Are archipelagos natural?

As it has been claimed that states are natural to humans, should archipelagos be considered natural (to states) as well? States formed naturally, so as to individualise humans, to uniquely identify them in space and time. Because the first archipelago is doing the same for states, should they be considered natural to them, in the same way that states are natural to individuals? At first sight this would appear a counter-intuitive question: the EU was established through a treaty signed on a specific date and in a specific place—nothing can be more artificial than that. How could it ever claim to be natural to its member states? Such considerations should, however, be quickly put aside: in the case of housing, despite the fact that the field of architecture is constantly expanding, houses are still considered natural to humans. As has been established, it is the idea behind them (houses for humans, like nests for birds) to which attention should be paid. Is there a need, then, for an individualisation mechanism for states, as there was for humans, who needed states in order to augment their information processing as soon as they gained self-consciousness? Again, intuitively, the reply would have to be negative: if it is natural to them, why did it take so long for such a mechanism to emerge? And, furthermore, being the result of need and opportunity, for totally unrelated reasons (to avoid war, instead of state individualisation)? It is, however, exactly in this pivot that an answer can be found as to why (following the arrival of a more recent need and opportunity) this mechanism emerged (or rather, is developing into an ‘ever closer union’): because of the advent of the digital world. As has been seen, in the digital world states can no longer afford to operate as information processing silos. They can no longer rely on bilateral relationships where each party first has to convince the other of its existence on each occasion. Mere interoperability is no longer enough. Informational archipelagos are the way forward, specifically because the digital (state) territory transcends analogue-world borders and humans have become users (see §17.00.11 and §17.00.12). From this point of view, archipelagos are natural to states because, similar to humans who needed to become individuals to augment their information processing, archipelagos are sorely needed.

Navigate: ← §19.00.16.00 · Corpus · §19.00.18.00 →