Hey all!
Happy to have found this project. I am currently in the process of digging deeper into the concept of network states and would love to get some book recommendations. So if you have a book that you favor, please share!
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Hello, Czepluch! It’s great to have you here 
I recently finished reading ‘Panarchy: Political Theories of Non-Territorial States’. https://www.routledge.com/Panarchy-Political-Theories-of-Non-Territorial-States/Tucker-Bellis/p/book/9780815370598
It’s extremely useful for helping to conceptualise how network states might look and the market of governing services that would emerge if we decoupled territoriality from the state. Very much worth a read!
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Just received Blockchain Radicals by Joshua Davila. Did anyone read it yet?
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I have not, but it seems like an interesting read. We’d love to hear your thoughts when you’ve gotten through it!
I just finished The State in the Third Millennium that was actually recommended to me by @drgoemon. Although not focused on Network States, it addresses some interesting topics in regards to how states could/should be designed in the future. It’s an easy and quite short read. Definitely recommend.
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Well said and recommended, @Bathang.
If anyone wants to understand the philosophical approach that underlies network states, this is the book to read.
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I highly recommend any of David Graeber’s books – a good starting place is Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, available here for free. More generally, perhaps check out Utopias or The Dawn of Everything.
If you dig any of those, let me know – I have many more suggestions. I’m working on a website that will have some as well. Network State is good in theory, but I have some qualms with it (namely that Balaji insists on it having one leader – completely defeating the purpose, imo). Graeber is the good stuff without the overly-confident tech-bro naivete.
As I like to quote from him… “The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.”
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One book I believe deserves a hearty revival for the Network State movement is The Temporary Autonomous Zone by Hakim Bey, written 1985.
The sub-heading is on point with “Ontological Anarchy. Poetic Terrorism”
It’s a very small book, packed with vivid ideas that translate well to the unstoppable essence of a decentralized network.
I imagine many early cypherpunks were inspired by the TAZ. It certainly inspired my philosophy for sovereignty and activism back in my 20s.
Available in full at T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism | The Anarchist Library
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Yes, good recommendation. I’ve seen and heard this recommended by Jarrad several times too.
Yep! Nice one Gav. Great recommendation.
Ooo I have another one.
The Transhumanist Wager by Zoltan Istvan.
A short story about a guy who builds a Sea Stead Network State and fends off attack from outcompeted Nation States.
Quite riveting.
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