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Biochip technology EssayThe boundary world(a) village is one popularized by Canadian communications theorist Marshall McLuhan to refer to the might of electronic communications technologies to collapse nonions of geography and disrupt the conventional wisdom by which society appraises time-space relations.At the heart of the concept of the global village is the idea that because electronic communications technology are exponentially increasing their ability to abnegate space and time limitations, they enable individuals, societies and institutions to draw on a bigger graduated table than before phone calls can be made across greater distances at decreased costs, e-mails allow instantaneous transmission of readable content and cellular technology increases the mobility of telephony. Whereas the domain we used to operate on was on the village-scale, it is now global a global village. McLuhan impressionively celebrated the development of the global village because he believe d that it would expand our social consciousness. Not necessarily make us more socially conscious, plainly at the very least increase the scale by which we already cypher.Where we used to think primarily in terms of local affairs and developments that are mostly proximate to our surroundings, the ability to channelise developments instantaneously means that citizens can now think on an enlarged scale. More enthusiastic neo-McLuhanists verify that the global village will eradicate all barriers to cultures, nations and political institutions. However, in that respect is some concern that this is not entirely a good thing. For example, some put one across worried that expanding the individual consciousness to meet the scale of the global village comes at a cost.In effect, by thinking on the global scale, individuals may find themselves effectively disengaged from local concerns and proximate issues and at the very worse actively following developments in communities they have no power to affect, and disengaged from local developments that they could realistically make a difference in. Castells (1997) contends, however, that the globalizing effects of meshing and other similar networking technologies will not necessarily eradicate political boundaries. Rather the side effect of the Information Age is that many of the things that have come to define the nation state will be effectively downsized.Sovereignty will no longer figure in the absolute sense that we have understood it before, but rather, nation-states will exist solely due to the network of alliances, commitments, responsibilities and subordinations that are more than scarcely existent for the benefit of the state, but are necessary to its existence, and this becomes possible due to the ability to instantiate relationships done networking technologies. It is this component of Castells understanding of globalizing effects which hold some consonance with the views of Ulrich Beck.Beck maintains that much of the failure to real take measure of the effects of globalization is derived from a restrict understanding of it. Beck contends that globalization is not something that is limited to economic relationships and complex trade relations, but something that occurs in the most internalized sense, such as the ways by which we navigate culture and social relationships in an expanded trans study view that is the result of a national sense sublimated by globalizing technologies, cultural exchanges and international relationships.However, because of the co-dependencies brought upon by the transition into Castells network state, there is a risk that globalization will erode what sovereignty and democracy there is in the weaker nation-states. In other words, rather than acting as a force for solidarity, globalization could erode democratic controls and institute a political and economic injustice to the nation-state. This is possible when a nation-state is unable to negotiate for the betterment of its participation (whether through incompetence and corruption from the weaker country, or exploitation and deception from the stronger one.) Globalization cannot end democracy per se, but it risks compromising it to the point of rendering it ineffective. REFERENCES Castells, M 1997, The End of the Millennium, The Information Age Economy, Society and Culture Vol. 3. Blackwell, Cambridge, Massachussetts. Beck, U 2000, What is Globalization? Polity Press, Cambridge. McLuhan, M 1986, The Global Village, Oxford University Press New York.