- Ultimately, the next revolution will likely stem from daily interactions on computer monitors with foreigners whom we can see are intelligent, decent people – people who happen, through no choice of their own, to be living in poverty. This should lead to better trade agreements, which presuppose the eventual development of orders of magnitude more social insurance to protect people within a country during the transition to a more just global economy.
Language barriers prevent this, as does the fact that people really don't give a shit about seeing others in poverty, we'll just laugh and say they deserve it because of their location, move on with our lives, and be done with it. There will be congregations of people on the internet where the rich browse one site while the poor are relegated to another. People have been making this argument for years and years. It's never going to be effective, not in my opinion.
To your point of the language barrier, the prediction is dated for resolution for sometime in the 21st century. We have eighty-odd years of technological developments ahead of us, and among those I'm sure there will be (even more) considerable progress in translation, our very own Babel fish. And as for that flies in the face of the hundreds of years of moral, cultural, and social development. Steven Pinker wrote a book arguing that human violence has declined in nearly every measurable way. Not the same thing as "motivatingly distressing concern for our international neighbors", and obviously not a guarantee of future trends, but a measurable reality nonetheless. I will say that Jeremy Rifkin predicted (or opined longingly) that as much would happen in his Empathic Civilization.people really don't give a shit about seeing others in poverty, we'll just laugh and say they deserve it because of their location, move on with our lives, and be done with it.
if you set a prediction for a long enough set of time, then it is bound to come true. In the time frame listed, it is likely that poverty worldwide is going to cure itself, as the world presently has poverty diminishing at great rates. In much the same way, the drastic reduction in violence is mostly thought to be related to decreases in poverty and lack of lead in gasoline and other products, not some "empathetic society" becoming a thing.
That's not true. It's very easy to predict things that won't come to pass. Nevertheless, you both seem to be saying a similar thing; technological advances will reduce poverty, and decrease barriers, which will lead to the diminished role of nations. That said, I agree with you that it won't come from any human desire to be more empathetic. Much more likely, technology and surplus will probably just enable it. A good while ago, I wrote that this was already coming to pass for the very wealthy: The empathy will be a while in coming.if you set a prediction for a long enough set of time, then it is bound to come true.
It's easier to be a peaceable, empathic, and civil society when resources are plenty.