Welcome to Internet Reimagined
Internet Reimagined is a newsletter dedicated to chronicling a first of its kind global experiment. Its steward is the father and son team of Rod and Joel. Rod is a classically trained computer scientist. Joel is a classically trained political philosopher. For the last 35 years Rod has been researching ways to systematically distribute, decentralize, disintermediate, and democratize the Internet. In contrast, over the last several years Joel has been pursuing his academic interest in non-ideal political theory – i.e., the philosophy of meeting injustice in a just way.
It turns out that both Rod and Joel are fundamentally concerned with the same pursuit – just systems of governance. So, the two decided to combine their extensive research and insight toward informing a better system of human cooperation for the digital realm.
The main question they seek to answer is whether innovative new software technology combined with a thoughtful application of classical and contemporary political philosophy, can somehow create a more equitable Internet for people. This newsletter follows their endeavor to reconceive a digital realm that serves humanity, rather than disregards it.
Instead of reiterating the familiar facts of the case for believing the Internet no longer lives up to its initial promise of freedom and equal opportunity for all, this publication dares to presume its readers would rather receive fresh perspectives on a credible solution to the problem of mass digital inequality. Their solution stems from the notion that the only way humanity can guarantee protection of fundamental digital freedoms is by actually asserting a universal right to self-determination. This single foundational premise has informed Rod and Joel’s entire code-as-natural-law approach to safeguarding digital rights today and for future generations. Their methodology seeks nothing short of the repatriation of the digital commons from the formidable surveillance capitalism complex that has so nearly completely captured it.
Internet Reimagined endeavors to stand on the broad shoulders of countless thinkers across millennia that have informed Rod and Joel’s work in such diverse intellectual disciplines as history, sociology, anthropology, political science, philosophy, computer science, biology, psychology, legal studies and economics.
The project this publication outlines hopes to kick-start a determined, bottom-up, digital-only movement that actively recognizes and secures basic human digital rights, instead of waiting for corporations and or governments to do so on their own accord. It does this openly and transparently, both because it's a moral imperative and because it is not possible to do otherwise. It does not just talk about enriching human digital destiny, it portends to socially engineer it. It does this without a financial motive because it values people’s dignity over wealth. And it does not ask permission or offer apologies to the incumbents of the foreclosed networked information economy, because it breaks no rules.
Rod and Joel have a seemingly outrageous idea: the way to save the Internet is to invert the Web. Conveying the meaning and significance of this assertion to a generally disillusioned and skeptical world represents significant challenge in its own right. It demands a curious and patient audience to receive, appreciate, and challenge its guiding premises, findings, and consequences in a thoughtful way. The focused, collaborative space that Substack is known for appears to be the best place on the Internet today to try.
This newsletter will waste little time contributing to outrage-fatigue over who is responsible for the Internet failing us. For those interested, no end of finger-pointing indictments can be readily found online. Instead, Rod and Joel believe the reader’s time and attention is best respected by shining a bright light on the ethics, technology, and roadmap required to harness the only force still powerful enough to reclaim the digital public square: the world-wide collective of every day Internet users – the digital “we.”
The project that Rod and Joel started and will write extensively about is real (though still very much a work in progress). However, at times the truth will seem stranger than fiction. You can expect a flurry of articles to kick things off, designed to vest your interest in your own digital future. Then we plan to settle into a cadence of roughly one article a week of thought provoking, sometimes personal, occasionally entertaining, but always informative content, written for the intelligent, curious layperson. Each new issue will build on those that came before it to so as to gradually begin to form a holistic, deeply reasoned playbook for attaining a digital future that advances a healthier human condition.
The development of a workable strategy to channel the power of the vast digital commons in order to rescue our collective online future has been a significant undertaking for Rod and Joel. The two now feel compelled to share the results their decades of research, consternation, and endless experimentation has produced, if the world will have them. If you have ever thought that something is broken about the way the Internet works, then this Substack is for you.
This publication represents a doorway to a diverse readership, deeply and equally invested in a dignified digital future for us all. It’s a planetary-scale experiment to inspire direct and active participation in humanity’s digital provenance. Won’t you join us? We would be delighted to have you be a part of this digital social experiment. By subscribing to this newsletter, you affirm your belief that there is no more powerful force for positive change than the collective will of an inspired global commons.
This is the Internet Reimagined, where your curiosity is welcomed and your engagement well rewarded.
Best,
Rod and Joel
Concerned Digital Citizens
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