Module 2: Connectivity

Technological advances have been the means by which the interconnectedness at the heart of globalization happen. From the invention of the sail and the wheel to super container ships and jumbo aircraft, transportation technology has enabled the building of local, regional, and global markets. From pen and paper to email, technology has revolutionized the means and speed by which people can communicate. From ENIAC, the first computer, to the smart phones we carry around in our pockets, technology has enabled individuals across the globe to access a vast pool of information. All of these technological advances have the potential to eliminate, or greatly reduce, the obstacles of space, time, and cost of interconnectivity. However, this interconnectivity has created great human achievement and tragedy, both today and in the past. It allowed Magellan’s expedition to circumnavigate the globe (1519-1521) but it also enabled imperialism and colonialism. It allows friends and family to stay in touch around the world, sharing joy, sorrow, and achievement. It also allows global intelligence organizations to spy on their citizens and strip them of their human rights. In later modules we will examine the economic, political, cultural implications of this interconnectivity, and later the issues that stem from it. In this module, we will examine the history of technology and interconnectedness as well as where we are now and where we might be going in the future. But before moving on, let’s listen to Jacqueline Novogratz tell the ‘Blue Sweater’ story and realize how small the world has really become. And perhaps more importantly, how interconnectivity can be more than just technological advancement, it can reframe our ideas of how we are all connected as people.

As introduced in the last module, technology has been the backbone of advancing globalizations interconnectedness. In this section, we want to look at some of the key moments/technology that drove our global interconnectedness. That being said, it is important to note that this is not a linear conception of history. In other words, global interconnectedness is not a straight line; it has quickly increased only to dissipate equally as quick.

Take for example the second Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death. The Silk Road, at its peak, had facilitated the rise of a large trade network, the exchange of ideas, culture, and religion. It connected the Korean Peninsula to Europe. It also brought the Black Death, which killed upwards of 60% of Europe’s entire population.

Nor is the argument meant to be teleological; that there is some natural end point of interconnectedness and globalization; that technology is naturally beneficial. Take nuclear energy for example. The harnessing of the atom is an incredible technological achievement, but it could also end the world as we know it.

Albert Einstein hints at this point when discussing the threat of nuclear war

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”.

– Albert Einstein

Much like in module one, it is recognized that things like the Silk Road represent a nascent form of globalization as interconnectedness. However, again, there is utility in restricting our enquiry to the modern and contemporary eras of globalization. It is during these eras of globalization that time greatly compresses, with innovation beginning to grow exponentially.

The modern era of globalization runs, roughly, from the late 19^th century through to the 1980s. In terms of technological advancement, this period can be split into an earlier phase and later phase. The early phase stretches from the late 19^th century to the end of the Second World War and was ushered in by the steam engine. It revolutionized coal mining by improving pumping stations, fueling the industrial revolution. It allowed factories more mobility since they were freed from the need to be located near rivers, facilitating urbanization.

It powered spinning mules and power looms to revolutionize the production of cotton, encouraging global trade networks: cotton was imported into the UK from the colonies, manufactured in Lancaster mills, and textiles were exported back to the colonies.

Innovation, specifically around high-pressure steam engines, would lead to the steam locomotive and steam ship. Both decreased transportation time and increased transport volumes. Locomotives linked factories and cities. Steam powered ships both intensified existing colonial networks and allowed new networks to be explored. Again, we see the tension in the aspiration and application of technology. While Robert Fulton, the American inventor of the steamship, had thought his invention would connect people and improve our material condition, it also facilitated the misery of colonialism which in turn has led to post-colonial instability in many parts of the world.

The second technological innovation was the telegraph. For the first time, the bottle neck of transportation speed was overcome. This facilitated the economic ambitions of states and companies as well as allowing the monitoring of colonial empires.

Further technological innovation, like the telephone and the automobile, would multiply the impact of the steam engine and the telegraph. The world was becoming more instantaneous and interconnected.

The second technological phase of modern globalization began during the Second World War and accelerated exponentially during the Cold War. Important examples of technology that emerged from the war was missile technology and atomic energy. During the Second World War, German engineers worked on rocket propulsion, specifically the V2 rocket. These were the first long range ballistic missiles. When the war turned against Germany, both the US and the USSR sought to occupy the cities where this research had taken place and to capture the scientists behind it. This technology would be crucial to the Cold War for use in intercontinental ballistic missile technology and satellites. Missile technology would be used to house nuclear war heads in the thousands, enough to destroy the world several times over. Satellites were a means of spying on the other side and used to coordinate military maneuvers.

The military use of this technology was certainly at odds with fostering interconnectivity; thermonuclear war would have left no one to connect with. However, the subsequent civilian use would allow for global communication networks, GPS, and would take the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.

Figure 2-8: Source: http://www.stratcom.mil/Newsroom/Images/igphoto/2001655208/ Permission: Public Domain. Courtesy of Adam Hartman.

Figure 2-9: Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong#/media/File:As11-40-5886.jpg Permission: Public Domain. Courtesy of NASA.

Nuclear energy itself would be both a boon and a curse to globalization. Nuclear energy is cost efficient and the production of energy is relatively ‘clean’, with the exception of the waste produced. There are currently 45 countries pursuing nuclear energy programs and intensive research on how to reduce, destroy, and/or store nuclear waste. However, Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986, and Fukishima in 2011 also point to the dangers of nuclear energy, both to the country where these accidents occur and the world as a whole. The Chernobyl disaster for example, significantly contaminated 100,000 square kilometers of land in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. The world was alerted to the problem when Sweden noticed radioactivity in its country, checked its own radioactive sources and finally traced the readings to the USSR. Radioactive residue has been found in flora and fauna as far away as Germany. The advent of nuclear technology requires global interconnected responses. Therefore, the first phase of modern globalization produced both the means to uniting the world through technology like satellites and the means to end the world through technology like thermonuclear war. But even the negative side generated connectivity as political solutions to both the militarized and civilian application of nuclear power have been created. This will be discussed further in module 4. Civil society would also have voice in such matters, for example through environmental communities and antinuclear communities. These issues will be touched on in modules 9, 10, and 11. Fundamentally, what changed technologically in this era was the global frame. Technology became larger than state borders.

The advent of the microprocessor in 1971 would mark the beginning of the contemporary era of global interconnectedness. It was the 1980s when the first home computers became available. These early PCs were standalone, used for word processing and rudimentary games. Computers began to be networked through universities. Researchers at CERN would create the world wide web as a means of storing documents and publishing them on the internet.

As the web became cheaper and easier to access, the number of users multiplied as did the services that utilize it. Companies like Google have become eponymous with searching for information on the net. Today, with the ubiquity of smart phones, many people have the internet in their pocket. People are increasingly going digital, from the way we communicate, shop, bank, listen to music, follow the world around us, take classes… the divide between the analog world and digital world is becoming indistinct, especially with conscious efforts like Google glasses or augmented reality apps. The microprocessor has become the core of contemporary information and communication technology.

As mentioned above, we are increasingly interconnected through digital media. One form of interconnectedness developing very quickly is e-commerce. This shouldn’t be very surprising. Since the days of the Silk Road, commerce has been a driver of connectivity and disruption, something we will be discussing in module 3. Most people would be aware of the large digital storefronts like Amazon, Alibaba, and EBay. Other companies like Salesforce are significant actors, providing cloud computing and customer relationship management to companies. Others like Netflix, Google Play, and Spotify are carving deep niches out of the entertainment industry. What all of these companies share in common is the shortening of the supply chain, reducing the number of players that sit between manufacturing and the consumer. This has possible cost ramifications given the lower number of hands that products need to go through. Further, a digital storefront is able to offer more selection of goods via their own procurement or through third party sellers. It offers a platform for innovation and entrepreneurship through crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter where you can seek backing for your ideas from the public. Perhaps the most personal impact is the seen in the increasing amount of work can be done remotely, leading to a rise in global co-working spaces like Hubud in Bali.

There is also a dark side to e-commerce like The Silk Road which operated in the dark web and with anonymity by using the TOR platform and bitcoins as a currency. The Silk Road had become an online bazar for illegal drugs and other illicit goods. After a Gawker article brought mainstream attention to the Silk Road, an international police effort shut it down and the owner/operator Ross Ulbricht was handed a life sentence in the US. However, the Silk Road has simply been replaced by others like Alphabay.

Another aspect of our digital world is communication, which has the largest potential for generating global interconnectivity. The internet provides a platform for every possible view point and community to gather digitally regardless of where they are physically located. This transforms identities as people can come together as communities regardless of political borders or remoteness.

As witnessed in the Arab Spring, digital communication allowed for the organization of dissent in many authoritarian states in the Arab world.

It has been a platform of LBGTQ rights, Women’s rights, environmental activism. However, much like the Silk Road example above, it is possible for the dark side of the web to use the same tools for malevolent purposes. ISIS uses a glossy online magazine, Rumiyah, for recruiting purposes. And somewhere in between lies the attempt to control the internet. During the Arab Spring, the Egyptian government turned off the internet, recognizing the role that connectivity plays in dissent.

More systematically, the Chinese Government uses legislative and technological tools to build a Great Firewall of China. The goal is to restrict what information people can find, who they can speak to, and to monitor citizens activity. This combined with the use of force by the state authorities has resulted in a robust form of censorship.

A more specific application of technology which is connecting people and changing how we see the world, are mobile phones. In the developed world, smart phones are increasingly used for texting and social apps instead of phone calls. Texting and social apps allow users to reach multiple audiences whether they be recipients or participants, anywhere at anytime. This essentially removes the barriers of distance and time required for communication. According to the World Bank, in 2016 there were more mobile phone subscriptions that people on the planet.

That doesn’t mean everyone has a mobile phone as this map demonstrates.

Some people have multiple devices that need multiple subscriptions as well as work accounts, et cetera. But it is evidence of the growing ubiquity of mobile technology. In low income countries, 60% of the people had mobile phone subscriptions.

For developing countries, mobile phone networks allow access to banking, government resources, education (formal and informal), health advice, access to crop information, and even warnings to avoid violence or natural disasters.

What all of this technology brings us to is a world that is increasingly interconnected by technology. The questions then become how will it be used? For what purposes? Will it be used an emancipatory tool, to provide access to knowledge and resources? Or will it become a coercive tool for authoritarian rule? Will the web be open to all ideas and people? Or will it be a privilege of the wealthy? Much of this is yet to be determined. As we have seen, different actors with different agendas have tried, and are trying, to influence the answers to these questions. Sorting this out will require looking at the economic, political, and cultural frames of globalization, something we will do in the next few modules.

Technology has been a key facilitator.

But as we close, let us look to the extreme form of technological connectivity.

The steam engine was a key driver of the industrial revolution. It revolutionized coal mining by improving pumping stations, fueling the industrial revolution. It allowed factories more mobility since they were freed from the need to be located near rivers, facilitating urbanization. It powered spinning mules and power looms to revolutionize the production of cotton, encouraging global trade networks. It led to the steam locomotive and steam ship. Both decreased transportation time and increased transport volumes. Locomotives linked factories and cities. Steam powered ships both intensified existing colonial networks and allowed new networks to be explored.

The modern era of globalization produced issues that were larger than the state. Nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, satellites, environmental threats, were all bigger than the state. They would require international responses institutionally. They would generate pressure from civil society on an international scale. By the end of the modern era, the issues generated by globalization could no longer be restricted to state policy but would require international policy.

The microprocessor began a process whereby the entire world could not only be connected, it could share its knowledge and experiences. From standalone PCs, to networks, to smart phones, and potentially to the singularity, the microprocessor revolutionized how we interact, with whom we interact, and what we bring to those interactions. 

E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. It should not be surprising that has grown so quickly because trade has always been inextricably linked to globalization. The first nascent forms of globalization grew out of the Silk Road trade routes. Technological advances have been capitalized on by commerce ever since: the steam engine, the telegraph, et cetera… The digital realm is no different. It creates a new space for business to grow. And someone, somewhere will always seize on new opportunities to do business.

There is a general tendency for those who innovate to believe in the positive potential for their innovations. When Robert Fulton invented the steamboat, he believed it would revolutionize the world for the better. When CERN scientists were inventing the world wide web, they thought they were revolutionizing the world for the better. In each case, there were dark implications of their achievements. The steamboat facilitated colonialism and the web allowed The Silk Road bazar to sell illegal goods and ISIS to promote/recruit for extremism. It is necessary when thinking about technology, and as will see other ideational aspects of globalization, to be pragmatic about how it will be used, by whom, and to what purposes.