I just finished listening to The Coming Civil War with @WhatifAltHist and I have a few points tying his idea of the collapse of the current left leaning regime and a rise of a fractured right, and how people can brace and build upon whatever occurs, preparing for either a "peaceful" takeover or a full on war, because when there is a full war, the truth dies first, followed by those that carry it.
In this interview, Rudyard is asked many questions regarding the state of the world today and what is coming next, with him describing a collapse in the managerial, corpostate class, and a needed rise of individuality. While this is a very good interpretation of near term events, especially with his statement of "have a month of food", it is still very much focused in a survivalist mindset, and not looking towards what comes after. If nothing is ready to take its place, the fastest, short term cheapest, yet most inhumane method will be installed first (for backup, see historical precidence of hostile government takeovers, restructuring after wars, etc where the regime changes to match the conquerers but for the average person, nothing really changes save for the flag).
I am proposing the possibility of a system that can be developed today, that can easily slip in to become the new system on its own volition given time and proper structuring. For those familiar with the open source/open hardware/open software movements, this will sound very familiar, an expands upon my OpenWorld idea I had before, but this time more concrete.
OpenWorld is my name for the idea of the fact that as machines and AI start taking over the regular jobs, the main thing that will be left is the ability to generate ideas, as currently, no technology is capable of inventing something new on its own, it needs a person to make it. This forms the need to share, track and save ideas and have them 'live' in an evolutionary sense. Rather than locking them in patents and have them stagnate for 20 years, the goal is to share them as far and wide as possible, and allow iteration for rapid improvement. This goes not only for technology, but everything. For the right wing, this is the pure free market, and for the left, a complete dissociation of corporations and nation states.
While this sounds impossible, this has already occurred and is in use for many open source projects such as Linux, FFMPEG (any streaming service) and many programming languages such as Python. While technically these are 'owned' in the modern sense, they really cannot be sold, as it is a community supporting this ecosystem to thrive. If someone tries to buy Linux, nothing is preventing someone else from forking it and "making their own, with blackjack and hookers". Thus it is impossible to silo, and it improves, rather than the current method of lock, extract, dump of just about all other forms of labour and ideas. Lock it in one spot, extract as much value out of it as possible, dump it when it no longer has value.
Here is a bit of a thought experiment. Imagine a world that has lost access to easy energy, and now has to rely on local production of it, be it solar, wind, geothermal, hydro electric, etc. While there is still power, tasks that were once done solely by people can be offloaded to machines, designed to free people in the most efficient way possible. A tractor, designed to be fixed, repaired, and used for decades. Simple electronics that, while not as powerful as a modern computer, can be connected to each other to form sensors, networks, and other forms of communication. The core of the internet survives, not as a way to order and mail stuff, but as it was originally intended: to share, store and sort ideas amongst those who can benefit from its information.
Fully unlocking this capability results in everything being a grassroots idea. Megacorp or Nation State fails to compete as everything turns into a distributed system, unbound from the land they are on.
This is the backbone of a solarpunk world, one driven by innovation, sharing, and making, rather than extraction and clambering to be on top of the termite mound.
Practicals
To some, this sounds amazing, to others, this sounds like an idea, but impractical to implement. To them, I respond, it exists already, it just needs to be expanded to more zones today. For example, developing tools, resources and stacks of information that can be replicated and shared is a start. The main idea is to distribute the concepts far and wide to enable grassroot startups in multiple locations, and then have them with a similar mind to interface with each other rather than fight them. Unlike other resources, ideas are technically infinite, thus leading to donation from plenty, rather than fighting over limited resources. Building, making, creating becomes the highest goal in this society, to be a Little Creator.
Now, the goal is to not have everyone work on preserving the same thing, while being distributed. So, find something important to you, and find ways to explore it so you can become the expert. Collect it so it is understandable not just by you, but others, even without you there, and then finally share it. Be it a website, a book, taping signs to poles, strapping it to birds, etc. The idea is to back it up in as many places as possible so others can use it. Get creative, write it into a novel, paint it, make it so it lasts and has value to last. The churches saved many texts going through the dark ages, what we are about to experience is another one. Save it, store it, and share it. And if possible, try and keep your connection alive as long as possible.
Comments
Log in to add a comment.