Central Planning vs Living Systems

I am and will remain an anti-capitalist but whatever replaces it should also be a system. That’s why capitalism thrives, it’s an organism. That’s why it beats planning and steering. Chaos always beats order because it’s better organized (a friend of mine always says that, probably is a quote).

Now, capitalism is an organism that is

cruel

grinding

unfair

rewards evil

doesn’t do its one job well (allocate tasks and resources)

Another world definitely is possible. But I wanna see systems level thinking from the left. Especially amoebas that grow and multiply and unite and divide and make capitalism obsolete.

This why crowdsourcing (as just an example) has impressed me. Not that it’s good:

existing crowdsourcing services are centralized and exploit the network externality for a big cut of profits

enabling us to produce even more unnecessary and oh-so-long-tail-tempting gadgets and doodads is, uh, perhaps not what the world needs right now as it teeters on the brink

the pyramid scheme of the successful and the fans; throwing money at each other: where does value actually come from?

But that it significantly disrupted how we do business. The “capital” part of capitalism. Change is possible. Now we just need ta cook up some systems that are actually good, that actually help the planet and the people♥︎

Computer networks and protocols, for all that field’s Postel gore and malicious actors and Alices and Bobs, are in some ways the perfect model for this, the perfect petri dish where we can hone this kind of thinking.

This is why one of my favorite books is A Pattern Language. I feel like they really get this♥︎

Network externalities