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!
4 Likes
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!
5 Likes
Just received Blockchain Radicals by Joshua Davila. Did anyone read it yet?
2 Likes
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.
2 Likes
Well said and recommended, @Bathang.
If anyone wants to understand the philosophical approach that underlies network states, this is the book to read.
2 Likes
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.”
4 Likes
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
4 Likes
Yes, good recommendation. I’ve seen and heard this recommended by Jarrad several times too.
2 Likes
Yep! Nice one Gav. Great recommendation.
1 Like
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.
4 Likes
Greetings JimmyErwin
Just received Tokens as it is a topic I’m very interested in for the unique use cases. Presently I’m building startup social platform about deceased and the living preserving family-chain for future generations in perpetuity. Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform | Verso Books When I read I’ll share my thoughts. Cheers
1 Like
Hey Logos enjoyers!
I’ve recently been reading Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack by Richard Ovenden. It’s a great primer on how different groups over the course of history have sought to exert dominance over others by destroying their historical records and ability to archive.
It provides an excellent introduction to the issues that Codex is trying to solve with its immutable data storage engine – a topic Peter Ludlow delved into with Logos co-founder Jarrad Hope in the recent Logos Press Engine article, Obsessed with Archives.
Has anyone else read this one? Or have any other reads they are keen to shill?
1 Like