The P2P Power Economy

Author: Jock Gill

For too many decades the idea of the citizen as a one dimensional consumer has been growing. See Adam Curtis’ BBC series “The Century of the Self“. Today, it is the dominant view. The citizen consumes products, services, and “ideas” promoted by the few and sent out from a “center”. The consumer is the end point of the process. The consumer is kept “satisfied” [pacified] by consumption and “constrained” by debt. In this model, the “media” is the conduit, the persuader, and the “boundary” setter used to “control” the conversation.

This is what I am seeing in all of today’s presidential campaigns. It is precisely what I see in the truly dreadful H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. It is what we see in the right ring media spew machine. It is at the heart of Rove’s strategy. It is at the heart of the “Intellectual Property Enforcement Act” as well.

What we need is a new view of the citizen and her role and power in society. I suggest the following:

All citizens must be:

         1] Producers

         2] Distributors

         3] Consumers

This three dimensional view of what it means to be a fully engaged citizen in a dynamic, edge based, fully distributed society, could be the foundation of a new politics for our future.

Three quick examples.

Our centralized power plant cum grid electrical paradigm is intolerably inefficient. To develop an efficient electrical system we will need to absolutely minimize both the number of central generating stations as well as use of the wasting grid. The primary solution that achieves these goals is Combined Heat & Power [CHP] at the points of demand, scaled to the demand — from micro to very large. The Europeans are pursuing this vision with vigor.

Now add in the Electranet concept, where all producers are in a real time market buying and selling energy from each other in a market based on Internet concepts.

In the CHP Electranet model, every point of demand must be a producer of electricity and thermal energy as well as distributor and consumer of same. This can get us to an electrical infrastructure with 4X, or more, efficiency than what we have today. If we are serious about global climate change and energy security through independence, as well as eliminating single points of failure in our infrastructure, then CHP is the path we need to get on pronto.

CHP is one of the keys to Peer to Peer Power Economy [P2P Power]. It is past time our elected officials focused on legislation that would enable and reward CHP on a national level.

Secondly, consider the internet. Why is internet P2P [Peer to Peer] so popular? Not only does it make more efficient use of the resource, but it empowers users to be producers/distributors/ as well as consumers. The flat worlders who have business models and political models firmly rooted in the one dimensional, consumer only, world view are not unexpectedly threatened by this. Hence the rush to media consolidation, H.R. 1955, the extreme extensions of copy right, DRM, etc.

The distribution of bits at the edges is another key to the P2P Power Economy.

Lastly, consider America’s international competitive fitness. Is it better served by a nation of passive consumers engaged in a culture of waste and debt? Or is it best served by a nation of actively engaged producers, distributors, and consumers building something much greater than the sum of its parts? If we can not be greater than the sum of our parts, we are toast.

And of course this means we must end the false notion that the government can do no right and the private sector can do no wrong. This perversion utterly prevents these two essential functions from forming anything greater than the sum of the parts. As a consequence, it acts to sap our native strengths and render us more vulnerable to external competition.

This is the framework for a politics of the future that will trump the old 20th century model. The question is this: Who will be the first candidate to take full advantage of this new model?

Note: I am now learning that centralized sewage treatment plants are becoming too expensive to build. Thus we will need to extend the Peer to Peer Power Economy metaphor to sewage treatment as well. Perhaps we will call it micro-WWT [Waste Water Treatment] that can be distributed around at various scales in “District” solutions.

The Peer to Peer Power Economy is the new business and political model that we will adapt because we are a market based country and the market abhors waste and inefficiencies. It also puts people first by making them an integral part of all of the key functions of a society greater than the sum of its parts.

Thanks for reading.

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