4 ms·

A solution - though extremely unlikely in this day and age - would be to abandon the notion of nations. Especially in the far future, if we are ever to meet ali

A solution - though extremely unlikely in this day and age - would be to abandon the notion of nations. Especially in the far future, if we are ever to meet aliens. Imagine having to explain that you only represent one of 196 nations. Seems a bit silly to me.

crisnoble 12y ago
Would it not be possible to change the standard US/THEM mental model without meeting a new THEM?
syf81 12y ago
Maybe the hypothetical aliens also only represent their own nation?
libraryatnight 12y ago
This is what I hope for, though I'd like to think it happens even without aliens.
bayesianhorse 12y ago
The "national" level will always matter. It's a problem of governing and risk management. Different regions have different problems, and the bigger an organisational structure, the more complicated. The hierarchical system with different levels of legislation and regulation at least works. In some sense we are already working towards a global government by claiming human rights to be universal. Out of that endeavour there will (in the far future) emerge a central authority or assembly which effectively enforces human rights and free trade.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
randallsquared 12y ago
Imagine having to explain that you represent some people only because you told those people you represent them. What with all the independence movements, the direction of the world seems to be toward a million nations, not world government.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  There are trends in both directions, toward government at levels beyond traditional nation-states (this is particularly visible in European institutions and things like the International Criminal Court, a permanent international court with jurisdiction over persons rather than nations), and toward smaller nation-states. Its not hard to imagine an end state where a narrow range of basic functions were handled by a world government (or a collection of function-specific, separately-constituted, global institutions), but where the unit below that was a set of governments (which might be characterized as "national") over regions smaller than today's nation-states (at least, the medium-to-large nation-states of today.)

crisnoble 12y ago

Would it not be possible to change the standard US/THEM mental model without meeting a new THEM?

syf81 12y ago

Maybe the hypothetical aliens also only represent their own nation?

libraryatnight 12y ago

This is what I hope for, though I'd like to think it happens even without aliens.

bayesianhorse 12y ago

The "national" level will always matter. It's a problem of governing and risk management. Different regions have different problems, and the bigger an organisational structure, the more complicated. The hierarchical system with different levels of legislation and regulation at least works. In some sense we are already working towards a global government by claiming human rights to be universal. Out of that endeavour there will (in the far future) emerge a central authority or assembly which effectively enforces human rights and free trade.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

randallsquared 12y ago

Imagine having to explain that you represent some people only because you told those people you represent them. What with all the independence movements, the direction of the world seems to be toward a million nations, not world government.

dragonwriter 12y ago
There are trends in both directions, toward government at levels beyond traditional nation-states (this is particularly visible in European institutions and things like the International Criminal Court, a permanent international court with jurisdiction over persons rather than nations), and toward smaller nation-states. Its not hard to imagine an end state where a narrow range of basic functions were handled by a world government (or a collection of function-specific, separately-constituted, global institutions), but where the unit below that was a set of governments (which might be characterized as "national") over regions smaller than today's nation-states (at least, the medium-to-large nation-states of today.)