Increasingly, many wonder and ponder about the application of the p2p paradigm in the physical world, e.g. to enable p2p production, to create more sustainable resource usage etc. The P2P Foundation recently published a few interesting thoughts on the matter by the Austrian new media sociologist Franz Nahrada.

 ”[...] it is imagineable that cooperatives work out arrangements that lead to a circulation of material goods and therefore enable mutual supply in a circular process, to some degree eliminating the need for monetary income. This economy would work in a biomorphical way, the surplus on one point being the input on others.

I think this is not a mere utopian vision, but the tendency of automation is that production is becoming increasingly biomorphical [...]. Increasingly material goods can be produced wherever they are needed, with miniaturized production equipment.”

Another example of nature serving as (more than) a ground metaphor for the organization of the physical world and processes surrounding us (cf. biomimicry). The combination of the p2p and peer production philosophies with community dynamics and design intelligence opens up a manifold of possibilities to deal with production, hence also consumption and management in new, innovative (and also more sustainable) ways.

Rather than the final vision, it is the transition from today’s models to a peer production model that many people have difficulty in seeing. As Michel (Bauwens) notes: “if we want a ‘peer to peer society’, then clearly we have to find a systemic answer.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 10:36 and is filed under future, visions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.