I often think about the role of decentralization in society and what effect it will have on our future lives (see The Decentralization Mega-Trend). Something occurred to me recently, which made me slightly shift my ideas on the subject. It may seem obvious to many of you, but is decentralization fundamentally about removing the barrier of location? and what are the implications of that?

Here are a few examples:

- The Internet allows us to share information and knowledge with potentially anyone on the planet. Before the internet, you had to rely on physical access to books, and before that you’d need to be in the same location as a teacher or mentor.

- Cryptocurrencies allow trade and value exchange with anyone in the world, without asking anyones permission. Prior to that, you’d need to use your local currency and payment providers (which may have restrictions). This opens the ENTIRE world to a new, truly global economy.

- The history books are often different from location to location, depending on what lens the writers are seeing the events through. With blockchain ledgers, we now have a way to keep a 100% provable and verifiable record of history without the need of this location based bias. Anyone can contribute and anyone can verify. Think about that!

- 3D printers may transform manufacturing, global logistics and retail. If you have the potential to make any product yourself, what is the point of a physical store? What will happen to logistics (ie moving stuff from one location to another) when the majority of their business is not needed?

- Virtual reality will allow us to transcend borders, by creating new realities that we can instantly inhabit. Think about something like workplaces and commuting. If you can create a virtual office that your whole workforce can inhabit and interact in, what’s the point of buying or renting property? What will that also mean for the transport industry when a massive chunk of their previous customers no longer need them?

DEEPER IMPLICATIONS

The curious thing is all these ideas seem to be at odds with the physical reality we live in today, especially when it comes to governments. The internet is infinite and border-less, while governments are entirely about location, borders, passports and boundaries. It will be interesting to see where this goes, and whether what we consider as human civilization will develop along with these new technologies.

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BY CHRIS ROBINSON