COORDINATED ACTION NETWORKS
INFRASTRUCTURE FOR DEMOCRACY
CAN changes people from objects of institutional action into organized agents
capable of authorizing collective power.
YOU SET THE AGENDA FOR GOVERNMENT
YOU SHOW UP
On your community’s CAN platform
CONVERSATION
Hear common interests
Make a plan
BUILD CONSENSUS
Discover resources
ACT
INFRASTRUCTURE FOR DEMOCRACY
real people
reliable information;
identify objectives
aggregate power
define differences
priorities
resources for action
commitments
accountability
IF YOU ARE A MACHINE
An algorithm pings you to check system status
IF YOU ARE HUMAN
YOUR ABILITY TO GOVERN THE USE OF COLLECTIVE POWER
IS CALLED DEMOCRACY
DEMOCRACY DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU KNOW
MEDIA INFORMS YOU
PLATO THOUGHT
WE ARE INCAPABLE OF SELF-GOVERNMENT
Plato gave up on democracy – In his time, very few could read or write.
In 1450
Gutenberg’s Printing Press began to change that
HUMANS HAVE NOT CHANGED IN A FEW HUNDRED YEARS
BUT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY HAS EVOLVED FROM LANTERN SLIDES CLAY TABLETS
AND TROUBADOURS
TO CANDY CRUSH, TIKTOK, X, TRUTH SOCIAL
AND TAYLOR SWIFT
MEDIA NOW CONTINUOUSLY INFORMS YOUR DESIRES
A DIGITAL MEDIUM IS NOW OPTIMIZED TO FEED YOU CONTENT
TO MAKE YOU FEEL COOL
TO MAKE YOU FEEL DESPERATE
IN MAINSTREAM MEDIA
DECISIONS
THAT AFFECT YOUR LIFE SEEM DEMOCRATIC
WE’RE ALL GOD’S CHILDREN
IF YOU BELIEVE
SO YOU SHOULD BELIEVE
AN ALGORITHM
COLLECTS INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
TO HOLD YOUR ATTENTION
WITH ADDICTIVE NARRATIVES
THE ALGORITHM
DOESN’T “CARE”
ABOUT YOU OR ANYTHING
AN ALGORITHM IS A NUMBER SEQUENCE
THE ALGORITHM IS CODE
THE MEDIA IS CONVINCING
“THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE”
(Marshall McLuhan predicted that electronic media would shrink the world into a single interconnected “global village,” allowing instant communication across vast distance. (THIS HAS NOT HAPPENED)
META, X, TIKTOK, GOOGLE, ETC.
COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU TO GET YOUR ATTENTION
YOU SEE
YOUR FEARS
STARVING FAMILIES-PORN-DROUGHT-CELEBRITY-FAMINE-FASHION-GENOCIDE-VIOLENCE-HURRICANES-PANDEMIC–EARTHQUAKE-TORNADO-INFLATION-CORRUPTION-POLITICAL INCOMPETENCE-FLOODS-FREAKS-CARS-AIRPLANES
MEDIA REVEALS THE NORMAL
GENOCIDE IS NORMALIZED
SURROGATE PEERS
INFORM WHAT YOU WANT
DEFINE YOU
DEFINE BEAUTY
DEFINE RIGHT V. WRONG
WHAT CAR/SPOUSE/DOG
WHO TO LISTEN TO
WHO TO VOTE FOR
WHAT TO LEARN
WHAT TO IGNORE
WHO IS CENSORED
THE IMPORTANT MESSAGE IS NONSENSICAL
YOU
ARE
RESPONSIBLE
THE MEDIA YOU SEE IS
(INSTITUTIONALLY)
PROMOTED
REALITY
THE MEDIUM REWARDS YOU
FOR PAYING ATTENTION
A PRESIDENT’S SOCIAL MEDIA POST
ENCODES YOU
Political will is a code name for public authorization of collective power…
Algorithms can effectively produce a statistical proof for practically anything…
(WHO YOU ARE)
You are one of +/- 1,062,000,000 HUMANS
In North America, Central America, Caribbean, and South America
And you are one of +/- 8,314,913,500 HUMAN LIVES
In 2.5 TO 4.3 MILLION GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITIES
YOU SPEAK ONE OF 7,200 KNOWN LANGUAGES
YOU LIVE IN ONE OF 193 U.N. MEMBER STATES
ON A PLANET IN A GALAXY CALLED, “THE MILKY WAY”
MEDIA INFORMS
SHAPES YOUR PERCEPTIONS
HOW ARE YOU RESPONSIBLE?
MEDIA SUGGESTS THAT YOU CONTROL
THE WEALTH AND POWER
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
U.S. household wealth: +/- $185.66 trillion (2026)
BY LAW, THE PUBLIC OWNS THE AIRWAVES
WHO DECIDES WHICH FACES WE SEE IN MEDIA?
WHO CODES THE MACHINES THAT INFORM OUR DESIRES?
USING MEDIA TO MANIPULATE HOW WE FEEL ABOUT OURSELVES?
MEDIA SHAPES OUR PERCEPTIONS
By selecting our reality
THE MEDIUM IS POLITICAL
MARK ZUCKERBERG, META
GLOBAL PLATFORMS
ARE CENTRALLY CONTROLLED
BY ALGORITHMS
NO MORAL CODE
NO ETHICAL STANDARDS
NO COMPASSION
NO PROBLEM
IF THEY ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE
WHY ARE YOU RESPONSIBLE?
YOU CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING
BY USING CARS
YOUR HIGH ENERGY LIFESTYLES
YOU DEPEND ON FOSSIL FUELS
AS THE SHINE FADES ON THE TESLA THAT YOU CAN ONLY AFFORD TO WANT
YOU LEARN YOU MUST ADAPT
AND PAY FOR FLOODS
COMMISERATE AT BURNING MAN
SING ALONG AT COACHELLA
IN FASHONABLE STYLE AT EDINBURGH
MEDIA PRETENDS THERE’S A CHOICE
STREAMING MOVIES
LEAD YOU TO THINK WAR IS NORMAL
YOU HAVE NO HEALTHCARE
YOUR HOME COSTS HALF YOUR EARNINGS
YOUR EDUCATION IS OBSOLETE
YOU DON’T KNOW WHY YOU PAY FOR A GENOCIDE BUT IT’S BETTER THAN A DRAFT
YOU AUTHORIZE NOTHING
YOU’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING
CONSEQUENCES
OF MASS COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
USED FOR ADVERTISING REVENUE
THIS IS CALLED, DEMOCRACY?
The public is an observer – not the author
POLITICIANS DO NOT ASK
WHAT YOU WANT
IT’S NOT THEIR JOB TO INFORM YOU
IT COULD BE INCONVENIENT FOR THEIR DONORS
THIS IS THE SYSTEM, WORKING NORMALLY
WAR — CLIMATE — FAMINE — PUBLIC DEBT — DEVELOPMENT
DECISIONS ARE CAUSING
CONSEQUENCESWHEN WERE WE INFORMED?
WHAT DID WE AUTHORIZE?
THE GREATER THE CONSEQUENCE OF PUBLIC POWER
THE GREATER THE NEED FOR PUBLIC AUTHORIZATION
SINCE POLITICS IS LOCAL
LOCAL DECISIONS
CAUSE GLOBAL PROBLEMS
Local infrastructure and institutional priorities have consequences.
COMMERCIAL TECHNOLOGY MADE US OBSERVERS AND REACTORS,
THE MESSAGE OF COMMERCIAL MEDIA
WE CAN’T CHANGE OUR CIRCUMSTANCES
BUT WHEN WE CHANGE THE MEDIUM
PUBLIC AUTHORIZATION
Democracy empowers the public
to authorize collective power
DEMOCRACY NEEDS TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
COORDINATED ACTION NETWORKS
IS THE TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
FOR DEMOCRACY
CAN is infrastructure through which communities can exercise their ability to authorize conscious care for quality of life.
ARCHITECTURE FOR DEMOCRATIC AUTHORIZATION OF PUBLIC POWER
The measure of a community is not how efficiently it governs itself,
but how well it cares for people generally
and nurtures its children specifically.
ON THE CUSP OF INTENTIONAL DESIGN
CAN IS AN INTENTIONALLY POLITICAL MEDIUM
Not merely more and better content
CAN
Makes personal agency and responsibility possible.
Personal agency and responsibility make peace possible.
CAN IS OPTIMIZED FOR ITS USERS
CAN provides a medium through which communities see their circumstances and establish consensus to authorize the action they desire, and coordinate their own collective power.
The power of community is in collective authorization.
This power appears when our autonomous separate lives are meaningful in relation to one another.
CAN REVEALS OUR TALENT AND RESOURCES
LIFE-SAVING COORDINATION IN EMERGENCIES
CAN helps
coordinate volunteers share vital resources
and facilitate government efforts
CAN EMPOWERS COLLECTIVE CAPACITY
HELP IMPLIES DISABILITY
Historically, philanthropy follows a familiar structure:
Funders identify a problem.
Organizations design an intervention.
Institutions allocate resources.
People receive services.
Success is measured in beneficiaries reached.
Relieving suffering does not change who holds the power to make consequential decisions
CAN is not an intervention delivered to underserved people.
CAN is infrastructure through which people cease to occupy the institutional category of “underserved beneficiaries.”
CAN participants define the problem, establish what is true, determine priorities, make consequential choices, coordinate resources, and hold institutions accountable.
PLAYAS DE TIJUANA
DEVELOPERS WANT TO BUILD 9 HIGHRISE TOWERS WITH 1600 UPSCALE APARTMENTS, AND A HOTEL AND SHOPPING MALL
IN A CONSERVATION AREA
Water & energy outages are already frequent
Traffic is already intolerable
RESIDENTS ARE OBJECTING
THE COMMUNITY ISN’T ORGANIZED
The community remains inside the process the development system already knows how to defeat: hearings, objections, petitions, scattered evidence, procedural delay and exhaustion.
When we have a say in development decisions
Development is sustainable
When communities can sustain themselves
GLOBAL COOLING IS INDEPENDENTLY ACTIONABLE
COLONIAL RELATIONSHIPS DON’T BEGIN WITH MALICIOUS INTENTION
“BANALITY OF EVIL” – HANNAH ARENDT
Food, housing, healthcare, education and emergency assistance are essential.
Charity reflects kind intention but is not self-government
A community should not have to be powerless to qualify for help.
CAN makes collective agency itself the infrastructure
Communities must be actors, not waiting for handouts.
Actions that produce or reverse global warming are local
Community consensus can drive action
Homes can be affordable
Communities can be livable
Childcare can support parents
Parks can be preserved
Local economies can thrive
What people agree on—right now, moving the world
CAN’s architecture does not assume that today’s human institutions, today’s internet, or today’s electromagnetic communications represent the final form of intelligent relationship.
THE MEDIUM IS EVOLVING
CAN is not designed around any particular communications technology. CAN is an architecture through which autonomous communities can understand themselves, build consensus, create wealth, carry out plans, create shared identity and document provenance, negotiate relationships and boundaries, establish consent, coordinate consequential action and preserve autonomy.
COORDINATED ACTION NETWORKS
TECHNOLOGY FOR A DEMOCRATIC CIVIC MEDIUM
Communications infrastructure through which people in communities can cooperate, establish legitimate relationships, and coordinate consequential action without surrendering individual autonomy
CAN is beginning with geographically-bounded human communities–not as a limit, but as a way to understand how a medium empowers responsibility