[WinstonSmith84]

the solution to this "problem" was mentioned: "get rid off the free press, dismantle USAID - this has already happened. NGOs and Universities are next."

History never had such powerful tech as we have now (or soon). Look at how it works in China, now add on top of this some AI which can better monitor your thoughts / education / etc. Future generations will be better "formatted" than we are

[AstralStorm]

The only way any of this works is if they have enough violence with no recourse against it to enforce their way of doing things. Otherwise you can literally just ignore them if you sufficiently think outside the box.

Who needs companies when you have communities? Who needs a central dictatorship or a party if you have a faster and more efficient democracy? State controlled media? We can have better decentralized ones.

The key thing is that the alternative has to be obviously better.

[nuancebydefault]

Centralized is much easier to set up as decentralized. You are on HN just by accident?

Same goes for democracy, it is a very complex system. That is why it is always under threat.

The way I see it, first tribes were fighting. In middle ages, cities were fighting each other. Later states started to fight. Finally we have a handful of superpowers fighting. It is part of globalization and earth is getting too small to scale that mechanism further.