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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Cyber Nations: Countries on the Internet (Science Fiction)
Have you ever imagined what would it be like if nationality was not determined by birth but by choice ? When national boundaries are not drawn on land accessible to a few, but somewhere that is accessible to everyone. The first thing that comes to mind for such an "open" space is "cyberspace". Imagine "hosting" nations in cyberspace, so that people are free to choose their "cyber-nation", irrespective of where they actually live. It would be just like opening a Yahoo mail or Gmail account, just that you'll be able to do a lot more with your "account" than just check email. Cyber-nations would allow the national and social bondings of a person to be determined by choice, rather than by chance. A world where being part of the right cyber-nation is more important than being part of the right nation. Such a world won't be very different from ours, in fact, we already have most of the necessary ingredients, read on...
Nations in cyberspace or "Cybernations" will be just like todays' nations, only difference being that they are entirely online. People will no longer be confined to the nationality they earned by birth, instead they can choose their loyalties themselves. How this can be implemented is a different issue and we will talk about it later, but right now let's see how this can totally transform our existence. But before that, one simple question. Exactly what role does the Internet play in our lives, and has it become so truly necessary that we want to run good old land-based systems (like countries) over the Internet ?
My assertion is that the Internet is a basic necessity for human beings, just like bread, water, clothing (optional) and shelter. Internet appeals to human beings' social tendencies which is indeed a basic necessity for life. For example, how many of you would find it mildly pleasing to live all alone on a remote deserted island with all material comforts of life ? The Internet is a medium for social exchange and thus creates better, well connected societies. So if you are ready to overlook the technicalities, you will probably agree with me when I say that the Internet has in fact been around forever since people have always stayed in touch with each other. Just that recently technology has improved, and Internet has become very efficient in connecting people. A well connected society is potentially a better society. So, the Internet is not entirely an artificial creation or brand new concept, it is very much human and the tendency has always been around though in different forms.
So, agreed that Internet brings societies together like never before. But can it really replace conventional societies or nations ? Well, its just an idea, but potentially, if human beings' existence is tightly integrated with the web, we might choose to govern ourselves from the Internet than from down here. There are of course several ways how you choose to define "tight integration with the web". When I meant tight, I mean really tight. So I like to play around with the following popular idea: implant a microchip inside every person's brain so that they are always connected to the Internet, extending our consciousness to include cyberspace. Such a thing would be the ultimate in social connectivity, and if we are indeed able to achieve this feat one day why not upload our societies and our nations onto the Internet ?
Nations in cyberspace or "Cybernations" will be just like todays' nations, only difference being that they are entirely online. People will no longer be confined to the nationality they earned by birth, instead they can choose their loyalties themselves. How this can be implemented is a different issue and we will talk about it later, but right now let's see how this can totally transform our existence. But before that, one simple question. Exactly what role does the Internet play in our lives, and has it become so truly necessary that we want to run good old land-based systems (like countries) over the Internet ?
My assertion is that the Internet is a basic necessity for human beings, just like bread, water, clothing (optional) and shelter. Internet appeals to human beings' social tendencies which is indeed a basic necessity for life. For example, how many of you would find it mildly pleasing to live all alone on a remote deserted island with all material comforts of life ? The Internet is a medium for social exchange and thus creates better, well connected societies. So if you are ready to overlook the technicalities, you will probably agree with me when I say that the Internet has in fact been around forever since people have always stayed in touch with each other. Just that recently technology has improved, and Internet has become very efficient in connecting people. A well connected society is potentially a better society. So, the Internet is not entirely an artificial creation or brand new concept, it is very much human and the tendency has always been around though in different forms.
So, agreed that Internet brings societies together like never before. But can it really replace conventional societies or nations ? Well, its just an idea, but potentially, if human beings' existence is tightly integrated with the web, we might choose to govern ourselves from the Internet than from down here. There are of course several ways how you choose to define "tight integration with the web". When I meant tight, I mean really tight. So I like to play around with the following popular idea: implant a microchip inside every person's brain so that they are always connected to the Internet, extending our consciousness to include cyberspace. Such a thing would be the ultimate in social connectivity, and if we are indeed able to achieve this feat one day why not upload our societies and our nations onto the Internet ?
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