In 1966, the London-based political scientist Barbara Ward published a book titled Spaceship Earth (Columbia University Press: New York, 152 pp.).

She wrote at a time when the revolutionary impacts of computers and global communication were becoming evident.

Now, 50 years later, her ideas seem prescient.

"...the process of change is accelerating. Technology and science have become the common mode of human living and are invading every human institution and activity."

"...Today, suddenly, the experience of the human race is much more like that of being put in a barrel and sent over Niagara Falls."

"...This extension of all our senses by electronic means of communication creates a world awareness of what is going on in our planetary society, and this is bound to become a new factor in the pressures at work in world politics."

It seems we are still in the falling barrel.

The fact that we can make a phone call from inside the barrel has not changed the fact that it is falling.

I am not far into the book yet, but look forward to reading it all.

The chapter titles are:

1. "A New History"

2. The Balance of Power

3. The Balance of Wealth

4. The Balance of Ideology

Concrete Elephants of the Upper Mekong

28th Jan 2016

(author's sketch)