The archive
Everything, dated
19 entries. Fifteen were published between January 2021 and April 2022; 4 are chapters of the report that were written in 2021, promised as posts, and never released until now. Nothing is being added — this is a finished body of work, and its value is that it is complete and dated rather than current.
2022
2021
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What Conspiratorial Thinking Conceals
It has become passe to note that the last decade has seen a rise in conspiratorial thinking. The rise of the internet and the subsequent democratization…
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Deepfakes, Disinformation, and Systems Disruption
The last two decades have seen digital information warfare become a central part of politics across the world. Traditionally, states such as Russia have…
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vTaiwan: A case study in scaling coordination
Probably the most important question a society faces is how to enable collective action at scale. The complex tapestry of norms, ethics, religions…
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Harnessing emerging media: Let’s make, like, really cool propaganda.
When one thinks about the future of media, it’s hard not to imagine the “walls” in Fahrenheit 451: futuristic, interactive, immersive, with the high…
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The Breakdown of Westphalia
The 30 Years War in Central Europe ended in 1648. It was a catastrophic event that resulted in at least 4.5 million deaths. The war resulted in the peace…
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Consider: an alternate history where colonizers were not fucks.
This is a review of the video-essay “Stolen Anarchy: Playing Indian and the Roots of Collectivism“ by Twin Rabbit who also has a patreon here. This…
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Snorting homebrew covid vaxx with the broskies
A lightly edited Signal conversation with a professional chemist about the DIY radvac-style COVID-19 vaccines going around in early 2021.
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Complexity, the root of networked warfare
The major conflicts that defined the 20th century were exemplified by command and control structures, both in terms of managing actual soldiers on the…
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Stop Killing Sex Workers in Futuristic SciFi
Science Fiction loves including sex workers in their visions of the future. The presence of sex workers codes a lot of things to a viewer about the…
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Institutions have limits, especially in the age of information technology
The last decade has seen global disruption. From the initial wave of protests like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, to a reactionary backlash…
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It takes a network to defeat a network
These advantages exist because of things like information proliferation, the agility of actors with local knowledge of a situation, and resiliency. There…
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Complexity as resistance against fascism
Many of the ways that these combinations of tools discussed above can be used to resist top-down pressure and help networks adapt are also vulnerable to…
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Conclusion: Human shaped networks are internationalist and anti-authoritarian
Warfare has been a primary driver of state formation and consolidation throughout history. But at the same time there have been instances where conflict…
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Adapting to Transform Networked Conflict
We are thrilled to launch our first short essay series on the topics of complexity, resistance, and networked conflict. Scroll down for more info.
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Possibilities for New Internationalism
While few acknowledge it, the internet has immense potential in the ends of left internationalism. The old internationals were centralized affairs which…
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You can beat information war through networked resistance
There are many ways to win against information warfare. The important part is to leverage its weaknesses and move in swarms.
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Climate Change, Unnatural Disasters, and El Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo Mariana
I’ve just listened to the How to Save A Planet episode aired last year, “Unnatural Disasters.”
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Redditors sucker-punched a hedge fund but are they also getting played?
The point of this post is fairly simple (though its implications are a mess):
