One of the unsettling unanswered questions of history is the likelihood of the entire world being conquered by an authoritarian regime, or dominated by a collection of them like in the book 1984.
To you, how likely would it be? Or what paths do you think might lead to that sort of scenario?
Obviously, there are degrees to this sort of thing. Let's consider, first, the scenario of the world being conquered or dominated by only one evil power.
Let's say that North Korea would be close to a 10 on the evil list, with a 1 being a sort of "benign" domination.
Do you think a POD much farther back than 1900 would be needed? Far enough, in other words, that human culture itself would need to be changed? Or do you think it would have been possible by now, if things had changed?
I honestly don't know what the answer is. I wanted to hear your thoughts on it.
My guess is that technically it would be possible with a POD after 1900, but any such regime would be extremely short-lived. The real fear is that people would figure out how to make it long-lived, but I just don't see that happening. I have a lot of faith in human decency and intelligence.