🌄 Decentralized Society

Technology and the internet is this crazy new thing, completely changing the world.

As years, decades, centuries pass, it's unclear how the world will change in response. In terms of the Internet, I see governments and centralized powers trying to control it, censoring access to ideas and information. Using tech companies to push ideologies through algorithmic media. And so on.

In terms of "protection technology", holy fuck did we take it so far. The bow and arrow was once technology. Fast forward a few millenia, WWII ended with a bomb so powerful it sounds like a story straight out of the Old Testament. Ending lives of thousands of innocent people, some faster than they could blink. Governments are Kings on the chess board, fighting their epic battle with us as their pawns.

I don't think we need to let this happen. What do we really need governments for? For consistent and reliable food, water, shelter, medicine. Most importantly, a world of order we could count on. A world where $10 is $10, and if you don't play nice, an omnipotent force will lock you up in jail, so play nice.

This made sense in a world of scarcity. A world where the only way to have the term "food abundance" enter conversation, was to have a government tell everyone what to do. It was worth it, sacrifice a bit of freedom, retain a reasonable amount, but live in a world where you always have food and a place to sleep. Good deal.

But in 2023, is this still the case? Technological development and simple hard work by an individual serving a tribe might be able to fill these gaps. I'm not really sure if that's the case, maybe it is. But I think the dy/dx of the individual's power is positive because of technology, so we should get there eventually.

This is a non-exhaustive list, but I think if we come up with a satisfactory and exhaustive list of the following technology which empowers the individual, there's not much stopping us taking our family and community, and just retreating to the woods and providing for ourselves.

  • Food/Water

    Do you think we evolved to get Avocados from Target? No, we ate animals and picked berries. There's nothing stopping us from doing that today. Yeah, it takes work to go out there and get it, but if someone pulled out a megaphone and blasted "here's an opportunity to spend your life in the woods hunting animals to support your family and chug beers in your free time". Sounds good to me. Not to mention: less cruel factory farming. I won't even address water, I think you should be able to answer that.

  • Shelter

    We can still build houses with logs, clay, etc. It's a lot of work, but people on YouTube are doing it for fun, posting it online, and enthralling millions of viewers. There's something inside of us that wants to do it. To spend our lives in a shelter built by our hands. To watch our children sleep safely in a home impenetrable to a grizzly bear.

  • Order

    This is a near-impossible one to answer. If humans moved to exist as 50 person tribes distributed in various parts of the world, would those tribes play nice? Could go both ways, will we be satisfied with a simple free life, or hunger to take over more tribes and expand power? The Mongols showed one way this can go. But they had horses, swords, and skills that their subordinates did not. But wait a second, we have this thing called Bitcoin. 1BTC is always 1BTC, no human trust is necessary. The most important resource is money, that's why the gun usually comes out in the first place. Would we play nicer if "I HAVE BIGGER STICK" becomes irrelevant? Is this even possible? My gut says yes. Your gut may say no. Either way, thought provoking, yes?

  • Technology/Knowledge (Medicine, Internet, Factories)

    A large reason we exist in this sophisticated society is our ability to create knowledge, create technology, and use it to improve our lives. Something like an iPhone gives us so much power, especially when combined with cryptography and democratic access to the internet (cough cough, Starlink). We can share knowledge P2P globally. Take a computer for example. Advanced technology so far has taken a powerful entity to coordinate expensive resources, building a CPU is incredibly difficult. Originally, only the USA was able to make it happen, creating the Intel 4004 in 1971. But how about now? It isn't unreasonable to say that Taiwan could produce several hundred million chips a year. It's trending in that direction, because the value of these devices are obviously worth investing in. I think a serious inflection point in our history will be when a small community anywhere will be able to create a CPU. That's kind of the MVP of a modern society. When a small community can create a CPU, other things like 3D printers, farming roombas, and other exciting things that make having an omnipotent government less crucial.

  • And so on...

Anyway, I'm not calling for the disruption of the world order. That would be a crazy person thing to do. That would involve putting lots of innocent families in danger.

I'm just saying that we're nearing an inflection point where you could just take your family, take your friends, go to a mountain with a clear stream, hunt and forage for food. That, and still remain connected to the glory of the internet, with solar power, a computer, and Starlink.

If the USA calls your name on a draft, and you just don't show up, could they find you? Without a registered address, phone number, or digital signature? What if everyone just did that, everywhere?

What if the word got out that you could do this, and people began peacefully just retreating to this way of life? An affluent American probably wouldn't, but what about a Venezuelan father who can't trust the government to provide food or stable currency?

Again, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Being a decentralized society comes with many other dangers. But with technological development making our world look like a Sci-Fi movie, it's increasingly becoming an option.

Would it be so bad? Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn't. Worth thinking about.