Excerpted from Elliot Sperber: “Notwithstanding this culture of work’s ideological claims to the contrary, jobs are less preconditions for freedom than impediments to freedom’s concrete realization. Beyond consuming most of workers’ waking hours (consuming that which constitutes the precondition for freedom – time), jobs also wreck people’s health, vitiating freedom in the sense of bodily… Continue reading
Date archives "January 2014"
Arguments for Demurrage-Based Post-Growth Currencies
Erik Curren, explaining the proposals of Charles Eisenstein on Demurrage: “Our economy cannot function without growth because most money is not printed by governments, as people usually imagine, but is instead loaned into existence by central banks and commercial lenders, who can loan out ten dollars or more for every dollar they’re required to have… Continue reading
Selected Citations on P2P Economics
For the sources, look here: The crisis we are now living through is essentially a value crisis, where . . . exchange value no longer adequately reflects use value, or, to put it in less cryptic terms, there is a general sensation that a lot of the real values that circulate in our economy cannot… Continue reading
Why No One Will Buy Tourism in the Future
Excerpted from a presentation by Neal Gorenflo: (keynote at the Buy Tourism Online conference in Florence, Italy about the sharing economy and travel) “The gist of the talk is that the rise of net culture, with it’s emphasis on collaboration, peer relationships, and social good, is changing the habits of the next generation of travellers…. Continue reading
Arundhati Roy on democracy and resistance in India
Moving rebuttal about how resistance is related to democracy and love of one’s country:
On the importance of recognizing Critical Junctures
Critical junctures are periods when institutions are amenable to change in a way that they are not amenable most of the time Excerpted from KMO: “I think that it is important to distinguish between historical epochs or epochal changes (cfr. Epochalism) and what Robert McChesney, the author of Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the… Continue reading
The Most Important P2P-related Projects and Trends of 2013
Here is my proposed selection of what mattered most last year. Please visit all the links here. Please note ‘most important’ does not mean ‘the best’ nor an endorsement. It simply means that the experiences and initiatives are significant from a p2p point of view. What did I forget ? Do let me know of… Continue reading
Towards an Alternative Form of Politics Beyond the Left
These are no longer momentous days for the left, as I strongly believe that an alternative would transcend much of leftist narrative as we know it. Excerpted from R.C. Smith: “These are no longer momentous days for the left, as I strongly believe that an alternative would transcend much of leftist narrative as we know… Continue reading
On Bitcoin, Magical Thinking, and Hyper-Capitalist Political Ideology
1. ” Bitcoin has become synonymous with everything wrong with Silicon Valley: a marriage of dubious technology and questionable economics wrapped up in a crypto-libertarian political agenda that smacks of nerds-do-it-better paternalism. With its influx of finance mercenaries, the Bitcoin community is a grim illustration of greed running roughshod over meaningful progress. Far from a… Continue reading
Re-applying the Bitcoin Protocol (not the currency!) to intangibles instead of tangibles
Excerpted from Dan Robles: “The first line of Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper reads as follows: “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.” The goal is achieved quite simply by removing three frictions to the exchange of… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Air Quality Egg
= A community-led air quality sensing network that gives people a way to participate in the conversation about air quality. URL = http://airqualityegg.com/ Description “The Air Quality Egg is a sensor system designed to allow anyone to collect very high resolution readings of NO2 and CO concentrations outside of their home. These two gases are… Continue reading
The Power of the Commons-based Crowdfunding: Goteo 2013 in Review
Goteo is a crowdfunding platform for the commons. Founded in Spain in 2011 with an explicit mission to promote and support p2p values of openess, collaboration and sharing, Goteo’s innovation in crowdfunding has seen them go from strength to strength. Their 2013 year end report is an inspiring testament to the power of the crowd…. Continue reading
Removing the Time Value of Money
A proposal excerpted from Kevin Cox: “The idea that money tokens have a time value is deeply embedded in economic thinking and analysis. It has arisen because most money tokens are created with interest immediately payable. It is an idea that should be abandoned. When new money tokens are created the tokens should be interest… Continue reading
Project of the Day: The Tabby Open Source Car that can be made in one hour
Excerpted from Derek Markham: “What if there was a DIY vehicle platform that was not only affordable, but also street-legal, open source, and versatile, with the option for an electric drivetrain or an integrated hybrid engine? That might change the game entirely, at least for those of us who like tinkering and aren’t afraid to… Continue reading
Peak Oil as an Epochalist Illusion
Excerpted from KMO: (for context, see our entry on Epochalism) “Peak oil theory, as you probably know, starts with the obvious observation that oil is a finite resource. The process which produces oil takes place over geological time scales and so once we have used up what?s in the ground now, it is effectively gone…. Continue reading
The emergence of local crowdsourced politicians in Australia
Excerpted from Brenton Caffin: “A glimpse of an alternative approach may have arrived courtesy of the 2013 Australian Federal Election. Tired of being taken for granted by the local MP, locals in the traditionally safe conservative seat of Indi embarked on a structured process of community ‘kitchen table’ conversations to articulate an independent account of… Continue reading