Managed Decline
“In government, as well as in every other business of life, it is by division and sub-division of duties alone, that all matters, great and small, can be managed to perfection. And the whole is cemented by giving to every citizen, personally, a part in the administration of the public affairs.”
The 2022 buzzword of "managed decline" brings one back to Thomas Jefferson's vision of the United States, as a confederation of small-scale producers.
The new merger of various technologies may have the opposite effect, since many of its tools promote greater decentralization of production by lowering “barriers to entry” to technology. Once a society turns into a decentralized network and gives up the illusion of control, it may benefit and grow further than a controlled, hierarchical system., and facilitates interactions between mutually beneficial systems and subsystems within society.
If it is managed decline, it is management's decline.
Renaissance for the rest.
As the blockchain's effectiveness demonstrated, the "middle" and the "bottom", can now part of a networked system of organizations. Centralization struggles facing this unprecedented merger of various technologies. Outside the central control over "fiat currency", the "center" has little else.
Networks: Centralized, Decentralized, Distributed
Even the center's monopoly of violence can be easily mitigated
With modern tools, decentralization changed power dynamics. Once the "local" secured strategic depth, all it needs is determination. Skills follow. Modern technology made it easier to extract energy, transmit it, and store it. It made it even easier to produce food and manufacture specialized items.
Technology is already have an impact on both war and industry. It is making war deadlier; it takes fewer people to do more damage, unless faced with a systematic, WW1-style advance backed by artillery.
Recall the 1936 Spanish Civil War:
The Trotskyite-Marxist P.O.U.M Militia, a bunch of goons so terrible even Stalin "purged" them... but he "missed" George Orwell who went on to tell the tale, and foretell our tale
Most of the progress is thanks to second-order effects from Information Technology. Progress is not always assured (or beneficial), but from being the "silver bullet" of centralizing powers, it may just as easily promote a far more “diluted” decision-making process, not least because of the need to understand "n-order" effects... unless this "data-driven" trend kills it off; there's something to be said for the value of a hunch, over any computer's analysis.
This empowers a far more hands-off approach, just like in art. Information Technology may then impact all key aspects of economic activity, from manufacturing, to farming, and to energy flows across society.
It is cross-disciplinary fields where we see the largest progress
This replicates Mother Nature.
he sum of those local improvements could greatly improve the flow of energy across society. This would replicate Mother Nature’s approach.
Indeed, Mother Nature has so far avoided central control
Mother Nature prefers to rely on the “emergent intelligence” of networks. Very early on, it evolved decentralized solutions to manage the flow of energy.
Ever since the Archean Age, microorganisms evolved ways to exchange resources and information.
The true masters of nanotechnology, both Archaea and bacteria evolved nanowires, and thread conductive “pili” transfer electrons from one colony to another.
Make it stand out
When Mother Nature does go for central control, we get blobs. Blobs like the "Humungous Fungus" of Malheur National Forest"; they are amazing and interesting creatures that give us a lot to talk about...
They're not parasites; they're more like farmers. They are an evolved system to “cultivate” trees, and “harvest” those who become “ripe”
They may have a lot to teach us,
but they don't have much conversation...
Neither will we, if we continue on this path towards greater centralization