35 Shaping Technology for the "Good Life": The Technological Imperative versus the Social Imperative

In the early twenty-first century, many consider globalization to be an unstoppable force. New technologies (including computers, satellites, and the Internet) are making communications across the earth instantaneous. This facilitates global corporations and integrated economies such that decisions in Tulsa can have profound effects on the lives of farmers in Sri Lanka. Arguably, the intensified interaction may reduce or even eliminate differences in cultures and traditions, including cuisines. Globalization has generated a considerable number of critics who point fingers both at the institutions promoting it and the technologies that make it possible.