It wasn't always the case where hacking computers could be done without consequence. In the beginning a great war was conducted by the original MIT hackers agai

It wasn't always the case where hacking computers could be done without consequence. In the beginning a great war was conducted by the original MIT hackers against university officials who were trying to pry control of the system away from them. Similarly, it's the dream of every hacker to find a sandbox world where they can experiment to their heart's content. These government and society hackers as much as anyone. There have been examples throughout history of 'partial sovereignty', the one closest to mind is that of the Native American nations in the US. They're sovereign in most of the ways that matter while still retaining the ability to bring in the grownups when things get serious. The other example I can think of is the British concept of political devolution, whereby four independent countries with their own governments fit neatly into the collective United Kingdom, whereby the countries can demand ever greater self-rule through democratic process. This is how Ireland became both the Republic of Ireland and the UK country of Northern Ireland arose. What's now the Republic of Ireland wanted a complete break, while Northern Ireland still wants to be a part of the UK. This is different from the federal system that most countries use, where provinces are forever subordinate to the larger collective. There is no political process available for secession in the US or most anywhere else except the UK, so demands for self-governance usually result in nothing or in civil war. We should greatly encourage people to experiment with new political structures, and we can look to the Brits for inspiration on how to make that work. They tolerated Sealand until the whole project collapsed under its own weight. Which is pretty much how you want it to happen. War is the usual instrument by which new sovereignties are created. A peaceful way to blow away political cruft has great potential to eventually improve a lot of lives. It's been shown that the primary thing that keeps many people in perpetual poverty is rules, it's the founding principle behind the concept of charter cities. There's room for experimentation here.