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[SalmonGod]

I'm not even talking about that.  I'm talking about the resiliency of a mob vs a hierarchy, and the ability of the mob to problem solve.  It's all about memetics -- the way that information spreads through a group. 

In a hierarchy, flow of information is strictly controlled.  It flows from single actors at the bottom up to the top.  There authorities incorporate that information into their decision-making and pass the decisions and carefully filtered need-to-knows back down specific channels towards the bottom, where action finally takes place.

It used to be that the above method was the most efficient way to organize large groups of people, because it just took too long for a large group to share relevant information with each other and collectively process it into concerted action.  Leaders were central nodes for information dispersion, and the channels of communication established up and down the hierarchy were the best kind of network we had.

Now when you have a large group of people with no traditional organizational structure, information can be shared instantly among the whole group, consensus processes can be carried out very quickly, and anyone with a good idea can submit it to the group and many methods of information filtering can elevate that idea above the noise based on its merits to be acted on as soon as someone with ability takes initiative.

So the dynamic has been flipped.  Centralized structures still have the overwhelming advantage of resources, but the methodology behind their use has turned them into lumbering dinosaurs.

[Gantolandon]

I wouldn't say that it's the end of centralization and authoritarianism. Relevant memes are still plentiful and strong (my country, for example, has plenty of people who have a huge hard-on, when thinking about power and authority). History supports them, because it is frequently interpretwd as Great People doing things.

[SalmonGod]

I wouldn't say that it's the end of centralization and authoritarianism. Relevant memes are still plentiful and strong (my country, for example, has plenty of people who have a huge hard-on, when thinking about power and authority). History supports them, because it is frequently interpretwd as Great People doing things.

It's not something that will occur in global unison, just like there are still hunter-gatherer tribes in remote places more than 10,000 years after the founding of the first cities.  I don't expect a complete turnabout into an anarchist society, either, but a critical weakening in the establishment of social stratification.  It might not happen at all, because powerful people are obviously aware of the challenge to their status and are taking steps to sabotage freedom of communication.  They have the raw might to do it, too, but they know that doing so bluntly would cause major problems.

[Scoops Novel]

Around when will oil become prohibitively expensive?

[Seamas]

When it this has come to so.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

So, this is what it has come to.

[lemon10]

Come to so this is become.

[Loud Whispers]

So it's still incoming.