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@ Free-floating Intelligence
2024-11-28 07:40:02Article by Milosz Matuschek, originally from "Freischwebende Intelligenz"
‘The secret of freedom is courage,’ said the Greek historian Thucydides.
A particular example of this can be found in the film ‘The Dark Knight rises’ from Christopher Nolan's Batman series. Captured mercenaries are locked in a deep pit. A cruel prison where you can see the blue sky every day, but never get any closer to the sun. Even more cruel is the fact that it is possible to get out of the shaft by climbing the stairs in the side walls, but only a few dare to do so. At one point, the stairs break off and you have to be prepared to jump over the chasm, to take the ‘death leap’.
The old media system is dead
Anyone who speaks out publicly in more repressive times knows the feeling: Do I dare to come out with what I believe to be the truth, do I risk my (social) life for it? Do I dare to take the death leap into the unknown? More than half of Germans no longer dare to speak their mind in public. The mainstream has become a closed consent cult. Constricted spaces, absurd times.
In our current media setting, we are all prisoners of tech giants, whether readers or journalists. And they, in turn, are prisoners of governments. The Twitter files showed that social media companies were put under massive censorship pressure by government agencies in the USA and easily gave in to it. This also applied to Facebook. Google censored and deleted millions of videos on YouTube. Twitter/X is under fire in Brazil and Pavel Durov from Telegram was arrested and put under pressure in France.
Anyone who creates content in the current media environment, be it as a YouTuber, podcaster, blogger or freelance journalist, is a mercenary trapped in the shaft of the tech giants. The path to freedom seems open, follower numbers may be growing and so are advertising revenues. But it’s a trap. There is no way out of the shaft at the top. The shaft is covered by a heavy pane of glass, which is also hot. Critical channels grow in this setting until they become too big, too delicate and too dangerous and then burst like balloons on the hot glass ceiling.
Publishing in times of increasing censorship pressure in the opinion silos of tech giants is a farce. Nothing belongs to you here: Not your channel, not your followers, not even your own identity. The content creator is a tolerated onlooker. The ‘gig economy’ currently offers a fake rise to billionaire status, a feudal system with false independence where you can be fired at any time. And what happens if you are deleted or blocked? Often, supposedly due to a lack of alternatives, a second or third channel is set up, which eventually suffers the same fate.
Isn't it the definition of madness to always do the same thing and expect a different result? To paraphrase Camus: you have to imagine the modern, critical content creator Sisyphus as a happy madman. When are we going to stop?
**Time to take back control **
Why should we entrust the fruits of our critical labour to others when we could create a network that belongs to ourselves? The tools are there. The time of the old, hierarchical platform economy is over. The future belongs to decentralized networks that put control back into the hands of each individual. Decentralized systems have always been superior to centralized systems. This epochal change has long since reached the monetary system with Bitcoin (and is putting it under pressure). The same is now about to happen in the area of free speech. Free money and free information belong together and in the hands of the citizen.
The old media system is heading for an exodus of readers and Terence McKenna recognised this almost 30 years ago.
Old media is communication from the few to the many. The internet offers communication from many to many. The latter is far more powerful. Old media instruct the reader from the position of the media ivory tower. In the new media age, it is possible to organise the search for truth in a cooperative and collaborative manner; the critical public can participate in the search for truth as a swarm intelligence. This is how we develop the fabric of reality ourselves.
This is how we take back control
I have been working on this new way of publishing with some very tech-savvy and enthusiastic people for a good year now. We are (currently) calling it the Pareto Project. The aim is to give everyone the opportunity to publish critically from anywhere in the world. And this while maintaining the highest degree of independence and freedom.
In the Pareto system, the following will be possible:
- Anyone can create an identity that belongs only to them, secured by the most secure cryptographic process currently available (asymmetric cryptography, i.e. public and private key, similar to a Bitcoin wallet).
- The content (text, video, podcast, etc.) is highly resistant to censorship, we host and publish via a large number of different nodes (relays) that are operated privately. We use the nodes of others, but also operate our own nodes. If nodes or clients are blocked, new ones can easily be created. Every journalist, reader, interested party, etc. can operate their own nodes without much technical knowledge and thus additionally secure themselves (and the network).
- Channels, IDs or content cannot be confiscated.Nobody has access to your account except you.
- Every channel can now scale to infinity. No more hot glass ceiling.
- Easy onboarding with our support: If you want, you can keep your current channel and build a second pillar via our publication network, a kind of uncensorable ‘back-up channel’.
- We are building on Nostr's decentralised protocol.The network was designed by a former Bitcoin developer and is backed by former Twitter founder Jack Dorsey (who has no control over it).
- Both Nostr and our solution are open source. Anyone can develop this system further, build a completely new one or add building blocks to the current system.
- In our solution, payments via Lightning/Bitcoin will be integrated, be it as a one-time donation or as a subscription. Each ID can connect to an uncensorable Bitcoin/Lightning wallet. It will also be possible to continue using all other payment methods.
- As a reader, you decide which content is displayed to you, you can use your own algorithms or do without them altogether. From the reader's point of view, it is possible to put together your own daily information programme from the selected content/sources, your own individualised ‘virtual newspaper’.
- We are also working on integrating researchers, proofreaders etc. into the programme. It should be as uncomplicated as possible to create content based on the preliminary work of others, to exchange ideas, to improve the content or adapt it to the latest developments, to build up your own reputation in the network, but also to reward those involved by donations and subscriptions.
Where do we stand and what do we need?
- We are currently working with a team of developers (all of whom are readers of this publication!) on a prototype/MVP for a publication client on Nostr, which we want to finalise by the end of the year.
- Our first product will be a blog format with an integrated newsletter, its own editor and donation/subscription options. Text, podcast, video, everything should be possible.
- It's not too difficult to migrate existing content and create an uncensorable archive of your own work. I am already uncensorable. If Substack is forced to delete channels tomorrow, I can continue publishing undisturbed.
Call
- Are you a critical journalist, content creator or even your own publication? Come on board as a tester and contribute your own ideas. We are building Pareto cooperatively.
- Are you a developer and want to work on technical problems and solutions? We are always on the lookout for bright minds with the right mindset. We require a love of the free word. In particular, we are looking for further developers in the area of frontend (JavaScript) and/or full stack.
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Would you like to support us financially? Your donation will go directly towards the development of the first product, which we will launch in the new year (planned for January). Then we can get started, with further development steps following approximately every three months. We are also open to investors.
Kontakt@idw-europe.org
In the ‘Dark Knight rises’, the only way to freedom is by jumping without a rope and double bottom, with the fear of death breathing down your neck.
We now have the opportunity to make the leap before others break our necks.
We are greatful for donations in Bitcoin/Lightning/ZAP me!
*Milosz Matuschek, born 1980 in Poland, is a lawyer and journalist living in Switzerland. He has written for leading mainstream media in the past, has published 8 books and writes the Substack newsletter „Freischwebende Intelligenz“, one of the leading critical newsletters in Europe. ***