I reckon that at the point where you no longer have near-instantaneous network communication (and assuming we didn't lose all of the computer scientists) then h

I reckon that at the point where you no longer have near-instantaneous network communication (and assuming we didn't lose all of the computer scientists) then humanity would revert to using a Paxos-like system for managing state between different areas (I remember seeing on HN not too long ago an interesting explanation of Paxos -- not too different to the paper -- about how you could create a style of legislation between neighbouring cities with hermits and achieving consensus with Paxos). I don't know if you could do proof-of-work with Paxos, maybe it'd be possible to do proof-of-stake or something like that?