Hey friends 👋

I recently finished reading two books back-to-back on the same subject: decentralization. I know, big surprise, right? I spend a lot of time learning about this particular domain, either through the political lens of libertarian socialist / anarchist literature, or through the technological lens of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and open-source software. It was only natural then when I saw these books, each from outspoken proponents of these technologies, that I had to dedicate some time to them.

The first book was Chris Dixon's Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet, which aims to make the argument that web3 is effectively just the natural evolution of the internet. It builds upon the free and open ideals of the early protocol-based internet (web 1.0), together with the social and creative ideals of the corporate network-based internet (web 2.0), to offer a vision of an online space where:

• data is portable instead of siloed in a single app.

• digital assets can have value and ownership without being plagued by DRM, spyware, nor risking arbitrary takedown (see my last newsletter for more on that)

• identity and brand are verifiable without relying on complicated legal frameworks and platform compliance

• money can be spent, sent, or donated anywhere in the world without extractive middlemen or unlawful restriction (I've written a lot about this too)

Chris' book is, in my opinion, a great place for most people skeptical of blockchain to begin their journey. I remember reading Chris's threads on twitter all the way back in 2021 and being convinced by a lot of the same arguments he would later reiterate in the book. But they are, by and large, still very neoliberal perspectives. Most arguments still feel US-centric, and he even advocates for regulations which would likely reinforce US power, rather than diminish it.

Enter Joshua Dávila aka The Blockchain Socialist. I've been a fan of Josh's since the very first time I heard his podcast. His interviews are thorough, his opinions are well expressed, and it's always clear that even he, a user and advocate for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, remains skeptical of their potential for good.

In his book, Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It, Josh traces the history of the internet through the same stages as Dixon. He also points to many of the same problems and suggests many of the same solutions as Dixon. However, the framing of the book and points of reference are entirely different. Josh is, as his online moniker would indicate, an avowed socialist. Therefore, his writing is more openly critical of systems which bolster the consolidation of power in the hands of the capitalist class.

In Tales From the Mushroom Commune, I mentioned a project Josh is involved with, Breadchain Cooperative, a unique cryptocurrency project that Josh calls a solidarity primitive. I explained Breadchain in that post, and there's plenty on their blog about how it works and how to get involved, but one of the core ideas behind that project is also a common theme throughout Blockchain Radicals: the concept of dual power.

Dual power is a two-part strategy that consists of public resistance to oppression (counter-power) and the building of alternative democratic, participatory institutions (counter-institutions). In other words, one part fights the existing systems by mobilizing against them while the other builds resilient, people-led institutions to take their place.

The term ‘dual power’ originates from Lenin during the Russian Revolution. At the time, dual power was originally described as a period of transition, however, over the last century the model’s basis in local democracy has come to be recognized by many as the ultimate strategy of liberation movements.

— Breadchain Cooperative on Mirror

We're going to be talking more about dual power and how it relates to building a better future later on, but first I want to wrap up talking about these two books.

Blockchain Radicals highlights some interesting history of the socialist movement and how technology played roles in either improving the lives of citizens or in preventing their liberation; technology can be used for good or for bad, remember. This book looks at the ways people can organize themselves for radical action and where blockchain can help, with examples of organizations using it already.

In my opinion, Blockchain Radicals is a far more profound book than Read Write Own, but it won't resonate with people hoping only for subtle changes to the status quo. As its name suggests, it is a radical anti-capitalist vision for how these technologies can be used.

If you read and enjoy my content, and especially if you're a fan of Josh's Blockchain Socialist content, then you'll love Blockchain Radicals. And if you're a little more towards the centre, or like me, you enjoy consuming various literature on a given subject, I recommend checking out both books. I don't have affiliate codes, and I don't recommend you buy them on Amazon, but here are some links.

Now, speaking of the future, I have a question for you…

Should We Speed Up or Slow Down?

In the age of rapid technological innovation that we live in and especially since the rise of mainstream AI tools, this particular question has divided those who would have previously called themselves "progressives." The reason for the sudden techno-pessimism, is two-fold:

1. The climate crisis has begun to seriously impact the lives of not only those in the global south (who have long been disproportionately impacted) but also those in the global north (who have long reaped the rewards of extractive economics yet faced none of the consequences). This crisis is exacerbated by energy hungry computation needed for AI and proof-of-work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, thus making them easy targets for criticism from climate activists.

2. Wealth inequality is out of control and the capital class has created tools which may very well eliminate work without sufficient safety nets in place for the newly out-of-work labourers. In this regard, tools like AI are considered a way to diminish the power of the worker, and cryptocurrencies are considered a way to evade taxes, ensuring wealth redistribution to the working class is impossible.

These concerns are entirely founded, and yet, I'm still going to argue in favour of these technologies to the very people who might be most doubtful of them. You see, I believe that these issues are not caused by technology, but by the mode of production under which we build and operate these technologies.

I am a techno-optimist.

No, that doesn't mean that I align myself with Marc Andreessen or his toxic manifesto. I am not an accelerationist at all. I don't believe we should plow blindly ahead at all costs, nor that endless growth is good for humanity. This perspective is, in my view, either naive or dishonest, rooted in lust for power furnished by wealth and pre-necessitated growth at all costs.

I believe we should always consider the externalities and involve the stakeholders in decision-making. With all of that said, I do believe that technology opens worlds of unimaginable possibilities, and can, if harnessed for good, liberate humanity from oppression, suffering, and even from work.

Technology Isn't the Problem, Capitalism Is

When writers, filmmakers, and visual artists imagine the future, one particularly common trope is that of the cyberpunk dystopia: a world where capitalism run amok has created dingy supercities lined with neon signs and ominous skyscrapers, and where corpocracies and their private police forces rule over a drone-like population who exist solely to consume and blindly obey propaganda.

These are great backgrounds for fictional narratives. After-all, who doesn't love a story about a small band of rogue citizens breaking free from the hive-mind to defeat an evil corporate overlord. But what if these aren't fictions, and what if we are careening towards a future where corporate overlords do, in fact, dominate the population? And what if there are no rogue citizens, or the ones who do rise, are squashed? And what about all the people between now and then who would have to suffer to create this visually striking setting?

We need to imagine better futures, but it's difficult because deep down, we all know that capitalism trends towards monopolistic power. And as technology advances, the ability for the ruling class to surveil, police, and coerce the population only increases, reinforcing their power.

But interestingly, while a cyberpunk future is the easiest to imagine, it is by no means a guarantee. In fact, I would argue that the very tools that anticapitalists fear most (AI, social networks, and cryptocurrencies) are the tools most likely to free us from such inevitable doom.

More on that later, but first a change of scenery!

The Chobani Controversy

The preferred alternative to cyberpunk's dystopian vision of the future is the genre of solarpunk: a world where technology is used to help humans live in commune with the land, free from the oppressive lifestyle of the modern concrete and glass jungles we have come to associate with civilizational growth.

As the name suggests, this vision of the future supposes renewable energy sources will become dominant, rural living will become ubiquitous (facilitated by fast, efficient, and clean mass transit to hub cities), and robots will make life more leisurely and enjoyable.

One of the best examples of this vision is an animation called Dear Alice by The Line Animation Studio.

This animation has become a visual point of reference for most video explainers of solarpunk; however, the original version stirred up quite the controversy. As you will notice when you watch it, the animation is clearly a paid promotion for Chobani, a major US yogurt brand. This prompted a backlash from the solarpunk community, who argued that their inherently anti-capitalist movement was being coopted. They even went so far as to create a "decommodified version" with all the product placement and branding removed.

In the description of this alternate version, its poster proclaims:

The solarpunk-inspired 'Dear Alice' commercial produced by the animation company The Line for Chobani is one of the most beautiful depictions of an ecological future I had seen, except for one glaring thing: it was an advertisement for a dairy company, and my solarpunk vision doesn't have either of those things. Neither is compatible with the 'degrowth' economic model outlined by people like Jason Hickel, not with the ethic of an ecological society described by social ecologists like Murray Bookchin.

Degrowth, sometimes pejoratively referred to as deceleration, for the sole purpose of shortening that to “decel” (a play on the term “incel”), is a very contentious subject, as that insulting moniker would suggest. While accelerationists would have you believe that degrowth advocates want to see China's infamous one-child policy adopted globally, this is not the case.

Now, I don't intend to argue in favour of the degrowth movement, but I do want to point out that the core principles, as explained by the aforementioned Jason Hickel, author of Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, in this article for the peer-reviewed journal Nature, are in fact, not so outlandish.

Wealthy economies should abandon growth of gross domestic product (GDP) as a goal, scale down destructive and unnecessary forms of production to reduce energy and material use, and focus economic activity around securing human needs and well-being. [...]

Degrowth is a purposeful strategy to stabilize economies and achieve social and ecological goals, unlike recession, which is chaotic and socially destabilizing and occurs when growth-dependent economies fail to grow.

— Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help, Jason Hickel

Alongside Hickel, our youtube-remixing friend mentioned another name: Murray Bookchin, the father of the eco-anarchist movement.

The OG Solarpunk

Murray Bookchin was a socialist's socialist. He grew up in the Bronx to immigrant parents, studied at a workers school, joined communist youth organizations, denounced Stalin and became a Trotskyist, worked for the UAW, joined the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE); cofounded the New York Federation of Anarchists, Anarchos magazine, and the New England Anarchist Convention (NEAC). And much, much more.

During all of this, he would write several very influential books, including Our Synthetic Environment (1962), Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971), The Ecology of Freedom (1982), and Urbanization Without Cities (1987). These works, along with his early essays, would inspire science-fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin to write one of her most prominent works, The Disposessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (1974). Incidentally, Le Guin's writing is often cited as part of the early solarpunk canon, alongside Kim Stanley Robinson, and later Hayao Miyazaki.

So, is solarpunk merely a euphemism for eco-anarchy?

Yes. While you will rarely hear it put forward this way, this is because of optics. After-all, if we called cyberpunk what it really is: "dystopian prolonged late-stage capitalism with fascist overtones," it would be a lot harder to sell movie tickets—Ryan Gosling be damned.

The reality is that anarchy by any other name smells very, very sweet. I've written multiple newsletters on this subject, and they are among my most popular. As an example of this, “decentralization,” a word with anarchist roots, is now used to pitch everything from Bitcoin to Instagram Threads.

And this fact about solarpunk's origins is crucial to understanding and promoting this vision for the future because it is a tacit reminder that solarpunk is not:

• Tesla

• Bosco Verticale

• Chobani yogurt

That's all just green capitalism and more likely part of the problem than a solution to it. Capitalism is incompatible with ecology. Don't take it from me, take it from Murray himself:

an anarchist society, far from being a remote ideal, has become a precondition for the practice of ecological principles.

— Murray Bookchin (as Lewis Herber), Ecology and Revolutionary Thought

So then, you might be wondering...

How Can We Build a Solarpunk Future?

I submit that building a solarpunk / eco-anarchist future requires the employment of a dual power strategy—see I told you we'd come back to it!

Firstly, counter-power means the subversion of the existing economic system to diminish first and foremost the worst polluters (military, fossil fuel industry, luxury vehicles, disposable goods), as well as the legacy financial system which forms a capital feedback loop with these industries.

To accomplish this, you could consider:

• Using cryptocurrency instead of fiat, especially the US dollar, which is essentially backed by oil and war. This means not using fiat-backed stablecoins except where necessary. For alternatives, see this article.

• Divesting from broad market indexes which are laden with military contractors, chemical companies, and fossil fuel extractors. You can opt for SRI, individual stock picking, or just get out of capital investment altogether.

• Avoiding government bonds, which are again a way of backing the fiat currency of your country to fund wars and exploitation. You can opt instead for green bonds or direct mutualist funding. Alternatively, look at the various micro-lending organizations springing up to begin engaging in peer-to-peer lending and borrowing.

• Choosing public transit, bike, and where necessary (and available) using car-share programs over car ownership. For long distance, consider trains over planes.

• Opting out of shopping at exploitative big box grocery stores and instead choose local markets and independent shops. If you do find yourself at bigger supermarkets, opt for local produce and products whenever possible.

• Living in a housing coop if possible and if you're considering buying property, join a cooperative rather than purchasing a condo.

Next up, look at the ways you can participate in and help to establish counter-institutions. For example:

• Engage in civil disobedience and guerrilla activism to encourage abandonment of car infrastructure in favour of more cycling and walking infrastructure

• Form or join housing cooperatives and take over mixed use buildings to create non-market housing solutions

• Participate in urban gardens and/or maker spaces

• Help build decentralized social networks and other open systems to replace existing capitalist dominated technologies

• Vote for politicians who support land-value tax / Harberger taxes / pigovian taxes and anything else that actually solves the housing speculation rather than just moving money around. Vitalik agrees!

• Optionally: move out to a plot of land and form an eco-anarchist commune with like-minded people. Just don't do anything fucked up.

So we've looked at what solarpunk isn't, what it is, and some legitimate ways to begin moving towards it today, but there is one more thing I want to talk about…

Fully Automated Luxury Communism

So we've looked at various versions of the future. One where we speed up and capitalism destroys the world and one where we slow down and use technology to improve life in a world of sufficient abundance. But what if there were a third option?

A core belief of Marxist philosophy is that capitalism is actually the necessary precursor for communism. In fact, one of the most misunderstood or otherwise misrepresented ideas of Marxism is that he proposed capitalism and communism as rivals. In reality, after studying history through a dialectical lens of class struggles, he posited that any given mode of production (slavery, feudalism, capitalism) will eventually be overthrown to make way for something more suited to the needs of the many.

Through this lens, he proposed that capitalism would eventually suffer a crisis of over-production, which would create an unemployment crisis that would instigate class consciousness. From that, a class struggle would erupt and workers would overthrow capitalists, seizing the means of production, and in this newfound abundance be able to work only as needed.

His belief that machines will be used to propel more rapidly towards this shift is well noted. And many suggest that with the advent of computerized automation and AI, it may be possible to leap past the crisis and revolution to a phase where capitalism simply cannot exist at all because hyper-abundance makes everything worthless.

This potential future, dubbed by Aaron Bastani as Fully Automated Luxury Communism, in a book of the same name, is more often referred to as the Star Trek future. Some techno-optimists of varying ilks believe we will get to this future if we just push hard enough, but I'm afraid I don't agree. Steamrolling human rights and ignoring negative externalities has been a horrific part of every historical regime, whether monarchist, feudalist, capitalist, or socialist.

If we want a solarpunk future, we need to get there the solarpunk way.

That feels like a good place to end this one. Well, after some…

Recommendations

First up, here's a great video from Our Changing Climate and Andrewism that looks at a lot of the things I talked about in this article, and some I didn't. Enjoy! ⬇️

Next, here's a surprising video about the transition from fossil fuels to renewables that will totally change your perspective, and hopefully inspire some optimism ⬇️

Finally, I want to redirect your attention to this piece from Vitalik Buterin's blog. At the time when it came out (April 1st), given its funny title, many of us thought the Ethereum co-founder had decided to pull an unexpected April Fools' joke on us, but after multiple readings, I can confidently say this is just Vitalik trying to attach a meme to some of his earlier ideas.

I'm particularly fond of the parts about land value taxes and Harberger taxes which, I think, he makes very compelling cases for. Check it out ⬇️

Until next time,

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