The Speculist

Isolation is becoming a hard fiction to maintain. Whether you’re a Communist ruler in China or a Muslim cleric in Yemen, its hard to keep the peasants completely ignorant of developments in the rest of the world.

Islamic fundamentalists even take our culture as a personal insult. It doesn't help to tell them America didn't invent frozen dinners in order to blaspheme Islam. They don't believe us, and when they do, the fact that its "not about Islam" just makes it more insulting.

Its not just totalitarian governments and religions that are having trouble setting the pace of the future. Corporations are having trouble too. Sony is getting bent out of shape over gray market importers of its Playstation Portable (PSP) in Europe.

The problem is that the PSP is available in Japan (probably since about 1992 - just kidding - but doesn't it seem that way?) and the United States already. Sony decided to get geared up for the Japanese and American markets before offering their product in Europe.

The PSP is Sony's innovation, so they have a right to handle distribution however they like. But consumers aren't quite as helpless as they used to be. That kid in Brussels pinning away for a PSP might not wait.

Of course he could pick up a PSP while traveling in the United States. Sony would have little right to complain about that. He would have bought the product at a time and place that Sony already approved. Servicing and warranty work back in Europe would be problematic. Keep your receipt kid.

But most of these potential customers in Europe aren't going to make a trip to the U.S. They might have to rely on those gray marketers I was talking about. Importers like ElectricBirdLand are doing their best to meet demand in Europe, at least until Sony sues them out of existence.

Even if Sony were able to stop ElectricBirdLand and all the other unsanctioned importers, how could Sony stop all the person-to-person sales (like on eBay). Here's some systems for sale - 225 by my last count. At least some of these eBay sellers would have no problem shipping directly to a home in Europe. Many wouldn't even know that Sony would disapprove.

Borders have always been fictions. If I travel south in Texas, I don't go from one culture to an entirely different culture when I cross the Rio Grande. Its not like one side of the river speaks entirely English and the other entirely Spanish. Brownsville, Texas is, as you would expect, a very Hispanic town that is heavily influenced culturally by its proximity to Mexico. The culture changes gradually as you go south in Texas. Probably Mexicans would say that Matamoras (across the river from Brownsville) is a very American town.

The Internet has made everywhere a border town - on the border with every other place. Policy makers, whether they are trying to incrementally launch a video game system or prohibit embryonic stem cell research, need to keep this fact in mind.

If, for example, our government outlawed cloned stem cell treatments for U.S. citizens, how long would such a law be respected, particularly after lifesaving treatments were developed? I would be the first citizen on a plane to South Korea if I had a sick child that could be cured there.

Border towns are wild. But the cultural exchange tends to be worth all the hassles, for both sides of the border. Many people aren't comfortable with their little provincial communities being hit with ideas from around the world. For better and worse, that's the future.