While the Great Wall is unlikely to meet the same fate as the flimsier edifice in Berlin any time soon, it is rapidly becoming irrelevant. The physical isolation provided by the Pacific, the Himalayas, southern jungles and Mongolian steppes is meaningless in cyberspace. As I have observed in a past column, biologically speaking, this state of affairs should be at least disquieting.
Evolutionary success is a multiple choice test.
Species with few options disappear. Those which wander too far down narrow adaptive alleys get mugged. They are history's losing gamblers who bet the family jewels on one Lotto draw. For better or worse we are all placing the same bet these days. This is true culturally as well as organochemically.