The Desktop Regulatory State
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The Desktop Regulatory State The Desktop Regulatory State The Countervailing Power of Individuals and Networks Kevin A. Carson Center for a Stateless Society CENTER FOR A STATELESS SOCIETY Copyright © Kevin A. Carson 2016 The Desktop Regulatory State: The Countervailing Power of Individuals and Networks is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License. Woody Guthrie Public License May be reproduced without limit, with attribution. “Anyone found copying and distributing this book without permission will be considered a mighty good friend of ours, because we don’t give a durn.” The cover image is David Slays Goliath (1866), by Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré. Published by the Center for a Stateless Society and printed on demand by CreateSpace ISBN 978-1523275595 Carson, Kevin A. The Desktop Regulatory State: The Countervailing Power of Individuals and Networks Includes bibliographic references and index 1. Information technology—social aspects. 2. Political participation—technological innovations. 3. Social media—political aspects. 4. Anarchism. I. Title Contents Contents ........................................................................................................ v Preface .......................................................................................................... ix 1. The Stigmergic Revolution ............................................................................ 1 I. Reduced Capital Outlays .......................................................................................... 1 II. Distributed Infrastructure and Ephemeralization ........................................................ 6 III. Distributed Infrastructure and Scalability ................................................................... 8 IV. Network Organization ............................................................................................. 9 V. Stigmergy ............................................................................................................... 13 2. Networks vs. Hierarchies .............................................................................. 21 I. The Systematic Stupidity of Hierarchies .................................................................. 21 II. Hierarchies vs. Networks ........................................................................................ 28 III. Networks vs. Hierarchies ........................................................................................ 37 IV. Systems Disruption ................................................................................................. 51 3. Networks vs. Hierarchies: The EndGame ...................................................... 63 I. The Transition from Hierarchies to Networks ........................................................ 63 II. The Question of Repression ................................................................................... 79 III. The Question of Collapse ....................................................................................... 91 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 94 4. The Desktop Revolution in Regulation ....................................................... 95 I. The Regulatory State: Myth and Reality ................................................................ 95 II. Individual Superempowerment ............................................................................. 102 III. The “Long Tail” in Regulation ............................................................................ 107 IV. Networked Resistance as an Example of Distributed Infrastructure ....................... 108 V. Informational Warfare (or Open Mouth Sabotage) ................................................. 110 VI. A Narrowcast Model of Open Mouth Sabotage ..................................................... 116 VII. Attempts to Suppress or Counter Open Mouth Sabotage ....................................... 117 VIII. Who Regulates the Regulators? ............................................................................ 125 IX. Networked, Distributed Successors to the State: Saint-Simon, Proudhon and “the Administration of Things” ......................................................................... 127 X. Monitory Democracy ........................................................................................... 129 XI. “Open Everything” ............................................................................................... 131 XI. Panarchy ................................................................................................................ 132 XII. Collective Contract ............................................................................................... 133 XIII. Heather Marsh’s “Proposal for Governance” .......................................................... 135 XIV. Michel Bauwens’s Partner State .............................................................................136 5. Basic Infrastructures: Networked Economies and Platform .......................... 141 I. Bruce Sterling: Islands in the Net ............................................................................ 142 II. Phyles: Neal Stephenson ....................................................................................... 143 III. Phyles: Las Indias and David de Ugarte ................................................................. 143 IV. Bruce Sterling: The Caryatids .................................................................................. 154 V. Daniel Suarez ........................................................................................................154 VI. John Robb: Economies as a Social Software Service .............................................. 155 VII. Filé Aesir ............................................................................................................... 159 VIII. Venture Communes .............................................................................................. 159 vi the desktop regulatory state IX. Medieval Guilds as Predecessors of the Phyle ......................................................... 161 X. Transition Towns and Global Villages ................................................................... 161 XI. Hub Culture ......................................................................................................... 163 XII. Networked Labor Organizations and Guilds as Examples of Phyles ........................ 164 XIII. Virtual States as Phyles: Hamas, Etc. ...................................................................... 168 XIV. Eugene Holland: Nomad Citizenship ....................................................................168 XV. Producism/Producia .............................................................................................. 170 XVI. Emergent Cities ..................................................................................................... 171 XVII. The Incubator Function ........................................................................................ 171 XVIII. Mix & Match ........................................................................................................ 174 6. Basic Infrastructures: Money ....................................................................... 177 I. What Money’s For and What It Isn’t ..................................................................... 177 II. The Adoption of Networked Money Systems ........................................................ 181 III. Examples of Networked Money Systems. .............................................................. 184 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 196 7. Basic Infrastructures: Education and Credentialing ...................................... 197 Introduction: Whom Do Present-Day Schools Really Serve? ................................. 197 I. Alternative Models ............................................................................................... 203 II. Potential Building Blocks for an Open Alternative ................................................. 210 III. Open Course Materials .......................................................................................... 212 IV. Open Textbooks. .................................................................................................. 215 V. Open Learning Platforms ....................................................................................... 216 VI. Credentialing ......................................................................................................... 217 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 219 8. The Assurance Commons ........................................................................... 221 I. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 221 II. Legibility: Vertical and Horizontal ........................................................................ 222 III. Networked Certification, Reputational and Verification Mechanisms. ................... 230 IV. Commons-Based Governance and Vernacular Law ............................................... 240 9. The Open Source Labor Board ................................................................... 243 I. Historic Models