The piece of Westphalia allowed for a live-and-let-live philosophy between nation states and religion, while also leading to the development of certain technologies that became essential but costly to rebuild from scratch, such as USB cables.
Richard Rangum's book, How Cooking Made Us Human, argues that technology is a part of humanity because we outsource our metabolism to cooking and could have evolved differently. Therefore, technology is not an anti-human element, but a part of it.
The collapse of institutions could lead to the need for people to become more sovereign, but the idea of re-founding everything seems daunting.
This episode draws parallels between the Reformation era and the rise of decentralized technologies in modern times. It examines the potential for conflicts over new structures of power, and even the emergence of 'network states' in the future.
Learn about the concept of Bitcoin Reformation and how it pertains to Martin Luther's legacy. Also, discover an insightful podcast episode about Martin Luther's deconstructing arguments against the Catholic Church.
In this podcast, Francis Fukuyama explained that after 30 years of war, the Piece of Westphalia was established, which gave nation-states the monopoly of violence within their respective geographies. Fukuyama also commented on the observation that people are wired to struggle and how this has been shown through history.