Problem is that flying hasn't gotten any faster since the 707 started flying 40+ years ago. [Even the Concordes retire.]

The world only gets smaller if you're travelling on ultra-longhauls where you're stopping less often than in 1960.

There's so much that we share that it's time we're aware . . . .

The world is small if you stay on the tourist/business trail, massive if you get off of it. I spent a year going around the planet and barely scratched the surface.

I remember hearing that a medieval villager who wandered more than 20 miles from his home would likely not find his way back, the village had no name and the people at that didtance likely spoke a different dielect. At that time the world was huge.

i don't know - i regularly find myself standing outside my sons school events on the phone with nigeria, egypt, england and singapore, it is not uncommon at home for me to eat cheese I bought in holland and ham I bought in spain on bread I bought in my village deli, the teachers in my sons school come from sri lanka, ethiopia, south africa and the UK. I regularly have weeks that are spread out over 2-3 continents, and still make it home for the weekend,

I think that the world is a lot smaller than it used to be.

The world is folded
 

I have more in common with my fellow FT'ers than with some of my wife's cousins. In the US, we have Red States and Blue States. In France, they seem to have a similar division between the ordinary citroyen and the EU-philes. Every tourist-overrun region looks the same....

If you run with your fellow FT'ers and people like them, the world is small...dip into the "folds," and you'll see things very alien to your experience. Try taking a Greyhound bus between, say, Oklahoma City and Phoenix and you'll see what I mean.

While walking around inside the Sistine Chapel at age 20, I bumped into a guy I was in 3rd grade with. He moved away after 3rd grade and we never saw each other again - until in the Sistine Chapel. Oddly enough, we both immediately recognized each other. (Perhaps I'll bump into him again years from now in another city.)

On our helicopter tour in Kauai, there was my wife and I and one other couple. The tour included lunch & a swim at a waterfall in the middle of the island. During lunch, we learned that other couple lived walking distance from our house in Kansas.

On the London Underground, during a weekend trip on a really good "NetsAAver" fare, I bumped into a guy I was pretty good friends with in college with 10 years ago. In freaking London! During rush hour on the tube! We sort of lost touch with each other, but now we stay in touch regularly via email - thanks to that tube ride.

So yeah, it's a small world, and that's a cool thing! ^

Back before the days of cheap air travel everywhere, I rode the Dog from Champaign to Chicago a couple times a year. Granted it was a shorter ride - a small taste of Americana rather than a cross-country immersion in it - but I actually have fond memories of it.

On one of my trips, I met a couple of German backpackers who had some sort of cross-country bus pass. (Our version of a Eurail Pass I suppose!) On another one, I met a couple of Army guys headed reporting to duty (where, I don't recall). Always met a lot of college students on that route, as it was a fairly standard way for kids to shuttle back & forth from Chicago to U of I.