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A tweetstorm from
Balaji S. Srinivasan
3 years ago — @balajis
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It's amusing to watch Trump blow up (disrupt?) the political establishment. But he is no fan of technology.
https://t.co/4x6fHgiIXQ
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The postwar Bush/Clinton consensus is being ripped in two - the land below vs the cloud above. Nationalist socialism vs global technology.
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These are two separate trends - the return of nationalism and the rise of technology. Opposed to DC consensus, and to each other.
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Squint a few years out to visualize the complete marginalization of today's establishment. The future is nationalists vs technologists.
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A full-throated, jealous defender of borders, language, and culture. Or a rootless cosmopolitan with a laptop, bent on callow disruption.
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There will be some collaboration as well. Nationalists need tech to win elections. And tech needs (some) nation states to allow innovation.
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But that'll be the primary political axis worldwide. Left vs right torn apart & reassembled into the cloud vs the land.
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The land will want the cloud to pay taxes and help its security forces. The cloud will want the land to open immigration and cut regulation.
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The cloud has leverage because it knows tech and can move between nations. The land has leverage because it has more guns and people.
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In the long run, though, the increasing mobility of the global technology cloud will discipline the land. Too much demonization, we move.
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The ultimate fate of the nation state in this scenario is to become a commodity provider of land, natural resources, and rule sets.
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Singapore and Estonia are far along here. Already set up to start winning as domiciles for global technology (and corresponding tax base).
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We'll also see significant innovation in legislative regimes as other nations try to attract (pieces of) the global technology cloud.
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You have your elections, and we have our search engines. Vote how you want, we will move where we like.
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But perhaps the most interesting question is what happens if the cloud itself starts taking (buying? building?) territory. For another time.