A Short Review

I got pretty excited to read this book because it sounded like they had arrived at a conclusion similar to ours, and they had done eight years earlier. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite what I had hoped. The book came really, really close, but no cigar. Nonetheless, the authors do recognize the need for something like RADs.

Their view from a different perspective, the see three models competing for power: traditional capitalism, neo-feudal cognitive capitalism, and Commons-based peer production. Their favorite is the latter,

 

The Commons

… the Commons is an idea different both from state property … and from private property…^∇

They then add this, which they attribute to Siobhain O'Mahony,

It is, however, important to highlight that the contributors of CBPP^∇ projects do have interest and rights concerning their work and are interested in protecting their intellectual property.

With RADs, people could get a patent and then distribute the revenue that comes from it based on the recognized contributions (to the patent project) each person has.

Not Sure What to Call this…

The authors posit that the “partner state” would engage in debt-free public monetary creation while supporting a structure of specialized complementary currencies.

All I can say is ”maybe for a bit.” My question is how to create such a “partner state?” Put another way, what would the system be that would bring anything like this “partner state?” about? What would the system be that makes this robust and long lasting?

The book is full of these. Maybe if I read it again, more carefully… ? But no, not worth it.

Recommendation

The book is short, but not an easy read. While reading it, it felt I was being lectured. The book relies on obscure terms and lots of abbreviations, and, what sounds to me, gibberish. Like I said, it is not an easy read.

Read it at your own risk. It includes a lot of references. This may make it worth $65 to you. If you want my copy, please let me know and we'll figure out a way to give you mine (Kindle).

ENDNOTES

• V Kostakis, M Bauwens. Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy. Aug, 2014. <https://radicals.world/pJVfF5>

• CBPP stands for Commons-Based Peer Production.