Month: June 2010

Is Anarchism collectivism or individualism? The answer is neither, and both.

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Anarchism is rather a fusion of the two: Stigmergy.

A beautiful ant colony on College Campus in Mu...
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The latest post from Kevin Carson, while very good on its own as always, just introduced me to a term I’d never head before: Stigmergy. And reading about it, as trite and annoying as it may be, made me want to declare: THIS.

This seems to fit in perfectly with my understanding of how an anarchist society might develop around chaotic principles and emergent order. I always understood however that such a society would include both strong individualism and powerful collective action. However those terms are usually demonized or assaulted by statists and propertarians respectively and you end up with endless ad hominems and misunderstanding (“LOL isn’t Libertarian Socialism an oxymoron LOL”) which make us lose endless time trying to unschool people out of.

It’s very good to know that there’s a term which precicely describes how an anarchist organization would look like and does not imply strawmen of Bolsheviks or Randroids.

The more interesting thing is how such a term is primarily related at the moment to animal organizational forms, particularly those of insects such as ants and their swarm intelligence. And if one considers how ants are arguably the most productive and industrious species of the planet, it really paints some interesting possibilities in case a species which has far more power and intelligence in one unit than a whole ant colony (i.e. humans) embraces a stigmergic social organization.

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A children's book about cosmogenesis? Oh yeah!

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BANG! Is a children’s book about cosmogenesis which I feel stands in an uncomfortable divide of its intended audience. Nevertheless, it’s quite cool.

Recently I was contacted by James Dunbar about his new comic book BANG! where it seems he’s doing some good ol’ self-promotion of it. James seems to have send an email to a number of people including me, explaining the concept and providing a link to the free online version of the book. I promised I’d take a look when time allows and here I am.

BANG! reads like a children’s book, with a rhyming style and lots of pictures. It tries to explain cosmogenesis and the Big Bang theory in as simple terms as possible. Unfortunately, even though the effort is admirable, the complex concepts within the book are unlikely to be grasped by children (although, of course, I could be wrong. I have to run this by my girlfriend who’s dealing with children’s books a lot). I guess it would make a good gift for teenagers but I’m afraid that the style might turn them off as it might sound like it’s made for a younger audience. It seems to me that it’s a difficult situation where the style is made for the young while the content is made for the older, therefore making it hard to use by either.

Nevertheless the concept is very well done, the large majority of the rhymes work and the art is pretty good in itself. As an adult, I enjoyed the simple and concise way it presented those complex concepts in ways that made them look as interesting as they really are. Being a children’s book does not mean that it’s not enjoyable by adults. Plus, I am really curious to see how children will actually react to it (if you have any practical examples, do tell).

The only thing that dissapointed me is that James opted to go for copyrights and place big scary copyright warnings all over the place. He should have realized that the value of his work does not lie in the ability to replicate it, which is in fact why he’s allowing everyone to read it online and sends it away as a promotion. The value of the book lies in being able to sell paper backs, and this would not have been prevented had he licensed it under a Creative Commons license.Hopefully he’ll change his mind in the future and follow a similar tactic like Cory Doctorow who gives away all his books for free online under CC licenses. Not only do you make it far less controversial for people to promote your work via sharing and posting online (as they do not have to fear about violating your copyrights) but you also create goodwill about your name.

Anyway, I thought I’d give you all a heads up to check it out if you haven’t already (as I’ve seen other atheist bloggers have promoted it) and give a thumbs up to James for the good work. I’m not waiting for the one about abiogenesis and evolution, hopefully under copylefts this time 😉

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