Why Taiwan

Or how modern civilization put all its eggs in one basket

and why that basket cannot be occupied

There is a question that inevitably appears whenever the discussion about Taiwan escapes technical circles and reaches a wider audience: why so much attention, tension, and strategic anxiety over a relatively small island with no spectacular natural resources?

The uncomfortable answer is that not all dependencies are equal. Some can be substituted, even painfully. Others cannot.

Taiwan does not provide a resource.
Taiwan provides continuity.

And continuity is the rarest and most fragile resource of the modern world.

Why not “somewhere else”?

Raw materials can be moved. Supply chains can be reconfigured. Suppliers can be replaced.

Processes cannot.

You cannot quickly relocate an industrial ecosystem that has grown uninterrupted over four decades. You cannot compress the time required to form people who do not merely execute procedures, but understand them instinctively.

If a functional Taiwan disappears, the world enters a state of technological stagnation. Not explosively. Not apocalyptically. But slowly, quietly, and deeply.

How Taiwan became the “hen with silicon eggs”

Not through conspiracy.
Not through a secret global plan.
Not through a single moment of collective genius.

But through the most rational sequence of decisions possible, taken consistently over decades.

The global industry chose one exceptional ecosystem instead of several mediocre ones. Taiwan offered political stability, an educated workforce, obsessive execution, and—most importantly—an absence of historical interruption.

This is not a glamorous quality.
It is a rare one.

What Taiwan actually does

Saying that Taiwan “produces chips” misses the point. Taiwan produces the fragile alignment of technologies, people, and processes that must function simultaneously, every day, at the limits of physics.

An advanced chip is not the result of inspiration. It is the product of hundreds of steps executed correctly, in the same order, with the same care, every single time.

This industry is about error control, not perfection.

Why these technologies cannot be “taken”

Documentation can be transferred. Machines can be seized. Formal knowledge can be copied.

What cannot be transferred is tacit knowledge: unwritten judgment, instinct, rhythm, and confidence.

A machine behaves the same under occupation.
A human does not.

Why classical force destroys exactly what it seeks to seize

Bombardment destroys infrastructure. Blockade induces chronic stress. Occupation kills initiative and judgment.

Classical force can seize territory.
It cannot preserve normality.

What technological stagnation actually looks like

There is no dramatic collapse. There is only gradual downgrade.

Innovation slows. Repairs become harder. Temporary solutions become permanent.

Civilization does not collapse.
It downgrades.

Epilogue: fragility, judgment, and the illusion of control

Taiwan is not an anomaly. It is proof.

Modern civilization no longer fails because it is weak. It fails because it is cornered inside its own optimizations.

You can occupy land.
You can occupy factories.
You can occupy infrastructure.

You cannot occupy normality.
And you cannot command judgment once it has been optimized out of the system.

Optimized systems do not fail loudly.
They fail politely, while everyone follows instructions.