Computational Independence

Own, and be happy.

Electronic communication is the second domain we will examine, as we outline the institutions necessary for an effective parallel society. It governs the way we live and think, yet we give little thought to the infrastructure that makes such communication possible, and to those corporations which control it. There is a slow but steadily increasing demand that is placed on all of us to trust our data and our correspondences to entities beyond our control. New generations of cars are designed without means to play physical media. Even libraries are forbidden from owning the digital volumes to which they have purchased access. There has also been a trend in recent years in which software has come to be rented rather than owned. One must now pay monthly dues merely to use the world’s most common word processor. Thus, the means of communication are almost entirely held by a very few enormous corporations. The consequences of this concentration of power are borne out daily in the constant alteration of information for political purposes. Indeed, it is fast becoming clear that in order to have true independence, there is only one way to resist. Citizens must develop new electronic technology which serve their own interests.

We must first examine what we gain and what we lose from different forms of electronic technology. The responsible use of desktop computers does not have the same effect on society as the obligatory use of smartphones. Desktop computers allows for efficient calculation, and for the production of content that hitherto could have been produced only by large corporations. Linux machines are easy to reprogram and modify for almost any purpose imaginable. Indeed, a powerful machine, well-stocked with open-source software provides one with power and independence unheard of before the Information Age. Therefore, offline open source creative software should greatly benefit new parallel societies. However, the increasing internet dependence of such software, as well as the subscription model many purveyors have adopted, destroys the freedom to create promised to us in the days when computers were new.

Touch screen based devices however, have had uniquely deleterious effects upon our society. The damages they inflict upon children and families are by this point well known and very unpleasant. They are largely designed to addict users, and are quite difficult for laymen to tinker with and reprogram. Since they are so simple to operate, one can use them from infancy and know nothing about how they work. In order to create a truly independent parallel society, it may become necessary to avoid this form of communication technology altogether.

Organized avoidance of smartphones is so far only present among Anabaptist and Hasidic sects. While many Anabaptists avoid all smartphone technology altogether, Hasidic societies have developed “kosher cell phones” which have been rendered incapable of accessing the Internet. Since both of these growing groups are successfully resisting mainstream culture, it is likely that an avoidance of digital involution is the key to cultural independence, rather than a complete rejection of all technology.

The first step would be to create an organization of citizens who agree not to use mass-market smartphones or tablets. It might also be advantageous for members of such a community to purchase property near one another, as this could make it easier to prevent children from accidentally encountering smartphones. Internet access might in these societies be regulated something like alcohol or tobacco, and be forbidden to anyone under the age of twenty one. The adoption of open source software such as Linux for desktop computers would also be a defining characteristic of these societies. If such a society grew sufficiently in membership and funds, it might erect a Great American Library for the enjoyment and edification of its members. One might think that such strictures upon the use of computers would lead to technological stagnation, but that would be far from the case. There would be a great need for computers designed for specific purposes. Optimized machines would be designed for everything from learning mathematics to creating artwork. Computers would be transformed from a means of consumption to a means of creation. Since these machines would run Linux rather than proprietary operating systems, a higher level of knowledge would be needed to operate them. Therefore, the members of such societies would be strongly motivated to learn the mechanisms governing the operation of computers.

For a society to thrive, its course must be clearly visible to and set by its citizens. Declaring independence from the technology corporations is necessary to prevent our civilization from becoming a vast impersonal apparatus, not unlike the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. If we are not masters of machines, they will surely become masters of us. Therefore, computational independence must be the foundation of the next Heroic Age of Invention.

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