It that centralization, so feared by so many, that may never happen. Like horse poop filling streets. A hyper connected world may make centralization happen in some cases and a widening of new markets or things that participate as well. The ever expanding pie we can't forsee, but our mammal brains assure us a slice won't be there for us.
The irony, of course, is that the past 40 years of "Laissez-faire, every-man-for-himself, I've got mine, F-you" combined with the current hyper connectedness is leading to a zeitgeist in which people believe that no one needs anyone. The past four years have taught us we no longer even need to pretend to.
Lads, I'm not necessarily disagreeing with the big arc picture you're positing, but I think, in the near/mid future, during the, uh, "transition years", you're going to see precisely the opposite of "centralization". You're going to see continued fracturing of community. Fracturing of common cause, Fracturing of intellectual honesty. It's
all ME now. It's
all narcissism now. It's
all vainglory and invidious distinction now.
America will fail as the protector of and sustaining force for individual freedom precisely because its people have become too damned selfish, self-absorbed and narcissistic. "The American Century" of commercial and political marketing taught Americans that freedom is the opposite of responsibility. The truth, of course, is you can't have one without the other.
The insurrectionist Twats and FacePalmBookers are already migrating to
decentralized, encrypted messaging. And yes, that
is a challenge to stability. That is a challenge to law and to order. That is a challenge to democracy. That challenge will likely end in a charlie fox in which those folks honor themselves and take selfies as our democracy - and they, themselves - bleed out.
Small towns don't work because the gossiping neighbors know to much. Big cities don't work because no one even knows their neighbors.
So the question I have for you is, What is the "Baby Bear" condition? What's the "just right" state?