The Weirding of the Internet: From Utopia to Techno‑Feudalism

New @greenpillnet / Network Nations pod out today! 🌐 Hosted by Primavera De Filippi & Felix Beer, this episode dives deep into the power of narratives and memes in shaping our political and digital realities.

Joined by Douglas Rushkoff (author of Team Human) and Jordan Hall, the conversation explores how memes, culture, and technology can either reinforce control or unlock bottom-up coordination for the next evolution of civil society — the Network Nation.

🎧 Learn more → networknations.network

🌐 greenpill.network

🐦 @owocki @jgreenhall ​@DoRushkoff12280 @greenpillnet

🌐 Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome to the Network Nations mini-series 00:40 – What are Network Nations and how do they differ from Network States 02:10 – Guests introduction: Douglas Rushkoff & Jordan Hall 03:00 – The collapse of old narratives and rise of new civic imagination 05:00 – Why digital culture is in a "Cambrian explosion" of governance ideas 06:40 – The weirding of the internet: from utopia to techno-feudalism 08:30 – Distrust in institutions and the survivalist mindset of elites 10:10 – Early internet libertarianism vs modern corporate libertarianism 12:00 – How early digital culture valued autonomy, play, and exploration 13:40 – The internet's shift from freedom to corporate control 15:20 – Reclaiming autonomy from both state and corporate systems 17:00 – Narratives of scarcity, power, and the post-collapse mindset 19:00 – Reflections on the early hacker ethos and DIY digital communities 21:00 – How the internet once embodied kinship, trust, and shared purpose 23:00 – From open networks to centralized control — lessons learned 25:20 – Autonomy through interdependence: power of collective networks 27:40 – Natural metaphors for networks — mycelium, rhizomes, and fractals 29:00 – The self-organizing optimism of early digital movements 30:20 – Why Network Nations need stronger bonds than online affinities 32:00 – Kinship vs affinity: building trust beyond algorithms 33:50 – How corporate platforms hijacked online social energy 35:20 – The challenge: reviving thick relationships in digital culture 37:00 – Why the commons struggle to produce visible leaders 39:20 – Leadership, ontology, and rediscovering stewardship of the commons 41:00 – What real leadership looks like in post-capitalist communities 43:00 – The myth of the heroic individual vs networked leadership 45:00 – Designing a new coordination environment: culture as protocol 47:00 – Crafting memes that attract the right minds and builders 49:30 – The tension between exclusivity and scale in movement-building 51:30 – How to create viral narratives that promote civic health 53:30 – Building memes around shared human needs, not resentment 55:10 – The recipe for powerful memes: sticky form + transformative code 57:20 – From broadcast politics to interactive, personalized virality 59:20 – Designing "anti-rivalrous" memes that make participants stronger 01:02:00 – Closing thoughts: crafting narratives for the network age