The Network State Conference - long version (pt.1)
The inaugural conference on building global parallel institutions in the image of the internet. You should have been there.
How to Change the World is a weekly blog about reversing American decline. I will (1) study successful models of governance throughout history, primarily in the West, (2) highlight what’s going wrong leading to institutional decline or ‘political decay’, and (3) present models of democratic innovation that could lead us into a prosperous, peaceful and abundant 21st century.
Hi friend!
If you’re reading this - this piece is under construction and will be finalized and in your inbox by Christmas :)
Big love.
I recently went to the first ever Network State conference in the gorgeous city of Amsterdam. It was Fall and the trees were bright yellow along the canals making for an exceptional setting. The theme was “Parallel Institutions,” and the content was 40 examples of organizations building both parallel societies and parallel institutions. These are the real-life buds of the societies of the future that the conference’s host, Balaji Srinivasan imagines in his book The Network State.
[Quick note: If you don’t know what a Network State is, here it is in one sentence, one image, one thousand words, and one essay]
The purpose of this essay is to give you a peek into the conference - to show you examples of where and how these new institutions are being built, and to give you my opinion of how they will contribute to the construction of Network States in the future.
A quick remark on why I think this is both important enough to fly across the world to get to the conference, and then sit down for over a dozen hours to write about it. We live in a time of mass institutional decline. Our ability as a culture to provide affordable health insurance, education and housing are dissipating at an alarming rate and our ability to build infrastructure has virtually stopped altogether. Homelessness and debt are skyrocketing. We are the most indebted nation in the history of the world and this too is accelerating. We can’t extricate ourselves from war and increasingly are known for starting and prolonging them. Inflation is becoming a major problem for the first time in generations while the average American is being priced out of the housing market. This may look like a thousand things going wrong at the same time, but it’s not. It’s basically one thing.
The institution.
This is a broad category, but it still hits the mark. Almost all of the institutions we rely on were designed since WWII and most have been quietly on the decline for a long time. It’s only now coming to a head with no easy fix in sight. This will lead to despair and anger, and contribute to political instability until these institutions are remade with a fresh design. Many will be discarded, combined, separated, privatized, made open-source, localized and internet-native.
The Network State is a movement that allows you to channel your creative energies into building the infrastructure of tomorrow, rather than being a victim of the current collapse.
Without further ado - here is the Network State Conference:
The presentations:
0. Opening Remarks - Balaji
He tells you it will be almost “tik tok” style but in person. Gives an intro to the Network State - a must watch.
Theory, Practice, Conference
Theory:
Are new countries even possible? New Companies (Google); New Communities (Facebook), New Currencies (Bitcoin); New Countries (The Network State).
[image of book] - it’s V.1. He’s making a V.2 hardcover and a movie
Practice:
The Parallel Establishment
Imagine a thousand different startups, each of them replacing a legacy institution. Replace San Francisco with Culdesac, Prospera, Cabin, Neighborhood. Replace Harvard with Thiel Fellowship, Replit, Synthesis, Emergent Ventures. Replace Media like NYT with Twitter/X, Substack.
[add screenshot of “Introducing the parallel establishment"]
They gain users and grow in strength until they become the new thing
So this is how we build a new country. Break them down into a bunch of startups and then aggregate them together
2 parts
Parallel Societies (physical) - first part of today’s conference
They’re decentralized but plan to do nodes elsewhere
Parallel institutions
replacing media, education, finance
Part 1 - Parallel Societies
Start physical societies. Different ways of materializing cloud communities onto the land.
Cabin
The Neighborhood SF
NOMAD
Praxis
Culdesac
Prospera
Fractal
Vibecamp
(10) Spectra
Builders of houses, towns and cities
(9) Build Cover - builds houses
Edison Alpha - built a town
Casa Orascom - has built entire cities
More parellel societies, but more digital and emerging. More like DAOs and crypto stuff.
Metacartel
Coordinape
Plumia
Yayem
Pronomos
Zuzalu - a Network School
Part II: Parallel Institutions
Media
Rumble (Glenn Greenwald)
Grey Lady Winked
Tablet
Nas Daily
Farcaster
Parallel Education
Synthesis
1517 Fund
Emergent Ventures (Tyler Cowen)
Replit
Parallel Laws - new legal systems and how we get there
YCombinator
e/acc
Spearbit
Baseflow
Charter Cities
Parallel Biomedicine
Infinita
Vitalia
Research Hub
Parallel Finance
Solana Labs
Gemini
Contrarian Thinking
Pacemaker Global
Heritage
1. Cabin - Grin
The conference kicked off with a presentation by Grin of Cabin, whose tagline is “Internet friends building a network of modern villages.”
Special skills: URL → IRL
He showed images of people getting together in real life over dinner in different places around the country and suggested that interested parties join via a “super club” (you can sign up here if this sounds cool). It seems to be that if you’re a ‘citizen’ you can stay in some of the locations around the world, and there will be a community there for you. They have a great write up on what they do here.
Cabin addresses a few challenges that early Network States will face. They’re building culture, which is so important for binding groups together and especially helping them make the leap from online to IRL. That’s another thing they’re doing, is pulling people from the cloud to the land, getting them to spend time together. They also may be offering models of co-investment and ownership with their properties, but I wasn’t 100% clear on that. In any case, Cabin seems great.
2. Neighborhood SF - Jason Ben
The next talk was by Jason Ben about a project called Neighborhood SF, who’s goal is to provide “truly excellent co-living communities.”
Special Skills → Curated Community
He lived at and then started helping others build co-living communities in SF. It’s a rather hyper-local and humble project in the context of the Network State, but there was one part of his presentation which really stood out to me. His goal with the houses was to have a diverse set of skills as well as a good ratio of guys to girls. The first step to building the house was to have dinner parties and to check people’s chemistry. He was able to create some kind of a Chat GPT powered invite that would scrape the Linkedin profiles of those who had been invited, determined their skills, then as the invite would be passed around would let people know what skills and attributes were still needed at the dinner. This made is much easier for friends to recommend people.
While co-living isn’t exactly a Network State, it’s probably a much more conducive to creativity and emotional support than living alone or with some rando off Craigslist (not sure if anyone still uses that).
3. Nomad - Zach Millburn
After that was Zach Millborn from Nomad who’s tagline is “Decentralized Living.”
Special Skills → Digital nomad mobility
They’ve designed and built a container home which they see as a prototype of many to come which will even be assembled into villages. Zach seems qualified to start a company called Nomad as he’s visited 65 countries.
Digital Nomadism is on the rise and so services that allow them to have ownership in a network of houses rather than just a single fixed house might suit them better.
4. Praxis - Dryden Brown
Next up was Dryden Brown from Praxis which calls itself a “community building a new city.”
Special Skills → Gathering a long-running community to dream big
Praxis is one of the longest running “startup societies” that I know of. Their new ambitious plan is to build a city from scratch in a special economic zone on the Mediterranean.
5. Culdesac - Ryan Johnson
Culdesac is the first car free neighborhood built from scratch in the US.
It’s an interesting project because it’s able to reimagine the neighborhood for remote workers who don’t need to rely in cars to commute. They support a suite of transportation options like biking, EVs and have a stop from Phoenix’s light rail that stops right at the development.
Special Skills → Building a brick and mortar development inside the US
They have pushed cars to the periphery of the development to give space for walkability and pedestrian plazas.
6. Prospera - Erick Brimen
Prospera is the most well-known “startup-city” in the world. Built on the gorgeous island of Roatan in the Southern Caribbean, it’s a small city built in a special economic zone. The unique agreement they have with the government allows them more autonomy in how they govern themselves.
Special Skills → A platform for governing autonomous cities
Prospera is at the bleeding edge of creating innovative partnerships with governments, stimulating development and introducing free-markets where corruption and mis-education make them otherwise impossible.
Propsera isn’t just one development, but is a full-blown governance platform built from a decade of experience.
Speaking of Prospera and Network States - they’re hosting a two month “pop-up village” called Vitalia dedicated to longevity in the new year.
7. Fractal - Andrew and Priya Rose
Fractal Collective is an experiment in co-living hosted in Bushwick, Brooklyn. They’ve innovated on the model by making it not just about living together but also also growing and doing productive stuff together, like taking classes.
Special Skills → Build a community that grows together where you live
Andrew and Priya made community building seem fruitful and accessible.
8. Vibecamp - Brooke Bowman
Vibecamp is one of the ultimate examples of turning URL to IRL. It’s a group of friends that found each other on Twitter, built a culture together, and then started experimenting with in-person gatherings. Their last one was earlier this year in Austin, Texas and they rented out a literal camp and then ran what in my understanding was a kind of un-conference style gathering.
Special Skills → Building culture in URL and moving it to IRL
One of my favorite moments of the talk was when Brooke talked about an “agency explosion” on the internet of people wanting to start their own things, and how their movement has led to numerous examples of people starting their own camps to put their own spin on it.
The thing that Vibe.camp does that may seem understated at first is that it creates a common culture among strangers, which is not easy to do, and is essential to the establishment of any network that is worth being a part of.
9. Cover - Alexis Rivas
Cover is another modular home builder. It makes beautiful and upscale-looking homes
Special Skills →
My main takeaway from Cover is that modular homes can be very well designed and beautiful.
10. Spectra - Ryan Rzepecki
Spectra is an urban design, Archetecture and Game Design Studio based on San Juan Puerto Rico.
Special Skills →
They use game elements to help people experiment with Urban Design. It’s under a creative commons license so anyone can use it to experiment with design.
11. Smart Island - Shervin Pishvar
He and his buddies want to put a city on Norman’s Cay in the Bahamas. He talks a bit about how one actually does this, such as partnering with the Bahamian government to put a customs office directly on the island so that people can fly in and be checked into the country directly.
Special Skills →
[Put something else here? Maybe a map/rendering of the plan?]
12. Casa Orascom - Stefan Zingerle
Casa Orascom is an impact driven town developer. Their group has built 40,000 homes, mostly with government partnerships for urban expansion and neighborhood rehabilitation.
Special Skills → building city-scale developments
One example is Haram City, Egypt. Situated on 400 hectares 12 miles West of Cairo, it has 12,000 homes housing almost 40,000 residents, four schools, retail and a vibrant downtown. The homes are affordable at 25,000 - 40,000 Euros. It also has a 50 megawatt electricity plant and offers jobs in the textile and recycling industries.
Another example is El Gouna, also in Egypt, along the Red Sea.
It’s roughly the size of Manhattan South of 110th st. It has 25,000 permanent residents, 3 marinas, 4,000 villas, 2,000 affordable homes for low income families, 400 retail outlets, 100+ restaurants, campus for the technical university of Berlin, 20 hotels, 3,000 rooms, hospital, airport, solar power plant. This short talk was one of the most exciting because it hits home that that there are developers that are truly capable of building entire cities.
There’s one final project I have to mention.
Stefan showed how they rehabilitated a slum in Dakar Senegal for zero net cost. They built apartments for the slum residents on 2/3 of the land, along with a school and shops for them to work in. No longer a slum, the remaining 1/3 of land skyrockets in value. They build and sell apartments and recoup the cost of the initial development. This single development has housed 1,600 people.
13. Metacartel - Yalor Mewn
Special Skills →
14. Coordinape - Zach Anderson
Special Skills →
15. Plumia - Sondre Rasch
Special Skills →
16. Yayem - Lindsey Elkin
Special Skills →
17. Competitive Government / Pronomos - Patri Friedman
Special Skills →
18. Zuzalu - Vitalik
Special Skills →
19. Digital Privacy - Glenn Greenwald
Special Skills →
20. How the NYT Faked History - Ashley Rindsberg
Matt Harder runs the civic engagement firm Civic Trust, where he helps cities strengthen their civic environment by helping residents, civic organizations, and local government work together to create public projects. Follow him on Twitter.