> Running a government requires a lot of cash flow. I think its sort of inevitable that it's going to need to start coming mostly from the later and not the former.
Why presume that "running a government" is inevitable at all? How much longer do we think these states of old are going to putter on for?
Governments are inevitable. Even when you look at so-called "lawless places" or "failed states", you'll find governments: de-facto governments run by warlords and criminals.
Nature abhors a vacuum and that principle extends to power vacuums.
Sure; I don't mean to suggest undoing basic physics.
But there are plenty of ways (and plenty more each day) in which human and AI collaboration can fill power vacuums that don't require pseudo-sovereignty over huge landmasses or monopolies on the legitimate initiation of violence.
Why presume that "running a government" is inevitable at all? How much longer do we think these states of old are going to putter on for?