It's about a guy who has been fighting for ~50 years to be able to be a citizen of no country. I left that episode thinking "This is the hero we need right now."
Yes. It has the simplicity of a traditional flag but recognisably represents the earth. The 2016 one (which this thread is about) is too similar to the Japanese flag. Or the Blaupunkt logo.
Transparency in a flag is new to me. It's surprisingly effective here. Could this be done with just cloth without synthetics by using thinner threads or thread count?
I also love the transparency and am surprised it hasn’t been used more. Granted, it would be very difficult to achieve with natural materials and also be durable. A flag should be able to withstand an ocean voyage exposed to the elements.
I think you pointed out very well why it hasn't been used more: lack of durability. Either it has to be some kind of plastic foil, in which case it has to be thin enough to fly in the wind the same way as a traditional flag does, so it will degrade very quickly when exposed to the elements. Or the silk organza suggested on the page, but if it's thin enough to be (almost) transparent I'm not convinced that it would fare much better.
So, nice idea, but completely impractical, which makes it a gimmick.
I feel what makes it work well here is also that it's not perfectly transparent so you can still see it wave in the wind and make out it's rectangular shape.
I'd definitely take that into consideration for a digital
version.
The website mentions silk organza at https://1worldflag.com/flag/. That's where my mind went initially, some kind of sheer silk fabric. I don't know how durable it would be in the elements though.
You could make any flag out of non-vegan materials, sure. But that this flag was designed with the basis of cruelty (silk) makes it also conceptually non-vegan.
What a great way to unite the world in a practice of cruelty to its inhabitants
It's a novel and fun idea! I also wonder how it would be represented correctly as a digital image, could be as an actual png or maybe the white/grey checker pattern from PhotoShop? Realistically probably just with a white background
It should be a white flag. All the colors, and the fact we embraced it as a flag of unity over a flag of surrender should say all there is to say about us getting over our differences.
Edit: From Wikipedia: (A white flag) serves as an internationally recognized sign of truce and negotiation, meaning "we want to talk". It emerged as an ideal symbol for peace because it is highly visible on the battlefield, is easy to make, and doesn't belong to any specific nation.
The Japanese flag references the Sun, and it's hard to aim for astrological minimalism and not look similar. Still, the transparent background is a bad idea IMO, because a spaceship/space station with painted flags will look very funny.
Nevertheless, I think the Earth flag should include the moon too. A blue Earth, a white Moon, and a black background. When the Moon secession war starts, the laser holes in the flag could double as the starry sky.
Yeah I don’t disagree, but I think the difficulty is kind of the point in the GP’s post: it would take an unprecedented era of peace for us to collectively agree that the idea of “surrender” is an anachronism ready to be reclaimed for a better purpose.
Especially if this represents the Earth in the face of aliens on other planets and they happen to know the flag of surrender... It would definitely give them the wrong impression about Earth.
I appreciate the ethos of unity, but in a sense it scares me were this ever to be political unity -- because I don't trust it would remain (or even ever be) democratic and free.
We see so many examples of power hurting citizens in existing nations. The risk if the entire world had one political unity, of losing freedom, is extreme.
With multiple nations and blocs, at least some remain showing an example of what can exist in the others.
The only way we'll going to achieve anything remotely akin to World Unity™ is as some form of dystopic Warhammer 40K future. You try putting even 5 people in a root have them reach consensus on anything.
I like the idea to have a symbol to unite the world under one flag.
The blue dot seems to make sense as it represents the world without focusing on one perspective or projection of the world map. The transparent background also makes sense for the flag, but I think it would be more recognizable if it was just a white background (in my mind the default flag background).
Also it seems to me transparent materials are in general more polluting. On the website it mentions a black background was considered (I suppose representing space). It would be nice if there was an alternative version chosen without the transparency for mediums where transparency is not an option either black or white would suffice imho.
As others mentioned it does seem very similar (same proportions) as the Japanese flag. I wonder what the opinion of the Japanese is on this concept.
He's been radio silent for 9+ months. No videos, no podcasts.
People have been speculating on his reddit subs, but honestly anything from early retirement, to stay at home dad, to sabbatical, to serious illness is completely possible. The parasociality of everything has probably gotten old over time, too.
Currently, Japan’s ruling party, the LDP, is considering legislation to criminalize the desecration of the Japan flag. If that law is passed, carrying that flag would constitute a crime of desecrating the Japan flag. Even without such a law, simply carrying that flag would likely prompt the far right to view it as an alteration of the Japan flag and attack you for it.
Like all flags, this will come to represent those who choose to fly it, and the causes they fly it for. Which then makes them symbols of the ideas opposed by people who think flag waving is cringe.
I don't like it and I wasn't consulted about it. Given it is supposed to be representative of a united humanity or something like that, I'd be interested to know what proportion of the 8 billion people were consulted in its creation.
It should be a different color, because this will be attached to either politics (which you don't want) or EU (which you also don't want), some completely independent color could actually trigger curiosity to look it up.
Disagree, though you’re right it’s a little bit similar to the eu flag, but only a little, plenty of countries manage with more similar flags.
Flags don’t exist for the period where they’re gaining recognition. Compromising the significance of the iconography for the temporary gain of not being misidentified during the period it isn’t recognisable would just mean if it gains recognition it will forever be less than it could be.
In other words, with flags you need to play to win, not to survive. Better that the attempt have a higher risk of failure with a great flag than a lower risk with a mediocre flag.
The pale blue dot is an excellent way to represent a global outlook and “we’re all in it together”, not sure I can think of a better pedigree for this concept. I’d perhaps have been tempted to make it a smaller blue dot, but flags do need to be recognised at a distance, so it can’t be too much smaller.
I like the direction of unity but this will probably be problematic when we eventually start to colonize other planets. I don't want our first settlers to feel discriminated, so please kindly make a new version with more universality - now that I think about it, Universal Pictures also has the world in their logo so maybe this IS universal but we probably we need Jim and Hannah in the loop as well so they can chime in, and last but not least, we need a review from the legal so I CC'd to all, expect some new ideas/requirements.
Also, can we please make it "pop"?
ps. Attaching a version I made, and this took a lot of back and forth with chatgpt because I care about this a lot, so please have a look, I think we are close to something great here!
Looking forward to seeing more from you!
ps2. when I was about to send our manufacturing guy entered the room and he said the transparency could be a problem. Some alternatives without compromising the idea would be great! They must be cheap but elegant! Thank you!!
I will certainly not. And even if I did — within any reachable radius there's nothing actually suitable, everything is 10+ ly away, but maybe I missed something.
If you did go at 99.999999% or whatever 10 light years away means basically no time for you. That's how time dilation works. Or, from your subjective experience, the faster you go, the shorter the distance. If you go REALLY fast, the distance shrinks to nothing. Those two perspectives are the same way to think about the same underlying time/distance transformation that happens.
If you were traveling very close to light speed, time dilation would mean your experience of time is slowed down, such that if you can go infinitely close to the speed of light, you can travel anywhere as quickly as you have the energy for. For an observer on Earth you'd still take however many lightyears away the location is.
Modern invented flag peddlers only seek to have us fly flags of the division they seek to generate. I only fly the flag of the country I live in and give side eye to anyone that does otherwise.
Some enjoy their local cultures, customs and sovereignty and do not wish to dissolve into a homogenized nowhere-land of world culture/governance. Some people do not cheer for dystopia.
Continue with the scold though, very convincing argument so far.
I reckon the actual color doesn't matter as long as it's blue-ish. There are no branding guidelines or anything. Even the size of the circle is unspecified, which IMO is a feature, not a bug. It's accessible :)
EDIT: I'm incorrect, there is a spec. Whelp! I still like my imagined more-flexible version of the flag.
Let’s try an earth and a sunrise behind it - half a circle sitting on the bottom of the rectangle, and a yellow circle making a sunrise on top of that, like a yolk sitting on a blue egg.
if cannot merge into 1, at least we can make it a few. 200+ is a waste of resources on so many levels.. so many countries really don't need to exist and have shitty a government...
That can be figured out after the dismantling process :)
My personal utopian take: smaller communities/city-states that would naturally coalesce into more fluid confederations. A lot of these communities could also be distributed and non-local.
I expect there are many people who agree with this sentiment, unfortunately they might not agree on precisely which areas ought to be quarantined. And those who happen to live in the areas you want to quarantine might disagree most vigorously.
Funny i live in a country where the people are the government, and with your knowledge of different country's, the future World-Government would not just be shitty but untouchable mighty. I want really small, face to face responsible governments.
German here, I want the same. We are one species inhabiting a single habitable world in a giant dead void. Nationalism is an idiotic game of no value that causes destruction of resources we need, senseless killing in wars over nothing, and ultimately merely a distraction from everything that’s really important.
Nothing against a Coordinating body like the UN, and really small states (lets call them community's).
But there is no "we are the world, we are the children", future is probably more like US/EU/EAU (east asia union), now you have 3 big blocks fighting against each other (much higher world-ending chance). More power = more bully....
>everything that’s really important.
Yes your right, and talking...even with a enemy should be considered the base for future world-freedom.
No, I'm absolutely aware that we are - as of now - unable to get past the pettiness of nationality and tribalism. Maybe it's so ingrained in us, we'll never get past that, I don't know.
It's just massively frustrating to see what humanity could accomplish if we weren't occupied bashing our heads in over religion, nationality, or color of skin. The planet - the only planet - is dying, people and animals are suffering, and the news are dominated by a particular clown and his circus. It's really unbearable sometimes.
>The planet - the only planet - is dying, people and animals are suffering, and the news are dominated by a particular clown and his circus. It's really unbearable sometimes.
Oh man you speak from my heart, it's like we live on a star-ship, but everyone looks just at their own room instead of steering the ship into a better future.
EDIT: However, as we see a shift from the UN (as a future captain?) to NATO (at least in the so called "West"), i see dark times ahead of us.
> It's just massively frustrating to see what humanity could accomplish if we weren't occupied bashing our heads in over religion, nationality, or color of skin.
Resenting the real world because it doesn't live up to your make-believe fantasy world is pathological. I too can imagine perfect utopian worlds where everybody lives in peace and harmony, but they're just fantasies. Eventually you have to come back to the real world and learn to accept the harsh truths of the reality you find yourself inhabiting.
Global government sounds terrible. Most people don’t live in western liberal democracies, so I assume a world government would be something other than that. I have no interest in living under a government that promises the average political, religious, personal and economic environment of the world.
ALL flags(standards/banners) are war symbols, declarations of intent to attack and of terrtory held by conquest, tribes,nations, and franchises alike.
Any attemp to float the idea of a world flag is a (hidden attempt) of a declaration of total war on all countrys simultaneously, which unfortunatly is too ridiculous to even get points on style.
Fashists always have some sort of fashion kink branding thing plus a cult of personality to get things going, but this one needs WAY too much explaining.
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It's about a guy who has been fighting for ~50 years to be able to be a citizen of no country. I left that episode thinking "This is the hero we need right now."
He has set up the World Citizen Government https://worldcitizengov.org/