Open source

From Sustain

The potential of open source methods has become increasingly clear over the past decade or so. I am not the first to enthuse about the full transformatory scope of decentralised collaboration, if we can successfully master the science. Beyond perfecting an operating system or internet browser, the same methods have the power to harness our collected knowledge, and all future endeavours, in the perpetual pursuit of the sustainable society: the societal operating system, forever finessed to discern the scientific and spiritual means of producing the ideal human community.

Such excitable propositions are easily dismissed. These emerging methods struggle in their own narrow field of software development, never mind audacious, utopian ends. A central problem certainly exists: to realise the potential of decentralised collaboration we need a full rewire of our economic and political relations. This seems a remote possibility. It is therefore only natural for those beating this drum to be branded dreamers or cranks.

Nevertheless, I believe a paradigm shift in human organisation is the inevitable outcome of our current trajectory – from either the momentum of our technological advance, or from the necessity of terminal scarcity. If holistic technological advance (including economic, social and political evolution) is swift enough, it can deliver us from the dystopia we are spinning towards.

An epoch defining technological advance has crept within reach: the ability to organise our knowledge using meritocratic consensus. The early efforts of open source, alongside developments in political thought and mechanisms, point towards a vastly different form of human organisation that better reflects our absolute interdependence.

I believe every practical aspect of our lives can be guided by the insight and legitimacy of unified wisdom. One shared information source, governed by a constitution that demands it is held ever open to the contribution of all, to dynamically craft the path towards the Maxim.

This ideal does face a fundamental hurdle – relativism. If no objective frame can be constructed for our methods and beliefs, knowledge discovery in the quest for the Maxim is rendered impotent. It is hard to emphatically refute the relativist; this is one of the philosophical gaps can only be bridged by faith; albeit faith that would yield empirical worldly results to vindicate believers and convert doubters.

Here it is: Open source detail.

I use this understanding of open source as a platform from which to stick my neck out and explore how these green shoots could blossom into the basis of a new phase of cooperative humanity, utilising decentralised collaboration within a new form of meritocratic governance.

Before that though, I cannot complete an analysis of the digital age without sticking the boot into Google here. It remains a source of astonishment to me that not more people see the ominous threat that Google and its counterparts pose; the world's prime proponent of persuasion is regarded by the majority as a benign force for good.