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Philosophy in Russia

Modern Communication, Culture & Philosophy

Vladimir Mironov on semiotics and postmodernism in a shrinking world.

In the modern world the field of global communications has an enormous influence on society. It has changed the way people interact with each other. Until relatively recently, interactions between cultures took place in ways which were relatively local (traders, soldiers and missionaries travelling slowly and expensively from place to place) or technically limited (such as sea-borne letters or chains of hilltop beacons). This meant that cultures changed very slowly, and most major changes were beyond the scope of a single life.

Such a conservative mechanism secured the stability of any local culture, while slowly adapting new components and gradually modifying the culture itself.