A friend and I just had a wonderful 1:1 chat, and I wanted to share it here (with her permission). She asked me to remove her name because she thinks she was off her game - I think she's crazy - but I will respect her request none-the-less. Please excuse the raw nature - this is a straight copy+paste chat log from Adium.
Also, for clarity, my timeframe for this world peace is not days, weeks or even decades. There are also all sorts of things that can screw my assumptions up. But this is an interesting thought exercise none the less.
9:11 - My Friend:
Chris, about your idea that our connectedness will bring world peace... someday?
9:11 - Chris Saad:
yes - most people think i'm crazy … i think it's already happening
9:12 - My Friend:
Do you think that it's making us more moral?
9:13 - Chris Saad
no… i think it's broadening the set of people we apply our morality to
because we are coming to the obvious revelation that everyone is human, everyone has the same fundamental desires (safety, love, hope) and deserves a fundamental level of respect and dignity
9:14 - My Friend:
do you think it's changing our ideas of what morality is?
9:14 - Chris Saad
… i think humans are always fundamentally selfish - but they prioritize themselves first, and people like them second
… all i'm saying is that people will increasingly realize that there are a lot more people like them than they originally thought - i.e. everyone
9:15 - My Friend:
I think yes we are redefining our standards of morality b/c of the connectedness
9:16 - Chris Saad
I think it looks like that at the surface … but it's only because we are applying our same morality in different ways
9:16 - My Friend:
interesting
9:16 - Chris Saad
which sort of creates a new morality or at least a different looking morality … but its probably the same morality more broadly applied … e.g. we'd never bomb a state of the US … that's morality … so why would be bomb a state of the world … that's 'otherness' which is dissipating … but its the same morality … man i speak a lot of shit like i know what i'm talking about … i should get a bullshit award … i do believe it though
9:21 - My Friend:
maybe it was the wrong question. do you think moral codes are changing morals w/i established groups
9:22 - Chris Saad
can u give me an example of a moral code and how it might have changed?
9:23 - My Friend:
Churches granting priesthood to homosexuals, for example
9:24 - Chris Saad
see i still think that's a broadening of application of an existing morality
… the original moral code was to grant priesthoods to those who worked for it and were pihas (sp?)
9:24 - My Friend:
maybe it's just a swinging back of the pendulum
9:24 - Chris Saad
… i could be wrong - this is just my opinion hah
9:29 - My Friend:
… but to everyone
you posit then that it's a broadening of moral code - a shedding of the sense of "other" for a set of fundamentally understood values
9:29 - Chris Saad
a broadening of the application of moral codes … but yes
… we're not broadening the scope of the moral code, we're broadening the group of people who fit inside the original scope.
All they are doing now is applying it to a broader set of people - people once considered 'other' … We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. … this is our fundamental morality … its only just being applied more broadly … to more people - not just americans, or males, or straights
9:30 - My Friend:
and this is one of the contributions to a more peaceful world?
9:30 - Chris Saad
its sort of like the big bang, planets and solar systems are not moving - the space itself is moving heh … like dots on an inflating balloon … the dots aren't moving - the balloon is
9:31 - My Friend:
we're on the whale. I just wanted to better understand your view.
9:32 - Chris Saad
presumably it does lead to more peaceful world yes - just like *most* people would not rape their daughter, they would also not rape their neighbor or their countrymen or a foreigner
… we would not embargo our family, or our neighbors or our states or our foreign neighbors - even the word foreign becomes obsolete
9:35 - My Friend:
what about the big brother aspect of all this connectedness?
9:35 - Chris Saad
I'm not sure it's strictly related
… although if most things are public, then 'big brother' becomes more like 'social consciousness' - taboos break down and privacy based on fear (taboos like health conditions, weird sexual interests etc etc) begin to lose meaning
9:36 - My Friend:
Interesting. Why not?
9:38 - Chris Saad
well privacy is still a right - social media is not about giving up privacy but it does somewhat diminish the need for and the value on privacy because as I said above taboos begin to evaporate