Quicksilver

World Wide Web

Why wouldn't it work to have a web of government(s) structured the way the Internet is structured? There IS no central control of the Internet. There really isn't much control on any level. What there is can affect any of its connection points, however, the effect is limited because reroutes and/or independent operation are available until the hole in the web is patched. Content and conduct are dictated by the 'market' and that's not just financially. Supply and demand drive what's on the Net. What we want is what drives the Net. If we don't find what we want, we can build it easily enough.

We're so accustomed to thinking in two dimensions for organization that we've had trouble really visualizing the profound three dimensional structure of the Internet. How we'll ever understand higher dimensions is truly a mystery.

An organizational chart of government or other bureacracy is a top-down device. Great for convertible cars on a sunny day. Lousy for getting anything done. When you try an important task, you have to move the behemoth out of the way first. The lower echelons have to ship their funds and ideas to the top of the heap, then in some game of Plunket, they hope that when the Top Dog(s) drop a coin, it will land again in the pocket of the little guy (much devalued). Not terribly efficient.

This may only be the mother of all bureaucratic cycles, but we've seen smaller versions for as long as we've been 'civilized'. Government centralizes and de-centralizes and centralizes and so on. Why not let it be spread out into nodes, world wide, no boundaries. Not ONE governmental body, but a Net of cooperative governance. Regions may have their own idiosyncracies, so long as they do not run over others. This can work on all levels of our existence.

If you want to truly understand distribution of power and energy, learn how the Internet really works. People do it, millions of individuals, and they're in it mostly to serve their own needs, but they've found a way to do it together. God bless hackers.

I think the EC, despite its growing pains, may be trying to work out this sort of cooperative independence. The UN is an org that has been toying with it, although they've had plenty of egos to stroke in doing so. Of course the Big Boys won't like it if their power is actually distributed to the people. They won't like a truly global economy or *gasp* no real economy at all, if mankind's needs are met for free by an interconnectedness that allows the supply to be distributed to the demand. ("....each according to his ability...")

If we're going to change it, let's change it. Let's not restructure using the same tired old building materials we've used before. I hope I live to see this come to fruition. I guess I stock up on Wheaties. I hope the galatic-battlestar doomsayers are wrong about us needing some sort of alien invasion to give us a Them so we can learn to be Us, in harmony.

05.25.2001

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