The level of AI panic and late stage capitalism angst seems to approaching the unavoidable tipping point. It seems that the only two options are our mutual destruction, or a post-scarcity “utopia”, although it remains a conundrum how one might arrive there.
I present to you my framework for a consent based decentralized society designed for robustness in uncertain times, and the possible pathways to arrive there. I’ll tell you ahead of time, it’s not simple, and there are many interlocking pieces, but I have no doubt it is possible.
Digital independence
Currently the collective digital footprint is wreaking havoc on the world. The currents of manipulation are deep and rich, guiding people to spend unnecessarily, become radicalized, depersonalized and disconnected from the physical reality of their lives.
Anyone online except the most savvy are being targeted by antagonistic algorithms, and we must rebel. We have the hardware, and only lack the system. I propose a tool- a framework- allowing one to easily scrape one’s digital history and host it locally. This could open the door to creating personalized algorithms, tuned to bolstering an individuals mental health and connecting them more richly and deeply to their community.
The framework- A Self-hosted Crypto-Social Dao lite
Creating an alternative to the current digital organizational systems is a big task, possibly never-ending, that I can only see it as necessary and inevitable.
DRM is dead- Long live DRM
The current media distribution frameworks are held up by nothing but a unidirectional trust contract and a lack of easily useable tools. It would not be incredibly challenging to scrape all the media from your streaming services, and simply have them locally, shifting to peer to peer with your actual peers. Nothing stops you from sharing files with friends, and as llms improve and reduce the code space to a malleable mush, it will be easy.
As we integrate more with our technology there is a case for legal protection of your digital memory. We are well into the process of integration, and the advent of the second brain, the digital doppleganger, will push this process to it’s head.
Of course there will always be a next step, people will always have things they want to share only with specific people. For sensitive data there will be trust networks and unique digital watermarking. When a piece of media is delivered to someone an advanced unique watermark can be applied, so if that media is ever released, the user can be identified and either have their trust score lowered or have a smart contract automatically trigger to levy a fine.
This of course will start a never-ending battle of more advanced watermarks, and de-watermarkers, but this is already something we deal with in counterfeiting and cybersecurity, so it’s nothing new.
Decentralized Collaboration
Creating systems so that strangers can come together and collaborate on projects while trusting they will be rewarded for their work is a key step into the new internet. By instituting smart contracts with agreed upon terms, and leveraging systems for credit assignment, we could enter a new age of art and progress.
Currently the internet is a free for all, with an army of reposters and remixers making money off of the work of others, with no link, connection or recognition of the source. A smart system could track the origins of data, and if someone else want’s to monetize or remix or repost, great! There will be a integrated flow of credit, and therefore profits, automatically directed to the source according to the terms under which the data was released.
This same idea could be applied to the ai generation systems that are scraping the worlds data and flagrantly using it- why not charge a small fee, split up to the original creators of the data?
An internet for people.
The current internet is overrun by bots, scammers, and misinformation. Inspired by tools like bright id, and the vast stores of public data, users can be verified and onboarded through a trust network. Since there is a focus on self hosted, authentication with any sensitive data can be performed on your local machine or within your trust network. Bad actors will be punished by the network, with open bounties on malfeasance built in.
The Centralized part
Just like your body is an organization of interdependent cells, connected to and cooperating through a central nervous system, so must an effective digital organization must have a central structure where expertise is gathered for proper development. The difference in this system is one of openness and ultimate goal.
Opening up the pathways to all who have the inclination and capability to do productive work. Every job path is recruiting, and creating their own rules and systems for advancement.
What is the purpose of this organization? What brings us together? Pushing away from the unsustainable corporate doctrine of infinite growth, focusing in on instead the good of all, the quality of life on the planet earth. This too is part of infinite conversation that we are all a part of, but making it key to our system will bring us closer to answering this question- “what is good?“.
Built into the system is a consent engine- providing tools pathways and maps to help people join together and cooperate, and experiment with how they do it.
It’s about blowing the door wide open in terms of metrics, and making a transparent system so that we can actually get things done instead of being stuck in the oligarchic loop of manufactured consent.