VIEW SPEECH SUMMARY
Historical Context:
- Nation-states emerged about 100-200 years ago, replacing fractured feudal structures and religious monopolies on information.
- Technologies like the printing press broke the Catholic Church’s information monopoly, enabling the rise of Protestantism, nation-states, and scientific revolutions.
- Urbanization, agricultural innovations, navigation technologies, and coinage centralized power within large states that could control trade and taxation.
- Communication advancements (writing, printing, radio) facilitated control over populations but also eventually destabilized existing powers.
Modern Transformation:
- The internet, mobile technology, satellite communication (e.g., Starlink), and cryptocurrencies are decentralizing power away from nation-states.
- Citizens now have unprecedented access to information and can influence governments directly, reducing states' control over thought and monetary systems.
- English as a global lingua franca enables ideas to spread worldwide, diluting national cultural boundaries.
- Big tech corporations rival and sometimes surpass nation-states in influence and wealth, undermining traditional political power.
- Digital nomads and solo entrepreneurs can operate globally, avoiding traditional state control and taxation.
- Supranational entities (EU, NATO, UN) further dilute state sovereignty by requiring shared governance on global issues.
Challenges for Nation-States:
- High government debt and rising social spending, especially pensions, strain state finances.
- Taxation limits are reached due to economic activity shifting to black markets or migration.
- Loss of monopoly on taxpayers and monetary systems weakens state control.
- Nation-states become financially weaker and politically fragmented.
Future Outlook:
- Nation-states are predicted to weaken significantly or even collapse as dominant political entities.
- Alternatives such as city-states (Singapore, Dubai), special economic zones (Prospera), and new proto-states (Somaliland) emerge.
- Power will be shared among multiple entities: corporations, supranational organizations, decentralized networks, and empowered citizens.
- The world will move toward a neo-medieval political order with distributed sovereignty and layered governance.
Actionable Insights / Tasks:
- Recognize the declining power of traditional nation-states and prepare for alternative governance models.
- Invest and participate in decentralized technologies and protocols (internet, crypto, satellite communication).
- Encourage education and skills to adapt to a globally connected, multilingual environment dominated by English.
- Develop strategies to coexist with and leverage big tech corporations and supranational bodies.
- Explore opportunities in emerging alternative state models, special economic zones, and neo-medieval power structures.
- Consider policy reforms to address overcommitments, debt, and taxation challenges in nation-states.
- Promote global cooperation to handle issues like trade, security, and regulation beyond national borders.
- Nation-states emerged about 100-200 years ago, replacing fractured feudal structures and religious monopolies on information.
- Technologies like the printing press broke the Catholic Church’s information monopoly, enabling the rise of Protestantism, nation-states, and scientific revolutions.
- Urbanization, agricultural innovations, navigation technologies, and coinage centralized power within large states that could control trade and taxation.
- Communication advancements (writing, printing, radio) facilitated control over populations but also eventually destabilized existing powers.
Modern Transformation:
- The internet, mobile technology, satellite communication (e.g., Starlink), and cryptocurrencies are decentralizing power away from nation-states.
- Citizens now have unprecedented access to information and can influence governments directly, reducing states' control over thought and monetary systems.
- English as a global lingua franca enables ideas to spread worldwide, diluting national cultural boundaries.
- Big tech corporations rival and sometimes surpass nation-states in influence and wealth, undermining traditional political power.
- Digital nomads and solo entrepreneurs can operate globally, avoiding traditional state control and taxation.
- Supranational entities (EU, NATO, UN) further dilute state sovereignty by requiring shared governance on global issues.
Challenges for Nation-States:
- High government debt and rising social spending, especially pensions, strain state finances.
- Taxation limits are reached due to economic activity shifting to black markets or migration.
- Loss of monopoly on taxpayers and monetary systems weakens state control.
- Nation-states become financially weaker and politically fragmented.
Future Outlook:
- Nation-states are predicted to weaken significantly or even collapse as dominant political entities.
- Alternatives such as city-states (Singapore, Dubai), special economic zones (Prospera), and new proto-states (Somaliland) emerge.
- Power will be shared among multiple entities: corporations, supranational organizations, decentralized networks, and empowered citizens.
- The world will move toward a neo-medieval political order with distributed sovereignty and layered governance.
Actionable Insights / Tasks:
- Recognize the declining power of traditional nation-states and prepare for alternative governance models.
- Invest and participate in decentralized technologies and protocols (internet, crypto, satellite communication).
- Encourage education and skills to adapt to a globally connected, multilingual environment dominated by English.
- Develop strategies to coexist with and leverage big tech corporations and supranational bodies.
- Explore opportunities in emerging alternative state models, special economic zones, and neo-medieval power structures.
- Consider policy reforms to address overcommitments, debt, and taxation challenges in nation-states.
- Promote global cooperation to handle issues like trade, security, and regulation beyond national borders.
How the Internet and AI will kill nation-states
10:40 - 11:10, 27th of May (Tuesday) 2025 / DEV TRENDS STAGE
Your country is dying.
The Church was all-powerful. Then the printing press arrived and destroyed it. Nation-states replaced it, and have been the leading powers for the last 250 years. But now a new technology has appeared that will kill the nation-state: the Internet, and its children, mobile, AI, crypto... Slowly, they're taking away all the power that nation-states had. But nation-states are not going down without a fight.
How are nation-states being weakened by the Internet?
What new institutions will replace them?
How can we see it in our everyday life today?
What will happen next?
How can you take advantage of that trend?
TRACK:
AI/ML
Business & Tech trends
TOPICS:
FutureNow