The Meme Factor
The underrated role of disruptive innovations
Every major innovation is not just a technological advance, but mostly a socio-cultural one. It introduces a new social mental model that was previously inconceivable.
The Internet has introduced the technological innovation of decentralized media publishing. But, more importantly, it introduced the concept that from now on every single person with an Internet connection has the ability to permissionless create and spread content.
Bitcoin not only introduced a revolutionary decentralized digital currency but also challenged the conventional belief that creating a currency outside of the State is impossible and undesirable.
When I discuss the concept of Network States and startup societies, my primary objective is not to promote any specific form of social organization or propose technologies for improving democracy, although these concepts are critical. My primary aim is to spread the idea that in the digital age, it is possible, desirable, and necessary to create new political institutions, whether a professional guild, a city, or even a country. This is the essence of TNS book.
Once this idea, this meme, takes root in enough minds, there is no turning back. "The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions."
Those who have tasted democracy will never accept dictatorship. No one who now can freely create, share, transact, work remotely, and communicate online will ever consider living without this technology. Those who have experienced new forms of digital currencies will not return to a fiat-only world.
As people come to understand the power and advantages of using digital-native technologies to establish new political institutions and freely associate with others who share their values as citizens, the world will change forever.