[p2p-research] RC JOURNAL: Accelerating the Development of Resilient Communities

[Samuel Rose]

Heh, this is *exactly* what we've been talking about together here since
maybe around 2004, if not earlier :)

On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 5:51 PM, Kevin Carson <
free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> Sent to you by Kevin Carson via Google Reader:
>
>
> RC JOURNAL: Accelerating the Development of Resilient Communities<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/rzYD/~3/-oCzYL3WPoM/rc-journal-accelerating-the-development-of-resilient-communities.html>
> via Global Guerrillas<http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/>by John Robb on 11/17/10
>
> One of the major attributes of resilient communities is that can locally
> produce most of what they need (food, energy, and products).  Needless to
> say, the transition to local production won't happen overnight.  Let's
> explore this.
>
> Most of the efforts to increase local production, to date, have been
> either:
>
>    1. The result of community action.  Efforts like the transition towns
>    movement<http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2009/04/rc-journal-transition-towns-as-a-means-to-participative-problem-solving.html>.
>
>    2. Development driven.  Communities that have built from the ground up
>    with resilience in mind, i.e. agricultural urbanism<http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/06/agricultural-urbanism.html>
>    .
>
> Unfortunately, these early efforts have been sporadic and the results
> haven't reached what's needed to become fully resilient.  Why?  The reason
> is that these  efforts are being attempted early in the cycle, before the
> trends that make transition inevitable have fully matured.  These trends
> include:
>
>    - Expensive energy.  Energy costs are climbing (with occasionally
>    spike), but they haven't reached a level that makes local production much
>    more attractive than global production, yet.  They will.
>    - Technology.  The costs of producing goods locally is rapidly
>    decreasing due to new technologies.  For example, with desktop fabrication,
>    we are right at the cusp of a rapid increase in efficiency/capability -- the
>    equivalent of 1980 in the personal computer industry.
>    - Disruptions.  Shortages, panics, and cascading failures.  We had a
>    taste of a big one in 2008 in the financial industry and lots of small ones.
>     More to come since the global system is only becoming more interconnected
>    and unstable as time progresses.
>    - Economic failure/D2 (the second global depression).  There's a strong
>    argument that we are already in the midst of a second global depression. As
>    economic failure intensifies on the global stage (debt, default, income
>    stratification, fraud, etc.), the need for local economic activity will
>    intensify.
>    - Global guerrilla insurgencies. Low grade, crime fueled insurgencies
>    that spread like the plague.  Think Mexico.  Shootings, kidnappings,
>    hijackings, etc.
>    - There's many more (political chaos, the inevitable global pandemic,
>    sovereign default, the disappearing middle class, etc.), but these are some
>    of the top ones.
>
> Fortunately, there may be another way to get resilient communities off the
> ground faster than waiting for the trends driving their development to
> become inexorable (and in the process lose many, many people to the
> encroaching failure).  The fastest way I can think of is to use the Internet
> to build a system that fosters their development (what other method can go
> from scratch to 500 million participants in three years).
>
> The system I propose is a fully functional economy built as an Internet
> service.  I believe that almost all of the elements need to build this,
> launch it, and gain widespread adoption are already available today.
>  Further, there are people ready to build it.  The only limitation is the
> funding needed to exploit the opportunity.
>
>
>
> Things you can do from here:
>
>    - Subscribe to Global Guerrillas<http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fglobalguerrillas.typepad.com%2Fglobalguerrillas%2Fatom.xml?source=email>using
>    *Google Reader*
>    - Get started using Google Reader<http://www.google.com/reader/?source=email>to easily keep up with
>    *all your favorite sites*
>
>
>
>
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>


-- 
--
Sam Rose
Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation
Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
skype: samuelrose
email: samuel.rose at gmail.com
http://forwardfound.org
http://futureforwardinstitute.org
http://socialmediaclassroom.com
http://localfoodsystems.org
http://p2pfoundation.net

"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition."
- Carl Sagan
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