Mandalorians X 1729

This is a standalone essay under 500 words on Day 5 of the Tech Progressives Writing Challenge 2, also join build_ to connect.



A glimpse into the decentralized future with Start Wars.

I have always enjoyed watching the Star Wars Saga. However, since the new Mandalorian Series came out, I became a real fanboy. Beautiful scenes and loveable characters. More interestingly, while I was watching the series, I started seeing patterns between the fictitious Start Wars universe and our real world future. Patterns that were coherent with the Network State concept. Decentralization, Opt-in cultures, spectrum of sovereignty and more. At first, I was just amused, because my brain was making these out of the blue connections. Similar to the Baader-Meinhof-Phenomenon, just that my mind was not thinking about a yellow car, but rather about the Netwok State. Then, in season 1, episode 5, minute 9 of the Book of Boba Fett it struck me. It is exactly the same concept Balaji was talking about since the beginning of the 1729 lectures: "VR-Flags". Only citizens of a certain state, with a special app could see the flag. Others could not. The same happened for Mando, the main character in the series. He activated a special vision and was guided by Mandalorian markings to the hidden spot, where his kin was living. It was ridiculous. Are the writer of the Mandalorian and Balaji reading the same books?

Be it as it may, since then I started paying even closer attention and educating myself a bit more on Star Wars history. First, I read about the Mandalorians. Here again, the concept to 1729s vision is really close. The nation of Mandalorians is comprised of people from completely different races living together (collective land). They follow "the way" and are held together by a common code, which must not be broken, oor therwise you are out (Truth, Health, Wealth, #winandhelpwin). Most of them are obliged to wear helmets at all times (pseudonimity). They earn their living by being masters at certain crafts and doing gig-jobs, mostly bounty hunting (gig-economy). They get paid in beskar, a precious metal, which is the pillar of their economy (Bitcoin). The best ones have earned a full beskar body armor because they completed the most jobs (meritocracy, nft-credentials). I could go on and on, but there are also other interesting concepts that came to my mind that go hand in hand with our potential future.

For example the decentralized world. It looks like we will never be "one nation" on planet earth. People are still divided by race, economical status and by belief. However, once Elon will make space travel possible, we can colonize the universe. With the colonization, new Network States can arise and every big enough movement can populate their own region. Decentralization will span so wide, that it will almost be impossible to have universal laws. Thus similarly to Star Wars, sovereignty will become much more important in certain jurisdictions and regions. Protection with guns, growing food, segregated economies. Still there is the possibility to opt-in to different regions, hence different sovereignty spectra. One could live rather sovereign on the almost lawless planet Tatooine or join a planet governed by the Republic where you must live by their rules and protection.

Anyhow, try watching the Mandalorian and the Book of Boba Fett and perhaps your mind will make the same connections. Get inspired.