Conjecture

Power structures outlive and then override the problems they were built to solve, and this is the governance chapter's foundation. Part I's account: power structures agglomerate because societies that build them can solve larger problems than natural social organisation allows, but once formed they tend to accrete further power and eventually to override the environmental problems they originally formed to address with the personal goals of those in power. Diamond's cases are the evidence: a proclivity to ignore long-term environmental problems in favour of short-term prestige and power destroyed the Easter Island, Classical Mayan and Anasazi societies. The institution built to handle a risk becomes a risk, which is why correction capacity rather than good design is the thing worth building.

Coordination architecture