In the early modern period, just before the rise of the modern nation-state, there were hundreds of political units in Europe. Now there are comparatively few. Some observers project that at some point in the future there will be just a handful of empires running the world, but others think the opposite might happen: that the nation-state as a concept will fall into disuse, and that city-states hold the future of politics. In this article Michael Shermer explores these themes.
Shermer and Ali discuss: • the search for structure in nature • order and randomness • economic laws • natural laws • natural orders: molecular, quantum, crystals, carbonic, nuclear, magnetic • hydrological, organismic, Gaia and Medea • reductionism and holism • Islamic economics • the origin of wealth • Is there an optimal economic order? • how mining rights work in the U.S. and elsewhere • the voter’s paradox • Pareto optimality and why we can’t achieve it • resource nationalism • the resource curse • why India and Pakistan have not used their nukes on each other • social orders • population and sustainability: neo-Malthusianism • How many people can the Earth hold? • why we need nuclear power for sustainability • internationalism and globalism • Trekonomics.
In this week’s eSkeptic, Michael Shermer postulates a “Type 1” civilization in which exists a “globalism that includes worldwide wireless internet access, with all knowledge digitized and available to everyone…
Subscribe to eSkeptic: our free email newsletter and get great podcasts, videos, reviews and articles from Skeptic magazine, announcements, and more in your inbox once or twice a week.
