PULAU G // TRUST SUBSTITUTE

Blockchain according to Larry

How does a smart contract mechanize trust and interpretation? And why couldn’t anyone invent such a machine before now? The secret is blockchain, a digital ledger or database scattered across many sites globally yet very
resistant to being meddled with.
Each entry in the ledger is timestamped and cryptographically glued to a consecutive series of other digitalized records (for example, records of commercial transactions) in a “block” that’s stored in a continually-growing, glued-together chain of other blocks on thousands of computers worldwide
simultaneously. Although this mechanically-sealed, collaboratively-maintained audit trail is very difficult to tamper
with, its details can be corroborated by anyone with the proper permission, removing it from the
jurisdiction or censorship of any central authority or proprietor. All this became possible only with
post-1970s cryptography, post-1990s computer hardware and software, and continuous increases in
energy extraction and production.
The data maintained and protected on a blockchain can be of many kinds: commercial records, digitized genomes, music, land titles, patents, digitized customary knowledge of indigenous peoples, art, bills of lading, carbon credits, even votes. Some of this information you can search for and get access to only if you have accepted the terms of a smart contract that is also stored and executed on the blockchain.

theoretical reference #1:

the working fantasy/science unity of art and capitalism:

of course I know that perpetual-motion machines are impossible, but still, let’s imagine that we are building one.”

Or: “Sure, I understand as well as you that carbon markets don’t work, but
will you please stop annoying me by pointing out that fact so I can get on with my job?”

Perpetual Motion in Cyberspace

Re Union is compelling because it is design-util, with emphasis on the util, it is a genuine experiment which though full of problematics, is trying to address an issue, and can be judged on it's capacity to address this issue and not cause more problems, with it's capacity to generate reflection an important secondary. This is what re-thinking means, no?

- a (performative?) research project into north-south relations and the capitalization of nature

- an experiment as to whether you can dismantle the masters house (capitalist exploitaition of land) using the masters tools (rationalisation, block chain, ecosystem services)

- an exercise in overidentification

- a parody of the latest capitalist perpetual motion fantasy

is thinking through capitalist fantasies productive?

the moving of the Indonesian capital closer to RED projects, the hinterland, the centres of resource extraction

emissions trading schemes and the neo-colonial relations between north and south being pushed by these, get out of jail free card for emission reduction targets (GET BETTER AT EXPLAINING THIS)

real-estate tokenisation - block chain fuelled digital barter systems leading to the capacity to make any fraction of any entity anywhere – half a
live chicken in Honduras, a third of a customary irrigation system in Pakistan, a quarter of the solar electricity produced on a rooftop in Uganda – instantly and cheaply exchangeable worldwide for any fraction of anything anywhere else.

WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?

what constitutes success?

- setting up pulo g as a self managing ecosysyem

- getting rid of pulo g

- convincing people that making pulo g disappear might be the most economically rational thing to do

- making a thoughtful statement on the neo-colonial north-south relations of emission trading schemes etc premised on the owning and managing of tracts of land by north countries and them being able to externalise the impediment to reduce growth for the sake of the climate/biodiversity

NEOLIBERALISATION OF PULAU G

what constitutes failure?

-producing an unconvincing characature/parody

context and free association

1 shareholders buy some forest

2 a smart contract is drawn up between shareholders and an algorithmic representation of the forest, a forest economicus who aims to buy itself out and then maintain a steady state

3. the augmented forest/code buys itself out of it's stakeholder bondage through selective exploitation of it's resources

4. the means of production owns itself, cutting out the middle man of govts conservationists etc & entering into smart contracts with humans to trade its wares for services

Liquidation means [island] existence is brought to an end.First, a liquidator is appointed by the shareholders. The liquidator represents the interests of all creditors. The liquidator supervises the liquidation, collecting and realising the [island]'s assets (turning them into cash), discharging the [island]'s liabilities, and distributing any funds left over among the creditors.