I worry that I can't discount the possibility that some heretofore latent feature of human thinking is incompatible (in a physiological sense, not just a psychological sense) with being perpetually plugged into the internet.
The answer you're looking for is Dunbar's Number [1] and it's been an issue since the agricultural revolution. Humans simply struggle to cooperate with, care about, and even understand people outside of a small group. Human societies have developed governments and legal codes in response. It's not a perfect system, though, and the Internet has begun to reveal the cracks in the mortar.
Prior to the Internet, groups of people tended to segregate themselves geographically. This allowed independent cultures, governments, and legal systems to develop. The Internet has broken down those barriers and revealed the contradiction to all of us.
The answer you're looking for is Dunbar's Number [1] and it's been an issue since the agricultural revolution. Humans simply struggle to cooperate with, care about, and even understand people outside of a small group. Human societies have developed governments and legal codes in response. It's not a perfect system, though, and the Internet has begun to reveal the cracks in the mortar.
Prior to the Internet, groups of people tended to segregate themselves geographically. This allowed independent cultures, governments, and legal systems to develop. The Internet has broken down those barriers and revealed the contradiction to all of us.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number