About 500 years ago, the Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus proved the Earth was round. Now American author Thomas Friedman tells us the Earth is flat in his best seller: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. If he is not joking, then why is the world flat? Friedman says it is due to technological forces. Because of the Internet and the World Wide Web, he believes geographical barriers   are disappearing. Individuals   and companies around the world can cooperate or compete on the same level. Bill Gates explains the meaning of this transformation best. "Thirty years ago," he tells Friedman, "if you had to choose between being born a genius in Shanghai and an average person in Poughkeepsid (a city in southeast New York), you would have chosen Poughkeepsie because your chances of living a wonderful life were much greater there. "Now," Gates says, "I would rather be a genius born in China than an average person born in Poughkeepsie." This shows that success today is determined more by ability than by location. "Globalization 3.0", as he calls it, is driven by ambitious individuals: freelancers   and creative new businesses all over the world, especially in India and China. They can compete not just for low-salary manufacturing industry but, increasingly, for the highest-end research and design work as well. Big companies have played another important role in this globalization process. They move their factories from one country to another to cut costs. It's usual now for an engineer in China to be working for an American company. The Internet keeps them in constant touch with their American partners. People everywhere, from the US to China, have procedures of the same standard for getting their work done. The Reuters news agency provides a good example. The company moved its operation offices from London and New York to India. The Indian employees have the necessary technical skills. But the salaries and office rents are less than one-fifth of what they would be in New York or London. Friedman tells us that the Earth is flat   _  .
to prove Columbus's idea is wrong based on the wide use of the Internet using some technological forces because of the great change of the Earth itself