Writing made it possible for the state to take the form known to us in the analogue world
Writing made it possible for the state to take the form known to us in the analogue world
It was writing, therefore, that made it possible for the state to take the functional, administrative and bureaucratic form known to us in the analogue world. Once writing was invented and up until the present, the state took the form that was possible in relation to the information processing capabilities of humans. At first, only names were processed, for tax and military purposes. Family information was quickly added to the list; however, it took states several centuries to reach the point of keeping professional, academic or medical records for each of their citizens. From that point on, however, things accelerated at a feverish pace, to reach today’s wealth of record-creation and -keeping on their citizens that is performed by the information platforms that are states. Nevertheless, in the digital world, the next milestone in humanity’s development after the invention of writing, the state’s final form is yet to be seen.
Navigate: ← §09.00.02.00 · Corpus · §09.00.04.00 →