Digital nomads have rejected the office and now want to replace the nation state. But there is a darker side to this quest for global freedom

Sun, 25 Sep 2022 05:53:26 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/digital-nomads-have-rejected-the-office-and-now-want-to-replace-the-nation-state-but-there-is-a-darker-side-to-this-quest-for-global-freedom-189835>

"In June 2022 Balaji Srinivasan, former chief technology officer of the
Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, published an ebook entitled The Network
State: How To Start a New Country
. It is the latest in a flurry of utopian
visions by self-styled digital visionaries, crypto believers and web 3.0
evangelists who are lining up to declare the death of the traditional concept
of countries and nationhood.

In one case, a new “virtual” country is already in development. “The nation
state is outdated – it’s based on 19th-century thinking, and we aim to upend
all of that,” Lauren Razavi tells me over Zoom from a bustling co-working
space.

Razavi is the executive director of Plumia, a self-proclaimed “moonshot
mission” to build an internet country for digital nomads. Born in Britain to an
Iranian immigrant, Razavi sees herself as untethered and borderless, and likens
national citizenship and tax to a “subscription” that is very hard to cancel.

“We’re all enrolled into this automatic subscription based on the coincidence
of our birthplace or our heritage, and that really doesn’t work in the 21st
century.”"

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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