The Dual-Edge Future of Techno-Authoritarianism vs. Self-sufficient Micro-Polities

[Lucas88]

I recently read DeepMind co-founder and Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman's excellent book The Coming Wave. It takes a very balanced and sober look at cutting-edge developments in AI, robotics and biotech and makes predictions about the likely future evolution of these convergent technologies in the next few decades, exploring both potentially positive and negative outcomes.



In one particularly salient section, Suleyman predicts the emergence of a dual-edge scenario wherein the same technologies may paradoxically drive two contrary trends:

• Hyper-centralized, AI-powered authoritarianism at the level of nation-states

• Hyper-decentralized, technologically self-sufficient micro-polities

Basically, many nation-states will likely become increasingly more authoritarian in response to the challenges they are currently facing and today's state-of-the-art AI technologies will allow them to tremendously increase surveillance, create ever more sophisticated propaganda through control of algorithms, censor dissident voices, and establish social credit systems which become conditional for access to essential goods and services. Curiously, far-right politics are on the rise in Europe and America, which may ultimately result in the formation of hyper-centralized techno-fascist regimes.

On the other side of the coin, the establishment of small-scale, self-sufficient micro-polities will be easier than ever thanks to the same technologies. Dissidents, exiles and innovators will be able to form their own breakaway communities in remote and scarcely populated regions, harnessing the power of AI-driven farming and manufacturing techniques to create a localized and largely automated production base while using encrypted mesh networks, decentralized cloud computing and blockchain technology for communication and economic transactions.

Here is an overview from ChatGPT about how emergent technologies might be used to form self-sufficient breakaway communities:

### **Likely Technologies and Uses**

**Production & Autonomy**

* **AI-assisted design & manufacturing** — small-scale fabrication (CNC mills, AI-driven 3D printers, advanced additive manufacturing) for everything from tools to microelectronics.

* **Synthetic biology & AI-guided bioengineering** — localized food production, bioplastics, and medicine from minimal inputs.

* **Autonomous robotics** — drones, self-driving vehicles, and farm robots to reduce labor needs.


**Energy Independence**

* **Advanced solar, micro-wind, and next-gen batteries** — small-scale, grid-independent power.

* **Modular nuclear microreactors** (further in the future) for long-term, stable off-grid energy.


**Communication & Coordination**

* **Encrypted mesh networks** — peer-to-peer internet alternatives that bypass state-controlled infrastructure.

* **Decentralized cloud computing** — distributed AI services running on small, private compute clusters.

* **Blockchain governance systems** — transparent, trust-minimized decision-making and resource allocation.


**Defense & Security**

* **Cheap, autonomous drones** — for perimeter defense and monitoring without large armies.

* **AI-assisted cybersecurity** — defense against state cyberattacks.

* **Stealth manufacturing** — decentralized fabrication of defensive tools without central factories.

Essentially, as AI and related technologies advance, we will be able to do much more with less, and this will make self-sufficiency and autonomy possible for all kinds of dissident and separatist groups, micro-nations, cults, intentional ethnicities, etc.

I've also read much of the corpus of the visionary Iranian-American philosopher Jason Reza Jorjani and, in particular, his insightful book Promethean Pirate.



Jorjani is the self-proclaimed leader of the transhumanist Prometheist Movement and advocates for a small community of forward-thinking and independently minded Promethean individuals to flee to international waters in the face of the rising tide of fascism and then form our own self-sufficient high-tech communities, first on seasteads and then in full-scale underwater cities. Once habitable cities are established, then Prometheists can pursue further developments in AGI and ASI, bioengineering and even psychotronic technology, eventually ushering in the Technological Singularity and transforming ourselves into a godlike transhuman race.

Jorjani's Prometheist Movement is something that I've come to embrace in recent months as my interest in AI and bioengineering has increased and my identification with transhumanism has grown stronger, although even as far back as a decade ago I already had a soft spot for human enhancement and an attraction to the archetype of Prometheus and intuited many of the same ideas espoused by Jorjani albeit in a more basic form.

I know that many people, including some people here, are opposed to AI and transhumanist ideas because they think they form part of the "NWO agenda", and some have even accused me of "supporting the NWO" (Lol! ), but this way of thinking is completely myopic and misses the mark. In reality, AI, biotech and all related emergent technologies are merely tools in an ongoing arms race and those of us who want freedom and independence from the "globalist system" must make use of these same tools in order to escape the system and form our own independent and self-sufficient communities.

If Suleyman's and Jorjani's predictions are correct, the political and social landscape of the mid-century will be completely transformed, with a few highly fascistic techno-authoritarian nation-states and many splintered breakaway micro-polities paradoxically co-existing. Some people here have voiced their intentions to leave the West in order to escape current political developments. Fleeing to a self-sufficient micro-polity might be the next stage of HA!