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MULTIPLICITY

(as opposed to Unity)

Freeman Dyson argues against                 WORLDGOV
the One World idea:

   All of humanity in a single tightly
   integrated system means that a
   single error can destroy it.

In Dyson's "Weapons and Hope" he
describes a vision of a "defense
dominated" world.

National boundaries as firebreaks
to protect the whole of humanity
against a system-wide mistake.

Being a creature of my own time,
I tend to focus on diversity over
unification, and I assume it is
difficult for a single government
to allow for it.

I hope for a stable matrix within
which different cultures can
independently exist.                       (Sterling's "Schismatrix";
                                 	    Sargent's "Golden Spaces")
The ultimate fragmentation of mankind,
as we learn to modify ourselves, and
each make different choices of
direction.


An opposing view:

   Gerald Feinberg's
   "The Prometheus Project",           ((Feinberg has written a number
   from 1968.                          of other books I should look at.
                                       "Solid Clues".  And there's also
   He argues that humanity             a book about the consequences of
   should choose a common              growth that I should read... ))
   goal for itself.



From the "Outline of History" by
by H.G. Wells:                                p.1099

   "There are unhopeful prophets who see in
   the gathering together of men into one
   community the possibility of violent race
   conflicts, conflicts for 'ascendancy,'
   but that is to suppose that civilization
   is incapable of adjustments by which men
   of different qualities and temperaments
   and appearences will live side by side,
   following different roles and
   contributing diverse gifts.  The weaving
   of mankind into one community does not
   imply the creation of a homogenous
   community..."

   "The community to which we may be moving will
   be more mixed -- which does not necessarily
   mean more interbred -- more various and more     (Heaven's no, not
   interesting than any existing community.         more interbred...)
   Communities all to one pattern, like boxes of
   toy soldiers, are things of the past rather           ARYAN
   than the future."


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