Balaji Srinivasan | The Network State: Bootstrapping Cloud Cities

“Very few institutions that predated the internet will survive the internet.”

Balaji S. Srinivasan is an angel investor and entrepreneur, formerly the CTO of Coinbase and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. 

Balaji has turned his attention to the creation a Network State, in particular a polis with a transhumanist mission “which starts with a virtual university, bootstraps a digital economy, and can be forked to create new opt-in polities.” Such “cloud cities” allow their members to collectively negotiate with existing jurisdictions and crowdfund territory in the real world. With the internet as main governance mechanism, even those physical communities could be increasingly decentralized.

This meeting is part of the Intelligent Cooperation Group and accompanying book draft.

Session summary: Balaji S. Srinivasan: The Network State - Foresight Institute

The Foresight Institute is a research organization and non-profit that supports the beneficial development of high-impact technologies. Since our founding in 1987 on a vision of guiding powerful technologies, we have continued to evolve into a many-armed organization that focuses on several fields of science and technology that are too ambitious for legacy institutions to support.

Allison Duettmann is the president and CEO of Foresight Institute. She directs the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Biotech & Health Extension, Neurotech, and Space Programs, Fellowships, Prizes, and Tech Trees, and shares this work with the public. She founded Existentialhope.com, co-edited Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy, co-authored Gaming the Future, and co-initiated The Longevity Prize. 

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