The Peer to Peer Manifesto

[Caduceus Mercurius]

"Today, the Internet offers a remarkable social dynamic completely based on voluntary participation in the creation of common goods made universally available to all.
Peer production, governance and property are more productive economically, politically, and in terms of distribution, than their governmental and for-profit counterparts, because they filter out all the less productive forms of motivation and cooperation, and retain only passionate production and intrinsic motivation."

The Peer to Peer Manifesto: The Emergence of P2P Civilization and Political Economy

by Michel Bauwens

Our current political economy is based on a fundamental mistake. It is based on the assumption that natural resources are unlimited, and that it is an endless sink. This false assumption creates artificial scarcity for potentially abundant cultural resources. This combination of quasi-abundance and quasi-scarcity destroys the biosphere and hampers the expansion of social innovation and a free culture.

In a P2P-based society, this situation is reversed: the limits of natural resources are recognized, and the abundance of immaterial resources becomes the core operating principle. The vision of P2P theory is the following:

1. the core intellectual, cultural and spiritual value will be produced through non-reciprocal peer production;
2. it is surrounded by a reformed, peer-inspired, sphere of material exchange;
3. it is globally managed by a peer-inspired and reformed state and governance system.

Because of these characteristics, peer to peer can be said to be the core logic of the successor civilization, and is an answer and solution to the structural crisis of contemporary capitalism.

Read the blog at RealitySandwich

 

[phalaris]

Thanks, I needed some reading to waste my day and feel guilty afterwards.

 

[Guest]

When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide.

I like this one more!
It's a hell of a lot longer

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

I like this one more!

Nice! I admittedly scrolled through it, but it's got a lot of interesting points. Like:

"Here's a little secret: Anything a band sells that does not have music on it is outside the reach of the record label, and monetarily supports the artist more than buying a CD ever would. T-shirts, posters, hats, keychains, stickers, etc. Send the band a letter telling them that you're no longer going to be purchasing their music, but you will be listening to it, and you will be spreading the word and supporting them in other ways."

 

[????????]

a peer to peer government would be a step above democracy

so what would happen to the music industry? I think they either die fighting or learn to adapt.......................................

 

[BrainEater]

a peer to peer government would be a step above democracy

so what would happen to the music industry? I think they either die fighting or learn to adapt.......................................

the only thing that would be lacking them would be money and there's tons of money in some people's pockets, so if they would give some support, the problem would be solved quite fast actually....

 

[gammagoblin]

a peer to peer government would be a step above democracy

so what would happen to the music industry? I think they either die fighting or learn to adapt.......................................

Maybe people will be making music for the music again, instead of for the big bucks they can earn from it now (at least, a lot of them).