German philosopher Oswald Spengler introduced the idea of civilization or nation as a vegetable. The nation rises, flourishes, and then dies. Those three stages would inevitably go to the front of all nations. Spengler reasoned his idea about that advance in the fate of old high cultures.
The thing that destroyed many empires was the thing that we can call a dominating lion's problem. When there were no outside enemies the society turned against each other. The internal conflicts made those civilizations weaker, and then outside enemies could win them. But Spengler introduced one of the most interesting models of the nation's advance.
That thing was the world cities. Spengler made his work from 1900-1936 when he died. His breakthrough was "The Decline of the West" in 1918. Spengler was impressed by the great cities like London, Paris, and Berlin, which were very international cities in time before the Nazis. Those world cities formed an idea that before collapse the cities become more important than the state where they are. People will turn apathetic and then little "Caesars" rise to pursue absolute power.
That thing formed an idea about the metropolis, a city that is stronger than the state is from those ideas. The question about the Spengler's city that rises above the nation is "How big the city can be"? The metropolis is the model of a city that is larger than any nation. The city is highly advanced and highly controlled by AI. Everything in that city is well-ordered. The city is majestic and powerful, but it waits for the faith that faces Athens, Carthage, Rome, Angor Watt, and many other wonderful cities. People will turn lousy. They don't care about the common good, and only money means something. And that thing makes that city face its fate.
The internet can collect all cities in the world together. That thing can create the village of the world. That is the place where everybody knows each other like people in the little villages. Every person's privacy is broken and people can see what other people make.
But when we think about the future and possible megapolises the cities that are bigger than any nation, we must realize that it's possible that someday in the future we can make the world state. That thing is not possible yet, but maybe someday we create a world and civilization that travels to stars. There we just face the same problem that the hypothetical metropolis and its predictors faced. The scale of the problem is larger. When people have nothing to do, they will turn greedy. And then the civilization faces the civil disorders and civil wars.
If we want to survive we must learn how to challenge ourselves. The thing is that if we just sit and let machines think for us and make all works we forget that we should be careful. Even if we would someday make the real peace and destroy our weapons we will face many other threats. Cosmic threats like asteroid impacts can destroy our civilization. That happens if nobody is greedy.
We always think of things like attackers that destroy cities and entire states. We forget that natural catastrophes like tsunamis and volcanic eruptions can be destructive. Overpopulation, epidemics, and things like asteroid impacts can be dangerous. The Minoan culture was destroyed because of the tsunami. We are often afraid of things like massive asteroids. But cosmic sandstorms the sand bites that fall into the atmosphere can be even more destructive than large meteorites. If that sand bites rain to Earth years that thing can raise the atmosphere's temperature.
The asteroid must not be so big, that it causes large-scale destruction. The asteroid sand or cosmic sand clouds can also be dangerous. The cosmic sandstorm can raise the temperature of the atmosphere. And that thing can be even more devastating than the asteroid that killed dinosaurs. The cosmic sand cloud can raise the temperature on the Earth so high that the lithosphere melts. That will not happen in hours or even days. But if cosmic sandstorm continues for years that can be very dangerous.
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