Aral Balkan

I wrote this five years ago:

“Democracy or capitalism? Pick one.

If, like me, you grew up in the 80s, you probably unthinkingly accepted the neoliberal maxim that democracy and capitalism go hand-in-hand. This is one of the greatest lies ever told. Democracy and capitalism are polar opposites.

You cannot have a functional democracy and billionaires and trillion-dollar corporate interests and Silicon Valley’s Big Tech misinformation and exploitation machinery. What we’re seeing is the clash of capitalism and democracy and capitalism is winning.

Are we past a tipping point? I don’t know. Perhaps. But we can’t think like that.

Personally, I’m going to keep working to effect change where I feel I can be effective: in creating alternative technological infrastructure to support individual freedoms and democracy.

We’ve already laid the infrastructure of techno-fascism. We’ve already created (and are creating) the panopticons. All the fascists need to do is move in and take the controls. And they will do so democratically, before destroying democracy, just as Hitler did.

And if you think the 1930s and 40s were something, remember that the most advanced tools to amplify the destructive ideologies of the time were less powerful than the computers you have in your pockets today. Today we have machine learning and are on the brink of unlocking quantum computing.

We must ensure the 2030s are not like the 1930s. Because our advanced centralised systems of data capture, classification, and prediction plus a hundred years of exponential increase in processing power (note: I do not use the word “progress”) mean the 2030s will be exponentially worse.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, we have a common enemy: the nationalist international. The problems of our time transcend national borders. The solutions must also. The systems we build must be both local and global at once. The network we must build is one of solidarity.

We created the present. We will create the future. Let’s work together to ensure that that future is the one we want to live in ourselves.”

– In 2020 and beyond, the battle to save personhood and democracy requires a radical overhaul of mainstream technology

https://ar.al/2020/01/01/in-2020-and-beyond-the-battle-to-save-personhood-and-democracy-requires-a-radical-overhaul-of-mainstream-technology/

And that’s why I’m working on building the Small Web.

https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/

With ZERO funding from the EU and multiple rejections from NLNet/ngi (because they still don’t get it).

https://ar.al/2022/10/20/nlnet-grant-application-for-domain-rejected/

(That’s from 2022. We were also rejected in 2024 for my work on Kitten, Domain, and Place as outlined in my talk, linked below, but I was too tired to write about it again.)

https://ar.al/2024/06/24/small-web-computer-science-colloquium-at-university-of-groningen/

So for fuck’s sake, if you agree with my vision for a technological (and thus societal) future different from the hellscape we currently inhabit, and want to help us explore one possible path towards it, please fund our damn work. (Because, clearly, the EU is adamant about not doing so.)

https://small-tech.org/fund-us/

Other ways to help:

- If you know of folks that are ethically compatible who offer no strings funding, please try to secure some for us (my time is 100% spent on coding at the moment).

- If you know of conferences that pay their speakers, ask them to have me speak on the Small Web. It can be as technical or non-technical as you like and I won’t do it for free but I’m happy to accept, within reason, what they can afford (in addition to travel and accommodation being covered) and any fees received go to Small Technology Foundation, our not-for-profit.

- Help share this far and wide.

Once Domain is released and we have the first Small Web host running on small-web.org – hopefully the first of many that will be run by other folks in the future – and we start taking commercial sign-ups for Small Web places, we should eventually have the money problem solved (because apparently that’s a problem you have to solve to gain the privilege of working for the common good in our world because our system is unabashedly shortsighted).

So, yeah, anyway, g’morning! How’s your day going so far? :)

(You made it this far? You deserve a hug. And don’t worry, I’m just venting. Things will get better. It’s just frustrating swimming upstream all the time.)

💕

#SmallWeb #SmallTech #humanRights #democracy #anarchy #BigWeb #BigTech #capitalism #neoliberalism #technoFascism #technology #fascism #society #freedom #personhood

In 2020 and beyond, the battle to save personhood and democracy requires a radical overhaul of mainstream technology

We stand at the precipice of reverting from being people to being property again, hacked via a digital and networked backdoor, the existence of which we continue to deny at our peril.

Aral Balkan
Feb 23 at 8:00amWeb
Show threadPauline von HellermannFeb 23
@aral what a great piece. I really like your linking of the climate, democracy and personhood emergency. I am just sad I didn’t see this earlier, it would have been perfect for a #Personhood module I wrote and taught 2022-24. I agree, personhood is really important! Now sadly i have been made redundant i can’t teach anymore; nevertheless, good to read even now 😊
Show threadAral BalkanFeb 23

@pvonhellermannn Sorry to hear of the redundancy and sending you lots of love. 💕

(And thank you.)

Show threadPauline von HellermannFeb 23

@aral it’s ok - UK higher education in such a bad state, i was just very unlucky to be amongst the first to be fired. Many more this year..

The challenge of trying to make a living outside academia is also stimulating and maybe good for me (Though let’s see what i say in two years time on this)

I am inspired by you and many others on here who habe worked independently for years, and are finding ways forward. And doing important work in this space!

Show threadLaetSgo Feb 23
@aral 🤗
Show threadAral BalkanFeb 23
@laetsgo Right back at ‘cha :) 💕
Show threadHorst Trumtins Electro SharkFeb 23

@aral

I wish I could share this multiple times!!

Show threadAral BalkanFeb 23
@populistensohn Thank you :) 💕
Show threadCelfredFeb 23
@aral Thank you. People like you make me keep hope in human beings.
Show threadAral BalkanFeb 23
@celfred 💕
Show threadLooking for explanations…Feb 23
@aral
That was such a powerful photo, but we move on on forget so quickly. 😏
Show threadAndy WoottonFeb 23
@aral Yes, but no. It should be possible to organise capitalism so people are rewarded for having and risking capital, without punishing those who don't have it, we just didn't choose to do that because our electoral systems are 'winner takes all" too.
Show threadAndy WoottonFeb 23
@aral Obviously, I'm ignoring the question of whether Capitalism can exist alongside having a functional environment for human survival.
Show threadAral BalkanFeb 23
@woo How’d they get the capital? Why do some people have it and others don’t? Let’s look back at history a bit. Hmm, doesn’t look good, does it?
Show threadAndy WoottonFeb 23
@aral How they got it in the past doesn't have to be relevant if the broken system is replaced. I don't think it will be because it will be a huge struggle to get a majority to believe their children should not inherit the 'fruits of their labour', however meagre it may be.
Show threadLord Caramac the Clueless, KSCFeb 23
@aral I an not so sure about quantum computing. Maybe we'll see a serious quantum computer within the next few years, maybe we'll never see it. The same goes for AGI (truly intelligent, human-like AI) or nuclear fusion reactors.
However, it seems quite clear that fascism is spreading all over the West right now. There isn't any technological breakthrough needed for that, it already worked a hundred years ago, they can just install an updated version.
Some tankies still think that this isn't fascism. They insist that modern far-right populism must be an entirely different beast because by their definition, it is only fascism if it gets implemented by the most reactionary and nationalist capitalists in order to dismantle the threat of a a global far-left labour movement, and since the organisations of the working class like unions and cooperatives have been tamed by bourgeois democracy after WWII and are no real threat to Capitalism anymore, whatever happens is not really Fascism™.
And they will keep insisting that it isn't the real thing until they get disappeared.
Show threadSøren Hetland BasseFeb 23
@aral It will not get better before the mechanism making it worse is understood (see my toots!) Democracy is neither this nor that "ism". Democracy is the dynamic answer to a certain level of societal development. If that level is not present democracy fails. In most countries it is only the urban population that have reached it, and in some countries like the USA (where the middle class stagnated around 1970) society has degenerated to the point where democracy collapse!
Show threadRed HoodFeb 23
@aral
Correct 💯 💯 💯
Show threadpubliusFeb 23

@aral

"The Servile State", by Hilaire Belloc, published over a hundred years ago, illustrates the fundamental conflict between capitalism and democracy from a decidedly non-Marxist perspective.

Show threadArchivariusFeb 23
@aral I just watched your speech in the European Parliament, you are incredible
Show threadAral BalkanFeb 23

@ujeenator Thank you for your kind words, but I’m no different to you. If we’re going to change things, we’re going to do it all together, as equals.

💕