The Prospects for Cyberocracy (Revisited)

The deepening of the information age will alter the nature of the state so thoroughly that something new emerges: cyberocracy. While it is too early to say precisely what a cyberocracy will look like, the outcomes will include new kinds of democratic, totalitarian, and hybrid governments, along with new kinds of state-society relations. Thus, optimism about the information revolution should be tempered by an anticipation of its potential dark side. This paper reiterates the view of the cyberocracy concept as first stated in 1992, and then offers a postscript for 2008. It speculates that information-age societies will develop new sensory apparatuses, a network-based social sector, new modes of networked governance, and ultimately the cybercratic nexus-state as a successor to the nation-state. This is the version of the paper that has been available at www.ssrn.com since January 2009. A dearth of comment motivates re-posting it here as a Political Networks Working Paper. Of particular interest may be the following: an early anticipation of the rise of network forms of organization; an effort to discriminate between social and organizational networks; a discussion about “government by network” in comparison to government by tribe, hierarchy, and market; and a speculation that a nexus state integrating all modes of governance will arise in the future

Visionizing a Fiat Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is part of a wider range of opportunities to creating cryptocurrencies based on blockchains. Research has shown that the existing cryptocurrencies are very volatile and often illiquid. A cryptocurrency endorsed by a Central Bank, as the starter of a private blockchain, will most likely show more stability. It may even take the form of legal tender. However, since almost all countries have their own currency already, the governments will not feel the need for an additional currency. One exception is Palestine. It enjoyed the privilege of having its own currency in the past. The purpose of this research is the evaluation of the feasibility of a cryptocurrency as legal tender. The authors recommend a new Palestinian Pound built on a private blockchain using Hyperledger. In practice it would not differ from any other fiat (legal) currency. The current weakness of not having its own currency could be turned into a strength by becoming the most advanced economy where transactions are transparent and efficient. This paper fills a research gap by analyzing the opportunities of a cryptocurrency that is actual legal tender and endorsed by a monetary authority

Information age war and the question of paradigm shift : understanding the information age's influence on warfare

This thesis examines the information age's influence on war, and attempts to establish both an understanding of what information age war is and how it may change warfare. Specifically, the thesis focuses on the question of military paradigm shift, and asks whether information age war constitutes a change of sufficient magnitude to challenge the established models for understanding warfare. The first chapters examine the information age's role as a force of change: demonstrating that the question of information age military paradigm shift clearly warrants a more detailed investigation. The thesis then examines sequentially four critical aspects of war, and the information age's influences on each. The how, what, why, and who of warfare are identified as the most salient barometers of paradigm shift given that significant changes in each of these elements would necessarily and fundamentally alter both the practice and understanding of warfare. This thesis' argument that information age war does not clearly fulfil any of these criteria, and therefore does not require a new military paradigm, is perhaps its main and most important finding. While information age war will doubtless introduce many significant and notable changes to modem war, the present models for explaining war should accommodate the majority of these changes relatively easily - though perhaps not necessarily always in the manner expected. One exception is particularly notable. The information age's influence on the 'who' of war proves difficult to reconcile with the current paradigm because of its potential to shift the balance of military advantage between state and non-state actors. Such a profound change could ineluctably challenge the traditional understanding of who can wage war. This, added to the significant, if not paradigmatic shifts in the other three criteria, points to the need not so much to establish a new paradigm of war, but to reinterpret and adjust the paradigm that currently explains this phenomenon. The thesis therefore concludes with an analysis of this reinterpretation and its implications both for the understanding of war and for the consequences of waging war in the information age

Применение технологий распределенных реестров и цепочек блоков в народных голосованиях и законотворчестве: ключевые способы и основные проблемы

Being a driving force behind the development of various social relations, the intensification of modern technologies forms new conditions for modernizing democratic institutions. Different innovations in the field of digital communications affect mechanisms for the realization of political rights and freedoms of a person and citizen, transform activities of public authorities and tools of their interaction with civil society institutions. In these conditions, innovations influence even traditional areas, including popular voting and lawmaking. The active introduction of distributed registry technologies affected the development of new methodological approaches and reformed the organization of elections. This technology has widespread use due to blockchain technology. Although it was initially considered as an element of development in the information and financial spheres, now blockchain is gradually entering other spheres of human activity, including political, due to the high degree of security and confidentiality. This paper analyzes the global practice of using this technology in popular voting and legislative procedures. The authors of the article consider technical solutions applied in the most rapidly growing projects aimed to develop their own software for conducting electronic election powered by a blockchain technology. Special attention is paid to the legal security of voting by secret ballot and the identification of voters in the conditions of applying these technologies.La intensificación moderna del desarrollo tecnológico, que es la fuerza impulsora del desarrollo de una amplia gama de relaciones sociales, garantiza la formación de nuevas condiciones para la modernización de las instituciones democráticas. La variedad de innovaciones en el campo de las comunicaciones digitales afecta los mecanismos para la implementación de los derechos políticos y las libertades del hombre y el ciudadano, transforma las actividades de las autoridades públicas y las herramientas de su interacción con las instituciones de la sociedad civil. En estas condiciones, las innovaciones afectan incluso a áreas bastante tradicionales, como la votación popular y la legislación. La influencia generalizada en el desarrollo de nuevos enfoques metodológicos para repensar el proceso de organización y realización de votaciones se realizó mediante la introducción generalizada de la tecnología de los registros distribuidos. Esta tecnología ha recibido la mayor distribución con el uso de una cadena de bloques (blockchain). A pesar de que inicialmente se consideraba únicamente como un elemento de desarrollo en las esferas de la información y las finanzas, en la etapa actual, debido al alto grado de seguridad y confidencialidad, el blockchain se está volviendo cada vez más común en otras esferas de la actividad humana, incluida la política. Este documento analiza la práctica global de utilizar esta tecnología en los procedimientos populares de votación y legislación. Las soluciones técnicas aplicadas en los proyectos de desarrollo más activo dirigidos a desarrollar su propio software para realizar votaciones electrónicas utilizando la tecnología blockchain se consideran en detalle. Se presta especial atención al apoyo legal del secreto del voto y la identificación de los votantes en las condiciones de aplicación de estas tecnologías.Современная интенсификация технологического развития, выступая движущей силой развития широкого спектра общественных отношений, обеспечивает формирование новых условий модернизации демократических институтов. Многообразие инноваций в области цифровых коммуникаций влияет на механизмы реализации политических прав и свобод человека и гражданина, трансформирует деятельность органов государственной власти и инструменты их взаимодействия с институтами гражданского общества. В этих условиях инновации затрагивают даже достаточно традиционные сферы, например такие как народные голосования и законотворчество. Особое влияние в разработке новых методических подходов к переосмыслению процесса организации и проведения голосования оказало повсеместное внедрение технологии распределенных реестров. Наибольшее распространение эта технология получила с применением цепочки блоков (блокчейн). Несмотря на то, что первоначально она рассматривалась исключительно в качестве элемента развития в информационной и финансовой сферах, на современном этапе из-за высокой степени безопасности и конфиденциальности, блокчейн постепенно получает все большее распространение в иных сферах человеческой деятельности, в том числе и в политической. В настоящей работе проанализирована мировая практика применения данной технологии в народных голосованиях и законодательных процедурах. Детально рассмотрены технические решения, примененные в наиболее активно развивающихся проектах, направленных на разработку собственного программного обеспечения для проведения электронных голосований с применением технологии блокчейн. Отдельное внимание уделено правовому обеспечению тайны голосования и идентификация избирателей в условиях применения этих технологий

Peer to Peer: From Technology to Politics to a New Civilisation?

A specter is haunting the world: the specter of peer to peer. The existing economic system is trying to co-opt it, but it is also a harbinger of a new type of human relationship, and may in the end be incompatible with informational capitalism

Bienvenidos a cyberia. Notas para una antropología de la cibercultura

El uso generalizado de computadores, de biotecnologías y el flujo de información digital han introducido en la vida social contemporánea transformaciones importantes. Tanto, que algunos argumentan que un nuevo orden cultural está cobrando forma: la “cibercultura” (cyberculture). En este artículo presento un panorama del tipo de análisis antropológicos que están siendo implementados en el área de las nuevas tecnologías; así mismo, sugiero algunos pasos adicionales para la articulación de una antropología de la cibercultura. Esta aproximación se cimienta en estudios de ciencia, tecnología y sociedad en varios campos y en análisis críticos sobre la modernidad. También exploro las implicaciones de la tecnociencia para la teoría antropológica y la investigación etnográfica.Significant changes in the nature of social life are being brought about by computer, information, and biological technologies, to the extent that—some argue—a new cultural order, “cyberculture”, is coming into being. This paper presents an overview of the types of anthropological analyses that are being conducted in the area of new technologies and suggests additional steps for the articulation of an anthropology of cyberculture. It builds upon science, technology, and society studies in various fields and on critical studies of modernity. The implications of technoscience for both anthropological theory and ethnographic research are explored