How the Web Evolved from Openness to Fragmentation

In this episode of Crazy Wisdom, host Stewart Alsop talks with Michel Bauwens, founder of the P2P Foundation, about the rise of peer-to-peer dynamics, the historical cycles shaping our present, and the struggles and possibilities of building resilient communities in times of crisis. The conversation moves through the evolution of the internet from Napster to Web3, the cultural shifts since 1968, Bauwens’ personal experiences with communes and his 2018 cancellation, and the emerging vision of cosmolocalism and regenerative villages as alternatives to state and market decline. For more on Michel’s work, you can explore his Substack at 4thgenerationcivilization.substack.com and the extensive P2P Foundation Wiki at wiki.p2pfoundation.net.

Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation

Timestamps

00:00 Michel Bauwens explains peer-to-peer as both computer design and social relationship, introducing trans-local association and the idea of an anthropological revolution.
05:00 Discussion of Web1, Web3, encryption, anti-surveillance, cozy web, and dark forest theory, contrasting early internet openness with today’s fragmentation.
10:00 Bauwens shares his 2018 cancellation, deplatforming, and loss of funding after a dispute around Jordan Peterson, reflecting on identity politics and peer-to-peer pluralism.
15:00 The cultural shifts since 1968, the rise of identity movements, macro-historical cycles, and the fourth turning idea of civilizational change are unpacked.
20:00 Memories of 1968 activism, communes, free love, hypergamy, and the collapse of utopian experiments, showing the need for governance and rules in cooperation.
25:00 From communes to neo-Reichian practices, EST seminars, and lessons of human nature, Bauwens contrasts failed free love with lasting models like kibbutzim and Bruderhof.
30:00 Communes that endure rely on transcendence, religious or ideological foundations, and Bauwens points to monasteries as models for resilience in times of decline.
35:00 Cycles of civilization, overuse of nature, class divisions, and the threat of social unrest frame a wider reflection on populism, Eurasian vs Western models, and culture wars.
40:00 Populism in Anglo vs continental Europe, social balance, Christian democracy, and the contrast with market libertarianism in Trump and Milei.
45:00 Bauwens proposes cosmolocalism, regenerative villages, and bioregional alliances supported by Web3 communities like Crypto Commons Alliance and Ethereum Localism.
50:00 Historical lessons from the Roman era, monasteries, feudal alliances, and the importance of reciprocity, pragmatic alliances, and preparing for systemic collapse.
55:00 Localism, post-political collaboration, Ghent urban commons, Web3 experiments like Zuzalu, and Bauwens’ resources: fortcivilizationsubstack.com and wiki.p2pfoundation.net.

Key Insights

1. Michel Bauwens frames peer-to-peer not just as a technical design but as a profound social relationship, what he calls an “anthropological revolution.” Like the invention of writing or printing, the internet created trans-local association, allowing people across the globe to coordinate outside of centralized control.
2. The conversation highlights the cycles of history, drawing from macro-historians and the “fourth turning” model. Bauwens explains how social movements rise, institutionalize, and collapse, with today’s cultural polarization echoing earlier waves such as the upheavals of 1968. He sees our era as the end of a long cycle that began after World War II.
3. Bauwens shares his personal cancellation in 2018, when posting a video about Jordan Peterson triggered accusations and led to deplatforming, debanking, and professional exclusion. He describes this as deeply traumatic, forcing him to rethink his political identity and shift his focus to reciprocity and trust in smaller, resilient networks.
4. The episode revisits communes and free love experiments of the 1970s, where Bauwens lived for years. He concludes that without governance, rules, and shared transcendence, these communities collapse into chaos. He contrasts them with enduring models like the Bruderhof, kibbutzim, and monasteries, which rely on structure, ideology, or religion to survive.
5. A major theme is populism and cultural polarization, with Bauwens distinguishing between Anglo-Saxon populism rooted in market libertarianism and continental populism shaped by Christian democratic traditions. The former quickly loses support by privileging elites, while the latter often maintains social balance through family and worker policies.
6. Bauwens outlines his vision of cosmolocalism and regenerative villages, where “what’s heavy is local, what’s light is global.” He argues that bioregionalism combined with Web3 technologies offers a practical way to rebuild resilient communities, coordinate globally, and address ecological and social breakdown.
7. Finally, the episode underscores the importance of pragmatic alliances across political divides. Bauwens stresses that survival and flourishing in times of systemic collapse depend less on ideology and more on reciprocity, concrete projects, and building trust networks that can outlast declining state and market systems.