According to Lewis Mumford, as well as numerous other proponents of decentralized industry like Pyotr Kropotkin and Ralph Borsodi, the main reason for large-scale factory production was originally to economize on horsepower. In the steam age, all the machines in a factory were connected by belts to the drive shaft from a single prime mover…. Continue reading
The cost of hierarchy in Korea: a story
This is a story told in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers book, summarized by Rod Beckstrom, himself the author of The Starfish and the Spider. It appeared in his newsletter. Rod Beckstrom: How Korean Air Spiders turned into Starfish in the Cockpit “Gladwell is a wonderful researcher and writer and this is his best book to date…. Continue reading
Swedish Pirate Party wins two seats
This is a momentous development: after the recent elections for the European Parliament, the Swedish Pirate Party will have 2 seats. With 99.9% of the districts counted the Pirates have 7.1 percent of the votes. According to TorrentFreak: “The turnout at the elections is 43 percent, a little higher than the at the 2004 elections…. Continue reading
Book of the Week: Thomas Greco on the End of Money
Thomas Greco, who came to visit us twice in Thailand, has written his fourth book, the culmination of a life of research dedicated to the nature of money, and how we can achieve a fairer exchange system. Book: Thomas Greco. The End of Money and the Future of Civilization. Chelsea Green, 2009 We conducted an… Continue reading
Is post-capitalism a fantasy?
This is an excerpt from a dialogue on our p2p-research mailing list, in which Ryan Lanham has challenged our faith in post-capitalist developments. The b-quotes are from Ryan Lanham, the plain responses from Kevin Carson. Ryan: After some consideration, I’ve decided that the post-capitalism talk is largely Utopian fantasy. Kevin: Well, a lot of it… Continue reading
A future crypto credit money from the imaginative past
On March 1, 1995, Neal Stephenson, the famous science fiction writes of Snowcrash and the Diamond Age, wrote a short fiction piece for Time, which described a future “crypto-credit” system. I asked Kevin Carson to comment on that story, THE GREAT SIMOLEON CAPER: “Just for starters, I really liked the tone; it gave me the… Continue reading
P2P, spiritual narcissism, and post “new age” spirituality
“What we think of as “spirituality” today is not at all a departure from the narcissistic culture of consumption, but its truest expression. Consumer materialism and spirituality coevolved as ongoing reactions against the seemingly repressive institutions of both state and church.” I’m a big fan of Douglas Rushkoff, author of the above quote, which comes… Continue reading
Why the slow uptake of Internet currencies?
I asked our friend Sepp Hasslberger the following question: why the strong growth in local currencies, yet the almost total absence of internet-based currencies? His response: “I think I have a good idea of why internet based currencies are much slower to take off than local ones. As long as you’re local, there is a… Continue reading
Do innovation networks trump research centers?
The heart of MIT is its intellectual rather than physical infrastructure: a research culture that creates room for new ideas by emphasizing their evaluation through rapid reduction to practice, and by mixing short-term applications (both serious and silly) with long-term research. It’s much harder, however, to make room for new people by squeezing them into… Continue reading
TIMN, Tribes and Tom Haskins’ modelling
David Ronfeldt has offered a rather lengthy reply to the attempts at the modelling of governance and problem-solving processes by Tom Haskins, which we covered here. Here is the text that David originally added in the comments field: “I’ve looked at this and related posts in the ongoing series by Tom Haskins at his blog…. Continue reading
Going beyond Wilber’s enclosure of the Integral Commons
Citation from Daniel Gustav Anderson: By “after Wilber” I mean that the sun has set on Wilber’s project in a number of ways, at least as a practical and intellectual project. It may carry on as a religious institution, which is beyond my concern for it. The “Wyatt Earp” episode should have made this obvious… Continue reading
Participatory vigilantism: the experience with community policing in Venezuela
George Gabriel has a great investigative piece in Open Democracy. Read the full article with links here. “While the Republic fails in the most basic of state functions, guaranteeing the lives of its citizens, its leader has been attacked because only after securing the ability to run for office again in February’s referendum did Chávez… Continue reading
Should a P2P devotee take money for a contribution to the commons?
A proposal for debate, by Ryan Lanham: Let’s imagine a commons was somehow endowed…like a university. Could it be appropriate for the commons to pay for open contributions or is the very idea of “open” simply outside the concept of getting some dosh for day’s drollery? I say take the buck, and perhaps even spend… Continue reading
Lawrence Lessig on creating transparency in politics
This is a really remarkable and must-see presentation in which Lawrence Lessig explains the need for transparency in politics, and why he launched the “Change Congress” project.
Genocide by denial of open access medicine
Peter Mugyenyi: “Laws that deny or delay access to life-saving and emergency drugs should be urgently addressed on the humanitarian principle of lives above profits, but without hurting the businesses. Innovation in the crucial area of human survival should not be entirely dependent on money-making and big business, but should primarily aim at the alleviation… Continue reading
Towards purpose-driven business organizations
Good summary of Umair Haque’s important ideas and proposals for a business reformation: