3 ms·

> Anarchism (and any fully decentralized protocol) "works" for small N because the average node can keep all the other nodes of the society in memory. If you ne

> Anarchism (and any fully decentralized protocol) "works" for small N because the average node can keep all the other nodes of the society in memory. If you need something, you know exactly whom to ask. And if you do something wrong, everyone will remember and hold you accountable. This plainly doesn't work with millions of nodes. This can work for large N because people fill roles. If you travel today to some other place and want to buy bread, you don't need to know the name of a bread seller in that place. You look for a store that looks like it sells food and ask if they have bread. If they don't, they will probably be able to direct you to a store that does. If you do something wrong, this can either be tracked by something you're required to keep on your person such as an ID or a tattoo, or by some commonly accessible records. Since this is a tech site, you can think of it like interactions between objects in object-oriented programming. A billion objects can interact with each other in all sorts of ways without requiring some central manager.

pphysch 4y ago
As soon as you have "roles"/routers/managers, you no longer have a truly flat, decentralized network. Some nodes become these privileged "roles" and certain behaviors and information flows centralize around them; they become de facto authorities in the baking industry, for instance. Somewhere, sometime, an true anarchist will complain about that.
- sky-kedge0749 4y ago
  People can mutually agree to relationships based on roles. Multiple groups can network with each other and make further agreements, or one group can voluntarily decide to model parts of itself after another. I don't think most anarchists would complain about senior bakers, or senior/elder/educated people generally, sharing advice, if that's what you mean, as long as all relationships remain voluntary.

pphysch 4y ago

As soon as you have "roles"/routers/managers, you no longer have a truly flat, decentralized network. Some nodes become these privileged "roles" and certain behaviors and information flows centralize around them; they become de facto authorities in the baking industry, for instance. Somewhere, sometime, an true anarchist will complain about that.

sky-kedge0749 4y ago
People can mutually agree to relationships based on roles. Multiple groups can network with each other and make further agreements, or one group can voluntarily decide to model parts of itself after another. I don't think most anarchists would complain about senior bakers, or senior/elder/educated people generally, sharing advice, if that's what you mean, as long as all relationships remain voluntary.