[cblconfederate]

Can't the chairs of state start acting like CEOs of their countries rather than like royals who need to fly 200 people just to have a chat? They can talk on zoom, all we need to know is "chairman of india spoke to chairman of uk and the following things changed:"

[axiosgunnar]

What makes you think they don‘t? Actual physical visits are to eg finalze deals, when high-bandwidth communication is necessary. And by high-bandwidth I mean body language, spontaneous n-to-n conversations between all participants, etc.

[cblconfederate]

i don't think decisions that affect millions should be based on body language

[bongoman37]

What should they be based on? Its kind of stupid to ask people to behave like Spock like value maximizing machines.

[drdeadringer]

While I see your point, I find commuting umpteen hours for a 5 minute conversation that could have been over the phone, over email, or over zoom-skype-jitsi rather soul-sucking.

And Spock did have emotions.

[cblconfederate]

> like value maximizing machines.

thats the job of a head of state

[ben_w]

More like the Tal Shiar, if we’re using Trek references — politicians don’t try to deny emotions.

[cblconfederate]

they should, it's just a job, not their personal drama

[ben_w]

Given the man’s well documented history of pathological dishonesty [0], I suspect that body language is how he was elected.

[0] e.g. https://youtu.be/ZVOV3sU8Ays

[jen20]

It’s somewhat crazy that I can’t tell without clicking whether this is about Modi or Johnson.

[ben_w]

Interesting. FWIW, Modi doesn’t have that kind of reputation in the sections of the UK news that I follow.

[skinnymuch]

Yes I assumed you meant Modi as well. Regardless of how I feel about both of them. It could happen any time two “populist” leaders are brought up that way.

[lotsofpulp]

In person conversations are to preserve plausible deniability, presuming they are not being recorded. I am only going to say things I want a transcript of over electronic mediums. CEOs do the same thing, and it is partly why being located in certain dense cities is so valuable.

[Nextgrid]

Especially considering international travel is still banned by law for any non-essential purposes, and I can't see how a meeting that could be trivially done on Zoom would be classified as essential.