Centralised systems, whether they are governmental or logistical or military, whilst they may be very efficient in terms of getting resources to where the centre believes they should go, have one major weakness and disadvantage. This disadvantage is the vulnerability of centralised systems to attack, takeover or failure.
I remember a sci fi story that I read once that demonstrated how centralisation can become a weakness. This story was all about how in a far off future dystopia, all of Earth’s governance had been given to the United Nations and ultimately to the Secretary General, who behaved like an emperor and surrounded himself with ‘yes men’ and gave no power at all to his subordinates. This Sec Gen lived in a floating city in the air from where all of Earth’s economy, society and law and order was controlled. One day when rebels managed to cause the floating city to fall, all the centralised power failed, there were no commands given by the tyrant and the Earthlings were free to rebuild their society in their image not that of their dictator’s.
The story outline I give above is of course fiction, but the centralisation of the internet, which has happened over the last decade is, sadly, fact. Control over the activities of the internet have concentrated into the hands of a number of big players that encompass hosting, platforms, payment services and search amongst other aspects. This goes against what the internet was when I first encountered it in the mid to late 1990’s when it was both far more anarchic and also much more easy for there to be a diversity of voices on it than is the case today.
However, there are moves afoot to make the internet much more de-centralised with such things as cryptocurrency, distributed hosting of websites and giving more control to the individual over their personal data. The current Big Tech model turns all users of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google and others into product rather than customers. The users, or rather their personal data, are what is important as this data can be used to target each individual user with tailored advertising and services, although only of course those services and advertising that Big Tech thinks you should have.
The short podcast below by Brian of London is one that I found extremely interesting and covers to some extent the idea of a de-centralised internet where individuals cannot be censored and where there is no ‘centre’ to be attacked or controlled by bad actors. Maybe by de-centralising we can take down the tech tyrants who have become so bold as to remove a former President of the United States of America and who readily work with oppressive regimes to silence dissent.
Click on the link below to hear Brian of London’s very enlightening and interesting podcast.
https://brianoflondon.me/2021/01/podcast-is-taking-the-internet-back-to-the-decentralised-future/
The earliest and best illustration of totalitarianism was written in by E.M.Forster in 1909. A advance allegory of the weakness of over centralised control, of “one world government” and a superb indicator of the mindset and the way the EU and under Biden, the US may well go, the over-reliance on social media, machines and the isolation of the individual.
https://www.classicly.com/the-machine-stops
I believe that Asimov also dealt with the issue of centralised control, as in the centralised control by the Multivac computer which became overburdened by its burdens and chose to die. Agree with you about the EU/Biden mindset and its centralising nature.
You only have to look at the dysfunctional wierdos heading the (anti)social media, the alien Waxwork Zuckerberg who refuses to answer to elected officials, the Google race-baiter and of course the censorious Jack Dorsey who looks like a homeless meth-addict complete with that de-rigeur snot-hanger-nose-ring. Look also at Bezos and his “selective” publishing of people’s work on Amazon. These people need their wings clipped and dragged under the auspices of the First Amendment and if they refuse, fined multiple billions and their CEOs dragged before the courts.
Read how prescient The Machine Stops is… The reliance on view screens, narrowly enforced ideas, “locked down” in their identical rooms, strictly controlled travel with unauthorised behaviour severely punished, escapees destroyed and abandoned as “disbelievers”, “deniers”, “dissenters”. It’s interesting how many 19th century thinkers foresaw the problems, although I suspect it was Jonathan Swift who was the precursor.
Ahem. UK Military is not centralised, each CO is very good at “Mission is…” then delegating down
Centralised failure: SNP’s Scotland Vaccine and EU’s too
I was not referring to any particular military force, rather the dangers of a military force in general being centralised. Agree with you on the failure of the centralised devolved administrations.