The essential elements of a Rome-like ecosystem are willingness to innovate, the ecosystem exerting a pulling force on the surroundings drawing resources inexorably towards it due to ideas built structurally into the empire, and the aforementioned myopia and self-obsession stemming from pride. Power and innovation.<p>I think that programming can be further subdivided into web development and everything else, and then Rails as a platform compared to other frameworks.<p>Rome had its own evolution, and so each individual Rome is also in a different part of its evolution. When Rome fell, it did so not because of any real weakness on the part of the Romans, but because they&#x27;d succeeded in exporting what made them powerful to the surrounding lands. Rome couldn&#x27;t maintain dominance faced with its provinces each wanting self-rule.<p>So I consider Rails in the last throes of empire. Its legions will still fuck you up, but it can&#x27;t fight the whole world anymore. Still the best web dev framework out there, every other framework ends up reimplementing Rails, but it can&#x27;t be all things to all people anymore.