electrohippies

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The thesis of the electrohippie

The Internet is a conceptual entity... there is no 'there' there.

At the same time the Internet is an extension of the everyday reality of the human condition... it's form directly reflects the tangible realities of the society that created it. The Internet is not isolated from the problems, the inequalities and the injustices of human society. It accentuates them through the dominance of technological systems over human relations in the same way the economic and political barriers affect human relations in the real world.

The reality of the systems that the Internet and digital technologies are based upon is not hardware, or code, or hacking... it's the creativity of real people. It is the conflict between the desire of people to create, and those who seek technological or economic dominance over how humanity should be allowed to express their creativity, that defines the struggle for freedom of expression within the electronic domain.

When humanity networks its consciousness through a decentralised system, but the dominant ideology of the state seeks to maintain control, the result is a contradiction of purposes. People seek to access the means of expression the network creates, but the economic and political status quo within the wider society sets abstract and arbitrary rules that conflict with the purposes of the network. In particular, the freedom to create new systems of social organisation and expression is stamped upon because the dogmas of the former elite cannot countenance their loss of control.

There is only one solution to this conflict: between the mechanical and organic; between control and free expression; between those who seek new models of social organisation and those who wish to reinforce the old. We master the conceptual network by developing our capacity to act conceptually – by improving our knowledge and communication skills and then transferring this knowledge freely to others. We develop the capacity of civil society to meet the forces of control not with opposition, but with practical alternatives. We do not develop solutions within the terms imposed by the forces of control, but within our own capabilities for development and implementation. We do not hoard information in order exploit its economic or political power, but we share it, transferring that power to all via the network.

Power does not exist in a single individual or political entity until others transfer their ability to act to that individual or political entity. Knowledge cannot exist as a purely conceptual framework – it requires human society to give practical expression to that knowledge through its actions in order for our knowledge to develop. Freedom is not the ability to have, or to control, unless it invokes the ability to share. A network is not a means of communication, but a means to communicate, and therefore share power, knowledge, and through these our conscious freedom.... and thus we must transcend the mundane constructs human technology – that reinforce the old economic relations through artifical barriers to participation in technologically mediated power, knowledge and freedom – in order to truly realise the creative potential of the human species.

There is no such thing as an electrohippie, there is only the idea... share that idea and be an electrohippie.

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