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No.

First of all, just because someone spends 18 hours a day on a computer does not mean they're a "native netizen." That's not a real thing.

Secondly, you're still in [State/Country of residence] when you're online. Just because someone is checking Twitter in a bathroom in Minnesota does not mean they're no longer subject to laws and regulations in Minnesota.




Yes, that is the traditional view of jurisdiction, and the one that legacy territorial institutions prefer.

But it could someday soon seem very quaint and wrongheaded.

The Catholic Church used to claim universal jurisdiction, and some religions still see their laws as perpetually applying to all born to their faith. To the contrary of such claims, richer communities have moved to primarily territorial, largely secular, slightly voluntary (through the ability to choose your residence) sovereign jurisdictional authorities.

This evolution could continue to reach primarily membership/networked, mostly-voluntary, often-overlapping and situationally-contingent sovereign jurisdictional authorities. These might fall back to territorial governance only when the issues involved (property lines, effluents, etc) are themselves territorial.

Educating yourself via the network could be seen as something in a totally non-territorial realm, and thus of no proper interest to territorial authorities. That would leave networked-sovereignty citizens as free to ignore the dictates of overreaching territorial authorities as many today feel free to ignore the Pope or Sharia Law.


First of all, just because someone spends 18 hours a day on a computer does not mean they're a "native netizen." That's not a real thing.

"Native netizen" is a real thing because I said it is. An existence proof only requires the existence of a single instance.

Secondly, it's not about the amount of time spent using a computer (18 hours a day?!), but a state of mind. The corner of my mind responsible for identifying locations perceives "online" as a distinct physical location. If you asked me where I'm from, I could say City A, but if you asked me where I grew up, I would say "the Internet." Answering anything else would feel like lying.

The location of one's body is independent of the perceived location of one's mind. When it comes to the Internet, the second is more important.




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