As I wrote in the first post of this series (A growing disconnect between Chinese and Westerners)
"Change is assaulting our certainties as never before. The fields it
affects are multiplying while its speed is accelerating and in
consequence our minds are being numbed into incomprehension".
But
few would ever think that these changes already imply that the
technological center of gravity of the world is leaving the US. So what
follows will come as a surprise to most. The reality is that China is
sprinting investing all over the place while the West is broke, its
societies atomized and on the verge of violent confrontations, and the
interconnections between its systems are clogged like the arteries of a
patient with advanced arteriosclerosis. Treating this condition is not a
given and many specialists (economists, anthropologists, sociologists,
psychologists, etc...) believe that the patient is on its death bed. It
should thus not come as a surprise that year after year, month after
month, the scientific news is informing us that Western technological
supremacy is sifting, one sector after the other, like sand falling
through the fingers.