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True. My point is that once it has started, it can be stopped well before the finish line. Even a few decades is within the realm of physical possibility for cultural diffusion, or a few generations for genetic.
The "challenges" are social and political: One of the older attempts to unmix a population resulted in a bit of a dustup that killed 70-85 million people, while more recent ones are usually stopped before that point.
The creation happens in the years after the re-ordering takes place. Do you think growing up surrounded by nerds would be essentially similar to growing up surrounded by performers? Heck, do you think a mundane unrelated office job would be the same?
On a smaller scale, there's the idea of "startup incubators". They concentrate like-minded people together, forge connections, and hope to strengthen and expand their culture. I think the same thing can happen with culture in general when groups have a strong enough presence in an area.
Fair point. I was focusing more on years-to-centuries timescales. If you're thinking of decades-to-eons, then it's much closer to the bare truth.
"Maintaining the old" is only one half of diversity though. The Wild West came about from a mix of societies, Singapore combines multiple influences, etc. Generating new cultures is the other half.
I'm about 50/50 on your examples.
For gun control, see this gif: states went from mostly may-issue to mostly unrestricted concealed carry over the course of a few decades.
With the current push of sexual content onto school children, I'd be surprised if the age of consent didn't go down in the next couple decades, even if it's restricted to Romeo-and-Juliet laws.
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