Thread by @jeffemmett

The "Tragedy of the Commons" is an oft-misunderstood term that deserves some analysis. 🧐

1/ Coined by Garrett Hardin in 1968, the term is often considered a condemnation of local peoples being unable to collectively manage & maintain a shared resource.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_o…

2/ Hardin was down w/ white nationalism, anti-immigration & eugenics. Uncool, Hardin.🤮

For this reason (& others), many ppl reject the Tragedy narrative as an attempt to disempower commoners, to retain power for centralized/colonial "expert" authority. Cuz that's also uncool.😤

3/ Many ppl argue that Hardin was NOT in fact studying a commons, but rather a "free for all" where rules were not established around the shared resource, such as stints, caps, & social punishments in effect for misuse. 🤨

More like a "Tragedy of the non-Commons"

4/ In 1990, along came Elinor Ostrom, who studied real world commons initiatives & proposed 8 principles they all shared to successfully manage common resources.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Os…

Many see Ostrom's principles as overturning the Tragedy, ultimately proving Hardin wrong.🧐

5/ While Hardin's aims were certainly suspect & Ostrom's principles do address the Tragedy's downfalls w/ proper community rulesets...

I would argue that there STILL IS such a thing as the "Tragedy of the Commons", altho perhaps it needs the 'non' to avoid old connotations.👇

6/ Ostrom's principles address the Tragedy ONLY in community-scale scenarios where reputation & social exhortation function.

In a globally connected world, collaboration among strangers (or even communities who botch rule setting) the "Tragedy of the non-Commons" still reigns.😬

7/Imho, the difficulty lies in APPLYING these community rulesets to the diverse resources we need to govern at multiple scales: from local to global.

E.g. Limiting GHG emissions requires global collaboration b/w strangers. Climate change is just the latest Tragedy! 🔥☠️🔥

8/ So how do we facilitate the application of Ostrom's rules, such that they can create positive impact from local groups to global commons, and help us address the challenges of our age?

Blockchain technology offers multiple tools we can leverage.
medium.com/commonsstack/a…

9/ The @commonsstack is introducing the idea of #CyberPhysicalCommons, technologically-enabled community ruleset templates to facilitate proper implementation of Ostrom's commons principles.

We aim to provide tools that lower the cost of adoption of proper commoning practices.

10/ Of course, this is not easy nor straightforward. This is not a tech-only solution. Blockchains are not a panacea. This work entails social, cultural, legal & more messy human processes.

https://twitter.com/jeffemmett/status/1227758675714039808

But those processes can be streamlined w/ new tools available.🚀

11/ Using #TokenEngineering, fractally scalable community structures can be designed to federate up to bioregional, national, or global jurisdictions. Group preference estimation & signal processing can be improved thru tools used in multi-agent coordination, e.g. swarm robotics.

12/ More to come on the above topics! Open for discussion & disagreement, willing to update my world views in light of better info. Please comment w/ your thoughts!👆
@mbauwens @RebeccaRachmany @StaccoP2P @LeanneUssher @NurtureGirl @ntnsndr @enfascination @thegrifft @samerP2P