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.

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

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.