This is Part 13 of a 15 part Series on how I think life will look like in 100 year assuming Global Warming is in effect.  Some Parts refer back to earlier Posts in this Series.

Social norms and values will be very different 100 years into the future as today’s values are very different from those 100 years earlier but even more so because technology advances at exponential rates.  So what will be the role of government 100 years from now?  The primary purpose of most well-developed governments today is to protect the welfare of its interests as well as national security.  In a society 100 years from now where everyone’s needs are taken care of by technology are everyone’s rights also taken care of?  It largely depends upon what are everyone rights and how important those rights are to them.  As everyone’s privacy is gradually eroding today due largely to technology, in the distant future where all information is shared in a cloud-like database there will be little privacy.

In addition to everyone being treated as equally as technology is capable of at the time and as technology hopefully serves at the pleasure of its master, man, there will be little that needs to be protected in terms of privacy or rights.  For some today this is hard to imagine but imagine being in a time machine and going back 100 years or more and seeing the way people lived and the values they cherished compared to today.  It the future the contrast will be far greater.

So like many things such as money, government may have limited value.  There might be an oversight committee that is elected by citizens to oversee technology and update new relevant rules for each city but otherwise technology will be largely ruled-base developed over the decades.  Technology would have simplified life so much for people that formal governments needed to make and enforce laws will resemble that closer to the tribal day of small manageable communities millenniums ago or may become totally obsolete.

Another aspect of government is that in 100 years there may no longer be national borders due to global unity.  You can see an example of economic union between European nations with a single currency today.  The UN is a poor example of global unity.  In the distant future where communications will be extremely convenient and instantaneous including languages and where all our needs are provided for by technology with money having no value (see Part 8 – Jobs and Economics) nations and national boundaries will not be needed.  Scarce resources and Climate Change will require global cooperation for survival.  So there may be some kind of global government though I don’t know exactly what it will do.  This is another concept some today may grapple with with.  I feel that government will go the way currency did.

Government today maintain order and infrastructure through the collection of taxes and spending it upon such things in addition to protecting the rights of individuals.  In the future in a moneyless society technology will keep people content and maintain infrastructure.  So the roles and powers of government will be obsolete.

List of the Parts of this series “100 Years from Now“:

1. Considerations
2. Technology
3. Energy
4. Water
5. Food
6. Mobility
7. Housing
8. Jobs and Economics
9. Socializing
10. Shopping
11. Recreation & Entertainment
12. Population Control
13. Government
14. Education
15. Crime and Security