The song, "It's a Small World After All, " popularized by the Disney Company several years ago, reinforces the statement by the Canadian media guru in the 1970's, Marshall McLuhan, that we now live in a Global Village, as the world does indeed get smaller and smaller. Why is this so? Do we live in a Global Village where everyone intimately knows each other's business or are we living in a Global City, where there are millions of people and few people who know their immediate neighbors?
In the ancient world, it took two months by land and sea for a letter to reach London from the center of the empire, Rome. Today, it may still take two months for surface mail to reach Africa or China from North America or Europe or the reverse. Airmail might reduce the time to ten to twelve days, and express airmail might shorten the speed to three or four days. In North America, Europe, and some parts of Latin America and Asia, for a price, two-day or even overnight delivery is possible. The fax machine and Internet supply almost instant delivery and return response of messages. Wireless technology speeds up the process even more.
In much of North America and Western Europe, express roads are easily available, and annually China adds thousands of kilometers of express roads. In the eastern corridors of the United States, in France, Japan, and other countries, "bullet" trains cut the distances in the remarkable and efficient ways. In some less developed countries, or over difficult terrains, transportation by vehicle or by media remains, however, extremely slow. Thus not all enjoy the success of great speeds of transportation or media, nor are nearly half the world's population likely to do so in the near future. Thus the great advantages of speed in transportation and media delivery remains uneven for much of the human race.