We entered the 21st century with more possibility than ever: a global ideological struggle peacefully resolved in favor of freedom, poverty rapidly decreasing worldwide, and a promising new frontier in the Internet. It was an unprecedented situation for humans: no major, pressing problems. Distant wars and climate concerns, sure, but nothing compelling action here and now. For the first time, humans had attained the free, peaceful, abundant existence they had always dreamed of. Out of habit and probably intrinsic nature, we soon filled the void by turning small problems into existential threats. The first two decades of the 21st century were characterized by taking wild swings at poorly-understood and extremely exaggerated problems, especially in the US.
A familiar pattern has formed. The news media sensationalizes a problem like terrorism or police brutality in a way that provokes fear and anger from their audiences. A half-baked, emotional overreaction follows, led by foolish politicians and activists, and a disaster much bigger than the original problem results. Nothing is learned.
At the same time, with less hype, tech entrepreneurs have been building a better world. Building out the Internet. Building the next generation of spaceflight. Sparking imaginations. In the 2010’s and 2020’s it has started to become increasingly clear that technology would enable us to pull ourselves out of the post-Cold-War morass of complacent stagnation.
Technology might not only bring new, better things, it might enable new, better ways of being. It might enable us to form groups around ambitious goals and organize to achieve them. And this would in turn enable more technological progress, by enabling societal innovation that unlocks technological innovation. For example, it would enable alternative regulatory regimes to enable more experimentation and ultimately progress.
The key idea of this renaissance of the first half of the twenty-first century could be the network state. The idea is to start as an online community with a common purpose that members care deeply about, then gradually create networked physical communities where members live together. It could be a way for people to open new frontiers on a seemingly built-out planet by simply reorganizing themselves into purposeful, aligned groups. The first successful network state might be devoted simply to maximizing the flourishing of its members with a set of agreed-upon metrics:
The difference between biological age and chronological age of members (aiming for biological age to be significantly less than chronological age)
Average amount of exercise per day
Average amount of sleep per day
Body fat percentage of members
Awards received by members for actions for the good of the community
Helping another member
Running a successful community challenge (eg sleep 7+ hours every day for a month).
Eventually, this community could create a new, lighter regulatory regime around medical innovation, boosting the community’s pursuit of vitality. Community members could aggressively develop new drugs and fitness protocols with constant experiments. This aggressive striving for vitality would not be for everyone, but everyone would benefit from the resulting innovations that spread from this community to all corners of the world.