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Excerpt:
YouTube and China
But I want to start with two examples that illustrate my basic theme. First, YouTube. YouTube is a symbol for the Internet. For the first time in history, one person, can write or film something that everyone in the world can see, if they have access to a computer. One person reaching millions, even billions. Some anthropologists say this capacity—the Internet—is the most significant social development since the invention of writing over five thousand years ago. It’s a totally new form of communication. Throughout history, radically new forms of communication have created other drastic changes within the society in which they occurred. So next time you’re on the Internet, just pause for a moment and reflect on the significance of what you’re able to do.
The second example is the rise of China…a new fact of history. We miss the point if we think of China as just one more nation. Think of China as every fifth person in the world; as twenty percent of the world’s population. In terms of its size and speed of development, nothing like China’s current rise and potential has ever happened before. This is going to be one or two of the most significant geopolitical factors for decades to come. Two centuries ago Napoleon warned that China was a "sleeping giant" when "once awake, would astonish the world." Well, China is awake!
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