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by ccity88 1633 days ago
This is incredibly sad to be honest. I love the interconnectivity of the modern web, and social media allows us to share our thoughts freely and communicate ideas at a scale never before seen in human history, but the consequence of this is the limitation on culture. It used to be the case that cultures developed in a silo'd fashion, and this gave way for some very advanced and different ways to doing things. When our ancestors visited a new location they would find new people with a completely different view of the world. Now everyone thinks the same, acts the same, the culture is the same. We've opened the box on shared thinking and the result is that we'll never have an era of silent cultivation on ideas - the mind virus is live.
1 comments

That isn't quite accurate. Actual siloed cultures are downright stagnant. Advancements come from trade and cross connections. The closest thing you would see are parallel evolutions, which are often more geographically linked. Silent cultivation of ideas is also an oxymoronic notion - ideas grow from interactions.

Likewise their view of the world never was completely different nor those from within the same culture completely the same.

You're right of course - the Romans took from the Greeks, the Greeks took from the Egyptians, etc etc. Ideas adapt over time and cross cultures. Still, I can't help but have a romantic view of cultures, perhaps because up until this point it has taken centuries for ideas to develop and catch on, as our mediums weren't as efficient as what we have now. Prior to the printing press, it was hand art, and spoken word prevailed to tell stories and divulge ideas. Nowadays a single YouTube video has a thousand times more the impact. This is what we lose when we have mass medium like the modern era of the internet. I know it's naive thinking
Cross connections may matter less if the actual cultural differences tendd towards a monoculture… will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next millennia, but we won’t be here to know:)