John Clippinger: Developing a Social Ecosystem of Trusted, Self-Healing Digital Institutions

It is often said that technology is neutral. It’s certainly commonplace for Bitcoin to be thought of as such. In reality, technologies may be characterized as an embodiment of human intention, and therefore, cannot be considered as culturally or politically neutral. At least, this is the opinion of our guest, . A research scientist at MIT Media Lab and CEO of ID3, a nonprofit which aims to deploy a new generation of trusted digital institutions, John has spent the last seven decades researching the interaction between technology and society.

He joins us for a fascinating discussion on the flaws of our institutions in present day society and how we can leverage technology to build a new social ecosystem.

Topics covered in this episode:

• The political values of Bitcoin
• The idea of cooperative currencies
• The current state of identity and data ownership, and how it may be improved
• The governance of decentralized technologies
• How cybernetics and self-organizing systems may be applied to governance
• The Open Mustard Seed framework

Episode links:

• ID3 Institute for Data-Driven Design
• From Bitcoin to Burning Man and Beyond
• From Bitcoin to Burning Man and Beyond (Amazon)
• Open Mustard Seed
• Talk by John Clippinger: Bitcoin and Beyond

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/096