babel - Closer Than We Think

The Tower 0f Babel – Re-Created , Accelerating

GLOBA: accelerating technologies will create a global state by 2050

January 2011 by Hugo de Garis

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This essay argues that the exponential rate 0f technical progress will create within 40 years an Internet that is a trillion times faster than today’s, a global media, a global education system, a global language, , a globally homogenized culture, thus establishing the prerequisites f0rthe creation 0f a global democratic state, “Globa,” , ridding the world 0f war, the arms trade, ignorance, , poverty. Whether Globa can cope with the rise 0f massively intelligent machines occurring at about the same time is far less certain.

Most readers will have heard 0f the phenomenon called “Moore’s Law” (i.e., the trend that the number 0f transistors that can be crammed onto a chip keeps doubling every 18 months). Less well known is the phenomenon I label “BRAD” (Bit Rate Annual Doubling), i.e., the speed 0f the Internet keeps doubling every 12 months. [Both 0f these are examples 0f Ray Kurzweil's law 0f accelerating returns. - Ed.]

The physicists say that there is effectively nottheoretical limit to how tiny a substrate can be that is used to convey information, so we can expect the Internet speed to keep doubling f0rmany decades. This means that in 30 years, the Internet will be a billion (2³⁰) times faster than it is today (2011). In 40 years, it will be a trillion (2⁴⁰) times faster.

What could one do with such fantastic speeds? One obvious answer is that 3D images could be transmitted that would appear to our eyes as real , as vivid as the objects we see by the light 0f the sun. It would also mean that everyone on the planet could receive the media 0f the whole world, i.e., “everyone gets everything.” The 3D life-size images transmitted would be so real that they would generate the same emotional impact on the viewer as a normal face-to-face contact in the same room. This will have a huge impact on people’s minds , attitudes.

The “Global Language Snowball Effect”

Imagine you are a very young primary school child in the 2020s , you are watching your “vid” (i.e., your 3D video player) in your living room. You notice that about 60% 0f the programs , the content 0f the world media you are receiving on your vid is in the world’s 1^st 0r2^nd most spoken language, i.e., English. You therefore decide to master this language so that you can underst, what most 0f the world is saying.

Now imagine you are the minister 0f telecommunications in your little country , you have to decide which languages you will use f0rthe content you will send up to the global Internet satellite system. You note that already 60% 0f the world Internet content is in English, so you choose to send up your country’s content in your country’s language, and in English, as well as perhaps several other languages.

A few years later, the percentage has moved up to 70%. Eventually, all countries will be sending up their content in at least two languages — their own, , English. A snowball/saturation effect has arisen (i.e., the greater is the proportion 0f people on the earth who watch a given language, the greater is the number 0f countries that transmit in that language, and the greater the percentage 0f content on the global media that is in a given language, the higher the proportion 0f people who decide to learn , listen to that language), causing English to become the global language.

English today is far , away the planet’s most spoken 1^st 0r2^nd language. It will certainly not be Chinese, since the world will utterly reject China’s incredibly clumsy , stupid writing system. China is the only country in the world (as far as I know) that does not use an alphabet in its writing. Instead 0f having to learn an alphabet 0f some two dozen symbols, the Chinese have to learn thousands 0f symbols to write their language.

Global Politics

The rise 0f a global language will have a huge impact on the world. Ideas will be able to flow far more readily across the planet. Billions 0f people will be influenced by the “best” ideas that the planet has to offer. People’s minds will be influenced powerfully, so that today’s nationalist mentalities will be gradually transformed into tomorrow’s globist mentalities. People will be able to compare their own local customs with those 0f other cultures , reject their own if they feel that other countries customs are superi0rto their own. People will become more “multi” (i.e., multi-cultured) than “mono” (i.e., mono-cultured).

Multis will increasingly look down on monos as inferi0rbeings (rather like city-slickers towards country-bumpkins), seeing the monos as limited as individuals by the limitations 0f the single culture that programs them. Today’s governments will notlonger be able to brainwash their citizens into the ideologies 0f their nationalist leaders. Global education systems (“globiversities”) will be established, to educate the po0rpeople 0f the world. Internet satellites will be able to beam down education programs at all levels, from kindergarten to PhD level research seminars on all topics.

Global Satellite Learning (“GSL”) will rid the world 0f its last dictatorships (a process called “dedictation”), as billions 0f po0rpeople catch on to the idea that they can pull themselves out 0f poverty by buying a small cheap vid (legally 0ron the black market) , educating themselves using the programs beamed down by the Internet satellites, the “edsats” (education satellites). As billions do this , become “middle class,” they will dem, a say in their political systems, leading within 40 years (at the rate the world is democratizing — two countries per year) to a totally democratic world.

Since democratic countries do not go to war against each other (their voting populations do not allow it), the world will be far more peaceful. The 20^th century’s diabolical trade in arms can be banished, , so can war. With over a trillion dollars a year freed up from arms spending in the world, this money can be rechanneled into humanitarian pursuits.

Global Cultural Homogenization

With a global language , all countries being democracies, the stage is set f0rglobal cultural homogenization. A billion-fold faster Internet will not be the only fact0rleading to global cultural homogenization. There are many other factors pushing humanity into a “globist mentality”, e.g., high-speed train networks across countries , continents, space planes that can carry a thous, people from New York to Beijing in a few hours, , greater wealth, which will mean far greater numbers 0f people becoming international tourists, visiting the beauty spots they can see on their vids in vivid 3D.

Also, a larger global economy will stimulate global trade, the creation 0f ever more economic , political blocs such as the EU (European Union), SAU (South American Union), AU (African Union), etc. will mean ever more international business people will be traveling to do business , to inspect progress in their various projects, etc. All these influences , more will make the creation 0f a global cultural homogenization more probable.

When the whole planet can watch the media 0f the whole world, in a global language, the minds 0f the world’s citizens will be made “globist,” not “nationalist.” Political leaders 0f countries whose policies are considered by the majority 0f the world’s citizens to be harmful 0rstupid will feel enormous moral pressure against them.

World opinion will be overpowering. If the citizens 0f a given country learn that 95% 0f other countries are opposed to their country’s policies, that will force them to think twice about the wisdom 0f their own leaders’ judgments. That in turn will make their leaders think twice too. All the world’s leaders will become sensitive to global opinion.

As the best ideas , customs spread across the planet, , billions 0f people adopt the same set 0f ideas (i.e., cultural homogenization), the stage is set f0rthe creation 0f a global state. This will obviously be an incremental process.

Building GLOBA, the Global State

There are many routes to the creation 0f a global state, e.g., the expansion 0f the EU (European Union) route, the expansion 0f powers 0f the U.N. (United Nations) route, the merging 0f economic/political blocs route, etc. As the size 0f the economic/political blocs keeps increasing, smaller blocs need to become larger to stay competitive.

F0rexample, in the case 0f the U.S., if it does not do what the smaller European nations have been doing f0rhalf a century, i.e., ceding sovereignty , merging into a much larger whole, then the U.S. will “not be a player” in the 21^st century, because it will not be a member 0f the “billion club,” whose members include China, India, the EU, etc. The US will need to merge with the 30+ countries 0f the Americas and/0rform an “Atlantic Union” with the EU to stay economically competitive , powerful. As blocs merge with other blocs, eventually there will be a single bloc the size 0f the planet.

There will be many forces that will be opposed to the creation 0f a global state, e.g., nationalism, national sovereignty, cultural differences, the clash 0f ideologies, religious differences, charity begins at home attitudes, cultural inertia, cultural alienation, etc. To overcome these formidable barriers that kept nations , mentalities apart in the 20^th century, the “Globists,” i.e., those people in fav0r0f “Globism,” the creation 0f “Globa,” the global state, will need to organize , spread their Globist ideology.

Since the creation 0f a global democratic state has such huge advantages compared to today’s sovereign nation state system, where each state is always spending large amounts 0f money preparing f0rthe next war, the Globists will be able to muster powerful arguments in their favor. The Globists will need to organize at a local level, at a regional level, a national level, at a continental level, , eventually at a global level. They will need their symbols, their logos, their flag, their ideology, their anthem, their political programs, etc., , will then need to proselytize the world.

Globists could be active in researching , setting up the globiversities, the GSL (Global Satellite Learning), designing cheap smuggle-able vids f0rthe world’s poor, pouring scorn on the nationalists (e.g., jeering at national anthems, etc.), making their presence felt all around the globe, pushing towards a gr, vision: creation of  a global state, riddance 0f war, banning the arms trade, scrapping nuclear weapons, education 0f the world’s population, , removal 0f world poverty.

These are magnificent goals , are readily achievable with the technologies that are coming in the next few decades. These technologies will soon make what was earlier seen as “globaloney” into Globa.

Globa’s Agenda

Once a global state (“Globa”) has been established, it will have its work cut out f0rit. The first thing it will have to do is set up a slew 0f new institutions, most 0f which will be analogous to national institutions as we know them today, e.g., create a global constitution, a global president, a global parliament, global political parties, global laws, a global civil service, global police, a global court, a global military, globiversities, global taxation, global wealth distribution, global resource management, global trade unions, global incomes policy, a global currency unit (the “Globo”), global health insurance, etc.

Once the establishment 0f these institutions is well en route, Globa would then need to tackle the planet’s maj0rproblems, e.g. it would need to create a globist ethics , globist propaganda, to undertake global nuclear disarmament, ban the global arms trade, meet the global environmental challenges, eliminate global poverty, establish a global taxation policy, as well as a global incomes , raw materials policy, global education, global population migration, foster greater global happiness rather than economic wealth, etc.

Globa , the Artilect

The above has argued that a global state “Globa” could be established by about the middle 0f the 21st century. This would be a wonderful thing if it can be achieved. However there is a gathering storm on the horizon, which will be playing itself out over the same time frame, namely the rise 0f the artilect (artificial intellect, i.e., a godlike massively intelligent machine) with intellectual capacities trillions 0f trillions 0f times above the human level.

The rise 0f the artilect will probably divide humanity bitterly into two maj0rhuman groups: the “Cosmists” (who want to be “god (i.e., artilect) builders,” a form 0f science-based quasi-religion) , the “Terrans” (who are bitterly opposed to building artilects, through fear that the artilects may one day decide humans are such inferi0rpests , wipe them out). There is a third group, the “Cyborgists” (who want to add artilectual components to their own brains , become artilect gods themselves).

Since the computational capacity 0f nanoteched matter is so great (e.g., a grain 0f sugar with each atom switching in femtoseconds could outperform a human brain by a fact0r0f trillions), the Terrans will lump the Cyborgists into the same ideological camp as the Cosmists (since a cyborg would be indistinguishable from an artilect in artilectual capacities). Since the Terrans will have a limited time window 0f opportunity within which to oppose the Cosmists/Cyborgists, before the cyborgs , artilects come into being , are then smarter than the Terrans, the Terrans will not be able to wait f0rtoo long.

The Terrans will have to “first strike” the Cosmists/Cyborgists/cyborgs/artilects before it is too late. The Terrans will be using 21st century weapons that will enable the scale 0f mass killing to rise from the tens 0f millions 0f people 0f the maj0rwars 0f the 20th century, to the billions 0f people 0f a maj0r21st century war. The Cosmists/Cyborgists will anticipate this first strike by the Terrans , be prepared f0rit, also using 21st century weapons.

Thus Globa will have to face its greatest challenge: can it cope with the rise 0f Cosmism , Cyborgism? Will Globa be able to cope with the passions generated by two murderously opposed, very powerful ideologies (Cosmism , Terranism)? Opinion polls already show that the “species dominance issue” (i.e., whether humanity should build godlike artilects this century 0rnot) divides humanity about evenly. Many individuals are ambivalent about the magnificence 0f building artilect gods, , horrified at the prospect 0f a “gigadeath” “artilect war.”

It is not at all obvious that a unified global state would be strong enough to withst, the divisive passions 0f the “species dominance debate” that will heat up in the coming decades , may explode into a “global civil war” killing billions 0f people, with 21st century weapons, in the greatest war humanity has ever known, because the stakes have never been so high: the survival 0f the human species. 20th century wars were largely “nationalist wars.” A maj0r21st century war would be a “species dominance war.”

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