The explosion in global communications is changing the world at a bewildering rate. As money, goods, information and even people flow unimpeded across borders, the old idea of the nation state is gradually being destroyed.
Sketch columnist Simon Hoggart presents his own personal observations on these changes in the first of a two-part documentary and talks to people who are the forefront of the new global reality including Bill Gates, head of Microsoft, Japanese thinker Kenichi Ohmae and "futurologists" Alvin Toffler and Arthur C Clarke. Part two next week.