Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias

Though the topic of virtual communities has been thoroughly explored elsewhere, the possibility of spaces free from terrestrial jurisdiction--called "Temporary Autonomous Zones" by Hakim Bey--has not yet penetrated mainstream thought. Strong encryption and essential qualities of the Internet--like portability--ensure that such utopias will remain theoretically and practically tenable through the foreseeable future, and Ludlow's visionaries want to see them flower. The penultimate section on experimental governing systems and the appended interview with Noam Chomsky demolishing widely held beliefs about anarchy crown the book with deep thinking about issues vital to the future of freedom--online and off. It's exciting to see this work get the widespread attention it deserves--with any luck, the iconic Net user will soon trade in the pocket protector for an eye patch. --Rob Lightner

Product Description
In Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias, Peter Ludlow extends the approach he used so successfully in High Noon on the Electronic Frontier, offering a collection of writings that reflects the eclectic nature of the online world, as well as its tremendous energy and creativity. This time the subject is the emergence of governance structures within online communities and the visions of political sovereignty shaping some of those communities. Ludlow virtual communities as laboratories for conducting experiments in the construction of new societies and governance structures. While many online experiments will fail, Ludlow argues that given the synergy of the online world, new and superior governance structures may emerge. Indeed, utopian visions are not out of place, provided that we understand the new utopias to be fleeting localized "islands in the Net" and not permanent institutions.

The book is organized in five sections. The first section considers the sovereignty of the Internet. The second section asks how widespread access to resources such as Pretty Good Privacy and anonymous remailers allows the possibility of "Crypto Anarchy"?essentially carving out space for activities that lie outside the purview of nation states and other traditional powers. The third section shows how the growth of e-commerce is raising questions of legal jurisdiction and taxation for which the geographic boundaries of nation-states are obsolete. The fourth section looks at specific experimental governance structures evolved by online communities. The fifth section considers utopian and anti-utopian visions for cyberspace.

Contributors:
Richard Barbrook, John Perry Barlow, William E. Baugh Jr., David S. Bennahum, Hakim Bey, David Brin, Andy Cameron, Dorothy E. Denning, Mark Dery, Kevin Doyle, Duncan Frissell, Eric Hughes, Karrie Jacobs, David Johnson, Peter Ludlow, Timothy C. May, Jennifer L. Mnookin, Nathan Newman, David G. Post, Jedediah S. Purdy, Charles J. Stivale.

Want it all in one book? Well, this is as close as it comes today (2002) and it is an exceptional piece of editorial work selecting the material and organizing it so well.

In the age of "homeland security" policy butting heads with the EU privacy laws...this is a fine balance of views.


New Activism, No Boredom   September 6, 2001
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

As a media activist, I'm constantly confronted by people who don't understand that the real revolution in media is not the commercial internet, but the "undernet" of hidden economies and private interchanges. Ludlow's book gets it right, avoiding the common misconceptions about the Internet to show why it's not just the battleground for big companies, but the playground for a real revolutionary force. What I really like in this book is the way he collects some of the classic (but under-read) articles on the possibilities of the new media and adds in some intense new stuff. It's like a one-stop shop for the coming age of controlled digital chaos. You NEED to read this book if you want to understand what the future of activism is going to be.


totally kewl   August 29, 2001
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

With all the B.S. about cyberspace showing up in the newspapers and dopey newsmagazines its about "Time" somebody got it right. This is what makes the whole internet/underground culture thing interesting. Lots of great essays on how the new way is actually changing the way people live and interact. If your take on electronic culture comes from reading the kiddie-porn articles and "death of the internet" stuff in the mainstream media, you're missing the big picture. thank you, peter ludlow!!!!!


THE source for info and theory on Cyber Utopias   August 29, 2001
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

By bringing together a seemingly disparate group of essays Ludlow has discovered a hidden theme in contemporary writings about cyber-space, alt-culture and techno-politics. The strain of dissident utopianism that Ludlow brings forth in this arrangement of short pieces is clearly an important trend, and it's incredibly useful to have all these writings (some classics, like Hakim Bey's "Temporary Autonomous Zones" and some excellent new material, including a great intro by Ludlow) together in one volume. This is really a must-read for anyone interested in what's happening with radical thought right now. Sets out the blueprint for a post-Marxist/post-Capitalist culture that is developing itself outside and within the existing social, economic and political structures. These are texts that academic thinkers will be catching up with in another ten or twenty years...Ludlow transcends his academic background (he's a philosopher, sadly) by seeing their value today.


Political Thinking in Deep Cyberspace   August 24, 2001
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Ludlow has done it again. His justifiably esteemed High Noon zapped those of us who anachronistically still read ink smudges on paper with a set of electronically vibrant cybermessages from the Electronic Frontier. In Cypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias he delivers a second installment. Here the messages are cyberpolitical: describing, analyzing, imagining, and revelling in the new forms of social, intellectual, and political organization that the net already does, definitely will, maybe could, or just conceivably might make a reality. Half serious argument, half bonzo manifesto, and in both halves some of the sharpest political thinking now in process.