Crazy Wisdom

Episode #492: From Peer-to-Peer to Cosmolocalism: Michel Bauwens on Building the Next World

Sep 26, 2025
Michel Bauwens, founder of the P2P Foundation, dives into the transformative potential of peer-to-peer dynamics, describing it as both a social relationship and technological framework. He reflects on the evolution of the internet, contrasting its early openness with today's fragmentation. Bauwens shares his personal journey through deplatforming and identity politics, linking them to historical cycles since 1968. He introduces cosmolocalism as a compelling alternative to traditional state and market models, advocating for regenerative villages and pragmatic localist alliances.
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INSIGHT

Peer-to-Peer As Social Revolution

  • Peer-to-peer is both a technical architecture and a new social relationship called translocal association.
  • This anthropological revolution lets people associate across distances without full control by centralized powers.
INSIGHT

Web3 As A Return With Defenses

  • The internet layered business and state control over an original open peer-to-peer ideal.
  • Web3 aims to recreate Web1 openness while adding anti-surveillance and cryptographic defenses.
ANECDOTE

Bauwens' 2018 Cancellation

  • Michel Bauwens describes being canceled in 2018, losing funding, bank access, and event invitations.
  • He links the deplatforming to disputes over sharing a critical video about Jordan Peterson and the ensuing social-media backlash.
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