Nanosocialism

From Gothpoodle

Nanosocialism is a political philosophy, first stated (under the name “information socialism”) by the Australian academic Kyle Porters in 2034. Porters observed that although modern civilization was utterly dependent on information technologies, the central notion of intellectual property often gave rise to significant injustice. Although he was by no means the first person to point out this contradiction, he was the first philosopher to construct a coherent political ideology in response.

Porters pointed out that the individual holders of intellectual property were usually unable to enforce their rights against piracy. Software and genetic designs were being stolen wholesale around the world, bringing profit to pirates at the expense of the original designers. Despite this, the artificial scarcity imposed on information by the concept of intellectual property kept the benefits of new technology out of the hands of most of the world’s billions, who lived in rank poverty as a result. Porters suggested that the state should go beyond the simple enforcement of copyrights and patents, and actually seize ownership of them. He believed that only the state could properly reward technological innovation, while still distributing the benefits of such innovation fairly to all.

At first, “infosocialism” was not taken seriously in the developed nations, but in some parts of the world it combined with the Majority Cultures movement to produce a viable new ideology. By the late 2060s, several nations in South America and Southeast Asia were governed by local infosocialist parties. Piracy of advanced technology had long been a going concern in these nations, primarily benefitting a corrupt entrepreneurial class. Bolstered by Porters’ theories, governments found it attractive to seize the benefits of such piracy for themselves, striking a blow against Western-style capitalism and local corruption at the same time.

The infosocialist nations repudiated all international treaties protecting intellectual property. Patents and copyrights held elsewhere were ruthlessly pirated, although the infosocialist regimes usually offered “royalty” payments if the owners of intellectual property were willing to sign over their rights. Scientists and engineers within the infosocialist nations were often richly rewarded by the state for their work, at the cost of losing all control over their inventions. Some of the infosocialist nations even extended the principle to works of creative art, seizing the right to publish such works and pay royalties to their creators.

Naturally, the repudiation of international agreements had severe consequences, as most nations imposed economic sanctions on the infosocialist regimes. In response, the most committed nations in the infosocialist bloc formed the Transpacific Socialist Alliance. At about this time, the outside media began calling the new ideology “nanosocialism,” due to the Alliance’s emphasis on state control of emergent nanotechnologies.

The TSA has struggled along ever since, surviving economic sanctions and the Pacific War, gathering more support around the world each year. Most outside observers believe that nanosocialism is doomed to fail, for many of the same reasons that Soviet-style Communism failed a century ago. Still, in many parts of the world the ideology is strongly attractive, and the TSA shows no signs of immediate collapse.