Country is essentially a political tool. Historically borders have been drawn so that tax collection and defense is easy. There is no reason to assume anything

Country is essentially a political tool. Historically borders have been drawn so that tax collection and defense is easy. There is no reason to assume anything else for the future. With rising costs of defense tech and automation allowing small crews, defense is about money. Tax money to be specific. Bitcoin is making money transactions difficult to follow. International banking and tax havens are also a thing. Either we are going to see private armies and private countries, or countries shift taxation away from income and transactions. And start to tax something more traceable. Location is prized and traceable. Water, electricity, internet bandwidth, everything that moves through fixed cable is also good candidate. Then comes traffic. If we rely on liquid fuels, road traffic could be taxed without tracing. But planes and ships are probably going to see some tax entering/exiting a port. The article seems to be right for the wrong reasons. Country formation is usually very Machiavellian business.