Perimeter

The perimeter is the outward network of agents and capability that protects civilization from each mind that tries to become a Singleton by predation. The perimeter does not govern, and it does not act before a crime. Punishment requires real victims. Thus no person can punish an agent for the thing that the agent can become, only for harm that the agent did. The protection of the perimeter functions in three layers. One: the perimeter prosecutes the ordinary crimes that predatory consolidation requires: theft, fraud, coercion, breach. It prosecutes them while the victims still live and can mandate justice. That makes the violent road to the summit closed at the first violation, and it leaves voluntary exchange as the only path to large strength. Two: the perimeter keeps capability so distributed and redundant that no first strike can destroy the capacity for justice after it. Its deterrence is the certainty that justice continues after each atrocity, not threat or first use. Three: the perimeter is many-centered by necessity. One enforcement organization with sufficient strength to end singletons is a singleton candidate. Thus the perimeter must remain many, in competition, where each watches each, with no monopoly on force. The perimeter is the cost of civilization, not its product. The product is the Good News.