I’d like to see the sovereign people of Planet Earth have the means to coordinate their actions so that the power inherent in their numbers is harnessed in their favor.
Power, wealth and influence have become concentrated among fewer and fewer people, leaving the masses disempowered even though they vastly outnumber the few. The hierarchical structure of our society has made this possible; the few have only needed to gain control of the vertices of the hierarchy in order to multiply their individual power. The more power they command, the easier it becomes to acquire even greater power.
The systems devised in the past to counter this flaw in our social structures have become increasingly ineffective. While there still may be hope of effecting positive change through legacy systems, tyranny is sweeping the globe at such an alarming rate that a parallel system is needed.
Fortunately, modern technology provides the means to create a parallel system. One possibility is The Nexus, a virtual network for coordinating voluntary collective actions. It consists of:
Interconnected pods, each pod identified by a public cryptographic key.
A pod has only one function: to recommend voluntary collective actions to other pods.
A proposed collective action consists of six elements: (a) a short descriptive title, (b) the type of action (boycott, strike, vote, donate, demonstrate, pray, etc.), (c) a region code, (d) a target date, (e) a link to a web page with a full description of and rationale for the action and (f) the public key and digital signature of the broadcasting pod. This small bundle of information is called a kit.
Pods may create kits or forward kits received from other pods. In either case, the kit is signed by the broadcasting pod, replacing the previous signature in the latter case. The signature thus signifies endorsement, not ownership. Ownership is obscured.
The Nexus is self-organizing and self-regulating. There is no central authority. Each pod decides which other pods to listen to based on the quality of the kits they broadcast. There is no global voting or ranking mechanism but some pods could act as aggregators and publish rankings of the most popular kits as determined by how many endorsements they receive, while others could act as filters or curators.
I have not mentioned any particular channel of communication between pods, because any of the available channels might suffice in principle: email, forums, blogs, tweets, anonymous boards, etc. If there is sufficient interest, dedicated software will be developed to streamline and enhance the operation of the network.
The key to success is to motivate mass participation. Success breeds success, so the first action should be selected based on the likelihood of demonstrable success even with relatively few participants. Hopefully, some imaginative and creative people will think of actions that are so compelling, inspiring, clever or audacious that they will spread virally.
Addendum (25-Dec-2022):
Looking back on a year on Substack, I can say that it’s the closest approximation to The Nexus that I’ve yet found.
Pros:
Great support for content creators, giving them ownership and control over their creations, which can take several forms: written, audible, visual.
Great support for networking including dialogue with readers via comments and threads, recommendations of other creators to follow., strong search and discovery tools.
Cons:
The platform is centralized and as such could suddenly vanish. At least Substack provides content creators with the actual email addresses of their followers so that the web of connections could be rebuilt. Creators should make a point of saving those addresses.
Not a flaw in the platform, because Substack provides the necessary flexibility, but there is a lack of hierarchy formation. Many have have noticed how easy it is to experience information overload with so many good writers to choose from. As it is, each reader must decide who to read, and I imagine that many do as I have done, frequently adjust my subscription list in accordance with my interests and available time. But a deliberate effort could be made to form interest groups, with several writers coordinating their efforts and sharing their readers.