World History

Unit 7: The World Since 1945

Chapter 33: The World in the Twenty-First Century

Mon, May 19, 2014

68. Tue, May 20, 2014

The book was published in 2000, which means that it takes a somewhat 90s view when it comes to the 21st century: that is, generally optimistic. Textbooks traditionally try to end on a bit of an upbeat note, perhaps from that deep-rooted desire for a happy ending.

Things have changed.

We all know about September 11, which has made Americans in general a bit more fearful and a bit less optimistic, but there's a lot in play here. I (Mr. C) am going to divide the issue into technology for Tuesday and globalization for Thursday, but that's one of the more arbitrary calls I've made all year: the two are intertwined and interdependent.

I have a private and entirely untestable theory that, in five hundred or a thousand years, the United States will be chiefly remembered for putting a man on the Moon. Whether this will be seen as a first step on a long journey or the zenith of human technology remains to be seen. But the moon landing was an astonishing accomplishment, perhaps more influential on human hearts and minds than on actual science. But when we consider the vastness of space, it's sobering to think that exactly ten people have ever set foot on a world other than our own. The ability of the US to do this will, I think, be remembered — and I would strongly prefer that my country be remembered for the first moon landing than for building the first atom bomb… which would be the other possibility for what's best known of the US in a millenium or so.

On the other hand, life is full of surprises. A few people saw the internet coming: mostly science-fiction writers and a few engineers. Almost nobody else did. To give some perspective on how quickly it's emerged and come to shape our lives: I can remember when Facebook required an email ending in .edu to register. That was when I was in college. I can remember when my family — which was rather forward-looking, as my father was a computer programmer for many years — first got a modem for the family computer, and "used the internet" to check out a library book. My father and uncle learned computer programming when computers ran on tapes. And my grandparents can remember a time when the word "computer" meant "a person who computes." The laptop that I am typing this on is more powerful than the space shuttle's computer; my cell phone is probably more powerful than the computer that flew Apollo to the Moon. And my cell isn't even an iPhone.

So here we are, using the internet as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Trust me: it's new. And who knows what will be new tomorrow?

This isn't to say that technology doesn't have its flaws. Take the internet again: it all requires electricity. Power requirements (especially for TVs) have shot up enormously for all our devices. Where does that power come from? In my part of the world it comes from hydroelectric dams, which are generally clean but do have some effect on fish and wildlife. For many other parts of the country, the internet is powered by coal, only a little improved over the main power source for the 19th century, and an enormous source of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. But at least coal is locally abundant, unlike oil, for which many wars have already been fought. Some people suspect that in the future, wars will be fought for water. At present the hydropower running my laptop seems like a hope for the future, but with only a few small changes, in twenty years it could be a target.

That's just the question of electricity, to say nothing of global transport. Electricity makes the internet run and makes the computers work, but to make people run, we still need food, water, and other goods. So much depends on the transportation networks and infrastructures of our world, then, moving the food and the goods that enable our society to function.

At bottom, who knows what the future will bring? Another personal anecdote: my great-grandfather, I'm told, reminisced that when he was a boy in Pennsylvania, he would go up the hill at night to see the electric lights of Altoona in the distance: the first electric light he had ever seen. By the time he died, we'd landed on the Moon. All in one lifetime. What will my parents see before they die? What will you and I?

• How has the Internet Revolution (if you can call it that) affected your life? Your presence in this class is the obvious beginning point, but what else? How would your life change if the internet became less available, or unaccessible? How might your life change if it became more accessible?
• Ten men walked on the moon — and all in a four-year period. Since December 1973, no human has ever left Earth's orbit. If a way, we went to our nearest neighbor, came back, and have never left our back yard since. What might have led to this? What are the consequences of it? In what other ways have we looked outward?
• From the stars to the salad: where does your food come from? Your water? Up until the past century, almost everyone knew the answers to those questions; we might have to dig. How is our food brought to us? What happens if that system is strained, or broken?

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