Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 12:20:41 06/13/03
Go up one level in this thread
On June 13, 2003 at 05:27:17, Mike S. wrote:
>On June 13, 2003 at 01:08:41, Christophe Theron wrote:
>
>>(...)
>
>>BTW the United States of America do not rule the world. Only americans believe
>>it, and actually not all of them (you know some of them are smart enough). ;-)
>
>It depends on the definition. Of course the USA domintes the world today, to
>some extent. And I must say I appreciate it.
>
>It could be much worse, especially when you think of the past. Imagine for
>example, 1939 if no United States would have existed. What would the world look
>like, today?
There is no way to tell if it would be better or worse. It's not as simple as it
seems.
If it was that simple it wouldn't be so hard for a chess program to foresee the
future a few plies away from now. And chess is a complete information game!
>I know you were not thinking of history. But todays present is tomorrows history
>(and yesterdays present is todays history).
>
>So let's be a bit grateful, too.
>
>(I don't say everything is perfect, but ask the average Iraqui citizen and I'm
>sure he'll understand what I mean.)
I have no problem with the USA in general. I even happen to have a majority of
customers being american, who are in general happy with my products. And I am
happy to have them as customers.
But "dominating the world" is an idea so general that there are many angles to
consider. For example:
* monotheist religions dominate the world
* scientific thinking dominates the world
* right handed writers dominate the world
* Von Neuman architecture dominates the world
* Arabic numbering dominates the world
* Microsoft dominates the world
* Nokia dominates the world
* French wine dominates the world...
So if you think deeply about it you realize that it's just a question of point
of view and that picking just economics, military and cultural criteria does not
tell the whole story. It would be narrow minded (and probably dangerous) to
pretend that life is just about these criteria.
Christophe
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