This opinion, however misconceived, is widely held - even by people who consider themselves supporters of globalization. It is implicitly based on an idea borrowed from 19th century science, that of "entropy."

Take two different gases or liquids, for instance, orange juice and ink. Pour them together and the result is a loss of diversity, two things have become one, in this case inky orange juice. Isn't this how globalization works?

Actually, no.

It is time to move beyond such simplistic thinking, born among the steam-engines of the industrial revolution. Modern science realizes that, in open and sophisticated systems, processes of intermixture are more likely to result in variation than homogeneity (for more, check out Ilya Prigogine on the Web). Expanding such systems, which is what globalization does to previously isolated national economies, provides a superior environment for the emergence of complex behaviour and intricate inter-relationships.

The role novelty and invention play in producing diversity is usually ignored by globalization's critics. Mentally shackled by a crude entropy model, such critics fail to see that mixture is creative, enhancing the differentiation of the world, by enabling new things to arise.

Globalization is based on trade, and trade increases differentiation. Ever since Adam Smith presented his famous example of the pin factory (with production of a single item broken down into a multitude of highly efficient steps), economists have understood that among the principal benefits of trade is the opportunity to specialize. Trade allows each partner to focus their energies upon those activities for which they have a relatively greater talent, thus differentiating and refining the overall field of human endeavour.

By increasing the size of the market trade also allows entirely new specialisms to emerge, making it possible for those with particular gifts to live as artists, scientists, or entertainers, in a way that would be unimaginable within a small insular community. In a large market even the rarest tastes can be catered for, opening entrepreneurial niches for exotic products and services.

Tourism provides one remarkable example, since it enables people to specialize in presenting their locality and culture to the world. Any region that builds up a tourist industry is able to support professional guides, cooks, craftspeople and artistic performers. It is likewise motivated to treasure its distinctive cultural and natural heritage, its architectural and religious inheritance, its unique customs, crafts and cuisine.

Globalization not only promotes and protects diversity, it also spreads it to people, so that it can be worked upon, learnt from and enjoyed. Rather than remaining a mere brute fact about the world, diversity is brought into people's cities and lives, where it becomes the same thing as freedom: the possibility of choosing - how to earn a living, what to eat, wear and read.

As globalization spreads and deepens, unleashing waves of human creativity, unanticipated dimensions of diversity will inevitably unfold.

Shanghai is probably doomed to become an ever more interesting place.

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