foundations of democracy
an idea I’d like to explore further: a critical level of democracy in even formally non-democratic societies is complex execution chains for critical tasks that involve lots of people. if war requires raising an army, the people composing the army have to be convinced the war is worthy. there is some inherent democracy to a chain of command where people could, under extraordinary circumstances, refuse orders. a world with more autonomous weapons means the power to take extreme actions, to cause major damage, can be more concentrated into individuals. this also feels true for labor and corporate power.