Communication
The human family originated in one small corner of East Africa a few million years ago – wandered, separated, diversified, and became strangers to one another.
The reversal of this trend has occurred only fairly recently and only because of advances in technology. The domestication of the horse permitted us to send messages (and ourselves) hundreds of miles in a few days. By the 18th century, advances in sailing ship technology allowed people to travel from Europe to China in about 2 years. The real binding up and deprovincialization of the planet requires technology that allows much faster communication than the horse or ship, that’s available worldwide, and that’s cheap enough to be used by the average person.
Today we communicate at the speed of light. From the speed of horse or ship to the speed of light is an improvement by a factor of almost 100,000,000. Of course our societies have not yet caught up.