Globalization: a product of technological change

... Imagine that we had a government that didn´t care about technological development.. You could argue about how it would have happened and how long it would have taken, but it is certain that Dutch society would never have survived. We can draw a couple of important conclusion from this. First, that there is no way to spot the application of new technology... Second, that government policy is largely a prisioner of technological development... Third, tha technological development is leading to profound cultural change. And the changed culture is in turn preparing us to accept still newer technology.

Marcel van Dam, De opmars der dingen, Putten, Balans, 1994 (pp. 9-10)