> * When a government couldn't be trusted by the general population in the past, you got revolution.*
To get a revolution the government would have to start to starve people. I don't think there was any period in history of organized nation-states when people trusted those in power.
> Only a very lazy and apolitical society would say that technology is the only recourse.
Technology is a force multiplier. Moreover, technology shapes the environment we live in. We can all see that groups of people behave like water. They do what they have always done (i.e. move down the potential gradient). You can try and do politics all you want, but this tend to be as pointless as arguing with water to start flowing upstream. What you can do is to change the potential gradient, and let the people achieve your goals by doing what they were always doing.
That's why I think technological solutions are important, and probably we should focus mainly on them.
>To get a revolution the government would have to start to starve people.
That's like the naive marxist notion that it's all about the economy. People have revolted without being starved and people have starved without revolting. Culture, patriotism, hummiliation, religion, and tons of other factors come into play.
>Technology is a force multiplier.
Yes, and if the government is allowed to have 10 times the force of regular citizens, then the government ends with 10multipler power using technology, where the people with just 1multiplier. That's why technology is not a solution.
>Moreover, technology shapes the environment we live in. We can all see that groups of people behave like water. They do what they have always done
The last 3000 years of history show great shifts of power, strikes, revolts, changes in government and culture etc. And the 2400 of them (e.g 1600 AD and before) are not even related with any great changes in technology.
Of course if people are convinced that they "behave like water", they will behave like water.
But that's not what history shows they did (and do).
