The Network State: How To Start a New Country

it’s not really about thought-out arguments but visceral expression of fundamental moral values.

When we write about moral premises, we intentionally omit the preposition for compactness and for effect.

It’s named after the Ramanujan number, which symbolizes for us the dark talent: all those people from the middle of nowhere, passed over by the establishment, with crazy-but-correct ideas, who could do great things if only given the opportunity. These are exactly the kinds of people who we expect will found startup societies and network states.

The network state is enabled by the creation of a new world (the internet), the software to code and communicate policies, and the cryptography to enforce them.

This isn’t incompatible with Georgism, which argues that the inelastic supply of land means there should be only one tax, a land tax; it just means the supply is not perfectly inelastic.

That combination of devices could furnish immersive control of a humanoid robot anywhere on the globe.

former lack technical competence and the latter lack democratic legitimacy,

legacy states control less and digital networks control more.

This complements our earlier point: through the internet, we’re reopening the frontier, and making previously godforsaken areas of the map much more attractive. Unlike past eras, you don’t no longer need to be near a port or mine to build a city; you just need to be near an internet connection.