The Last Capitalist
The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air-conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them. The mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitive night.
Jean Baudrillard
“How did it happen mommy?”
Sadie thought a moment. Good question. Looking around the fire, she could see others were looking at her too, hoping she might tell. They all had ideas, and had heard stories, fragments stitched together from elsewhere, but never from her lips. She didn’t like to talk about it. Thirty years later however, she was getting older. So many of her friends were gone now and good stories still needed storytellers to tell them. She turned east, looking at the many fires, the many stories, and storytellers, and let the energy begin to take shape, feeling it move where it wanted to, like a fireball on her lips quivering as it anticipated its escape…
Chapter 1: Prelude to Liberation (Pre-contact)
In which, before contact, parties engage in activities leading to contact
“Before Cultu.re entered my life, I had left a violent home, and had been living on the streets of The City for months, where the battle for its soul was taking shape. After one action, a chance encounter led me to a collective of kindred spirits — we shared the disdain for hierarchy and all were keenly sensitive to the misuses of power around us and across this land. It was a diverse tapestry of anarchists — communists, primitivists, insurrectionists, illegalists, feminists, mutualists — all of us united by a common desire to dismantle and disrupt the institutions hoarding power, draining this world of life.”
Around her, she could see the faces of those listening to her captivated by this history, the fire’s flames dancing in between them as they settled in…
“We were rebels then, finding solace in abandoned buildings and overlooked tenancies. Many of us, myself included, took under-the-table odd jobs, refusing to pay the taxes fueling the war machine we vehemently opposed. My own path led me to a PDC — permaculture design certificate — where I helped steward some of the green projects on a piece of land prior to its development. We pooled resources and made ends meet, but as real estate developers continued to descend, snatching up properties and putting more and more people on the street. Then, an anonymous call to the police set in motion a series of events that shattered our tranquility. Raids, arrests, and the looming specter of a violent crackdown by an enraged police force prompted us to confront the harsh reality: this city, once a refuge, had turned more hostile than we had so far experienced. We were a threat to law and order, they said, and crushed us, raiding one of our locations. During the struggle, one cop fell down the stairs and broke his neck, and from there the brutality of city repression against us became extreme.
“Several days later, feeling the clutches of a city unresponsive to the needs of the marginalized, we gathered in the shadows of a local infoshop, now facing a pivotal decision. Most decided to leave the City, moving north to other locations not yet taken over to the degree this one had been taken over by special interests of the rich and powerful, seeking greener pastures, both figuratively and literally. At the same time, anonymous message boards and blogs became our clandestine meeting grounds, enabling us to continue coordinating activities without exposing ourselves. With bittersweet farewell, we scattered, armed with hope for a better future and the promise of regrouping sometime soon, though when and where we could not know…”
Chapter 2: A Garden of Possibilities (Contact)
In which initial contact is made between the individual and initial steward
“But I couldn’t leave. To me, the City was my home, a canvas for dreams of community, resistance, and peace. I met Jenny, a guardian of an urban oasis, who envisioned a haven for teach-ins, skill-shares, and bountiful harvests for both souls and stomachs. The land, a fleeting sanctuary, was graciously provided by Alex, a property owner with a vision for communal growth until the inevitable sale of the property. Drawn by a desire to contribute, I offered to help grow food for low-income community members and those around the land, until we had to leave and find somewhere else.
“My skills were quickly apparent and Jenny, realizing my potential, let me stay on a more permanent basis, helping increase the yield with the intention of teaching how to minimize costs of cultivating crops and minds. I used the opportunity to organize radical speakers and events on location to promote justice work, while offering space for other activists to use as a hub to connect and share ideas as well. We had a voice again and our teach-ins evolved into platforms for change.
“At one event, how schools could teach nutrition through school gardens and working with farmers to ensure access to seasonal, organic, unprocessed, local food — what we called S.O.U.L. food— a man named Nathaniel came up to me after, inspired, and approached me with an opportunity to consult with him on ecology and education. You’ve all heard the name Nat before I’m sure.”
Nods and murmurs from around the fire as familiar names floated like sparks before them landing in their midst. Sadie could scarcely remember the details, but let the images and emotions they conjured lead her to the words she shared with them now…
“Nat revealed his own grand vision. He and a number of teachers had incorporated “Communicating Perceptions,” an integrated learning program implemented through a network of education cities and intentional communities that would transition neighborhoods to eco-villages by teaching sustainability through holistic, accessible, and experiential classes. Their idea was to promote this sea shift through “green games,” an “Ecolympics” between and within nodes meant to spur innovation and competition to these ends.
“His vision inspired me, but I was still being targeted by law enforcement at that time. It was then Nat let me know about Cultu.re, a platform shrouded in anonymity, fortified by what he called a Reputation and Identity Software-assurance Kit, or RISK, and the Web of Trust community. These were terms I had never heard about until then and I was skeptical. Disaffected teachers and technologists from around the city had come together to develop it, and it had become a sanctuary, a digital haven powered by blockchain, bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and an array of tools to transfer and invest money anonymously. Intrigued, I considered the clandestine alliance, one that would redefine the way we could self-organize in ways it had so-far been impossible at that time…”
Chapter 3: Shadows of Concern (Triage)
In which the initial steward investigates and inquires to decide the most appropriate direction for the individual and negotiations occur
“I wanted to contribute to Nat’s initiative, but couldn’t risk a formal business arrangement that might put me back on the map and jeopardize my friends again. But the urban farm was temporary, and my credentials were limited. The communiques on message boards were becoming increasingly desperate, and Cultu.re seemed a way to protect my identity while fighting the systemic imbalances anchored in violence and injustice — a lack of access to land and bounty that kept us all poor. It was like a ticking clock of impermanence.
“I knew nothing of computers, but Nat’s project beckoned to me, promising change. He showed me how a distributed system relying on transactional reputation could establish pseudonymous identities for people wanting to keep real identities secret while pursuing actions. It sounded like exactly what we needed to support ourselves and community — a way to bring people together to build projects that improve our lives, decentralize power, while protecting the identities of those using the system. It was a place where faces could stay veiled, even while their impact would resonate far and wide. Through this system, he told me, we could forge alliances, build projects, and catalyze change without surrendering our identities to the watchful gaze of police and the status quo.”
Whispers around the fire as a current of electricity seemed to move through them as they anticipated what came next, the origins of their world.
“Finally, I made the choice to step into the shadows of Cultu.re. It wasn’t just a tool for me. It was the key to unlock a realm where autonomy and community could thrive, shielded from the oppressive glare of a system that clung to ecological injustice, genocide, and repression. I decided to take the risk, and extended the invitation to my friends, beckoning them into the folds of a decentralized revolution that promised not just change but the protection of what mattered most to us all…”
Chapter 4: A Discordant Symphony (Agreement/Direction)
In which, based on triage and negotiations, both parties agree on a particular course of action
“Some nights later, amidst the dusky embrace of veggies in an after-hours teach-in on Jenny’s farm, Nat spelled out the vision and objectives of his project, Communicating Perceptions, for what remained of the commune, sharing how Cultu.re could be used to these ends. The air was charged with anticipation. He explained the cryptography and consensus mechanisms to make it work, where radical education and decentralized autonomy would be married — a promise of a journey unfolding.
“Immediately, however, things fell apart, and the utopian melody Nat envisioned quickly devolved into a symphony of dissent. It was a male-centric economic structure they said, a veil to undermine the revolution. Why should we put our trust in hierarchical structures like non-profits with their boards that seemed antithetical to an essential spirit that had brought us together? People scoffed at consensus building, while others warned against the perils of escalating technological dependence deepening the addiction to unsustainable technologies and huge supply lines that maintain and necessitated extractive, exploitative, and ecocidal relationships. No one wanted to use computers they felt would make them vulnerable to surveillance, especially as we had learned the FBI had recently opened a case on those associated with the commune and had been asking around.
“Cultu.re became a focal point of disdain, and most rejected the proposal. Nat’s fragile vision teetered on the brink of collapse and dissolution as our alliance of anarchists, educators, and land-tenders nearly fell apart. When it looked like everyone would leave, I made a suggestion. I proposed to preserve our commune by liaisoning between Nat’s project and our enclave, interfacing with our commune and Nat’s Communicating Perceptions through Cultu.re, to become the point person and contact for a parallel subculture. It was a compromise, one that we agreed to reevaluate based on the outcomes that would ripple through parallel subcultures. Amidst discussions and the establishment of security protocols, a tentative consensus emerged. The commune dispersed, each member expecting to reconvene at Jenny’s farm in a week’s time for the next chapter of our alliance. I would set up the account and make necessary preparations. I wrote down the URL for Cultu.re’s decentralized source code repository and created a handle…”
“—what was your handle?” Someone called out around the fire. Sadie smiled, as did everyone. It was common knowledge, but part of the story everyone loved to hear.
“I created a handle — @BurntheFuckerDown…” — laughter and cheers around the fire — “…and, after checking in with Nat and learning his handle, @WisdomBuilder, we came up with a passphrase, a digital handshake to identify ourselves in any future online encounters.
“I didn’t know anything about computers then, and Nat, my digital sherpa, gave me a crash course in computer languages over the next days, tricks to navigate the virtual landscape, the art of fortifying and securing systems so as to avoid popping up on any radars. I had stepped into the shadows of an online realm and, equipped with the knowledge and tools to navigate the labyrinth of Cultu.re, took what felt like a digital oath that would echo loadly in the days to come…
Chapter 5- The Dance of Trust (Consent)
In which consent is asked and given for creating an identity record, which is then provisioned.
“Now, with my passcodes, I stood on the precipice, a crucial threshold within Cultu.re’s intricate dance of trust. The air was pregnant with the weight of choices and decisions resonating within the cryptic corridors of the platform. Was this a trap? Had I gotten myself into something that would turn on me — or worse, my friends?
Nat showed me how Cultu.re operated on a system of mutual, earned trust, founded on the commitment to respect rights of privacy, a commitment grounded in mutual agreement between all parties using the network. I trusted Nat, who showed me how to use the platform as a tool, to forge a digital identity that encapsulated the essence of our rebellion. My request to this unseen network was a tacit agreement, and after cryptographically signing a statement that contained my pseudonym…”
“@BurnTheFuckerDown!” they all shouted again, laughing.
“Burn the Fucker Down,” she agreed, smiling. After signing my statement and deleting the consent receipts and records of online activities, I was in, cloaked, able to begin the silent rebellion against a world that had confined our footsteps to approved destinations for far too long…
Chapter 6- Weaving the Digital Tapestry (Configure)
In which information is shared and associated with the individual and services are configured.
“Cultu.re, a beacon in the digital landscape, had transcended the limitations of the City, and became my canvas. Anonymity was both shield and weapon, and with a stroke of digital artistry, I crafted my unique Decentralized Identifier — my DID — on Cultu.re’s distributed network, binding the verifiable credential to my pseudonym and related DID to securely interface through Cultu.re without revealing my real-world identity. In that moment, another world was unlocked.
“Using the Cultu.re introduction system, I found @WisdomBuilder and contacted him using my new handle. We established a secure channel and confirmed each other’s identity using our memorized phrases. Now we both had each other’s cryptographically secure identifiers for ongoing correspondence. It was a bridge between the digital and tangible. @Burnthe FuckerDown became my cloak, which allowed me to traverse the virtual and City landscapes without exposing the vulnerable tendrils of my real-world identity. Our virtual dance between secure identifiers began to weave a tapestry of ongoing correspondence that reverberated through digital corridors and, eventually onto the streets across the world.
“Configured and aligned, the two of us stood poised on the threshold of a new world, a new chapter, the architecture of our clandestine alliance solidifying in the shadowy recesses of Cultu.re’s decentralized embrace…
As her eyes moved from face to face lit up by the fire, Sadie saw the faces of Jenny, Nat, and those from the commune she remembered from so many years and decades ago, looking back at her, smiling. It was hard to tell the story, knowing what came next. But it was something, she realized, that could not be avoided. Sadie looked upward, at where the dark smoke became night sky, and plunged into what had ceased to be her story, her dream, long ago, becoming the story of the universe and the dream of the earth, pulling the future into the present as the fireball danced on her lips, in their ear drums, their hearts and minds. It was a dance they all knew the steps to once silence allowed them to remember.
“Jung holds that opposites are united in the psyche through the intervention of a “third thing.” A conflict between opposites persona and shadow, for example can be regarded as an individuation crisis, an opportunity to grow through integration. Coming into conflict are collective values on the persona side, and shadow aspects of the ego that belong to the individual’s native instinctual makeup (Freud’s id) and also some that are derivative from the archetypes and the unconscious complexes. Since shadow content is not acceptable to the persona, the conflict may be fierce. Jung held that if the two poles are held in tension, a solution will appear if the ego can let go of both and create an inner vacuum in which the unconscious can offer a creative solution in the form of a new symbol.
This symbol will present an option for movement ahead that will include something of both-not simply a compromise, but an amalgamation that calls forth a new attitude on the part of the ego and a new kind of relation to the world. This process can be observed as people develop both in therapy and through life experience as they outgrow their former conflicts, assume new personas, and integrate formerly unacceptable parts of the self.”
Murray Stein, Jung’s Map of the Soul, pg. 123
…As her eyes moved from face to face lit up by the fire, Sadie saw the faces of Jenny, Nat, and those from the commune she remembered from so many years and decades ago, looking back at her, smiling. It was hard to tell the story, knowing what came next. But it was something, she realized, that could not be avoided. Sadie looked upward, at where the dark smoke became night sky, and plunged into what had ceased to be her story, her dream, long ago, becoming the story of the universe and the dream of the earth, pulling the future into the present as the fireball danced on her lips, in their ear drums, their hearts and minds. It was a dance they all knew the steps to once silence allowed them to remember.
Sadie began again…
Chapter 7- The Path to Tomorrow (Services)
In which services are provided
“Back in the day, I didn’t bother much about my digital reputation since I only wanted a minimal presence, but I created a verifiable credential as a permaculturalist to my identity…”
She paused, letting the audience catch on: “@BurnTheFuckerDown!” they all called back in unison.”
“…and sent @WisdomBuilder the credential,” she continued laughing, “ requested his counter-signature with a written endorsement, just in case any friends decided to get on Cultu.relater or Nat’s co-organizes needed it for some reason. He complied and posted a hash of the countersigned crendential and endorsement, giving me the ability to selectively give permission to anyone to verify the credential and endorsement, something he could revoke in the future should any of us become compromised. And once I was in Cultu.re with a suitable endorsement from Nat, that’s when the real work began!
“With Wisdombuilder’s public acknowledgement of me as a subject matter expert, I was introduced to the Communicating Perceptions (CP) network, and Nat shared background materials and project plans, online requirements, timelines, and acceptance criteria with me. After reviewing the materials, clarifying questions, and a draft statement of work — including an essential provision that stated anyone working with me on permanent subsistence zones could freely access the areas forever after — the Statement of Work was formalized into a contract using Cultu.re’s contract template, including pricing, technical milestones, evaluation criteria, and progress payments.”
Sadie looked down at the little girl who had asked her for the story, now fast asleep by the fire with a blanked over her. She wondered if she should tell all the details, but figured the adults in the audience would appreciate it, and besides, she only planned to tell the story once, and it might as well be told right. She could let the other storytellers around the fire embellish it and fit it to their liking in the many fires they would light in the next decades to come.
“Cultu.re’s cutting-edge support for cryptographic smart contracts enabled us to deposit the contract’s full value in bitcoin into a smart escrow account, so that after each technical milestone is achieve, we’d receive the agreed payments to my wallet, converting to cash if and when necessary and disperse it to the commune, while the smart contract independently logged my project delivery alongside @WisdomBuilder’s reviews and acceptance into the reputation system. We were…”
Sadie put her hand to her ear for the crowd
@BurntheFuckertotheGround!
The girl woke back up, her eyes opening as she looked around, trying to remember where she was for the moment, before snuggling back into the blanket to listen again.
Nat and I would work together over the next few months with CP and the Commune, to establish the first node in what would become the first nodal land community network, in which permanent subsistence zones lay the infrastructure for a sustainable Education City-Intentional Community (EC-IC) web.
The commune played a crucial role supporting the transitionary work, while Nat used the CP network and Cultu.re platform to cultivate a wider community in which each student and teacher were paid for the value they produced, goods, services, research, contributions, etc., everyone engaging with the wider community to learn techniques necessary for the “subcultu.re” to flourish. As CP’s EC-IC began to get international recognition, Nat suggested we expand the network to develop new nodes in major cities around the world with the assistance of other radical education activists and landtenders connected through Cultu.re’s RISK services, and as CP grew, so too did the communes. It was from these humble beginnings that a foundation for a future of sustainable community and global network sprouted and began to thrive.
Chapter 8. The Birth of a Parallel Universe: GAIA Emerging
In which enhancements are offered and accepted
“Having successfully delivered on @wisdombuilder’s project requests and transforming the learning landscape for CP students to engage in experiential projects designed to learn content and skill-based knowledge through projects they were now compensated for, the glowing reviews meant Nat and I had been invited on an ecological education consulting tour via a new contract, in which we would work with new partners to expand the EC-IC nodal land community network as the infrastructure for the breakaway wisdom economies and communes we were putting together. Still cautious and worried about vulnerabilities, I decided to talk it over with the commune before getting back to Nat.
“It was a tough sell. The commune suggested Nat’s CP 501c3 subcultu.re was a greenwashed capitalist facade meant to legitimize the commodification of labor and reinforce a class-based system that inevitably generated a technocratic bourgeoisie elite. We spent days, years really, in deep consideration of what an anarchist subculture would actually look like and, after discussing the theoretical basis and lived praxis of our own experience, decided to create our own subcultu.re on the wider Cultu.re platform we named the Green Association of International Anarchists (GAIA) as a joke.
“GAIA, we decided, would be an “anti-government,” a bioregional federation overlaid onto the Permanent Subsistence Zones that served as the natural infrastructure Nat’s EC-IC cultu.re depended upon, which we would all have perpetual access due to the provision our initial contract included. One of GAIA’s main cultural values would be that all members would be guaranteed access to the subcultu.re’s goods and services without dependence on crypto or traditional currencies at all.
“I went back and presented the idea to Nat, suggesting the two subcultu.res coexist and occupy the same space, upholding different values and economic models, while allowing members to move between them as needed. Nat loved the idea, and guided me through the intricacies of Cultu.re’s platform to establish our own breakaway subcultu.re, before we set up a second contract so the two of us could promote the expansion of the parallel CP subcultu.re elsewhere, and with it, the nodal land network. We updated our resumes and subcultu.re descriptions, sharing our values and objectives in the public Developer Directory.
“The land was living again, evolving, with two subcultures adapting to one another and the world, reshaping education, ecology, and community, the Cultu.re platform reshaping the culture. In that time, the innovation, collaboration, and commitments I witnessed within that shared digital realm and around the world where it came to light was enough to make anyone optimistic again.”
Chapter 9: Expanding Horizons (Updates)
In which anticipated changes in information lead to revised records
“In my role as the point person for GAIA subcultu.re on Cultu.re, I found myself entwined in both the anarchic embrace of the commune and the transformative initiatives with Nat’s CP/EC-IC subcultu.re. Having completed a succesful contract for CP, turning Node One into a flourishing permanent subsistence zone, multiple project contracts loomed, fueled by CP’s unwavering advocacy for the success of endeavors rooted in our skills and vision.
“By that time, Jenny informed me that Alex had requested the urban farm so many of us called home be disbanded so he might sell it to local developers in the next few months. While expected, the community had begun caretaking the area, growing food, with a number of temporary shelters popping up to house them at times. Together, our commune determined a course of action to move ourselves to the Permanent Subsistence Zone of Node 1, or others that had emerged elsewhere, and took the opportunity to launch the GAIA subcultu.re on Cultu.re, using the CP EC-IC network to promote what we began to call a 40-day teach-in, and which we declared would inaugurate a our 40-year teach in.[2]
“Players focused on three basic goals: 1) restore and maintain natural systems, 2) develop sustainable means for satisfying basic human needs, and 3) create and support a broad range of activities to align human systems with the wider life-place. They mapped the natural elements and creating the conditions for a biodiversity hotspot to emerge, promoting the best things people do while eliminating the worst things. Through a Bioregional Education Program to establish a Green City Resources data, we did our best to achieve urban sustainability through what became a global network of bioregions, GAIA’s “Planetariat,” engaged in the bioregional federation’s coordinative bioregional ecological democracy to include activities determined by bioregional gatherings, watershed councils, continent congresses, etc. The decentralized coordinating body grew a life-place politics and culture through a fractal energy distribution system, and we wrote and distributed variations on 198 methods of Bioregional Reinhabitation that could be implemented to modify and enhance the permanent subsistence zones.[3]
Acknowledging our technological naivety, we recognized the need for decentralized apps (dApps) to catalyze our vision. Several of us consulted Nat who leveraged the RISK reputation system to enlist Amira, a tech-savvy activist to facilitate the work, and the commune agreed to pool resources earned from CP to fund the creation of four dApps Sadie, on behalf of the commune, would retain rights to: “Global Insurgency,” M-City,” “Free Society,” and “GAIA.” Our commune used the apps to set up a massive game, what we called the Anarchist Ecolympics, between organizations to compete and collaborate to creatively transform oppressive systems into liberated ones through direct action; grow and distribute essential products and beneficial goods; establish nonmonetary gift-based political economies in which individuals could access basic goods and services for free; and a global accounting system for users to map projects around them and facilitate the effects of dApp activities. These dApps built upon the Universal Citizenship IDs, Universal Love Agreements, Universal Space Registrations, Dispute Resolutions, and Personal Culture Creation that had already been set up in other subcultu.res on Cultu.re’s platform. Membership in GAIA could be attained through Universal Love Agreement with someone already in it for instance, according with the GAIA subcultu.re’s stance on free love and polyamory.
“We realized the need for property to be easily donated or transferred to GAIA’s control, and set up our own 501c3, “Morning Star,” with the intention of using the GAIA subcultu.re on the Cultu.re platform to manage Morning Star’s “internal” activities. Nat, myself, and Sarah were on the board with the expectation they will follow her lead, and I was given the title “Bishop” to ensure our activities were protected religious speech, while maintaining tax-exempt status for any donations that might arise, including homes and abandoned buildings offered as homeless shelters or co-housing cooperatives and new communes. Us anarchists all thought it was hilarious.
“After Amira delivered the four dApps in question, Nat and I began promoting the 40-day teach-in through CP’s EC-IC culture, by which each of the 198 methods of Bioregional Reinhabitation had been implemented across Node 1 via the four dApps, establishing a breakaway permanent subsistence zone that was completely sustainable and autonomous, while offering refuge for individuals (refugees, undocumented workers, homeless, veterans, dropouts, etc.) in the real world wishing to maintain anonymity while providing them funds and support through CP’s EC-IC subcultu.re. Along the way, several visionaries got wind of our goals for a federated bioregional wisdom economy and began transferring property rights to the 501c3 tax-free, in turn providing other potential nodes in different bioregions to eventually be turned into permanent subsistence zones for CPs EC-IC network.
“Eventually Nat used RISK Cultu.re to find Ernesto, a radical lawyer to help us market Morning Star to “baptize” corporations (i.e. “persons”) into the “Church” and B-corps for a more socio-ecological spiritual mission (turned into non-profits themselves), presiding over “marriages” for the “persons” to engage in mergers, or offering “funeral” services, by which the corps and b-corps could be dissolved, their assets resurrected within the wider Morning Star community using the GAIA subcultu.re’s dApps to cultivate and curate the community, Morning Star’s “Council of All Beings” advised the board as to any updates that needed to be made.
“In that time, any group that wanted to contribute to the Morning Star project could become a member and receives all the benefits the community offered in turn. In addition, we connected with Amira again to begin work on two WMDs for the church (a World Music Database, and World Media/Movie Database) meant to disrupt the entertainment industries altogether, and a Temple Sex-Magic Project, a dating dApp meant to reward people for experiencing divine presence of love or entertainment work. In each of these other dApps, individuals could share their “value,” and would be rewarded for services with access to all other goods and services offered by the church, the wider community taking account of who the top “producers” were, while rewarding them with various special prizes, etc.[8]
“Once the 40-day teach-in at Node 1 was completed under the auspices of CP’s EC-IC subcultu.re (yet also in anticipation of the GAIA subcultu.re), the commune moved from Jenny’s farm to Node 1 permanently, while Nat and I set off to make good on our promises to develop the CP’s EC-IC subcultu.re internationally, establishing 40-day teach-ins across the continent and internationally, and using the dApps after reflecting, critiquing, and updating the first ones to be more effective, and of course giving Amira a glowing review!”
Chapter 10: Nomads and Fractures in Civility (problems/issues)
In which issues beyond the normal support interfaces arise and are resolved
“Before I left, the commune had an intense discussion about phase 2 of establishing our anti-capitalist GAIA subcultu.re. As we now had access to a permanent subsistence zone acting as a growing base of operations, and a number of dApps to maintain and encode the values of our subcultu.re, we determined to better define the “Green” in our subcultu.re. We determined all capitalist, industrial, and most if not all hi-tech products/services were antithetical to socioecological sustainability and determined we would use the dApps to engage in an intercultu.ral civil war with the other various subcultu.res as well as the dominant culture that Cultu.re itself operated within.
“We use dApps to organize green bans, BDS movements, general strikes, and included Sharpe’s 198 methods of Nonviolent Action to disrupt the daily flow of what we considered to be unsustainable industries, focusing instead on teaching each member of GAIA how to be completely self-sufficient, so that nothing in its subcultu.re would be unsustainable. Sadie and Nat determined that while all members of GAIA would be free to move between GAIA and CP as needed, CP’s EC-IC would continue to allow capitalist industrial technologically based goods and services, while GAIA would not, while the dApps could be used to engage in a “green audit” of sorts that would ensure GAIA remains 100% sustainable while exorcizing monetary relations from the equation altogether.
“Some of the educational activists working with Nat in CP worried this amounted to a declaration of war, and foresaw a civil war brewing, as many of CP’s EC-IC’s have firing ranges and weapons caches to teach students about law enforcement and military training, along with farming and subsistence techniques. Nervous about the fiery rhetoric of the more insurrectionary minded and the free access clause of the smart contract, a minority position put in anonymous tips to the police and FBI, calling us “insurgents,” “communists,” “anarchists,” “radical environmentalists,” and “eco-terrorists” bent on violently overthrowing the United States. Nat and I timed our departure to other CP EC-IC projects to occur before the commune’s campaign to distance ourselves from any “subversive” activity, while the commune maintained strict security countermeasures so they would not be picked up by government intelligence operations.
“As the campaign ramped up however, some of the commune’s actors became violent—which are of course out of line with GAIA platform principles (and by nature fall “outside” of the subcultu.res and Cultu.re activities) — nevertheless, the FBI, headed by a Special Agent Mike, who had experience shutting down a number of anonymous online dark economies, and who had been on the case since the police officer was killed in the original raid, began to target our campaign with his team, and in interrogating those of us he arrested, found out GAIA, CP, and Cultu.re had been providing the technological support for organizing the campaigns, and began making initial arrests. In response, many of our users cited the use of code as a free speech issue,[9] seeing the government response as a breach of civil liberties, not to mention violating the free exercise of the religion clause and internal activities of Morning Star’s spiritual mission to promote justice.
“Months went by, and Nat and I continued to make good on our contracts to turn property into permanent subsistence zones that formed the basis of CP’s EC-TC network, establishing 40-day teach-ins through which we were able to make connections with radical blocs of student-teachers and invite them into the GAIA subcultu.re, providing the dApps to expand and intensify the spectrum of resistance prior to our moving to each next bioregion, leaving the seeds of freely accessible permanent subsistence zones behind us everywhere we went.
“Because the core commune that knew me at that time was relatively small, and used security countermeasures, staying offline for the most part, and organizing most of the direct action campaigns without the use of Cultu.re, even while promoting them through the dApps at times through intermediaries, my own anonymity remained intact, and so I was able to move into other countries as an contractor and education consultant, doing the same work in different countries and bioregions.
“Still, as the first year of GAIA’s now international campaigns come to a close, waves of repression began to ramp up everywhere. Rumors that governments were using every technological device available to them to destroy what they increasingly called “terrorist threats” were vindicated, and the most brutal regimes investing in technology tried to cut their kill chain to near instantaneity, creating assassination programs to destroy and dismantle GAIA cells where they popped up.[10]
“Various GAIA subcultu.re users and even some CP users were having their accounts hacked, messages sent inviting friends to various places, who were in turn targeted for imprisonment or worse. Nat and I did everything we could to maintain security so that we, our networks, and our tools would not be compromised. Occasionally accounts were restored, or recreated, but more often than not individual networks within the subcultu.res were compromised, leading to waves of mistrust within the community. Such compromises prompted GAIA’s Council of all Beings to request Morning Star hire analysts to eliminate access for dApp users who entrapped others, though even this became a near impossible task without the resources needed to confront and repel bad actors that continually penetrated our systems.
“In America, the question of whether Cultu.re’s code should be considered terrorist propaganda or free speech sparked major defections in the government, with major disruptions of services catalyzing the migration of the wider public to CP’s EC-IC network, where services and goods were provided anonymously, some moving from CP to GAIA who did not want to deal with cryptocurrency or the targeted intercultu.re civil war and BDS and friendly and sometimes not so friendly campaigns the communes had launched at CP. More and more non-profits, and even for-profits were requesting “baptisms,” “marriages”, or “funeral rites” under Morning Star, and so, nations were restructured, militaries disbanded, and cyber warfare operations against Cultu.re were initiated are ramped up.
“Decision makers at Cultu.re were pressured to disband the GAIA and CP subcultu.res. Fortunately, we had good lawyers like Ernesto who knew the Constitution better than those running the government.[11]
“In some regions, even less benevolent governments worked with informants and cooperating witnesses to locate Cultu.re hubs and set off EMPs to derail various subcultu.res’ dependence on the wider network. Repressive regimes on various continents threatened to use Stuxnet and Nitro Zeus-type cyber weapons against the United States, then accusing the United States of maintaining Cultu.re as a CIA operation to subvert their national sovereignty.[12] Some of the subcultu.res on permanent subsistence zones were rendered dependent again on the governments’ systems and institutions that attacked them, but others were able to withstand the attacks, continuing to use the CP and GAIA subcultu.res to ensure basic needs and services were provided by the local community so that it remain self-sufficient.
“As the intraCultu.re and real world civil wars played out, rumors continued to spread that GAIA was a violent religious movement rewriting a new political theology of nature while engaging in some sort of cosmic warfare, with splinter sects spinning off each with their own version of the GAIA subcultu.re to various degrees of religious zealotry. Nat and I continued to maintain good relationships, building dual power for GAIA to continue eroding the power of the worst polluters and bad actors, while the approaches of CP’s EC-IC network were used for carbon capture and other technologically advanced attempts to address systemic imbalances. We began to channel and foster debate between the two subcultu.res, persuading members to their respective causes in what were increasingly becoming fully autonomous subcultu.res in a context in the process of bifurcation and phase change.
“Being targeted from all sides, Nat and I switched from subcultu.re to subcultu.re as needed. As anonymous nomads on Cultu.re, we were freely provided with basic necessities, while teaching via contract for cryptocurrencies converted into cash where needed, or dabbling in other subcultu.re cryptos on occasion.
“The consequence was that the climate began to stabilize as polluters were dismantled, mass extinction slowed as habitat was increasingly restored and protected, and socioecological justice, democracy, and the earth community began to flourish as the activity of the 501c3s under the US code began generating the conditions for life-support systems to remain intact and strengthened to promote biodiversity and self-sufficiency.
Chapter 11 – From Digital Existence to Real-World Resilience (Maintenance)
In which software, hardware, or operations are updated and upgraded
“Meanwhile, before the Supreme Court, after five years of watching the government’s lawsuit make it through the lower courts, determined whether the GAIA code (even subversive code) is free speech, Nat and I, along with the commune, determined the best course of action would be to delete the GAIA subcultu.re altogether, so that people no longer needed to use the technology at all.
“The 40-day teach-ins had created the infrastructure for a 40-year teach-in to exist, with individuals and communities focusing on self-sufficiency without need for money or technology to help them with their autonomy, mutual aid, and self-defense. Members had engaged in alternate relations for so long, they knew mostly all of the critical information needed to maintain the cultu.re themselves without externalizing the information to blockchain technologies anymore.
“GAIA’s Council of all Beings requested a transition period to prepare for the transition to a non-tech subcultu.re. Updates and upgrades to dApps and the overall RISK operating systems are implemented, information in copied in the real world and committed to memory for several months so that each member of the GAIA subcultu.re would be aware of permanent subsistence zones and the wider CP network, should they ever need to rely upon the technological infrastructure in the future.
Chapter 12 – Digital Exodus (Migration)
In which records are moved, transformed to a new schema, input, or output
“We deleted the GAIA subcultu.re after announcing to the community it would be shut down, and provided resources for GAIA’s free society to exist only in the real world, encouraging people to produce whatever records they needed for their own benefit, while remembering we were all in the middle of cyberwar where Nitro Zeus could soon eliminate the entirety of our digital infrastructure. On the other hand, I suggested to users they migrate to CP’s EC-IC and continue using the dApps should they find them useful, so they could continue to network, organize, and find ways to monetize their value should they have need, while also explaining that GAIA’s purpose of providing a non-monetary international bioregional federation was complete and a list of historical records would remain available under Morning Star. I maintained my profile on CP and Cultu.re to stay in contact with Nat and the wider CP network when necessary, but ultimately had no real need for it, as I could move anywhere by then, get basic needs and services met for free, and generally found I was living a self-actualized life in which the GAIA subcultu.re we set up with the commune was perpetuated in perpetuity. I climbed a mountain and patted myself on the back, eventually receiving a spiritual revelation that redefined my life’s purpose.
Chapter 13 – Reviving the Digital Self (Recovery)
In which lost credentials or identifiers are restored or reset
“Having no need for the Cultu.re operating system of CP’s subcultu.re anymore, over months, I forgot my password. I contacted Nat and we met in person to confirm a new profile, @btf2tg. Nat recreated the endorsement and records, and made connections with relevant contacts to refer them back to me. After asking a few questions, they revoked their endorsement of the previous handle and transfer it to the new one. Meanwhile I fully expected to forget my password again!
Chapter 14 – Going Dark and Running for the Hills (Exit)
In which the individual concludes their relationship with stewards in this lifecycle
“I came to terms with my divine revelation and contemplated the possibility of eliminating tech from my life altogether so I could rewild my own life and mind and not pollute my body with the mediated existence provided by the use of technology. I talked this over with Nat who encouraged me, and ended my contractor status with CP, recommending a protégé Madeleine take over for me who retained the title of Community Ecological Organizer (CEO) of the Morning Star 501c3, and asks Nat to take over the day-to-day activities, which he agrees to. Nat hired Madeleine for further CP ecological education consulting and established a new contract with her, while I went dark, running for the hills.
Chapter 15- Revelation on the Shore (Re-engagement)
In which the individual is invited and accepts a new opportunity to engage the system
“After years of honing my primitive skills, I stumbled upon a beach I fell in love with. Unfortunately for me, it was owned by Roger, a die-hard capitalist and ideologue who didn’t want me on his property. I reached out to Nat once again with a new profile and we talked about an opportunity for me to join the CP network full-time to get the project back on track. I told him I could no longer be part of the project anymore, but rather I wanted to cash in and buy Roger’s beach front property.
“As CEO of Morning Star, who alone owned the intellectual property rights to the dApps still making money, of which a small percentage up to now had been stored in a cryptowallet[11], I invited specific advertisers to pay to promote their products, following strict guidelines to do so to ensure only those whose mission aligned with a sense of non-hierarchical socio-ecological justice are promoted. We dissolved the Morning Star 501c3, transferring all assets to CP, who agreed to maintain the Permanent Subsistence Zones and free access to basic needs and services for members and their partners, while I alone, on behalf of the commune, retained the rights to the dApps, converted a portion of the crypto in my wallet to cash, and approached Roger.
“With the billions of dollars we receives from the dApps, I went back to the capitalist to buy the property and, after making some changes with regards to the property, invited the original commune to live with me whenever, for however long they wished, doing anarchist stuff as only anarchists can do. We published materials to continue to promote the vision of non-technological lifeways with proceeds from the dApps, with members migrating to various watershed councils in the wider bioregional federation, organizing continent congresses for the Planetariat until the last semblance of hierarchy and oppression is eventually abolished, a new world emerging out of the shell of the old. Roger meanwhile, had a billion dollars, but by then everything was mostly free, or if it wasn’t people were using crypto, and no one was using petro-dollars as we called them anyway.”
At that point, she breathed a sigh of relief. The story had ended. They were here now, because of the past. There were things Sadie had left out, of course, but it hardly mattered. People had come, people had left, and people were free to do so as they wished.
[4] Global Insurgency allowed affinity groups to provide communiques while detailing the effects of their direct actions for others in secure ways, so individuals can see what groups are near them and where they fit in a wider political spectrum, their motivations, media projects, etc. Groups compete with one another to have the most impact within respective causes and can collaborate or coordinate actions to maximize the effect.
[5] M-City allowed all labor sectors engaged in beneficial sustainable production methods (for instance, cannabis/hemp cultivation) to trade and distribute produce to process centers in order to freely access end products (food, medicine, nutritional supplements, bedding, fuel, feed, construction materials, plastics, textiles, paper products, and any of the other uses and benefits). Surplus products are sold to the external market, with proceeds used to bolster green industries and provide a universal basic income for all members of the subcultu.re. Sadie decides to have a very small percentage of profits go into a secret anonymous cryptowallet she maintains, directing it wherever needed.
[6] Free Society was modeled on the basic network/services and operating principles of M-City, but simply expanded to all products and services.
[7] In a similar way, the GAIA operating system used the basic structure of the other dApps, engaged in a green accounting service meant to determine sustainability metrics of any given products, while mapping and coordinating the activities of members engaged Ecolympic Activities that include 198 Methods of Bioregional Reinhabitation. Metrics are aggregated to generate a top 12 industry actors that are least green (“Dirty Dozen”) which are fed into the Global Insurgency dApps “Top Targets List,” with Sadie’s wallet directed to oppositional campaigns.
[8] For instance, Jenny’s farm joined the Morning Star network, providing free food and space to those in the community who might need access to it. In return, Jenny’s farm members were able to freely access the World Media/Music Database (WMDs) to listen to any music or movies available, whose WMD producers are able to stop by Jenny’s Farm to grab a bite for free or see a teach-in, etc. Sadie could similarly “baptize” corporate “persons” into the community as well, provided their products are able to be freely shared with the wider community (like Jenny) as well, in which case their employees would also be able to access other products and services freely (like Jenny’s Farm). In this regard, production, allocation, distribution, and consumption levels are tracked through Sadie’s dApps Amira had built, with top producers/change-makers being identified (anonymously or publically), celebrated, and rewarded by the community, in turn given access to the products/services of the wider Morning Star community, maintained by the GAIA subcultu.re.
[9] What precedents are there for code amounting to free speech? What degree of distance needs to be maintained for it to remain legal. For instance, if something like “Silk Roads” was in existence, what could keep it from being shut down? Not explicitly linking the information exchange with illicit products and ensuring any illicit activity was not explicitly referenced? Asking for a friend…
[10] In some cases, governments are attempting to automate the kill-chain entirely, meaning that the ability for governments to receive signals from activists whose identities have been fed into a terrorist database that is greenlit for targeting allows for near immediate orders to be sent to drones that fire precision-laser technology at targets, ensuring the time between target acquisition and target elimination is less than one minute.
[11] How would Cultu.re determine decision making processes that affect subcultu.res?
[12] Nitro Zeus is a cyber-weapon, much like the so called “Stuxnet” or “Olympic Games” virus. However, instead of simply focusing on one particular industrial target (an Iranian nuclear power plant), it has the potential to infiltrate all industrial systems: communications systems, the power grid, financial systems, transportation systems, food and water systems, defense systems, and other vital systems through electronic implants in computer and electronic networks so as to shut them down permanently thus destroying the entirety of a target’s infrastructure across a continent or even the planet.