Recent articles have focused on select computing technologies and their expected impact on our world. Now it would be useful to recap how they will all work together to create our future, considering the changes we’ve discussed since this blog began last summer. (It’s a bit of a whirlwind, so hang on!)
The first series in this blog focused on regionalism. This is the trend toward greater economic as well as other forms of cooperation between neighbors within a region of the world. It presents a middle option between nationalism and globalism, and is the trend actually happening. Evidence can be found in commerce patterns, demographic shifts, and political actions. Regionalism is also a precursor to the next great transformation that will occur on earth—the shift to nation-unions, where regions become the predominant form of society.
Computing drives all of this. Social media (and other technologies such as Internet of Things) is acculturating people to making decisions collectively. Blockchain could enable internet voting, which would allow people to make collective decisions more frequently, and lead to direct democracy (which is already on the rise). Artificial intelligence can enable a digital legal infrastructure to emerge; this would create a coherent legal structure that makes government more effective. Together, direct democracy and a digital legal infrastructure form direct governance, the form of governance that could sustain a nation-union.
This transition has already begun, and computing is the elevating innovation driving it. Societies will evolve faster as the technology matures. Societies at the forefront of this change will be leaders in the future. This is not something to be feared; it is something to be understood. Invest wisely.