The world is NOT small
 

Every now and then I hear someone say the world is small. I shake my head in disbelief when I hear it. I think the world is huge. Yes, it is "smaller" than before the age of flight, airport infrastructure, knowledge of our solar system, satellites, and the Internet, but it is still big.

Yes, you can reach nearly any point in a few days given enough money. But, to see and experience it firsthand?

Have these people actually tried seeing it? One could go to 100 countries (1/3+ of the way by that measure for me) and the world would still be huge. There are so many distinct places -within a country, specific experiences (Like scuba diving a specific place), unique creatures/landscapes to see, and points in time to see certain places (Seasons) to be had, that I think the world is stunningly large.

Larger than I ever thought it was as I've learned and traveled to more and more places.

Thoughts?

I say medium size.

Sorta Vente'-sh

Personally I'll go with the medium/smallish. Yes there are places that are remote but you can still get there. And now you even know about them. The older I get the smaller the world becomes. Maybe this is because I have the knowledge and finaces to get to the places I want to go. And the sense to stay away from the places that hold no interest to me.

A few things over my time have made me realise the world while physically large, is in fact small...

Can you imagine the travel times if earth were the size of Jupiter?

I concur. I've bumped into grade-school buddies on the other side of the planet. Experiencing every other culture yourself isn't a prerequisite for using the phrase "it's a small world."

When one is sitting in a shack in Podunk, Nebraska and watches a news report about shoe fashion in Tokyo - and cares about - the world is small.

When one realizes he has no idea how to use the local toilet after spending the better part of two days getting half way around the world, it's big.

Add me to the chorus. I've met acquaintances in the 4 corners of the world - and run into dozens of people who used to live in my hometown of 50k people allover.

I think the world is huge. If I want to drive from my house to Tampa (not that far compared to the width of just the lower 48), it takes 7 hours plus stops, at 70 MPH, the maximum speed of a cheetah, but for 7 hours, which no cheetah could possibly do in one day (or even a month I guess).

Yes, flying is faster, but it still seems to take a long time. Flying from CLT to MCI recently, it seemed like it took forever to cross Tennessee the long way. I guess being on a CRJ really makes time slow down. :mad:

The world is small.

Texas is huge.

The world does seem huge when we're trying to get anyweher from Kansas.

But then I remind myself how it was to get anywhere from Kansas 100 years ago and I feel better!

The world is large enough that I never tire of travelling to either the mainstream or obscure parts of it. And suspect (hope), I never will.

The more I do travel, the wider diversity of places I see. But the more I travel, the smaller it all seems, as I slowly realise how superficial so much of this diversity is, and how, fundamentally, we're really all the same...

I'm assuming you can't remember that far back :p

Ditto on the "physically large but still small" thing. My parents were in Laos in a small hostel off the beaten path and the next room was occupied by their former neighbour from 30 years (and 8000 miles) before. I've bumped into people who know friends of mine (or indeed on one occasion the friend themselves) thousands of miles from home and never in airports. The fact that we can get on a plane and in the time it would have taken ancestors to walk 20 miles we can be in a totally alien country is still amazing to me, no matter how many times I fly.

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.