[ExI] "Toward a Type 1 civilization" by Michael Shermer

[Stefano Vaj]

On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 1:13 AM, Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:

>
> On Jul 30, 2008, at 11:15 AM, Michael LaTorra  (quoting from excellent
> Michael Shermer piece) wrote:
>
> *Type 1.0:* Globalism that includes worldwide wireless Internet access,
> with all knowledge digitized and available to everyone. A completely global
> economy with free markets in which anyone can trade with anyone else without
> interference from states or governments. A planet where all states are
> democracies in which everyone has the franchise.
>
>
> Yes!  This has been part of what I see as near term extropic goals for some
> time now.   The world wide web is how the true "global brain" comes into
> being.
>


Mmhhh. "Democracy" meaning "the rule of the people", I do not see how it
could go without a real sovereignty of the single people concerned. Now, the
primordial act of sovereignty is to give oneself the legal system of one's
choice, rather than a  a system imposed from outside, e.g., a colonial power
or a supernational bureaucracy.

If this is the case, I think we should accept the idea that the planet may
continue exhibiting a plural and diverse landscape of political and economic
regimes, and that peoples may continue to have a say about that. Or we could
opt for a Brave- New- Worldish "enlightened" globalism, but in that case we
have already renounced the idea of different states and of "democracy"
altogether.

Stefano Vaj
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