[quote=@Normie] Yeah that's why monarchs came up with the idea of the divine right of kings, because they already had a clear social contract that everyone in the kingdom was allowed to look at and given a chance to opt out of before they took the throne. I don't remember being given that opportunity before being born into the modern US, much less some medieval fiefdom. [/quote] Well it was mostly to make sure they had power to challenge the church, referring to the 'divine' rights of Kings. [quote]It's not even about alternate Earths, but what historical records can reveal to us. As far as I know, writing as we know it didn't form until around the 4th millennium BCE, while the Neolithic Revolution started around 10,000 BCE. This means that we only have access to distinct texts for only about 50% of human civilization's existence, and the amount of recoverable texts exponentially declines as we go as far back as possible. With such long and wide gaps, anarchist societies flourishing across much of the world during the first half of human civilization's history is well within the realm of possibility. And yeah, I get having a distaste for not being able to exit your local social contract on a whim. However, if humanity properly colonizes the Earth's oceans and Sol system in the near future, the ability to opt out and do your own thing away from everyone else may very well become reasonable for countless people.[/quote] 6'000 BC is when the first writing occurred from what I know, but that's a small matter. And I am not entirely sure what the discussion here is, but I think you are talking about anarchy vs government, and whether or not a true anarchy is possible? I think we've already seen what happens when people migrate into the unknown, such as the Viking expeditions in the 10th century to Iceland and North America. They didn't exactly become an anarchist state. Humans are social animals and require some sort of order. Even the leader of a tribe having absolute power, or a pure athenian style democracy, is a government. Pure anarchy isn't really possible from what I know. [quote] Plus the Internet makes the hermit lifestyle much more viable[/quote] Truly, this is the age of introverts. Feels good :)