Hey San Francisco Bay friends! What are you doing next month, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, 8/3? Join me for the launch of my new book, Automatic Noodle, hosted by Noe Valley Books! I'll be in conversation with AI researcher @alex. It's FREE! RSVP now! https://noevalleybooks.com/event/2025-08-03/automatic-noodle-event-annalee-newitz #sfba #sf #books

A bit further on, the author explains how to start your own "network state";

"Found a startup society. This is simply an online community with aspirations of something greater. Anyone can found one, just like anyone can found a company or cryptocurrency. And the founder鈥檚 legitimacy comes from whether people opt to follow them."

#BalajiSrinivasan, 2022

https://thenetworkstate.com/the-network-state-in-one-thousand-words

That's not a state of any kind, it's a cult.

(3/3)

@strypey
Thinking back, Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net is perhaps around this topic with others.
Not a novel I loved, but an early one of its sort, and part of the #evolution of #SF

So I did a deep drive, and found a web version of the book I presume they're referring to, giving this definition;

"A network state is a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states.

, 2022

thenetworkstate.com/the-networ

So ... it's a distributed diplomatic entity, whose population consists entirely of landlords?

(2/?)

@strypey
They appear in Neal Stephenson's dystopian SF novel Snow crash.
As does much else.

#NealStephenson #dystopian#SF #novel #snowcrash