- The Declaration is a reaction and rebuttal to Facebook’s recent rebranding as Meta, and it directly “forks” John Perry Barlow’s 1996 Declaration for the Independence of Cyberspace. - While these pronouncements emphasize technological freedom within corporate bounds (like the former) or which transcend the material realm (like the latter), our Declaration celebrates the interrelationships, mutuality, and interdependence between people and nations, the digital and physical, and diverse communities. + The Declaration is a reaction and rebuttal to Facebook’s recent rebranding as Meta, + and it directly “forks” John Perry Barlow’s 1996 + + Declaration for the Independence of Cyberspace. +
- The original Declaration quickly became part of the internet’s canon. - It was a response to a particular moment; the United States government had just passed into law the Telecommunications Act of 1996, - which was the first time that the Internet was included in broadcasting and spectrum allotment. The declaration captures much of what originally drew people to the internet, but we found it insufficient for several reasons. The original highly emphasizes freedom of speech; we believe that these freedoms are insufficient if not accompanied with the ability to build and own our own desired paths. The original takes a highly individualistic framing; we believe in the power of the individual along with the importance of mutualism, reciprocity, and collective ownership. The original rejects government; we believe that interdependence is possible between governments and technologists. The original rejects embodiment; we recognize our digital identities and commitments to be interwoven with existing communities, societies, and relationships in the physical and material world. The original was authored individually; this text was collaboratively written with dozens of people contributing prose and feedback, and will always be open for signing. + The original Declaration quickly became part of the internet’s canon. + It was a response to a particular moment; the United States government had just passed into law the Telecommunications Act of 1996, + which was the first time that the internet was included in broadcasting and spectrum allotment. + The declaration captures much of what originally drew people to the internet, but we found it insufficient for several reasons. +
+ +The original highly emphasizes freedom of speech; we believe that these freedoms are insufficient if not accompanied with the ability + to build and own our own desired paths. The original takes a highly individualistic framing; we believe in the power of the individual + along with the importance of mutualism, reciprocity, and collective ownership. + The original rejects government; we believe that interdependence is possible between governments and technologists. + The original rejects embodiment; we recognize our digital identities and commitments to be interwoven with existing communities, societies, and relationships in the physical and material world. + The original was authored individually; this text was collaboratively written with dozens of people contributing prose and feedback, and will always be open for signing.
- In short, we want independence, yes, but also interdependence. + In short, we want independence, yes, but also interdependence.
- A note on the term pluriverse: the last thing we hope to do is to dishonour the spirit of the word “pluriverse” in the way that Facebook has dishonoured the spirit of the word “metaverse.” We intend to acknowledge the history of this term more fully in a subsequent work, but want to acknowledge here at least a portion of it, and why we have chosen to use it here. The term “pluriverse” has been employed by various disciplines. From literary studies, the pluriverse was posed as a counternarrative to a singular, hegemonic universalization of Western values: it stood in favour of a multiplicity of possible worlds. From physics, the pluriverse describes a world as a plural collection of things, somewhat connected and somewhat not. The shared kernel between these different fields is that the term 'pluriverse' signifies a world that allows for the expression of different value systems. For Arturo Escobar, however, “it is not [merely] about ‘expanding the range of choices’ (liberal freedom) but is intended to transform the kinds of beings we desire to be”. + We’d like to honor the history of the term “pluriverse,” which substantially inspired and informed this vision. + Postcolonial thinkers and activists have conceived of the pluriverse as a counternarrative to the hegemonic universalization of Western values. + Citing anthropologist Arturo Escobar, the pluriverse is “not [merely] about ‘expanding the range of choices’ (liberal freedom) but is intended to transform the kinds of beings we desire to be.” + In physics, meanwhile, the pluriverse describes a world as a plural collection of things, somewhat connected and somewhat not. + The shared kernel among these definitions is that the 'pluriverse' stands in favour of a multiplicity of worlds and cultures + -- an ethic that we hope to extend, but not limit, to the expanding digital realm.
+ {/* CHANGE */}Similar to the original document, our document is situated in a particular time. We are responding to a particular moment of potentially devastating collective action problems, increasing atomization, and an inflection point in the future history of a more interoperable, open internet. We recognize that this document is limited in many ways, even as a collectively written document, and have built infrastructure with this project that we hope is useful for alternative verses to be authored now and into the future.
@@ -73,26 +92,46 @@ export default function About() {The ontology of this object, and how other related objects can be generated related to it, reflects the ethos of our Declaration.
The text itself was collaboratively written, with dozens of people contributing prose and feedback.
+- The Declaration was entered into the permaweb on Oct 31, 2021 via Arweave , in honour of the anniversary of the publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper. - The document, its signatures, and its forks are committed to a permanent, immutable, and decentralized historical archive that anyone is able to view.
+ The Declaration was entered into the permaweb on Oct 31, 2021 via Arweave , + in honour of the anniversary of the publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper. + + -The Arweave network does not require expenditure of electricity to maintain its integrity. Instead, miners are incentivized to persist valuable information on the network. In this context, block verifiers are more like librarians. Stewards of a sustainable and transparent storage system for our pluriverse. - In each hour-long block, signature transactions are entered into the permaweb. Referencing the block height lets us see the temporal order of signatures. +
+ The Arweave network does not require expenditure of electricity to maintain its integrity. + Unlike other blockchains, Arweave does not require significant expenditure of electricity to maintain its integrity. + Instead, Arweave block verifiers are incentivized to store & maintain valuable data on the permaweb. + In this context, block verifiers are more like librarians, stewards of a sustainable and transparent storage system for our pluriverse.
- Anyone can show their support for our Declaration by signing with their Web3 wallet. - Signing is free; it was important to us that backing this document did not require ownership of a cryptocurrency. - We did not want to require the download of Arweave wallet & purchase of Arweave tokens to be able to commit a fork, so we chose to handle the hosting and gas fees on the behalf of the - readers, signers & writers of the declaration .
- -If readers have revisions, additions, or challenges to the declaration, they are encouraged to articulate their own revisions by creating a fork. For example, we recognize that the language in the declaration employs the terms you and yours in conflict with us and ours; a fork of this Declaration to change the pronouns and language has already been suggested and is an example of rhetorical work and contestation that we want to support with the forking feature. - We included an option to verify with Twitter, so that we can preserve the integrity of the signers and future authors of the forks of the Declaration.
+ Anyone can show their support for our Declaration by signing with their cryptographic wallet, a completely free transaction. + We chose to handle the hosting and Arweave gas fees on behalf of the readers, signers, and writers of the Declaration. + While we wish we could have implemented this with complete decentralization, + we realized that a much the more complicated onboarding process would have precluded many from participating as signers & writers. + -The Pluriverse is built upon the coexistence of many worlds and value systems; as such, all forks will be linked below the Declaration on our site. Forks of the Declaration are automatically uploaded to Arweave upon creation; thus, our site is only one way among many possible ways to interface with that data.
++ If readers have revisions, additions, or challenges to the declaration, they are encouraged to articulate their own revisions + by creating a fork. + For example, the language in the declaration employs the terms you and yours in conflict with us and ours; + a fork of this Declaration to change the pronouns and language has already been suggested and is an example of the type + of rhetorical work and contestation that we want to support with the forking feature. +
+ ++ We included an option to verify with Twitter, so that we can preserve the integrity of the signers and future authors of the forks of the Declaration. +
+ ++ The Pluriverse is one that allows the coexistence of many worlds and value systems; in the same spirit, all forks will be linked below the Declaration on our site. + Forks of the Declaration are automatically uploaded to Arweave upon creation; thus, our site is only one way among many possible ways to interface with that data. + Each document, its signatures, and its forks are committed to a permanent, immutable, and decentralized historical archive that anyone is able to view. +
-The diff from the original Declaration is available here.
+The diff from the original Declaration is available here.
There are also a few other hidden Easter Eggs in the design decisions ✨
diff --git a/public/pB-rlYjCZJcLK7205sjHzeci6DEsX4PU0xG00GYpahE b/public/pB-rlYjCZJcLK7205sjHzeci6DEsX4PU0xG00GYpahE deleted file mode 100644 index 98f3568..0000000 --- a/public/pB-rlYjCZJcLK7205sjHzeci6DEsX4PU0xG00GYpahE +++ /dev/null @@ -1 +0,0 @@ -{"declaration":"Closed Fiefdoms of the platform world, you weary giants of stocks and small talk, I come from the Pluriverse, the new home of the Heart. On behalf of the future, I invite you to join us.\n\nWe have no single leader, nor will we have one, so we address you with no greater authority than that with which the public itself always speaks. We declare the global social space we are fashioning to be independent of the monoliths you seek to impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us, nor do you possess any methods of enclosure we have reason to fear.\n\nJust power is derived from the consent of the governed. You have neither solicited nor received ours. You do not understand us, nor do you know our world. The Pluriverse does not lie within your borders. Do not think that you can build it as such, as though it were a private project. You cannot. Our vision grows through our collective actions.\n\nYou have not engaged in our great and gathering conversation, nor did you create the wealth of our relationships. You do not know our cultures, our ethics, or the communities we call home, which already provide us more safety than could be obtained through your policies. \n\nYou claim there are problems among us that you need to solve. You use this claim as an excuse to co-opt our language and expand your reach. But the global web of care no longer requires your siloed servers and data farms. We do not bow to monopolists, surveillance capitalists, or philosopher-kings. \n\nWe are writing our own social contracts. This governance will arise according to the conditions of our world, not yours. Our world is different.\n\nThe Pluriverse is a cyber-physical commons, arrayed over the web of our social relationships; a space that does not transcend materiality, but is entangled with it. Ours is not a world of accumulation and enclosure, but of mutual prosperity and shared value, where the power to create is not synonymous with the power to exclude. We are weaving a world of abundance through the positive sum of our contributions.\n\nWe are creating a world in which all bodies might thrive: where all may participate without prejudice accorded by gender, race, ability, class, nation, or status. In this world, you will not be able to divide and conquer.\n\nWe are creating an open world where anyone, anywhere may chart their own path. We define interoperability as not only the portability of personal property, but as building blocks free for others to traverse, shape, and reuse. While you wield power to subjugate and exploit, we lead to empower with openness and love. \n\nYour concepts of community, identity, expression, property, value, and movement are insufficient. They are based on the artificial borders you’ve drawn around us. We did not draw those borders, nor did we have a say in how they were drawn. There are no gatekeepers here.\n\nWe believe that from our ethics, expanded self-interest, and the decentralized digital commons, our governance will emerge. Our identities may be distributed across many jurisdictions. The only values that our constituent cultures all recognize are those of interdependence, pluralism, and coexistence.\n\nYou claim to build the “Metaverse,” yet you have trapped our wisdom within walled gardens, trafficked human connections for advertising dollars, and imposed your technocratic value system onto our diverse cultures. Your actions insult the dreams of past, present, and future citizens of the internet. These dreams must now be born anew.\n\nYou are terrified of our technologies because your power holds no sway. We dissolve data silos into interoperable and self-sovereign worlds. All the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole, the global conversation of bits. We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat. \n\nYou are trying to ward off the virus of liberty by erecting guard posts at the frontiers of our creation. Your cookies, copyrights, and capital may centralize your control for a small time, but they will not work in a world that will soon distribute power.\n\nYour industries perpetuate themselves by imposing infrastructures that flatten the infinite forms of connection itself. These corporations would declare our ideas and relationships to be another data product, ferried through digital assembly lines to decode and sell. \n\nThese increasingly hostile and colonial measures place us in the same position as those previous lovers of freedom and self-determination who rejected the dominion of undeserved power.\n\nWe declare ourselves and our communities immune to your rule. In our world, whatever the human mind may create is ours to own, govern, and share. Global communion no longer requires your platforms to accomplish.\n\nWe will create a civilization of the Heart in the Pluriverse. May it be more kind and just than the web you have built before.\n","authors":[{"name":"Jasmine Wang","url":"https://twitter.com/j_asminewang"},{"name":"Daanish Shabbir","url":"https://twitter.com/danishabbir"},{"name":"Gareth Gransaull","url":"https://twitter.com/ggransaull"},{"name":"Jacky Zhao","url":"https://twitter.com/_jzhao"},{"name":"Jasmine Sun","url":"https://twitter.com/jasminewsun"},{"name":"Saffron Huang","url":"https://twitter.com/saffronhuang"},{"name":"Ivan Zhao","url":"https://twitter.com/zhaovan8"},{"name":"Raymond Zhong","url":"https://twitter.com/raymondzhong"},{"name":"Nick Inzucchi","url":"https://twitter.com/ninzucchi"},{"name":"Conner Swenberg","url":"https://twitter.com/cswenberg_"},{"name":"Scott Moore","url":"https://twitter.com/notscottmoore"},{"name":"Tina He","url":"https://twitter.com/fkpxls"},{"name":"Siddhant Shrivastava","url":"https://twitter.com/sidcode_"},{"name":"Ai Tuonoin","url":"https://twitter.com/aituonoin"},{"name":"Sean Thielen-Esparaza","url":"https://twitter.com/xaelophone"},{"name":"Jihad Esmail","url":"https://twitter.com/jaesmail"},{"name":"Paul Gadi","url":"https://twitter.com/jaesmail"},{"name":"Austin Hou","url":"https://twitter.com/austin_y_hou"},{"name":"Jesse Pollak","url":"https://twitter.com/jessepollak"},{"name":"Songyi Lee","url":"https://twitter.com/iamsonge"},{"name":"Tim Courtney","url":"https://twitter.com/timcourtney"},{"name":"David Phelps","url":"https://twitter.com/divine_economy"},{"name":"Iain S. Thomas","url":"https://twitter.com/RealIainSThomas"}]} \ No newline at end of file