One of my sparring partners is Kevin Carson of Mutualist.org. We do not agree on everything, I guess I’m still a social-democrat at heart, but I always find his thinking to be open and clear, and we find ourselves in our mutual preference for peer to peer dynamics, including on the level of economic transactions…. Continue reading
Date archives "January 2009"
Sustainability = complexity without growth
From an essay by Ran Prieur, on “How to Save Civilization“. In this intro, he argues that stability can be achieved only if we keep complexity, but abandon growth. Ran Prieur: “To save civilization, we must redefine it with a sharp knife. I’m going to separate it into two things, which have historically gone together… Continue reading
Nuclear energy and the issue of centralisation
What concerns me most about nuclear (all reactor types) is that they are exceedingly centralized and maintain and spawn intensification of hierarchy. I think this the most significant problem because, ultimately, we need to overcome our addiction to perpetual growth if we ever want to be truly sustainable. My theory is that, at its core,… Continue reading
Real and unreal transparency in politics and government
The Internet is specifically like reality television. Much has been made of the “transparency” of Change.gov — but it actually is to real transparency what reality TV is to reality. A Republican consultant for online strategy, Patrick Ruffini, offers a critique of the Obama approach to open government being promoted via Change.org. First, he makes… Continue reading
Solar-powered network computing: Solar ISP in a box
Via Springwise: “Unreliable electricity and spotty internet access are a fact of life in many parts of the developing world—and part of the reason the digital divide still persists today. A new, solar-powered innovation from Florida-based GNUveau Networks, however, is bringing computers and the internet to places that have no connectivity, no phone service and… Continue reading
Transitioning from a fire economy to a water economy
Ran Prieur nicely explains the logic behind a demurrage-based currency alternative. Ran Prieur: “It’s hard to explain demurrage currency, because it works by creating an economic system fundamentally different from the one we’re used to. I’m going to call these two systems fire economies and water economies. (Coincidentally, there is already an acronym FIRE for… Continue reading
DIYNGO: renewable energy powered information communications technologies to the people who really need them
A status report on this important initiative by founder Tim Barker: See also here for more details. “The mission of DIYNGO is to take renewable energy powered information communications technologies to the people who really need them. This mostly includes people in Developing Countries but will also include any area of economic deprivation. Currently we… Continue reading
Scottish P2P Interview
The December 2008 /January 2009 issue of the progressive Scottish magazine “Red Pepper” is dedicated to the opportunities and challenges of Obama’s victory, but also contains a special section with interviews on ‘alternatives to neoliberalism’. Next to Leo Panitch, Robin Blackburn, Martin Ryle, Kate Soper, I’m also interviewed on the P2P Alternative. The issue’s articles… Continue reading
Al confini del welfare: La produzione P2P e la nuova economia politica
For once, an italian title. Cosma Orsi informs us that a new book of interviews, on what comes next after the welfare state and the neoliberal meltdown, “AI CONFINI DEL WELFARE”, has just been published by the Manifesto publishing house in Italy and is reportedly already in the bookshops. I’m glad the p2p ideas are… Continue reading
Distributed tactics in the Greek Riots
This is from an extensive interview with a politically literate participant in the recent Greek riots. The gist of the interview is that the basis of the quick and generalized action was the inter-relationship of pre-existing anarchist organising, a at least 30-year old tradition of 20,000 (semi-) organized sympathisers, and the spontaneous self-organisation of previously… Continue reading
Usership, Ownership, Scarcity
“Technocracy is a proposal for a steady-state, post-scarcity economic system. It is intended for industrialized nations with sufficient natural, technological, and human resources to produce an economic abundance.” Technocracy is a US movement born in the previous Depression of the 1930’s, and seems to undergo a mini-revival, with a European network being launched. One of… Continue reading