Abstract

ABSTRACT Parallel processing systems can carry out computational tasks which would be impossible to be carried out by sequential systems. Cognitive psychologists are discovering that brains do not operate on a sequential ordering of tasks, but along parallel processing models. Sequential ordering is abandoned in the new generation computers, which are being designed on evolving parallel processing models. My proposal consists in applying the parallel processing principles to the state, creating a ‘parallel governing’model for the decision‐making procedures at the political level, in place of the present sequentially ordered procedures. I describe the main principles of current parallel processing models, and use them towards the creation of a parallel governing system. The most fundamental principle is the ‘De‐Centralisation Principle’, which requires that there be no centralised unit with special rights to information, or to policy‐, and decision‐making authority. In parallel governing, political and moral principles are built into the structure of the system, which consists of units of specialised interests and powers, with specialised channels of communication between them. I close by delineating the main differences between parallel governing and Nozick's utopia and Hayek's neo‐libertarianism.