Several newcomers--either actual newcomers or mental newcomers--have
asked for details on the "roadmap to anarchy." Some have demanded
that I write explanations for them of how each step will unfold, how
services like road-building and fire departments will be "replaced"
by some anarchic equivalent.
This reveals a major misunderstanding of what is going on here.
For one thing, libertarians have been debating alternatives to
state-run highway departments and fire departments for, literally,
decades. Magazines like "Reason" and "Liberty" have carried articles
on these topics for decades.
Does this mean they know the roadmap, the trajectory? Of course not.
Ray Dillinger has opined that Jim Bell has come the "closest," in his
opinion, to laying out how current government systems will be
replaced by "anarchist" systems. I'm not sure what Ray is smoking,
but he ought to find a way to sell it, anarchically, of course.
There are many forms of anarchies.
The mistake folks like Ray Dillinger and Emma Goldstein make is to
assume "an anarchy," or "the anarchy." Sort of the way some believers
in a nanotech/uploading/AI "singularity" (pace Vinge) refer to the
event not just as _a_ singularity, or even as "the Singularity," but
as "Singularity." As in, "when we achieve Singularity, our worldly
cares will vanish in a blinding flash of pure neuronic bliss."
Well, there ain't going to be "Anarchy," as in some scheme whereby
all existing institutions are somehow replaced by anarchic
equivalents. No one of reputation here has suggested this is likely.
Rather, it is the _process_ of moving toward less regulation.
Ideas + Tools + Implementation --> Process --> Anarchies
The "Ideas" of anarchy are well-known, from leftist anarchists (who
miss the idea of voluntary arrangements into corporations) to
libertarian anarchists, well-known to us. And the notions of anarchy
are all around us: anarchic choices in most facets of life in free
societies, free choice, and bypassing of local cops.
The "Tools" of anarchy come from what we talk about on a daily basis:
Samizdat publications, Xerox machines, the Internet, encryption,
remailers, Napster, steganography, Usenet, Blacknet, black markets,
transnational information flows, regulatory arbitrage, and the sheer
"degrees of freedom" implicit in modern information technology.
This is leading to the "Process" of developing anarchies...notice
that I said "anarchies," and not "anarchy."
Those who demand that I, or others, give them detailed recipes and
roadmaps for how to achieve "anarchy" are missing the whole point.
This is why I call them lightweights.
The _process_ is what is interesting, not some road map to some
hypothesized state of Anarchy.
--Tim May
--
Timothy C. May [EMAIL PROTECTED] Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns
