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Abstract

Silviculture: Maturity and time link

Whereas the digital world moves at light speed, proliferating connections between people until society becomes an undifferentiated mass, maturity requires and results in patience. McLuhan saw media as an environment in which we are shaped by our tools; we should embrace the metaphor and practice permaculture through "digital localism". To do so, we must erect fences - not to imprison us as the walled gardens did, but to free us to exercise agency and stewardship.

Outline

Moar speech

  • "Online information has no intrinsic political form. It is thereby at variance with politics as such." (Barba-Kay 90ff, voluntaryism is fueled by digital assumptions, 101)
  • This attempts to solve the problem by leaning into it. It's reasonable as a reaction against totalitarianism, but insufficient.
  • "dissimilarity cascades" (Carr, 106)
  • "Online words are to reason what cubism is to art." (Barba-Kay, 107)

Maturity requires and results in patience

  • Connections proliferate until society becomes an undifferentiated mass
  • Digital technology has sped things up. Humanity and nature move at a slower pace

Permaculture

  • Paul's idea of tailored software through AI
  • Tenets of permaculture (Mann recommended a book)
  • Experimentation is part of permaculture (Mann)
  • Media ecology - McLuhan

Fences

  • What can people do that bots can't? Barba-Kay points at the act of saying "no". (BK 247)
  • "Liberating power lies in self-control" (Guardini, HF 210)
  • At the same time, we have to adapt to the contours of the land (Carr, 148)
  • We live in an age of tearing down, not building up. What has been torn down?
    • Public vs private
    • Individual vs mass
    • Local vs global
    • Institutions - we should seek a restoration of our institutions, not their destruction
    • Context - "What is unprecedented about our own situation online is the relative absense of just such a framework" of context and relationship. (Barba-Kay, 106)

Cypherpunk Localism

  • Define main points of cypherpunk
  • Embracing the particular: "Humans can't save humanity - only our humanity" (HF 243, 253)
  • Selective revelation of self (what we share, and with whom) (Carr, 113)
  • "It used to be that, when you communicated with someone, the person you were communicating with was as important as the information." (Barba-Kay 105, Lawrence Krauss)
  • [Localism][]
    • Independent ownership - uncle Jim model, self hosting, cryptographic identity
    • Local buying/sourcing - Literally, and figuratively. Community members rely on one another.
    • Pragmatic partnering - trust relationships form the basis for making related resources available to members
  • Cypherpunk localism is broader than plain old localism:
    • Not just about markets, but applies the idea of circular economies to relationships between people ("oikos")
    • Not confined to geographical localism, aimed at meaningful relationships (although geographical localism is a good heuristic)
  • Hedges not only last but provide a habitat for animals that live in them.
  • "The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best is now." (unknown)
  • "If I knew that tomorrow was the end of the world, I would plant an apple tree today." (attributed to Martin Luther)