Rousseau’s breadcrumbs and the blockchain leviathan — Jon Hillis
[Rousseau’s Breadcrumbs and Hobbes’ Leviathan - Fracton Ventures https://mirror.xyz/0xF5CA53792C47e3a0792380292D15c894097015fF/STiQ-pySj7uPH6kD1 VxgUucB5bjFLTOl7Wn5HJsK8H0]
Summary from the original
This text discusses the new political system made possible by blockchain technology, comparing the ideas of the modern political philosophers Hobbes. and [Rousseau.
The main contents are as follows
- He points out the impasse in contemporary politics symbolized by the conflict between the right and the left, and argues that its origins derive from the ideas of Hobbes and Rousseau.
- Hobbes preached the necessity of strong state power, whereas Rousseau preached the importance of popular sovereignty. However, both had their limitations in that they both assumed a large nation-state.
- There was a germ in Rousseau’s thought that was oriented toward a federation of small political units, but it could not be fully developed.
- Blockchain technology could serve as a “leviathan” enabling individual self-governance without a large state.
- Autonomous decentralized organizations (DAOs) on the blockchain are developing as a collection of small “pods” that are loosely federated while maintaining diversity.
- Such a move is reminiscent of the federation of autonomous political units independent of the state that Rousseau envisioned but could not bring to fruition.
In other words, the content of the article explains the need to overcome the Hobbes-Rousseau dichotomy and seek a new form of politics that allows for cooperation while maintaining individual autonomy through blockchain technology.
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