Blog #4

Flat Earth 3.0

      I thought Dr. Friedman’s talk at MIT was extremely interesting. I did not fully expect to be so interested in the subject but before I knew it I had watched the entire speech. As Dr. Friedman explained the evolution of our world going from a “download” world into an “upload” world I realized I experienced that evolution but had not recognized it. He mentioned one of the turning points for our world becoming “flat” was in August of 1995 when Netscape introduced the first web browser. I was 11 years old and I can remember surfing the web at my dads office for the first time during this era. The evolution Dr. Friedman talks about has moved so quickly it has been difficult to recognize the changes that have occurred globally. He mentioned that in the three short years he stopped covering globalization to write about the Mideast he was astonished at the changes that happened in that short time span. 

       

    The new “flat” earth Dr. Friedman speaks about has given an individual with an internet connection the ability to share the content they created with the entire world. This idea was not possible a very short time ago when the were very few channels which connected the world. His experiences with people he has meet during his travels were very entertaining. His story about the driver who had his own website in multiple languages shows how if an individual has the imagination and ingenuity anything is possible. 

  

     As Dr. Friedman reached the 40 minute mark in his 47 minute speech was when he lost me. Obviously Dr. Friedman believes strongly in the theory of man made global warming and he spent the last part of his speech talking about the “green revolution”. I am not sure how this was related to the subject he spoke on for 40 minutes. Earlier in his talk he spoke about how important he thought free trade was but ended his speech with how we needed a real green revolution and the only way this could be done is with legislation, laws and taxes all of which hinder free trade. Obviously Dr. Friedman is a brilliant man but sometimes when a person is involved heavily in a cause they believe to be true they abandon common sense. I can only assume the reason he brought up this subject was to plug his next book about green technology. 

     Other than his off topic rant at the end I thought Dr. Friedman’s talk was brilliant. As a country we need to recognize how the world as flattened to remain the global leaders in trade and innovation. Individuals made this country great and now that we have access to the entire world as individuals we should be able to continue to climb as a country. We have some of the brightest minds on the planet and if we could get our Government out of the way or on board with this idea who knows how far we will be able to advance.

Dr. Friedman's talk at MIT can be seen here.