~2.4
- There are two views of history: bottom-up, based on technical truth, and top-down, based on political power.
- In a bottom-up view, history is written in record books, and ideally, history should be encrypted (crypto-history), which is difficult to tamper with, like the Bitcoin blockchain.
- In the top-down view, history is written by the victors and political power trumps technical truth.
- Political power seeks to use past events to justify present morality. Technical truth, on the other hand, is based on objective facts.
- It is important to strike a balance between politics and technology, but if you are technologically behind, you will lose politically, and if you are politically unpopular, you will not have the power to build in the physical world.
- This clash between political power and technological truth needs to be considered in the creation of a new society.
- The key to this is understanding the relationship between three powerful forces: religion (God), nation (State), and network (Network).
2.4~2.8
- There are three leviathan (powerful forces) - God (religion), State (nation), and Network (network) - to which people tend to pledge allegiance.
- The left and right are internally divided, with the left authoritarians and right secular nationalists supporting the state and the left libertarians and right internationalist capitalists supporting the networks.
- This conflict can be seen as a confrontation between global technology and the US establishment (vested interests).
- Technological progressives emphasize individual will, while political progressives emphasize collective coercion.
- If the network wins over the state, immigrant entrepreneurs could leave the U.S. and the U.S. could lose global power.
- The American establishment wants to maintain the status quo and believes that history will move in a linear fashion in their favor.
- However, the rise of networks is revealing distortions of the present and changing perceptions of the past.
- We need a new narrative that is not US-centric, and four specific examples are provided.
- Narratives of fragmentation, the frontier, the fourth turning, and the future resembling the past, help us imagine a post-American era by depicting a pre-American era.
- The fact that various events are being repeated with opposite results suggests that we are moving from an era of centralization to one of decentralization.
2.8~3.5
- Today, the world is a tripolar structure with three poles. They are [the American ruling class], [the Chinese Communist Party], and [the Global Internet].
- Each pole has a source of truth (newspapers, parties, protocols) and a digital economy (dollar economy, digital renminbi, web3 crypto economy) surrounding it.
- Moral power is represented by the NYT, military power by the CCP, and monetary power by the BTC. This is similar to the mid-20th century composition of the USSR (moral), Nazis (military), and the US (monetary).
- The difference, however, is that these three poles were states in the mid-20th century, whereas today they are primarily networks.
- The NYT openly stands above the government and is influential in moral preaching and espionage; the CCP is integrated with the Chinese state and has converted to militaristic nationalism under Xi Jinping; the BTC is an international network that stands above the state; and the NYT is an international network of international organizations that are all part of a larger network of international organizations that are all part of a larger international network.
- There are overlaps and exceptions to each pole, but basically the structure is such that NYT represents moral power, CCP represents military power, and BTC represents monetary power.
In addition to the previous main points, the following points can be added
- As in the mid-20th century, the three poles today are not in pure form, and each has other powers as well: the NYT has both monetary and military power, the CCP has both moral and monetary power, and the BTC has both moral and military (defensive) power.
- However, the composition is clear: NYT represents primarily moral power, CCP primarily military power, and BTC primarily financial power.
- The American ruling class, represented by the NYT, rises above the government through its network of journalists and exercises its influence through moral preaching and information warfare.
- The CCP has 95 million members who go through a rigorous initiation process and are required to follow party policies for the rest of their lives. The Party permeates all aspects of society, forming a huge network separate from the state.
- Under Xi Jinping, the CCP has shifted from an emphasis on economic growth to military nationalism, including increased investment in AI and drones.
- BTC and its surrounding web3 users are an international financial network that stands above the state and is threatening the existing media power represented by the NYT through decentralized media.
- This tripolar structure is in flux, and the nature of each pole is gradually changing. However, the basic composition of moral, military, and monetary power representation is expected to remain the same.
3.5~4.7
- There are future scenarios in which the U.S. descends into anarchy, China becomes a totalitarian surveillance society, and the rest of the world tries to avoid both extremes.
- In a state of U.S. anarchy, there will be a civil war between the supporters of the U.S. government, called “walk” and the supporters of Bitcoin, called “maximalists”. Rather than a battle over territory, it will be a battle over the hearts and minds of the people through the network.
- In China, the coup attempt will lead to the establishment of a thorough AI-based surveillance society. The digital renminbi will make it difficult to flee the country. They will try to sell this “Chinese-style management” model to other countries.
- India, Israel, American centrists, Chinese liberals, and global tech companies seek to avoid the extremes of American anarchy and Chinese-style control. These forces, known as the “international centrists,” may unite at Web3 to seek a peaceful alternative.
- The “victory conditions” and “surprising consequences” of each force in this scenario are also discussed.
- The “standard rate fallacy” is that the U.S.-dominated regime will maintain the status quo; “China can make a pencil” is that the CCP will establish a self-sufficient dictatorship; “Two-power digital dictatorship” is that the U.S. and China will join forces to crush bitcoin; bitcoin will end human warfare, but not robot warfare It is the “surprising end” that does not.
4.7~
- The network state is a selective re-centralization, avoiding the extremes of American anarchy and Chinese-style management.
- Centralization has its problems, but decentralization will not just return us to the status quo. The networked state aims for real progress beyond the status quo through a combination of moral and technological innovation.
- The founding of the networked state has advantages for both technologists and political progressives. Technologists can accelerate innovation in the physical world, and activists can experiment with new policies.
- Networked nations can expand peacefully in the digital world. They can grow along demographic, geographic, digital, economic, ideological, and technological axes.
- Non-network states include regular startups, social networks, collaborative workspaces, large corporations, and cryptocurrencies.
- Closely related are political parties, hacker house networks, communities of influence, DAOs, etc., which could be developed into network unions or network archipelagos.
- Technological advances enabling the network state include the Internet, Bitcoin, Web3, remote work, mobile, VR/AR, social media, and GAFAM/startup success stories.
Explain the influence of religion on the second half of the story.
The concept of the network state also has a religious component. In particular, the idea of “one commandment” (One Commandment) plays an important role in providing the moral foundation for the network state.
- Accessismを連想した
The author believes that the creation of a network state requires a common moral purpose beyond the mere pursuit of economic gain. Therefore, he proposes the “one commandment” as a central moral principle shared by the members of the network state, like the precepts of traditional religions.
For example, a network state with the precept “sugar is evil” would create a society that restricts the use of sugar. Or a network state based on a particular religious belief could be considered.
However, the authors also note that network states do not necessarily need to create a new religion. Rather, they believe it is important to critically examine existing religious and moral principles and pick out one central precept from among them.
There is also a rationalist aspect to the concept of the network state that has been present since the Enlightenment. The point that the legitimacy of the state is not based on divine authority, but on the consent of its members, can be said to be in the lineage of social contract theory.
And the “one commandment” of the network state allows for the coexistence of multiple network states based on individual choice. This is an idea that has an affinity with religious pluralism.
In other words, the conception of the network state has a mixture of religious and secular elements. While it emphasizes a common moral foundation, like traditional religions, it is also influenced by post-modern secular political thought in that it seeks the legitimacy of the state not from God, but from individual choice.
Thus, the network state is a concept that could provide an opportunity to rethink the relationship between religion and politics.
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