How come there are so few actual city-states? Singapore, Monaco, Vatican… that’s it I think. UAE if you relax definition a bit. And the Vatican doesn’t really count. And Monaco is just a wealthy tax shelter, not a real thing.
So really just Singapore.
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I don’t think they’re a stable concept except in very weird geographies. Cities need too many resources and are too attractive to hinterlands to leave alone.
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I think we like city states for the same reason we like toys. Especially adult ones like complex model railroads. It’s like full-scale sim city.
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Dammit. We’re stuck with these hulking big region size states
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Also there are zero “hinterland states” with no cities. Those are even less stable. Only chocolate chip cookie topologies work.
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If your near future sci-go has city states it’s actually fantasy
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How can we 100x the number of city states? Which good cities are most suitable for forking into states?
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I think the single biggest problem is water. If you invent really cheap desal, tons of coastal cities would be viable as states
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I’ll bet $100 that idea will be dead in the water within a decade. Unworkable reactionary vanity project.
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