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What will happen to chopsticks in 1,000 years?
We're all aware that cultures are clashing and mixing faster and faster everyday thanks to new tech like the internet and old tech like migration.
Currently we celebrate cultures by engaging with them at restaurants, festivals and through travel. We are all entertained by the differences; we use chopsticks while eating asian foods, eat our "plates" when eating Ethiopian food, we are brought on stage during a hawaiian luau against our wishes but then in the end have a good time :) (etc, etc)
However, when mixing you eventually come to a blended phase where the soup is one general color. (keeping with the food theme I got goin on…it's almost lunch time)
Do you think that at some point in humanity's future we will put aside cultures and traditions and become one society - a new together culture? If so, is this a good thing?
Is it possible that future generations will only find out today's diverse cultures by asking their AIs?
Will chopsticks or forks still be around in 1,000 years?
10,000 years?
Kevin Gibson
Dan Brennan
Jeong-Lan Kinser 200+
By the way, using chopstics is a good example of developing fine motor skills because it requies to use our all fingers. Some people even try to educate their children to improve fine motor skill to to promote mathematical skill and using chopstics is being used for that purpose also. Whether that is a proven fact or not, I believe that using chopstics is part of my habit. I believe that most people who are raised in the Northeast countries feel the similar way. So, I strongly believe that abandoning the practice to use chopstics would not happen at least quite a while.
Sarah Hie 20+
Tobias Duncan 200+
This idea that we must not only record every culture but also keep it alive by living it,is just crazy.Should some people be made to speak Sumerian in an effort to revive early Mesopotamian culture?
I LOVE chopsticks , I have a whole drawer devoted to them in my kitchen.Will they still be used in 1000 years?Will people have nuclear powered chopsticks? I do not know, but we should not mourn the idea that the answer might be no.
Laurens Rademakers 50+
My distopian fantasy:
In the year 3011, we will have shrunk the human body, removed its limbs, and made it more efficient. Some slimy, chlorophillic greenish goo will feeds us, via tubes that plug in directly into our stomach/battery.
The natives from Northwest Mars will certainly have rendez-vous with the tribals from the South on a regular basis, and share copious amounts of green goo, mixed, perhaps with some ethanol to get drunk.
Chopsticks, forks and knives will occassionally be downloaded and used in 3D at "Remember Our Funny Past On Earth" historic disguise parties.
Mark Meijer 100+
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find
In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, or say
Is in the pill you took today
In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing to do
Nobody's gonna look at you
In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs not nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you
In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long black tube
In the year 7510
If God's a-comin' he ought to make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
Guess it's time for the Judgement day
In the year 8510
God's gonna shake his mighty head
He'll either say I'm pleased where man has been
Or tear it down and start again
In the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man's gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing
Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But through the eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday
-- Zager and Evans
:P
Tobias Duncan 200+
Tom Collier
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Tobias Duncan 200+
Mark Meijer 100+
Btw here's an alternative projection of the world map, centered around the north pole and unfolded to produce minimal geometric distortion. It shows how we're all practically on the same continent:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map
Harald Jezek 50+
Eventually, cultures will blend into one, with, maybe some isolated pockets maintaining local cultures. I don't think that's something bad. It's like with natural selection. That, which is useful in one way or the other to society will survive, the rest will be gone.
Comment deleted
Eric Mueller 100+
I'm way more in tune with my Spanish heritage than my German...in fact, I know no more about German culture and traditions than any schoolkid out there.
I dont engage with any German festivals, parades or any other cultural activities, and I know I'm not the only German decedent to do so. So then is culture being lost?
I can almost be certain that my children will know very little about their Spanish heritage and even much less about their German heritage. Their children will probably know even less, and this will only continue to degrade as the generations pass.
Here in NYC we have the famous Culture Day Parades - like the Puerto Rican Parade. Will this still be happening 3 generations down the line as bloodlines mix? 10 generations?
As we become a global society it's only natural for culture and traditions to fall to the side, but will they disappear eventually from everyday life? Things you only watch history videos about?
I'm honestly starting to think it's inevitable on a long enough timeline.
Simone Thiry
Researchers, chefs, and artists are exploring cultures outside of their own, preserving them, and using them as inspiration for the work they do at home. Though there may be some adaptation, I doubt that all culture and tradition will disappear from everyday life.
If anything, globalization has provided the opportunity for individuals to find and pursue cultures/ideas they are passionate about, even those outside the culture in which the individual was raised.
Tom Collier
It is easy to feel this way when living in international melting pots like London or NYC. However, in my brief travels it has dawned on me that significant ethnic diversity in a geographical location is the exception rather than the rule.
Added to this is the natural propensity for humans to seek out those who look and think like themselves. Even in London, ethnic, cultural and religious groups tend to huddle together, with very few forums for cultural exchange other than school and the work place.
It appears that men and women have a tenancy to pair up with those of the same ethnicity to produce children. (according to my anecdotal experience and speculation).
Despite the amazing uniting and mixing power of the internet, it is easy to forget how many people in the world have limited or no access to this privilege.
Also, Eric, you say you are not aware of your German heritage, but I imagine you are very aware of your American heritage? And I imagine that German children in Germany are aware of their German culture. Just a thought :)
I myself hope to buck the trend as I am white-British but engaged to my Filipino girlfriend of 4 years, and plan to make some strong hybrid babies :D
Thaniya Keereepart 200+
Chopsticks will still be around 1,000 years from now in the same way that hammers, spears, and other primitive tools are still around in modernized incarnations. However, there are other eating tools that are probably more adaptive, versatile, and user-friendly than chopsticks. Perhaps the adoption of that new tool will grow over time.. but only if there is a reason for it to grow (new tool is cheaper to make, new tool becoming a fad, scarcity in the production process of chopsticks..etc)