michel on commons based instruments
michel bauwens on commons based intruments
via michel tweet [https://x.com/mbauwens/status/1970053795158556835]:
I attended an important gathering of civilization builders in Kas, Turkey,and I share my insights in this long article about instruments of civilizational change:
Lots of historical material included as well.
* We need Commons-Based Instruments of Expansion!! https://4thgenerationcivilization.substack.com/p/we-need-commons-based-instruments
Dispatches from (Zu)Kas, the civilization-building Web3 Oasis in Southern Turkey.
@zuzalukas, @tarikcanaytac, @mehmetsaid
notes/quotes from linked article:
We need Commons-Based Instruments of Expansion!! – Dispatches from (Zu)Kas, the civilization-building Web3 Oasis in Southern Turkey by michel bauwens (sept 2025)
What such an instrument does is to create surplus on behalf of its society and civilization, allowing it to grow and expand.
mufleh humanity law et al.. need tech as it could be.. ie: nonjudgmental expo labeling
But I would like to introduce my own take on this: there are also ‘commons-based instruments of expansion’, and these are particularly evident during the dark ages. Indeed, as I argued in my theory on the Pulsation of the Commons:
Can we govern not by majority rule, but by the coexistence of differences? Can voting be replaced by collective resonance?
only if we let go enough to try the unconditional part of left to own devices ness
quadratic voting vs plurality voting
quadratic voting funding et al
I have argued earlier that world-changing is no longer a function of religion nor of mass ideological movements, but of constructive networks, is direct world-creation. In effect, through our very activities, cooperative agreements and institution-building (DAO’s, etc..), we are effectively creating a new civilization, here and now.
not new/diff.. if still agreement/institution/dao ness ing et al..
In an earlier article, on the Geopolitics of Cosmo-Localism, I wrote that there is now a third way of world-building, apart from the geopolitical rivalry between the ‘West and the Rest’, or in other words, between the market-centric and state-centric civilizational forms. I suggested this third way could very well be an ‘Archipelago of Regenerative Villages’, which as it gradually grows in strength, will eventually form ‘Magisteria of the Commons’, global regulatory forms that are commons-centric and can keep the extractive natures of market and state competition in check.
One of the analytical tools that I have always found very useful in that context is the TIMN framework by David Ronfeldt, which stands for ‘Tribes, Institutions, Markets, and Networks’. This is a historically additive process, in which new institutional forms are added to the mix, becoming hegemonic in turn, but without eliminating the older forms, which are incorporated in the ‘higher synthesis’. I have always insisted, of course, that these so-called networks can only be commons-centric in nature. And I feel David Ronfeldt has grown closer to the same understanding.
In a recent article, he provided an interesting analogy:
- The emerging geosphere was determined/regulated by continental shelves, not one, not many, but a few
- The emerging biosphere, which made humanity possible, was regulated by several civilizational blocs, again, not one, not many, but a few
- In a similar way, the emerging noosphere, i.e. the physicalization of human culture in its interconnected ‘cyberspace’(s), will be regulated by several ‘Axial Entities of the Commons’ (AEONS), again, not one, not many, but a few.
Let me first introduce David Ronfeldt’s reasoning with two significant quotes from that article, then conclude with his description of the proposed AEONS.
It gives you perhaps an idea of why gatherings like Zukas are crucial for the creative imagination of the current generation of world-builders.
how we gather in a space is huge.. need to try spaces of permission where people have nothing to prove to facil curiosity over decision making.. because the finite set of choices of decision making is unmooring us.. keeping us from us..
This is the promise of our work: to heal the fractures of history, correct its exclusions, and create resilient commons that can expand again, not through conquest or extraction, but through technology, solidarity, and imagination
again.. there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental exponential labeling) to facil the seeming chaos of a global detox leap/dance.. for (blank)’s sake..
ie: whatever for a year.. a legit sabbatical ish transition
otherwise we’ll keep perpetuating the same song.. the whac-a-mole-ing ness of sea world.. of not-us ness
Next step: we are attending the Genesis 2 conference in Brussels, which will be focused on ‘generative polarization’, i.e. how to built commonality with people holding vastly different political and social views.
rather.. need to create conditions where all are legit free.. so that political and social views become irrelevant s.. non existents..
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be you. 