Chickens have very simple social lives. They can remember the appearance and social stature of up to about 40 chickens, and they function fine. But put them in a group larger than that and they start to freak out. They can't remember anyone's pecking order, and they become very hostile. 1

I wonder if humans aren't like that. Given enough time, will we have a more or less harmonious world culture? Do we have the cognitive and emotional capacity to deal with a global society? Or will we always be at war with each other? I'm not sure people have the ability to identify strongly enough with people outside of their familiar group, to put a stranger's needs above their own.

Being patient and nice to everyone, acquaintances and strangers, is adaptive in today's society-- but it wasn't necessarily for the X-thousands of years of human evolution. We lived in small groups of maybe 50 to 100 people. You grew to trust your group, and to treat outsiders with caution and suspect. I can't help but think that the extreme culture clashes we've been experiencing for the last century are evidence that a global culture is doomed to fail.

Throughout my life, I've been drawn to groups within groups. Whether it was the IB program in high school, or the sorority at Cal, or even joining the "military family," it's comforting to find a group of people to huddle up with while facing the larger environment around you.

With this in mind, I began to imagine a model for future societies. It's kind of a utopia, and I know all utopias are destined to fail, blah blah blah. But this one could be cool. 2 Basically, there would be a bunch of large communities that are basically freely-functioning units. They'd be characterized by their economies as well as the overall culture. You'd grow up with your family, and then choose a community the way high school students choose colleges-- brochures, interviews, etc. Then you'd join this community of about 500,000 people, and you'd get an job, probably meet your spouse, and set up a life that would be stable and psychologically rewarding.
It would kind of mean an end to innovation as we know it, because you need large corporations to sponsor the kind of costly research that is advancing human knowledge these days. But I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I think global culture is stressing everyone out, like the chickens in flocks that are too big. Would we rather have bigger TVs, faster computers, and a cure for AIDS and cancer, or richer, more rewarding personal lives at the expense of all that? It's an interesting thing to think about, anyway.

1 Ask me about bleeding-heart vegetarian factoids! I have a lot...

2 I am not in any way implying that if I ran the world, it would be a better place. Apparently over 60% of college students affirmed the former in a recent survey, proving that young adults today are narcissistic. I'm not narcissistic, promise, I'm just thinking about chickens and utopias.