Globalization

After centuries of technological progress and advances in international

cooperation, the world is more connected than ever. But how much has the
rise of trade and the modern global economy helped or hurt the businesses,
workers, and consumers. But before that,

What is globalization?

The term "globalization" refers to the increasing interdependence of the

world's economies, cultures, and populations as a result of cross-border
trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people,
and information. Over many centuries, countries have formed economic
alliances to facilitate these movements. However, the term gained currency
after the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, as these cooperative
arrangements shaped modern life.The term is used more narrowly in this
guide to refer to international trade and some investment flows among
advanced economies, with a focus on the United States.

The wide-ranging effects of globalization are complex and politically

charged. As with major technological advances, globalization benefits
society as a whole, while harming certain groups. Understanding the
relative costs and benefits can pave the way for alleviating problems while
sustaining the wider payoffs.

Since ancient times, humans have sought out remote locations to settle,
produce, and exchange goods made possible by advances in technology
and transportation. However, global integration did not take off until the
nineteenth century. Following centuries of European colonization and trade
activity, the first "wave" of globalization was propelled by steamships,
railroads, the telegraph, and other technological advances, as well as
increased economic cooperation among countries. The globalization trend
eventually waned and crashed in the disaster of World War I, followed by
postwar protectionism, the Great Depression, and World War II. Following
World War II in the mid-1940s, the United States led efforts to revive
international trade and investment under negotiated ground rules,
launching a second wave of globalization that continues to this day, albeit
buffeted by periodic downturns and crises.

Following WWII, the United States contributed to the establishment of a

global economic order governed by mutually accepted rules and overseen
by multilateral institutions. The goal was to make the world a better place
by encouraging countries to work together to promote prosperity and
peace. The system relied on free trade and the rule of law to keep most
economic disputes from escalating into larger conflicts. The institutions
established include the GLOBALIZATION EFFECTS such as more goods at
lower prices, scaled-up businesses, higher quality and variety, innovation,
and job churn.

Going back to the Cold War, an ideology is a system of widely shared ideas,
patterned beliefs, guiding norms and values, and ideals accepted as truth
by a specific group of people. Ideologies provide people with a more or less
coherent picture of the world, not only as it is, but also as it should be. In
doing so, they contribute to the organization of the enormous complexity of
human experience into relatively simple, but frequently distorted, images
that serve as a guide and compass for social and political action.

The Cold War (1945-1989) was a conflict between two ideologies:

communism and dictatorship in the Soviet Union versus capitalism and
democracy in the United States. The Post-Cold War era, defined by
international trade, is witnessing an economic competition between America
and China. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the Global North is now
promoting the ideology of neoliberalism. But, before we get into what
neoliberalism is, let's discuss the comparison between the Cold War and
globalization.

BASES COLD WAR GLOBALIZATION

Dominant Cultural homogenization o Largely but not entirely the

Culture n a regional scale, like the spread of Americanization –
Russification of Eastern from Big Macs to iMacs to
and Central Europe, or in Mickey Mouse
an earlier time, the
Turkification of the
Ottoman Empire, the
Hellenization of the Near
East and the
Mediterranean under the
 Greeks

Neo-liberalism refers to market-oriented reform policies such as eliminating

price controls, deregulating capital markets, lowering trade barriers (import
quotas and lowering import duties or tariffs), and reducing state influence in
the economy, particularly through privatization and austerity.

We'll now move on to Cowboy and Spaceship Economics. Cowboy Economy

is an economy that operates under the assumption that natural resources
are infinite and that nature can absorb all wastes. While the
Spaceship/Spaceman Economy is a closed system, a single earthly
'spaceship' in which man must find his place in a cyclical ecological system
capable of continuous reproduction but limited by solar energy inputs
(whether directly as solar radiation or indirectly through fossil fuels).

There are numerous financial institutions in the world that promote growth.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was established to oversee the
international monetary system. The International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (IBRD), later known as the World Bank (WB), was
established to provide loans for postwar reconstruction in Europe. There is
also the World Trade Organization (WTO). The World Trade Organization
was established in 1995 as the successor organization to GATT. The WTO is
an organization that promotes liberalization for the benefit of those who
stand to benefit the most from it - in practice. The WTO is both a forum for
trade liberalization and a court of law, wielding significant and direct power
through its dispute settlement mechanism. And a slew of other financial
institutions.
The IMF, World Bank, and WTO have the privileged position of establishing
and enforcing the rules of a global economy supported by significant power
differentials between the global North and South.

Moving forward to the Global Cities, Here are the Five Emerging Forms of
City

 Innovation center - urban area where research and development

industries become concentrated, developing the technical and scientific
processes used to make goods produced elsewhere. Cambridge is an
example, where the university has connections with a large ‘science
park’. The most influential world center is the Silicon Valley area of
northern California.
 Module production place - the sites for production processes for parts of
products, final assembly being carried out in other regions or countries.
 Third world entrepôt. Cities of this kind are border centers, with
substantial new immigrant populations drawn from developing countries.
 Retirement centers. Retired people now move in considerable numbers to
places with good climates. This is partly internal migration.

Headquarters city - where the large, transnational corporations house their

key activities, and are oriented to global concerns. The leading headquarter
cities are examples of what Saskia Sassen calls as the global city which has
four new traits: developed into ‘command posts’, key locations for financial
and specialized service firms, sites of production and innovation in these
newly expanded industries, and markets on which the ‘products’ of financial
and service industries.
The preeminence of these “global” cities rests largely on unique
assets: the world’s greatest universities, research labs, hospitals, financial
institutions, corporate headquarters, and trendsetting cultural industries.
These cities also disproportionately attract the rich and serve as centers of
luxury shopping, dining, and entertainment – hence Sassen’s term “the
glamour zone.”
Physical connectivity. A successful global city needs to maintain the
strongest possible physical connectivity with other cities around the world.
The most “connected” cities – Dubai, London, and Frankfurt – have all
developed strong airport systems. Although being a hub for air travel does
not necessarily create a global city, it is critical to many businesses that
function on an international level.
Human connectivity. In a world of sharp racial and religious prejudice, such
cities, noted FernandBraudel, offered outsiders a “haven of comparative
security.” “The miracle of toleration was to be found,” he observed,
“wherever the community of trade convened.”
Historic roots. Global cities, particularly the leading ones, owe much to their
early origins – and culture, ideas, and infrastructure rooted in their evolution
over time.
Biggest Challenge to the Cities: Diminishing birth rates and the ageing
population
The shift to an aging population creates, particularly in Asia where
urbanization is most rapid, the segregation of generations, with the elderly
in rural areas and the younger people in cities. It is not clear how the
expanding senior will fare with fewer children to support them and in the
absence of a well-developed welfare state.

Global Migration
A. The significance of migration for human security and human
development.
The idea of immigrants as a potential ‘enemy within’ is used to justify
immigration restrictions and reductions in civil liberties – often not just for
immigrants but for the population as a whole.
Migration policies too can exacerbate human insecurity. Smuggling,
trafficking, bonded labour and lack of human and worker rights are the fate
of millions of migrants. Governments often turn a blind eye to this in times
of economic growth, and then tighten up border security and deport
irregulars in times of recession.

B. Globalization and migration

1. International migration is an integral part of globalization. Neo-liberal
forms of international economic integration undermine traditional ways of
working and living. Increased agricultural productivity displaces people from
the land. Environmental change compels many people to seek new
livelihoods and places to live. People move to the cities, but there are not
enough jobs there, and housing and social conditions are often very bad.
2. Weak states and impoverishment lead to lack of human security, and
often to violence and violations of human rights. All these factors encourage
emigration. In developed countries, the new services industries need very
different types of labour. But, due to declining fertility, relatively few young
nationals enter the labour market. Moreover, these young people have good
educational opportunities and are not willing to do low-skilled work.
Population ageing leads to increased dependency rates and care needs.
3. Developed countries have high demand for both high- and low-skilled
workers, and need migrants – whether legal or not. Globalization also
creates the cultural and technical conditions for mobility. Electronic
communications provide knowledge of migration routes and work
opportunities. Long-distance travel has become cheaper and more
accessible.
4. Once migratory flows are established they generate ‘migration
networks’: previous migrants help members of their families or communities
with information on work, accommodation and official rules.
5. Facilitating migration has become a major international business,
including travel agents, bankers, lawyers and recruiters. The ‘migration
industry’ also has an illegal side – smuggling and trafficking – which
governments try to restrict. Yet the more governments try to control
borders, the greater the flows of undocumented migrants seem to be.
6. Many people in poorer areas move within their own countries. Internal
migration attracts far less political attention, but its volume in population
giants like China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Nigeria is far greater than that
of international movements.

Global Demography
Theoretical Considerations
The Malthusian urbanism, which assumes that the economy lacks "access to
new sources of land and natural resources" and is "unable to innovate,"
making it vulnerable to collapse. In this worldview, humanity is increasingly
seen as a "cancer to the environment," whose influence must be curtailed
and restrained to a minimum.Urban expansion is particularly despised, not
only because of its alleged impact on greenhouse gas emissions, but also
because of its encroachment on farmland. Suburbs are said to be bad
because they limit farmers' ability to grow food.

Demographic transition theory that links population patterns to a society’s

level of technological development. The four levels of technological
development are as follows:

Stage 1 is pre-industrial.Because of the economic value of children and the

lack of birth control, agrarian societies have high birth rates. Death rates
are also high as a result of poor living conditions and limited medical
technology. Disease outbreaks cancel out births, so the population rises and
falls with only a minor overall increase. This was the case in Europe for
thousands of years prior to the Industrial Revolution.
Stage 2 Industrialization begins. Death rates are decreasing as a result of
increased food supplies and scientific medicine. However, the birth rate
remains high, leading to rapid population growth. Malthus developed his
ideas during this period, which explains his pessimistic outlook on the
future. Today, the world's poorest countries are experiencing rapid growth.
Stage 3: mature industrial economy.The birth rate falls, slowing population
growth once more. Fertility declines because most children survive to
adulthood, requiring fewer children, and because high living standards
make raising children costly.
Stage 4 postindustrial economy. Birth rates continue to fall, partly because
dual-income couples are becoming more common, and partly because the
cost of raising and educating children continues to rise. This trend,
combined with consistent death rates, means that population growth is slow
or even negative.

Political globalization refers to the intensification and globalization of

political interactions. According to Harari (2018), globalizing politics does
not necessarily imply the establishment of a global government, but rather
the development of political dynamics within political territories - national or
local - that give far greater weight to global problems and interests. Humans
have organized their political differences along territorial lines, creating a
sense of 'belonging' to a specific nation-state. This artificial division of
planetary social space into 'domestic' and 'foreign' spheres corresponds to
people's collective identities based on the creation of a common 'us' and an
unfamiliar 'them'.
However, globalizing politics entails giving far more weight to global
problems and interests within political dynamics within countries and even
cities... we need a new global identity because national institutions are
incapable of dealing with a set of unprecedented global predicaments. We
now have a global ecology, a global economy, and a global science – but
only national politics. This misalignment prevents the political system from
effectively addressing our major issues.
In here we have the modern nation-state system
The origins of the modern nation-state system can be traced back to
17th-century political developments in Europe. In 1648, the Peace of
Westphalia concluded a series of religious wars among the main European
powers resulting to the formulation of the principles of sovereignty and
territoriality. The Westphalian model gradually strengthened a new
conception of international law based on the principle that all states had an
equal right to self-determination.
The demise of the nation-state? There are two opposing arguments
regarding this.

Hyperglobalizers Globalization Sceptics

Politics has been rendered Territory is still important...

virtually powerless in the face traditional political units, whether
of an unstoppable techno- in the form of modern nation-
economic juggernaut that will states or global cities, remain
crush any governmental relevant.
attempt to reintroduce
Governments can continue to
restrictive policies and
take steps to make their
regulations.
economies more or less
The decline of bounded appealing to global investors.
territory as a meaningful Nation-states have maintained
concept for understanding control over education,
political and social change is infrastructure, and, most
unavoidable as a result of importantly, population
globalization. As a result, movements since xxx.
rather than territorially based Immigration control, along with
states, political power is population registration and
located in global social monitoring, has frequently been
formations and expressed cited as the most notable
through global networks.
Nation-states have already
ceded control of the global
economy. States are becoming
less capable of determining exception to the general trend of
the direction of social life global integration.
within their borders as
territorial divisions become Despite the fact that only 2% of
increasingly irrelevant. For the world's population lives
example, because the outside of their country of origin,
operations of truly global immigration control has become
capital markets dwarf their a major issue in most advanced
ability to control exchange countries. Many governments are
rates or protect their attempting to limit population
currencies, nation-states have flows, particularly those coming
become vulnerable to the from poor countries in the global
discipline imposed by South.
economic decisions made
elsewhere, over which states
have no practical control.

REGIONALIZATION
It refers to the "regional concentration of economic flows." Regionalism, on
the other hand, is "a political process characterized by economic policy
cooperation and coordination among countries." The reasons for forming
regional associations include military defense, pooling resources, improving
export returns, and increasing leverage over trading partners, protecting
independence from superpower politics, responding to economic crises, and
fear of Communism during the Cold War.
The ASEAN
The key factors that led to the creation of the peace ecosystem that ASEAN
now enjoys are that ASEAN countries were blessed with relatively good
leaders, ASEAN ended up on the winning side in the major geopolitical
contest - like the Cold War (US vs. USSR) - where the USSR crumbled into 15
independent republics and ASEAN countries successfully wove themselves
into the thriving East Asian economic ecosystem, at a time when world
trade was expanding rejected nationalist and pro-US policies, and ASEAN
countries successfully
Despite their remarkable diversity, the governments and leaders of ASEAN
feel a sense of responsibility to maintain and strengthen the sense of ASEAN
community invisible but real psychological sense of community has
developed among the elites and policymakers of ASEAN thousands of formal
meetings and less formal games of golf have developed invisible networks
of trust and cooperation. Furthermore, ASEAN is developing institutions to
reinforce the invisible sense of community by establishing visible ASEAN
institutions and institutional processes. The fact that citizens of ASEAN
countries can see these institutions at work may help them develop a
stronger sense of ASEAN ownership. Despite divergences in their interests
vis-à-vis the ASEAN region, many great powers have a vested interest in
keeping ASEAN going.
ASEAN has also weaknesses, the first one is no neutral custodian unlike the
EU that remained strong and resilient because Germany and France
accepted a common responsibility to keep the organization going and Also,
while the establishment of institutions is one of ASEAN's strengths, it is also
a weakness in that these institutions are not strong enough to provide
leadership for ASEAN, nor are they strong enough to discourage ASEAN
national leaders from putting their national interests ahead of ASEAN
interests. The biggest issue with ASEAN was that there was no enforcement
of decisions, no monitoring of compliance, and no sanctions stranglehold.
Moreover, ASEAN citizens do not feel a deep sense of ownership of ASEAN if
there is no popular support for the organization, politicians will have little
incentive to keep it going.
Geopolitical rivalries are the most obvious threat that ASEAN faces. The
Asia-Pacific region will witness significant power shifts in the coming years,
particularly as the United States relinquishes its position as the world's
leading economy to China by 2030, if not sooner. History has shown that
when the world's number one power is on the verge of being surpassed by
an emerging power, rivalry between these powers intensifies. On other
issues, ASEAN countries take a different stance. In terms of the South China
Sea, most ASEAN countries are perceived to be more pro-American.
Concerning the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), ASEAN
countries are perceived to be more pro-Chinese, with a strong pro-China
government in Cambodia potentially clashing with a strong pro-American
government in the Philippines. When that happens, ASEAN may well fall to
pieces.
Civil Society Organizations
Global Civil Society/ International Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)
 INGOs date back to at least 1839, the phrase “non-governmental
organizations” came into popular use with the establishment of the UNO in
1945, with a consultant status. The UN defines it as : “any international
organization that is not founded by an international treaty.”So, an
international non-government organization is not created by a treaty. They
often focus on specific set of issues, such as hunger, poverty, disease, and
can be funded by philantrophies or through partial government funding. It
also performs some political role in the community by serving as an
instrument of checks and balances on the power of the state or local
government and the business sector behavior. It is seen as a claim holder of
basic human rights. And most of all, it can serve as an alternative delivery
mechanism for the frontline services.
Potential of CSOs is that they are the emerging as a third or fourth actor in
the formulation and implementation of macro-political and macro- economic
decisions. In many Asian countries, for instance, real decision-making power
used to be monopolized by politicians, technocrats, and the business elite.
Also, crucial not only as checks on elites but also the key to the evolution of
democracy. With their constant pressure on bureaucrats and
parliamentarians to be accountable, CSOs are a force for more democracy.
By organizing the energies of millions of citizens to impinge on the daily
political scene, CSOs are a force pushing the evolution of more direct forms
of democratic rule.
They also have Pitfalls/Problems. Where there is the North-South divide
among NGOs. Many Northern NGOs are, oftentimes, focused on single
issues, such as the environment or human rights and carry agenda that are
filtered through the lens of these issues. Southern NGOs, on the other hand,
are more comprehensive in their concerns. They are concerned almost
equally with the environment, social equity, development, national
sovereignty, and democracy.

There is the question of whether to compromise with or fundamentally

oppose corporate-led globalization. Corporate-led globalization is
unavoidable for some CSOs, both in the North and the South; the main task
is to humanize it. There is also the issue of collaborating with governments.
Some CSOs take the position of maximizing cooperation with governments
in order to persuade governments to adopt some of their agenda. There is
competition, and intrigues among CSOs are frequently as intense and
destructive as conflicts in politics and business. Funding is a source of
intense competition among NGOs in the North and South, quickly turning
allies into adversaries.
7.1 Cultural Globalization
Cultural globalization refers to the intensification and expansion of
cultural flows around the world. Individualism, consumerism, and various
religious discourses circulate more freely and widely than ever before,
thanks to the Internet and other new technologies. Today, cultural practices
frequently escape fixed localities such as town and nation, eventually
acquiring new meanings in interaction with dominant global themes. We
had pessimistic and optimistic hyperglobalizers.
Pessimistic hyperglobalizers
These manifestations of uniformity can also be found within the global
North's dominant countries. The term 'McDonaldization' was coined by
American sociologist George Ritzer to describe the broad sociocultural
processes by which the fast-food restaurant's principles (efficiency, control,
predictability, and calculability) are coming to dominate more and more
sectors of American society and the rest of the world.
The problem is that the generally low nutritional value of fast-food meals,
particularly their high fat content, has been linked to an increase in serious
health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and juvenile obesity.
In the long run, the McDonaldization of the world entails the imposition of
uniform standards that obliterate cultural diversity, human creativity, and
dehumanize social relations.
Optimistic hyperglobalizers
They agree that cultural globalization leads to more similarity, but they see
this as a positive outcome. For example, American social theorist Francis
Fukuyama explicitly welcomes the global spread of Anglo-American values
and lifestyles, associating Americanization with the spread of democracy
and free markets.
According to sociologist Roland Robertson, global cultural flows frequently
revitalize local cultural niches. As a result, rather than being completely
obliterated by Western consumerist forces of sameness, local difference and
particularity continue to play an important role in the formation of distinct
cultural constellations. Robertson rejects the cultural homogenization thesis,
arguing that cultural globalization always occurs in local contexts, and
instead speaks of 'glocalization,' a complex interaction of the global and
local marked by cultural borrowing. The resulting manifestations of cultural
'hybridity' cannot be reduced to clear-cut manifestations sameness or
'difference'. Fashion, music, dance, film, food, and language have all
experienced hybridization.

Globalization of Religion
It means that “religious groups might harden their views on particular
issues and turn them into allegedly sacred and eternal dogmas. In another
perspective, it can be argued that Islamic fundamentalism or radical Islam is
a challenge to global civilization – it caters to the fears and hopes of
alienated modern youth.
Japan is an example of this, as it developed an official version of Shinto,
moving away from the traditional Shinto, which was a mishmash of animist
beliefs, and toward a fusion with modern ideas about nationality, race, and
any element in Buddhism, Confucianism, and Bushido that could be useful
in cementing loyalty to the state. Its guiding principle is the emperor's
worship, who is regarded as a direct descendant of the sun goddess
Amaterasu. This resurrected Shinto contributed to Japan's modernization, as
well as the development and use of precision-guided missiles known as
kamikaze (ordinary planes loaded with explosives and guided by human
pilots willing to fly one-way missions). This was the result of state Shinto's
death-defying sacrifice spirit.
Some Theoretical Considerations:

Their is Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilization: This thesis suggests that

“humankind has always been divided into diverse civilizations whose
members view the world in irreconcilable ways. These incompatible
worldviews make conflicts between civilization inevitable.” or Ernest
Gellner's theory: "Young Muslims who grew up in immigrant communities in
Western Europe face an acute identity crisis." They live in largely secular
societies with Christian roots that do not support their religious values or
practices in public. For some Muslims, membership in a larger religious
group - an umma, or community of believers - is the answer to this
confusion: "you are part of a proud and ancient community; the outside
world does not respect you as a Muslim; we offer you a way to connect to
your true brothers and sisters, where you will be a member of a great
community of believers that stretches across the world." And there are
many more.

Religion for and against globalization, We had a "pro-active force" in

here, which provides communities with a new and powerful basis of identity;
an instrument through which religious people can make their mark in the
reshaping of this globalizing world, albeit on their own terms. The rise of
religious fundamentalism (like born-again groups, ISIS[Islamic State in Iraq
and Syria]) signals religion's defense against globalization's materialism, but
using globalization's tools - fast-long distance transportation and
communications, English as a global vernacular, modern management and
marketing know-how. Also, Some Muslims view globalization as a Trojan
horse hiding supporter of Western values like secularism, liberalism, or even
communism ready to spread these ideas in their areas to eventually
displace Islam. Furthermore, some Muslims see globalization as a Trojan
horse concealing supporters of Western values such as secularism,
liberalism, or even communism, ready to spread these ideas in their areas
and eventually displace Islam. The Catholic Church, through Pope Francis,
condemned globalization's 'throw-away' culture, which is 'fatally destined to
suffocate hope and increase risks and threats.' The Lutheran World
Federation's 10th Assembly message warned that our world is divided by
forces we often do not understand, but which result in stark contrasts
between those who benefit and those who are harmed, especially under
forces of globalization. Greed, injustice, and violence continue to sever
relationships in this world.

7.2 Global Media

To a large extent, the global cultural flows of our time are generated and
directed by global media empires that rely on powerful communication
technologies to spread their message. Saturating global cultural reality with
formulaic TV shows and mindless advertisements, these corporations
increasingly shape people's identities and the structure of desires around
the world.
Today, most media analysts concede that the emergence of a global
commercial-media market amounts to the creation of a global oligopoly like
that of the oil and automotive industries in the early part of the 20th
century.
Having here some Theoretical Considerations:

Starting with Electronic Colonialism Theory - posits that foreign

produced, created, or manufactured cultural products have the ability
to influence, or possibly displace, indigenous cultural productions,
artifacts, and media to the detriment of receiving nations. That the
values disseminated by transnational media enterprises secure not
only the undisputed cultural hegemony of popular culture, but also
lead to the de-politicization of social reality and the weakening of civic
bonds.

Followed by the World System Theory - basically divides the world

into three major sectors: core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral. Core
nations exercise vast economic influence and dominate relationships
and transactions with the other two zones. Semi-peripheral nations are
those that interact with the core nations but currently lack the power
and economic institutions to join the elite core group.

Moving forward to Surveillance Capitalism.

Surveillance capitalism unilaterally claims human experience as free
raw material for translation into behavioral data. Although some of these
data are applied to product or service improvement, the rest are declared
as a proprietary behavioral surplus, fed into advanced manufacturing
processes known as “machine intelligence,” and fabricated into prediction
products that anticipate what you will do now, soon, and later. Finally, these
prediction products are traded in a new kind of marketplace for behavioral
predictions call behavioral futures markets. Surveillance capitalists have
grown immensely wealthy from these trading operations, for many
companies are eager to lay bets on our future behavior.
7.3 Global Problems
Before we have a Nuclear Challenge. When the Cold War ended with little
bloodshed, and a new internationalist world order fostered an era of
unprecedented peace. Not only was nuclear war averted, but war of all
kinds declined. Since 1945 surprisingly few borders have been redrawn
through naked aggression, and most countries have ceased using war as a
standard political tool. In 2016, despite wars in Syria, Ukraine, and several
other hot spots, fewer people died from human violence than from obesity,
car accidents, or suicide. This may well have been the greatest political and
moral achievements of our times.
Followed by the Ecological Challenge. Where humans are destabilizing the
global biosphere on multiple fronts. We are taking more and more resources
out of the environment while pumping back into it enormous quantities of
waste and poison, thereby changing the composition of the soil, the water,
and the atmosphere.The habitats are degraded, animals and plants are
becoming extinct, and entire ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef off
Australia and the Amazon rainforest might be destroyed. For thousands of
years Homo Sapiens behaved as an ecological serial killer; now it is
morphing into an ecological mass murderer. If we continue with our present
course, it will not just cause the annihilation of a large percentage of all life-
forms but also might sap the foundations of human civilization.

Lastly the Technological Challenge. whereas nuclear war and climate

change threaten only the physical survival of humankind, disruptive
technologies might change the very nature of humanity, and are therefore
entangled with humans’ deepest ethical and religious beliefs. While
everyone agrees that we should avoid nuclear war and ecological meltdown,
people have widely different opinions about using bioengineering and AI to
upgrade humans and to create new life-forms.
One of the problems engendered by technological challenge is:
Online Falsehoods is a easy amplification. Falsehoods may be spread further
and faster using basic, everyday social media functions, such as posting,
“sharing,” “liking”, re-tweeting, hyper-linking and hash-tagging. On
Facebook, an individual can share a public post with up to 5,000 people with
just one free click. In a full WhatsApp group, one can send a message to 256
people instantaneously.
The impact of online falsehood is it can be a threats to national security.
Online falsehoods may interfere in a country’s elections and domestic and
foreign policies, or weaken the country’s government and the resilience of
the people to pave the way for the foreign State to gain control. We can
nowadays that it harms to democratic institutions, free speech or it make it
difficult for people to understand each other and inhibit diverse views from
being shared and many more.
It is hard to fight or end Online Falsehoods because sometimes our human
cognitive tendencies, we tend to believed falsehoods when we seen it
repeatedly or we tend to believe falsehoods to conform to the expectations
of those they are close to (conformity cascades). People also tend to believe
falsehoods because many others do so or it is because it is what the
majority chooses.
And mostly people use fake social media accounts to spread falsehoods.
These include accounts that have over some time, years even, been
cultivated into convincing personas. These can include bots and trolls. There
are commercial “bot herders” that hire out bots they create, some on a
scale of thousands or tens of thousands of accounts.