Global Communications, Extraterrestrial Travel, Species-Consciousness

After initial developments in the context of the Cold War, the two main fruits of Modern Science--the global communication system and extraterrestrial travel--are now each factors in the cultivation of a Species-Consciousness in its members.  The former is the medium for interpersonal connections that transcend all particularities, while the solidarity among terrestrial beings that is implicit in the concept of extraterrestriality is now explicit in the international cooperation that routinely occurs high above traditional particularities.  So, the cultivation of this Consciousness is compounded in the combination of the two technologies--satellite-mediated global communication systems.  Thus, perhaps the sharpest current social division is not any of the continuing particularist animosities--geographic, ethnic, religious, class, etc.--but between the institutions that perpetuate them and the planeterizations that are now concretely transcending them.