Regarding Black Globalization
Adam offers some interesting thoughts on the concept of black globalization (and cites what has become, to my surprise, one of the most frequently linked posts here at OSD). His points regarding the existence of Gaps within the Core (such as lawless sections of the inner city) are good, and remind why the SysAdmin function applies both at home and abroad.
A point for further thought is whether there exists a useful distinction between general criminal activity and black globalization. Most of the time when I’ve talked about the former I’ve imagined transnational illicit activity such as pirated software, human trafficking, the international drug trade, and smuggling. While these illegal networks have contacts within the Core, I don’t know enough to understand whether they could effectively operate without overseas hubs in the Gap.
Adam raises the possibility that these illicit networks are sufficiently intertwined with legitimate globalization that they may never be separated. He questions whether they may perpetuate one another. This, in a Snow Crash/Diamond Age turn, could melt our current map into a scramble of digitalized independent tribes and communities that become increasingly self-reliant for security and energy.
What are the countervailing forces that impede this sort of dissolution? Given the global infrastructure needs of black globalization, could this foundation be maintained if the power of states and organizations of states waned? Lots more thinking to be done…
