Omaraid Guerrero
POSC 494
When reading Virilio’s Crepuscular Dawn one must define each concept to fully grasp the theories proposed in his book. Virilio states “globalization is the world becoming too small, and not too big” (p. 89). For one to thoroughly evaluate this quote one must first understand: What is globalization and what does it involve? How does speed contribute to this occurrence? What is speed? How this lead to escape velocity? What does escape velocity entail? And finally, what does globalization lead to and what danger does it pose? Only after defining these terms can an individual discover is the world is becoming enclosed.
Globalization refers to speed in which social connection moves. Virilio often refers to globalization in terms of geographical locations and human interaction to create a better example for the reader. He talks about “ global cities”1, such as New York, being connected though virtual space. Because such connections are formed it creates a form of “a block house, a closed house.” (pg. 88) Thus making the world smaller though these connection since the space between one of another is closer now. This is best demonstrated when Virilio states “ I can go to La Rochell for thirty dollars around trip. But tomorrow will go to Montreal or Toyo for 3 dollars? [the world] is increasingly closed and contracted” (pg. 63). This perfectly illustrates how globalization reduces distances and compresses space until everything is just in front of you.
As I comprehend there are two forms of globalization. Since, the reduction in space between individuals and locations are usually attributed to high-speed transportation, as illustrated above by Virilio, and communication information technologies. The first fo...
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...zation leads to globalization the next phase is the modification of the human body. Virilo refers to this as endo-colonization; where technologies will not only invade the earth’s body but the human body as well. In other words, we will start to pollute our bodies as well. This pollution will be done through modifications and transplants. These modifications can occur through many different ways. One way is through the implantation of prosthetics to make one faster or stronger. Another possibility could be though gene manipulation to obtain different abilities.
These modifications also pose a danger to individuals and society. Virilio states that a consequence of escape velocity is the loss of ability to survive without these modifications (119). These in turn leads to the lose of our humanity where individuals are no longer human but something else entirely.
As time goes on, society continues to develop new technology and new ideas. However, these advances may, in a distant future, overtake our sense of humanity. Whether it be technology or an extreme idea that does it, humans will bring about their own destruction.
Globalization is erasing country borders. It’s expanding something to a worldwide scale, and generally making the world a little bit smaller. When you think of globalization in terms of sports, the best example is soccer. Soccer is something that started in 1863 as a simple game played in England by people of humble beginnings and not long after that turned into a worldwide phenomenon (Parrish). Soccer has over 3.5 billion fans worldwide. When you really think about that number you realize how big of a deal that is. That’s about 50% of the world’s population. Meaning that 1 in every 2 people watch, play, and generally enjoy soccer. The globalization aspect of it comes in when you know that its regional popularity is in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas: basically, almost the entire world.
Globalization has several definitions, as Andrew McGrew underlines it. He uses four different ones in order to get a more complete definition. In this way globalization is defined as ‘the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shared by events occurring many miles away and vice versa’, ‘the integration of the world-economy’, the ‘de-territorialisation – or growth of supraterritorial relations between people’ and finally as ‘time-space compression’ (Giddens, 1990, p. 21, Gilpin, 2001, p. 364, Scholte, 2000, p. 46, Harvey, 1989, cited in Mc...
When the term “Globalization” is discussed, most academics, scholars, professionals and intellectuals attempt to define and interpret it in a summarized fashion. My main concern with this approach is that one cannot and should not define a process that altered decades of history and continues to, in less than 30 words. Global Shift is a book with remarkable insight. Peter Dicken rather than attempting to define the commonly misused word, explains Globalization in a clear and logical fashion, which interconnects numerous views. Dicken takes full advantage of his position to write and identify the imperative changes of political, economic, social, and technological dimensions of globalization.
Time-space compression and time-space distanciation together help define the process of globalization. Time-space compression deals with the flexible use of technological and economic advancements which have led to changing social and economic processes due to the shrinking of time and space. Time-space distanciation deals with how technological advancements in communication and transportation have enabled worldwide social interactions across vast spaces and time. The spread of globalization is defined by technology, it impacts the world every day. Those with access to technology benefit the most, they are able to accumulate different cultural, social, or political practices by connecting with people around the world.
Globalization is a broad concept and the angle taken to define it can lead us to interpret the idea in many different ways. There is much controversy about what globalization actually means and many definitions fail to encompass social, cultural and technological exchanges between world systems. John Pilger suggests that "it is a jargon term which journalists and politicians have made fashionable which is often used in a positive sense to denote a 'Global village' of free trade, hi-tech marvels and all kinds of possibilities that transcend class, historical experience and ideology." (J.Pilger 1998:63). Taking a broader point of view, Bilton et al defines globalization as "The process whereby political, social, economic and cultural relations increasingly take on a global scale, and which has profound consequences for individuals, local experiences and everyday lives."
In the past decades, many thinkers have discussed transhumanism and human enhancement. They are the result of centuries of progress and represent for a lot of us the ultimate human attempt to transcend himself. Hence the critics that many formulate: this progress will affect us forever and we should be careful about it. However, the problem of progress in itself is not a recent one. Since humanity exists, it has not ceased to progress and every step that humanity took was criticized in its time. So while the need to discuss transhumanism and human enhancement is legitimate, it is also interesting to wonder about human progress in a broader general view.
After the cold war, word ‘globalization’ was commonly used at a time of unprecedented interconnectedness when advanced nations experienced a ruthless development by exploiting energy resources and stressing culture forms in developing countries. To identify the definition of ‘globalization’, it is significant to clarify its appearance as well as implication.
According to Thomas Friedman, “In Globalization 1.0, which began around 1492, the world went from size large to size medium. In Globalization 2.0, the era that introduced us to multinational companies, it went from size medium to size small. And then around 2000 came Globalization 3.0, in which the world went from being small to tiny.” It is not something one can pin point and define as a formal structure of the current international system. Globalization is a notion of the growing interconnectedness of the world categorized into three forms, cultural, political and economical globalization. Much like the quote by Thomas Friedman, globalization gives the conviction of the world being continually smaller and the pace of interaction ever faster.
Globalization is defined as “the historical process involving a fundamental shift or transformation in the spatial scale of human social organization that links distant communities and expands the reach of power relations across regions and continents (Baylis, 2014).”
The definition of globalization is, “Globalization is the connection of different parts of the world. Globalization results in the expansion of international cultural, economic, and political activities. As people, ideas, knowledge, and goods move more easily around the globe, the experiences of people around the world become more
Globalization is the connection of different parts of the world. Globalization results in the expansion of international, cultural, economic, and political activities. As people, ideas, knowledge, and goods move easily around the globe, the experiences of people around the world become more similar. (“Definition of Globalization“, n.d., ¶ 1)
Globalization is nothing but interaction, integration exchanging of views and other aspects of culture. It is very important to spread any matter from one part to the other part. If you observe the modern world we could easily say it is modernized or in other words globalized. Globalization is helping us to see different cultures, social activities and cultural division around us.
The world today is in a position where everyone and everything is highly integrated and interconnected; meaning that every country in the world today is exposing itself to the existence of a global system. Globalization is not a new phenomeno...
"Globalization is a process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things moving closer. It pertains to t...