Centralization versus decentralization is one of the most subtle issues in human history. There is never any kind of permanent or lasting answer that works in all situations. A person who says decentralization is always the right answer must be of the anarchist/libertarian persuasion, someone who feels we should all go back to living the simple life on a farm, far away from modern complexity, or sometimes they subscribe to science-fiction scenarios where it becomes possible to marry together our sophisticated economy with extreme decentralization. (In conversations online I’ve noticed some people will insist “We can do this now thanks to computers.” They vaguely gesture at computers as some kind of magic force that can solve all problems, but they never get specific about how, exactly, computers would allow decentralization. I’ll point out that so far computers and the Internet have facilitated the centralization of human knowledge and human relationships into a small number of databases, controlled by a half dozen corporations.)
Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, Part 3 of 14
Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, Part 3…
Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, Part 3 of 14
Centralization versus decentralization is one of the most subtle issues in human history. There is never any kind of permanent or lasting answer that works in all situations. A person who says decentralization is always the right answer must be of the anarchist/libertarian persuasion, someone who feels we should all go back to living the simple life on a farm, far away from modern complexity, or sometimes they subscribe to science-fiction scenarios where it becomes possible to marry together our sophisticated economy with extreme decentralization. (In conversations online I’ve noticed some people will insist “We can do this now thanks to computers.” They vaguely gesture at computers as some kind of magic force that can solve all problems, but they never get specific about how, exactly, computers would allow decentralization. I’ll point out that so far computers and the Internet have facilitated the centralization of human knowledge and human relationships into a small number of databases, controlled by a half dozen corporations.)