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Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias

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Description

A wide-ranging collection of writings on emerging political structures in cyberspace.

In Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias, Peter Ludlow extends the approach he used so successfully in High Noon on the Electronic Frontier, offering a collection of writings that reflects the eclectic nature of the online world, in addition to its tremendous energy and creativity. This time the subject is the emergence of governance structures within online communities and the visions of political sovereignty shaping some of those communities. Ludlow views virtual communities as laboratories for conducting experiments in the construction of new societies and governance structures. Even as many online experiments will fail, Ludlow argues that given the synergy of the online world, new and superior governance structures may emerge. Indeed, utopian visions don’t seem to be out of place, so long as we consider the new utopias to be fleeting localized “islands in the Net” and not permanent institutions.

The book is organized in five sections. The first section considers the sovereignty of the Internet. The second section asks how widespread access to resources such as Pretty Good Privacy and anonymous remailers allows the potential of “Crypto Anarchy” — essentially carving out space for activities that lie outside the purview of nation states and other traditional powers. The third section shows how the growth of e-commerce is raising questions of legal jurisdiction and taxation for which the geographic boundaries of nation-states are obsolete. The fourth section looks at specific experimental governance structures evolved by online communities. The fifth section considers utopian and anti-utopian visions for cyberspace.

Contributors
Richard Barbrook, John Perry Barlow, William E. Baugh Jr., David S. Bennahum, Hakim Bey, David Brin, Andy Cameron, Dorothy E. Denning, Mark Dery, Kevin Doyle, Duncan Frissell, Eric Hughes, Karrie Jacobs, David Johnson, Peter Ludlow, Timothy C. May, Jennifer L. Mnookin, Nathan Newman, David G. Post, Jedediah S. Purdy, Charles J. Stivale

Freedom’s not dead in cyberspace. That’s the premise of philosopher Peter Ludlow and among the contributors to his Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias, and it’s hard to argue another way after reading it. Deliberately freeing the volume from the shackles of academic rigor (and jargon), Ludlow draws deeply from the cyber-underground and mixes classic rants with post-millennial realism. From John Perry Barlow’s chestnut “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” to Jedediah Purdy’s cautionary “The God of the Digerati,” the collection is direct, confrontational, and thought-provoking.

Though the topic of virtual communities has been thoroughly explored elsewhere, the potential of spaces free from terrestrial jurisdiction–called “Temporary Autonomous Zones” by Hakim Bey–has not yet penetrated mainstream thought. Strong encryption and essential qualities of the Internet–like portability–make certain that such utopias will remain theoretically and practically tenable through the foreseeable future, and Ludlow’s visionaries need to see them flower. The penultimate section on experimental governing systems and the appended interview with Noam Chomsky demolishing widely held beliefs about anarchy crown the book with deep thinking about issues vital to the future of freedom–online and off. It’s exciting to see this work get the widespread attention it deserves–with any luck, the iconic Net user will soon trade in the pocket protector for an eye patch. –Rob Lightner

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