THIS MEDIUM IS AN INSTITUTION FOR CIVILIZATION
From speech and song to writing, reading and print, to global digital networks.
Physical science has revealed new ways of communicating not previously imagined
Human relationships mediated by machine intelligence
WE ARE PRODUCTS OF OUR CIVILIZATION
MEDIA IS POLITICAL- IT SHAPES PERCEPTIONS
By selecting, arranging, and representing reality
THE MEDIA WE EXPERIENCE SHAPES OUR PERCEPTIONS
THE MEDIUM IS EVOLVING
Media does not merely transmit independently existing opinions. By selecting, editing, embellishing, arranging and representing views of circumstances, media informs how we feel about what we perceive, anticipates our questions-what seems imaginable and ultimately our values and views of each other and our communities.
COMMUNITIES ARE TECHNOLOGIES FOR CIVILIZATION
THE MEDIUM IS A POLITICAL INSTITUTION
The existing medium we are using creates a world in which governments formulate assessments and proposals to which the governed population is asked to react.
Within this structure, processes of review, hearings, laws and regulations, surveys, public comment, and elections appear to be the machinery of democracy.
(Start with an institutionally created agenda→give individuals opportunities to react→call the result democracy)
THAT IS NOT DEMOCRACY
Democracy exists when an inclusively constituted community, adequately informed about consequential shared circumstances, can form and express authentic collective authorization of public power.
*THE MEDIUM (NOT THE MEDIA) IS THE MESSAGE*
THE MESSAGE IS NOT
POVERTY-AFFLUENCE-HUNGER
CLIMATE CHANGE-WAR-PANDEMIC
VULNERABILITY–EARTHQUAKE-TORNADO
INFLATION-CORRUPTION-INCOMPETENCE
KNOWLEDGE-IGNORANCE-STUPIDITY
THE MESSAGE IS THAT POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES JUST HAPPEN
But they don’t.
They are produced by human action, institutions, incentives, and power—and therefore can be changed
*THE MESSAGE*
WHO YOU ARE – WHAT YOU WILL BECOME
YOUR OPTIONS
WHOM YOU CAN TRUST – WHY
THE MEDIA YOU ARE PRESENTED IS NOT THE WORLD
BUT REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD
The current population of the Americas—North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America—is approximately 1,062,000,000
(BUT AVAILABLE FOR YOU, ONLY IN YOUR IMAGINATION)
WE ARE 8,314,913,500 HIGHLY DIVERSE, EQUALLY HUMAN LIVES
WE LIVE IN 2.5 TO 4.3 MILLION GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITIES
WE SPEAK AROUND 7,200 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
THE UNITED NATIONS RECOGNIZES 193 NATION STATES
MEDIA SHAPES YOUR EXPERIENCE
(MEDIA INFORMS YOUR BELIEFS)
Every image, headline, number, story, clip and sequence is produced
THE MESSAGE IN THE MEDIUM
IS NOT IN THE CONTENT
IT’S IN THE ALGORITHMS
YOU MAY LISTEN
YOU MAY SPEAK
YOU WILL NOT BE HEARD
ALGORITHMS SORT YOUR THOUGHTS
RECORD YOUR ATTENTION
TO PRESENT THE NEXT THING YOU SEE
THEREBY-INFORMING WHAT YOU KNOW
MEDIA CREATES ILLUSIONS
*PAY TO PLAY*
THIS CIVIC MEDIUM WE ARE NOW USING SUBSTITUTES AGGREGATED REACTIONS TO INSTITUTIONALLY CREATED AGENDAS FOR POLITICAL WILL.
Why are some rewarded?
Whom do we listen to-why?
What is success?
Our institutional medium substitutes public reaction to institutionally created agendas for political will.
Authentic political will originates in an informed community that forms and expresses the collective authorization of its public power.
Who Authorizes Public Power in a Democracy?
WHO DECIDES WHICH FACES CYCLE IN YOUR MEDIA?
WHO OWNS
THE AGGREGATE WEALTH OF THE NATION?
WHO DECIDES WHAT FACES ARE REPEATED?
ELON MUSK-PETER THEIL-HARVEY WEINSTEIN-BIBI NETENYAHU-RICHARD NIXON-J.D. VANCE-JOE BIDEN, SYLVESTER STALLONE-NICOLE KIDMAN
WHAT ALGORITHMS ARE INFORMING YOUR DESIRE?
MANIPULATING YOUR EMOTIONS
FOR WHAT PURPOSE?
TO WHAT END?
HOW WE PERCEIVE REALITY IS SHAPED BY MEDIA
HOWEVER, IF THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE
THE MESSAGE IS THAT YOUR REALITY IS A NARRATIVE
THAT SOMEBODY OR NOBODY IS WRITING
(PERHAPS AN ALGORITHM)
GLOBAL ONLINE PLATFORMS
ARE CONTROLLED BY DIGITAL CODE
THEY HAVE NO MORAL CODE
THERE ARE NO ETHICAL STANDARDS
THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITY
IS THAT A PROBLEM?
POSSIBLY NOT FOR MR. ZUCKERBERG
IRONICALLY PERHAPS
TO CHANGE CIRCUMSTANCES
(MAY NOT BE ABOUT MEDIA CONTENT AT ALL)
*REQUIRES THAT WE RE-DESIGN THE MEDIUM*
The Institutional medium is a structure for civic action
But who defines the problem? Who establishes what is true? Who develops the alternatives? Who forms the judgment? Who authorizes the exercise of consequential power?
Many consequential circumstances presented as reality are produced through human institutions and decisions, while the existing civic medium leaves the public principally in the role of observer and reactor rather than author.
What has the public understood and authorized about the national debt?
THE NATIONAL DEBT EXCEEDS $40 TRILLION
YIELD ON A 10-YEAR US TREASURY NOTE IS 5.01%
WE ARE PAYING
$1,000,000,000,000/year
INTEREST ON THE NATIONAL DEBT
Who authorized the risks of nuclear escalation?
AND WE FORGET TO ASK
WHAT DO WE WANT?
WAR — CLIMATE — FAMINE — PUBLIC DEBT — DEVELOPMENT
DECISIONS ARE BEING MADE
CONSEQUENCES ARE BEING PRODUCEDWHAT HAVE WE UNDERSTOOD?
WHAT HAVE WE AUTHORIZED?
AND WHAT DO WE WANT?
PUBLIC CIRCUMSTANCES ARE PRODUCED BY HUMAN ACTION
THEY ARE NOT CREATED BY A GLOBAL AUTHORITY
GLOBAL PROBLEMS ARE NOT CREATED BY A GLOBAL GOVERNMENT
GLOBAL CONDITIONS EMERGE FROM LOCAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ACTION
PUBLIC CIRCUMSTANCES ARE SHAPED BY HUMAN ACTION
Not by one actor.
Not always intentionally.
Not always controllably.
Public policy, investment, regulation, development, consumption, military action, infrastructure and institutional priorities shape consequences.
THE MEDIUM HAS MADE THE PUBLIC AN OBSERVER AND REACTOR RATHER THAN AN AUTHOR.
THE MESSAGE IS THAT POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES JUST HAPPEN.
CHANGING THE MEDIUM
RESTORING DEMOCRACY
Instead of decisions made without public input, with people everywhere quietly terrified or occasionally protesting.
WITH A MEDIUM THAT REFLECTS OUR INFORMED PERSPECTIVES AND COLLECTIVE JUDGMENT
AND A DESIGN THAT EVOLVES WITH US AS WE GROW
*POLITICS IS LOCAL*
TO REFLECT WHAT AND WHO WE ARE
THE MEDIUM MUST BE INCLUSIVE
DEMOCRACY IS NOT PUBLIC POWER EXERCISED WITHOUT THE INFORMED AUTHORIZATION OF THE GOVERNED
DEMOCRACY REQUIRES AUTHENTIC CONSENSUS
(verifiable agreement with disagreement preserved)
IN A TRUE DEMOCRACY COMMUNITIES ARE AUTONOMOUS
In autonomous communities people set their own priorities
CHANGING THE GAME
WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF INTENTIONALLY DESIGNING
A NEW POLITICAL MEDIUM
Not merely creating more exciting content
An information environment through which people in autonomous communities understand reality, form judgment, establish relationships, and coordinate action.
The existing medium begins with institutions and organizes public reaction.
CAN is not merely giving people a better way to participate in the existing civic medium.
CAN changes who authors political reality.
CAN begins with the community and provides the infrastructure through which the community can understand circumstances, form judgment, establish authentic political will, authorize action, and coordinate power.
*COORDINATED ACTION NETWORKS*
*CAN*
A DELIBERATELY DESIGNED MEDIUM
WITH CAN
You just have to show up
On your community’s platform
Look and listen
Problems, ideas, concerns
Personal experience
Interact NATURALLY
Find common interests
Challenge assumptions
Question information
Find out what holds up
Define NEW actions
Negotiate
Challenge
Propose
Build consensus
A collective voice
AUTHORIZE collective action
Coordinate resources
AND REMEMBER SALIENT THINGS
USE COMMUNITY RESOURCES AND TALENT
With a MEDIUM that connects people with knowledge, relationships, tools, money and resources, and authority derived from inclusive democratic decision-making.
*COORDINATED ACTION NETWORKS*
TECHNOLOGY FOR DEMOCRATIC INFRASTRUCTURE
A process through which people
share reliable information;
trade experiences and goods
identify uncertainties;
examine objectives, alternatives, risks, and consequences;
aggregate power
hear different points of view;
make agreements; define differences; create boundaries;
authorize common priorities, and set limits;
Coordinate resources and action;
preserve commitments and public records; and
hold institutions and representatives accountable
LIFE-SAVING COORDINATION IN EMERGENCIES
maintain communication
coordinate volunteers
communities support others
share vital resources
facilitate government efforts
WHAT HELP MEANS
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
iNDEPENDENT COLLECTIVE ACTION
CAN is not principally 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.
A colonial relationship does not require malicious intent.
COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION exists whenever the authority to define problems, determine priorities, allocate resources and judge success remains outside the community, while the people living with the consequences are treated primarily as recipients of decisions made on their behalf.
Food, housing, healthcare, education and emergency assistance are essential.
But charity is not self-government
A community should not have to remain powerless in order to qualify for help.
CAN makes collective agency itself the infrastructure
When we have a say in development decisions
Development is sustainable
When communities can sustain themselves
WHEN GLOBAL COOLING IS INDEPENDENTLY ACTIONABLE
Climate change is global, but actions that produce—or reverse—it are local
Communities must therefore be actors, not beneficiaries
Community consensus drives coordinated action
Homes can be affordable
Communities can be livable
Childcare can support parents
Parks can be preserved
Local economies can thrive
Government decisions can serve the governed
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 CIVILIZED NEW MEDIUM
Communications infrastructure through which individuals can cooperate and establish legitimate relationships and coordinate consequential action without surrendering their autonomy.
CAN is beginning with geographically-bounded human communities–not as a limit, but as a way to understand how a medium empowers the future..