📘 How to create a sustainable society? learnings from the network state book

Learning from history. One commandment.

This summer, I had the chance to visit Lisbon and learned a bit about the history of the old Portuguese empire. On the bank of the Tagus river, which opens to the vast Atlantic sea, a monument was erected to commemorate the expedition of great explorers such as Vasco da Gama and Prince Henry the Navigator. 

Source: Monument of discoveries

They are pioneers of the new age of discovery. Braves souls that navigate the ocean and build new societies around the world.

If I lived in that era, I'm not sure if I have the guts to sail a ship to the unknown, for years at a time, and a low chance of returning.

Thankfully we are currently also living in a new type of discovery age. Instead of the Caravel ship used by the European explorers, we now have the internet and blockchain technology to create a decentralised society. 

This idea is proposed by Balaji Srinivasan in his new book “The Network State”. Balaji is the former CTO of Coinbase, ex-partner at A16Z, founder of the 1729 community (which I am a member of), and a tech philosopher.

In the book, he talks about the opportunity to create a new society called the network state which he explained in one sentence as: 

A network state is a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states.

In simple words, it means that we can now find people from all over the world that has the same interest as us (Opt-in rather than born into).

Build community in the cloud, such as starting a telegram or discord group. Create a place to meet in the physical world (Cloud first, land last). And eventually, get recognized by other countries or international organizations like the UN.

As a Tech entrepreneur and investor, Balaji used the analogy of a startup. Start small, get market share, be recognized by established companies, and scale up to a multinational.

As we are building new societies from scratch, we now have the chance to design a sustainable society. One that balances tech innovation, human development, and environmental preservation. A society that is built based on the Solarpunk ethos.

Here are some of my learnings from the “Network State” book on how to build a sustainable society.

⌛ Learning from history 

Balaji mentioned one quote about history that says: ones that control the past can control the future. In our history, we have moved from a simple tribal commune, to a complex large nation state.

Some things have worked well in the past but there are a lot of things to improve for the changing future. Hence, its important to learn about our history not to repeat the same mistakes again.

For example, the concept of idea maze: because some things didn't work in the past, doesn’t mean that it won’t work in the future.

Some examples include nuclear plant accidents, rocket explosions, oil spills, and so on. From various case studies I learned in business school, one of the biggest drivers of these unfortunate events happened because of human mistakes (e.g. Chernobyl, BP oil spill).

If we can leverage automation and precise data analytics, we could lower the probability of human error and reap the benefits of these technologies.

In a network state example, in developing an environmental preservation project, we can move from a centralized control such as the national department of environment to decentralized community projects.

We can create aligned incentives for the local community to manage the projects, and use crypto oracles to collect data and set rules written in code. Humans can be corrupted, while a blockchain network is immutable (cannot be altered after creation).

I previously wrote an example of this in the article ”How social contracts and smart contracts can preserve our forest?”.

Source: Balaji presenting the idea maze concept

1️⃣ One commandment 

Balaji pointed out the importance of having one commandment for a society. One north star that everyone is aiming for. A group that does not have any vision (directionless) or too many visions (lack of focus) will not succeed. 

The book also highlighted that religious communes are more successful than for-profit settlements, as everyone is working on one higher purpose. Another example is NASA which beats the Soviets to land a man on the moon, as JFK put it as the main goal of the American people at the time.

Michael Saylor (CEO of Microstrategy) also explained in a Lex Friedman podcast the meaning behind the laser-eyed profile pictures of many bitcoiners means a focus on one digital currency.

In a similar concept, to solve the world’s major problem, the United Nations have created the Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). A list of 17 global issues from environment preservation to education empowerment.

For a new network state, it can select one of the goals as its one commandment. For example, if environmental preservation is the main goal. Everything that the community is doing, will consider environmental impact as the most important aspect. From creating the economic system to urban planning.

💡More learnings from the Network State to come

These are only some examples from the idea of a network state. There are still lots of ground breaking ideas that can be used to create a sustainable solarpunk society which I will discuss in a future articles.

If you are a person that open to challenge the status quo of how our current society are built. And a tech optimist and want to be part to create a sustainable future, I highly recommend to check out the free online Network State book here and listen to Tim Ferris and Balaji's podcast to get some taste of the Network State ideas.

Thanks for reading this article and enjoy the weather ☀️.