Digital Countries
I want to propose a thought experiment. If we humans discovered Earth today, would we organize it again the same way as it is today?
What the fuck are you talking about, you say. My point is the following: Countries and governments evolved in the last 300 years, and they are run pretty similar to how they have been run 50 or 100 years ago. Yes, there are new laws and so on, but the basic principles are the same. But technological progress has made a lot of stuff better, easier and more efficient in recent years. Almost every industry and other aspect of life has been reconfigured in some way through technology. But not countries.
There are efforts to digitalize some government processes, but that’s not what I am aiming at. I am talking about having digital countries, as in “not physical”. Or no countries at all. The term “Digital Countries” maybe misleading, but it eases the transition into the thought experiment.
So let’s say we don’t have any countries. There is no White House, there are no borders between Mexico and the USA (where are you going to build your wall now? Ha!) and you don’t have to show your passport when flying to another country. Imagine there is no nationalism and no discrimination based on nationality. Everything that we need to have organized in this planet is taken care of by an array of technologies.
But let’s take a step back and first understand what the role of countries is today. Countries, administrated by governments, provide a framework for their citizens and have absolute sovereignty in their defined geographical area. The framework guarantees the people who happened to born there, as a pure function of luck, enables them to do stuff. In return, they agree to elect a group of people who try to govern this thing, by asking all other people what they think of certain topics (at least in democracies) and pay some money to finance all the stuff the people come up with. The framework gives people certain rights, and makes sure that they can exercise those rights. It also promises to protect its people from other countries, if need be. It also tries to make sure that, if they don’t find a job or get sick, they don’t need to live on the streets and die from hunger. Of course, all these things work better in some countries than in others.
Ok, but if this already works, why are we doing this thought experiment? Why should we change it?
Countries lead to inefficiencies in the economy, because often the country’s internal goals don’t align with all other countries’ internal goals. So how should their external goals align? Because most of the shit heads living in a country, that actually decide on important matters, don’t have a clue what they are doing and what they are voting. Because people that are running the government are short-term incentivized, and all they care about is their personal power and influence, and getting higher up in the hierarchy.
Countries lead to war, poverty and misery. A group of people that where by pure luck born in the same area now think that they are better than some other group of people. They think they have to rule them, or not trade with them. The people governing a country (yes, also in democratic countries) are so focused on vanity that they forget about their duty to serve their people. To feed and educate those who cannot afford it.
Most importantly, countries lead to barriers between humans. This is not 1873. It doesn’t take us 80 days to get around the world in a crappy air balloon. It takes us 12 hours. Technological advancement has made the world really small. And it’s only going to get smaller. We have to tackle problems and challenges on a global scale, not on a national scale. I live in Switzerland, and we are all real proud of our small country. Where there is almost no unemployment, almost no crime, social security, high level of education and no poverty. Sure, but this is easy to achieve when you are a 8 million people nation in the middle of Europe. What about all other humans in countries that haven’t been that lucky? How can we be proud and satisfied that we solved these problems for 8 million people out of 7.4 billion?
Let’s come back to the No Countries, or Digital Countries, idea and continue our thought experiment.
Imagine there are no borders. You can go wherever you want. Organizations can tackle problems that effect humans worldwide on a real global scale, without caring for borders, different laws and political agendas. This means tackling poverty and climate change where it needs to be tackled. Imagine the increase in efficiency. Imagine the increase in quality of life if you can go away by just going away if you don’t like it where you are. Imagine the uptake of speed on decisions that affect the globe. Topics like climate change, world hunger and education can be discussed barrier-free. Without the need for a G20 or G200 or whatever they call these things. Imagine the things that we can do with all the freed up money and time we have now.
The question that now is left to be answered is: Who is going to provide the framework needed for stability on this Digital Countries, or shall we call it Digital Earth, scenario.
How can we make sure that people don’t murder and loot each other. Who enforces the law, who cleans the streets and who provides social security Well, I don’t know how exactly this would pan out. But I believe it should be possible to get it done efficiently with some technological backup. Let’s look at some examples. How would law enforcement work? Would there be a DEPD (Digital Earth Police Department). Yes there probably would, and people would work there. The DEPD would have a detailed duty plan that is tracked and controlled by the software. Who cleans the streets? The street cleaning robots, of course! How can we make sure that people without income or ability to work still get enough money (or points) to live on the Digital Earth.
I imagine that there is a Digital Earth base software, that is kept in checks-and-balances by all humans living on Earth. I imagine it kind of like a blockchain-based technology. And the additional services needed to run Earth are plugged in into this base software. Like modules, or software using the Digital Earth API. So you can start a robot street cleaning company, and use the API to coordinate your cleaning activities and earn money from the software because you are providing a public service. Or a police company (or a police department in this case). This of course would be more regulated than a cleaning company. So you would need to have certain standards to be able to use the API, and will also be monitored by the base software when you carry out your work. Who pays for all of this? The humans living on Earth are on freemium model to help finance all coordination activities. Actually, the freemium model would be extended. It would have 3 components: Receiving money, paying money and not paying at all. So for using certain services, you would receive money: E.g. the education app will give you money (or whatever, points). Or if you qualify for the invalidity app, you would also get some points. If you work, you have to pay a premium. This, of course, would resemble our current tax system. But taxes would be much lower, because everything is much more efficient.
I know this is all pretty vague, but my goal was just to take you along to this thought experiment and start a thought process. Maybe, if we could figure out a way to make it viable, it would indeed lead to a better world?
