Who Gets to Build the Next Software Stack of Civilization?

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Silicon Valley is known for it's exceptionalism.

Silicon Valley has long been a hub for political ideas. The Bay Area's ethos of individualism and self-actualization has led in two different directions at the same time. The Valley is home to a libertarian movement that is hostile to government regulation and social interventions while tech companies promote progressive values.

Anthony Lydgate wrote a profile of a standard-bearer of that movement. If you haven't heard of him, it's probably because he's hostile toward journalists and they don't write about him. You will like how Anthony deals with that in his story. While he is not as well known as some of the others in his circle, he has been rising in prominence, most recently by publishing a book, The Network State.

The book calls for people to abandon traditional forms of governance in favor of new, virtual states linked not by geography but by what they like. If you don't like the way things are going there, you can pull up stakes and move to a different jurisdiction.

This may seem crazy to you, or it may be reasonable. No matter your politics, there is a widespread dissatisfaction with the way things are. The idea that our current electoral democracy is just an elected group of people is a belief that has been shared by many people. The world of self-sovereign, cloud-based digital states may seem pie in the sky, but is it any more so than Landemore's vision of a polity deeply engaged in deliberations of the sorts of questions we've traditionally outsourcing to professional politicians and bureaucrats.

This is one of the most important questions we face today. We are running 21st-century societies on 17th- or 18-century software that are only becoming more apparent to everyone. The next software stack of civilization will be one of the defining issues of the next few decades. Paying attention to the ideas of people like Srinivasan is important, even if you don't agree with them.