When the people came to the prophet Shmuel and begged him for a king, he thought they were crazy. “A King you want? But he’ll ruin your lives,” he told them, and insisted that the system of Judges that the people lived under for centuries was better suited for their lives. The judges gave them freedom. Unlike a king, who ruled them all, Judges would only arise when external threat created a need. The rest of the time the people would live in their tribes, each to their own, handling their internal affairs and going about their daily lives. No taxation for projects far from their own, and beyond the upkeep of the tribe of Levi who did not have land of their own but instead served as priests among the People, they kept what they grew and the flocks they tended. But we want a king, like all the other nations, they demanded. And Shmuel, unable to hold back their interest any longer, gave in. A king they wanted, a king they’d have.

In the course of human history, our societies change in accordance with the opportunity horizon afforded to them. Mainly, our purpose is to protect those close to us, and provide for them as much as possible the creature comforts in life. As the range of possibilities for such comforts increases, our trade routes expand. As our trade routes expand, we need to secure the merchants who bring us our comforts from across the world. And as our need to secure our trade grows, so too grows the reach of our government. As Robert Wright shows in Nonzero, societies and their governments are limited by the communication and commerce technologies afforded to them. Genghis Khan, whose empire stretched half way across the world, developed the passport in order to provide some sense of coordination between his provinces, developed a rapid communication system consisting of men ready on fast horses, and appointed family members who ruled rather autonomously because passing orders across the empire was a month by month affair. The Inca Empire stretched almost as long, and set up a series of base stations and roads across it so runners could pass messages one to the other in a country-wide relay race as power was extended. In the fifteenth century, as ships came unto their own, the local kingdoms of Europe became vast empires, projecting strength as far as they could transport troops and commands to those troops.

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