The rise of the Internet Nation

We hear all about the idea of transferring our consciousness into a machine after we die in Sci-Fi and Cyberpunk stories on a regular basis. About how we can “live forever” by letting our meat body die and allow our minds to become one with the digital frontier. It’s an interesting idea but it lead me down a different path of thought than the one espoused. It led me to think about the idea of a digital state. Of a country that doesn’t exist anywhere else BUT on the internet. The rise of the “Internet Nation”

Back in 2001 there was Sealand, it was coined the World's 1st Internet Nation and the UK government was trying to shut it down. This was a physical location about 6 miles off the coast that had been built in the 1940’s as a defence station during World War 2. And while it’s certainly an interesting concept and piece of history, it’s not what I’ve been contemplating. I’ve been wondering how long it will be before somewhere in the internet, somewhere among the multitude of servers and routers and switches, that someone announces they have created a sovereign principality, a digital state, an Internet Nation.

The possibilities are endless. Gamers, specifically MMO gamers already spend a great deal of time in a digital reality, be it Azeroth, or Tyria, or any other of the realms created for them by the companies who run these games. Even things like Second Life would fall into this category, and may be a more accurate representation of it as well. For the sake of this exercise, I’ve decided to call my internet nation Landover (and yes, this is a reference to Terry Brooks’ magical kingdom). So I declare the independence of my state from the rest of the world and set about marketing it to others, giving them reasons as to why they should emigrate.

First off, no income tax. Matter of fact, no tax of any kind. I don’t need to do capital works, I have no roads to fix, or train lines to build, so no need to tax people. Of course, there would be an annual fee of say, $100 per person to become a citizen of Landover. Why? Because initially, the server space for the country would need to be paid for and housed somewhere. And that’s the first stumbling block. If Landover resided on servers in say, the USA, then it would be subject to all the laws of that country. And that pretty much defeats the point of it really. So where else to house it? Maybe somewhere in europe that is more relaxed and conducive to this sort of thing, but you still have the same issues. Ok, how about on a boat in international waters? Or in a place like Sealand? That would work but you are still at the mercy of another government. Ideally, the solution would be to launch a satellite and have everything housed “up there”, away from prying eyes.

Let’s say that somehow we manage to find a place, we’ll need a currency. Thankfully, there is already one waiting for us, Bitcoin. Now while Bitcoin has been derided and copped a fair bit of flack, it’s an internet currency so it’s the perfect fit for our internet nation. And currently it’s trading at an all time high, so that makes it even more attractive. Ok, so that’s the currency sorted out. People can now emigrate to Landover, get paid in Bitcoins, not pay income tax. It’s a win-win. Isn’t it?

I have no doubt that one day something very much like this will occur. Exactly how it’s done will be thought through by better minds than mine. And while we may not actually live “in the internet” there are already plenty of people who call it home. This just solidifies it that one step further.