Rediscovering the Soul of Decentralization
Without a moral-spiritual dimension, Web3 will fail to change our relationship to power. We must rediscover Satoshi's spirit and take it further.
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jamie Burke, host of The Metaverse Podcast and founder of Outlier Ventures, a group dedicated to investments in Web3, AI, and their convergence.
When people ask me why I do what I do, I sometimes say, “I whisper into the ears of counterpower.” But what does that mean?
Future technologies will either serve centralization and power or human freedom and self-organization. If I can inspire tomorrow’s innovators and founders to create liberatory technologies for the latter, I will realize my telos.
A side bar regarding governance, meaning who makes decisions, what decisions they get to make, and how they make decisions.
I was a management consultant and workplace trainer for 40+ years with a focus in conflict management. I have some experience working with smart people attempting to create different ways to manage organizational structures, from participatory democracy to complicated ranking systems, including conventional methods involving versions of Roberts Rules and various spiritual practices (think Quakers and Buddhists) as well as networked confederations. And people working in existing hierarchical institutions including the elected and appointed officials of oversight groups - city councils, county and state commissions, academic faculty senates, association memberships, et al. And...family-owned businesses, homeowner associations, unions, and three old friends trying to buy and manage a plot of land together. (That one ended up in court.)
Regardless of the structure and intent of the group, and how cool the design looked on paper, I soon learned that most of the problems I was asked to help address came from one simple mistake: There were no simple agreed-upon guidelines for dealing with disagreements, mistakes, misunderstandings, bad behaviors, bottlenecks, and stalemates in place.
Some people won't make out a will or discuss end-of-life issues with family. For some it is conflict avoidance. "Don't want to open up a can of worms," they say. Others are superstitious about discussing death, because they think they are tempting Fate - likely the same people who won't buy insurance. In the case of managing enterprise relationships (business, workplace, government at al) they would tell me that they didn't need to talk about conflict because everyone in the group was smart and nice and in agreement, and it was insulting to suggest otherwise.
Smart people paid our mortgage, etc., for years.
So, whatever amazing ideas you come up with regarding decentralization, I would urge you to make, as one of the very first items on the agenda, discussions, decisions, and actions regarding...disagreements, mistakes, misunderstandings, bad behaviors, bottlenecks, and stalemates.
Only half way through, but can't help to take a pause and come here to say: Brilliant! Very helpful for learning how to message with the exterior.