4 ms·

So did the steam engine, but its pretty much redundant now.

• lifeisstillgood 13y ago
  Steam engines were replaced only after the invention of a much more efficient engine (internal combustion). What is the much more efficient boundary of government that is not a nationstate ?
  • mgunes 13y ago
    The polis; an autonomous, self-governing form of city state, invented around 800 BC.
    • mercurial 13y ago
      Which wasn't shy about competition or large-scale conflict (like the Peloponnesian War).
      • Sven7 13y ago
        The equations of power have changed. Two contradictory things are happening inequality grows while information asymmetry reduces. Something is going to break. And we generally wake up and fix thing only after things break. I say another 5-10 manning/snowden type events before we transition from the united states of america to the the united states of earth.
  • nske 13y ago
    well, I think if we are talking strictly about efficiency, the intuitive answer would be: either a single government, or at least a government whose boundaries are set based on more practical and real rather than artificial foundations. National identities, as complex as they are and as huge an improvement over religions as they are to serve for the above purpose, are still artificial constructs that in many ways create arbitrary boundaries, introduce and perpetuate differences that are not necessary to exist between people and in some cases have even been manipulated and used by governments for political reasons.