I see this cool synergy happening between cypherpunk culture and land-based living. I am curious about it. What are some shared themes tweenst these two camps? Are rural cypherpunks different than their urban counterparts? If so, in what ways are they different? What can homesteaders learn from the crypto-anarchist movement, and vice versa? Rural man is known to remain distant from the trappings of the computer revolution – a characterization that may be changing in new and unexpected ways…
This is just an open inquiry that I think deserves consideration because I think it represents a powerful intersection of individuals and subculture within the greater scope of a counterculture/second realm/parallel structure. Probably will become part of an article on my instance in the not too distant future.
It certainly is interesting, as me and many of my closest compatriots (Jamin Biconik, the hardware hacker, permaculture farmer being one) fit this bill. Thanks for posing the question explicitly.
In short, the need to be close together physically is less now with advancing technology. So, if we’re going to have dispersed homesteads, and we know all the dirty deeds of the surveillance states, it only makes sense for some us to end up here.
I think Jamin was even into cypherpunk before homesteading.
Further, knowing how easily a wedding can be drone bombed, etc. makes it clear that EVERY Second Realmer, self-liberator, etc. to be in one physical area is beyond retarded. Bringing up again the need for dispersing, and for solid technology that isn’t ratting us out.
That, and even though I would truly love nothing more than to throw (most of) my electronics into a river, this technological world is what it is. Remaining ignorant of it is more of a threat almost.
I could go on, but that’s a good start. Appreciate this forum greatly!
I find it wonderful how seamlessly these two cultures complement each other. If privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world, then living away from the sight of surveillance cameras and/or oppressive government structures seems like a more advantageous position to be in.
The most striking similarity I see is the solidarity within these communities. I’ve never heard about a competitive cypherpunk or about a competitive homesteader (though I must admit that the idea of a competitive homesteader is incredibly amusing to me). Rather they seek to help those who are genuinely interested. Also both of these groups prosper greatly from mutual exchange of knowledge and skills, which is a win-win situation.
This topic really gets the gears turning for me, looking forward to your article!
@vonu Homesteads all over the place exist in a decentralized arrangement. That’s their natural state, a thorn in the ass of empire’s central planners. I think that’s one reason why cypherpunk aligns so well with rural homesteading: it is inherently anti-centralization, a challenging current to control.
@Rarog Your point about how the two subcultures prosper greatly from mutual exchange of knowledge, skills, and resources is essential to understanding how well cpunx and hsteaders go together. Such a terrific point.
One mismatch I see between the two groups is that cypherpunks may be more inclined to consumerism than homesteaders? Acquiring the latest hardware, software, etc… but at the same time I see both hsteaders and cpunx deeply devoted to repairing and repurposing things.
@Rarog@vonu If you could integrate some cypherpunk elements into your homestead/offgrid lifestyles, what might that look like?
(hack land II was written in a fever last nite… enjoy)
Your article is brilliant as ever, you brought forward a lot of excellent ideas!
This post is also really interesting
I agree, although I think it’s a little bit different kind of consumerism than we see everywhere in today’s world. It’s not about consuming for the sake of consuming, and it’s certainly not about the status associated with having the new shiny stuff.
As I see it, it’s more about having the competitive edge over your adversaries and having the tools to accomplish your goals.
Don’t take what I just wrote as an encouragement of consumerism. We shouldn’t forget that we can repair a lot of stuff on our own, instead of throwing it away. Anna’s Archive and the rest of the internet are full of manuals and guides that can help you repair basically anything you need to have repaired.
I really like the minimalist aspect of cypherpunk. The idea being less software/hardware equals less potential risk to you, your safety and/or privacy.
Trying to apply this to my life has proven great, although I could (and probably should) take it even further than I already have.
It would be nice to be able to pay for beef and milk from my local farmer with crypto, however it’s really rare to find someone who accepts crypto in the countryside where I live. I hope that will change in the near future.
This is a good point, and I agree. The tendency to repair & repurpose equipment is another common feature shared between hsteadrs and cpunx. I know fellow homesteaders that rarely purchase new equipment and will try everything to salvage, repair, and repurpose any item within reason. I love it, personally. It’s so satisfying to revive some old electronic in a similar way it is to incorporate some old irregular lumber into a woodworking project.
I’ve seen several consumerist homesteaders on youtube. They have 1000 mason jars full of 365 different ferments and canned goods. They say they’re “prepping”.
I wonder if there are ways for cypherpunks to realize projects outside the internet without painting a target on their back so to speak? Apart from occasional conferences and meetups I’ve only seen digital forms of resistance (all of that is incredibly important no doubt)
Although I find it incredibly silly, I don’t think it’s a big opportunity cost compared to what most people in consumer cultures spend their money on. But that might be just my opinion, I usually don’t judge these kinds of things
@Rarog I like your musing about how cypunks might imagine exo-internet projects. I think that is a challenge for some of us who may exist radically online, but continue to live their day-to-day lives being servile and compliant with the totalitarianism we now find ourselves at the mercy of.
On another note, here’s my newest post from the “hack land” series. Enjoy. Hope everyone’s having a nice Springtime. hack land iii — xeleriac
I don’t think there are many differences. Whoever likes science and/or technology, likes it regardless of where they are.
Precisely I was living in a city until 2020, before covid was “official” in my country, I decided to go to live in a house in a mountain village that my parents bought several years before. I already knew what was going to happen, so I preferred to go to a quieter place. After living in this town for several years, I don’t want to go back to the city, unless there is an important reason.
Living in such an “isolated” place has made my way of thinking change slightly: power cuts, drinking water supply cuts, internet connection cuts… I am now designing a small data network using a citizens band transceiver.
This is such a good concept. Not many of us out there. Most want nothing to do with tech if they are homesteading, and those that are involved in the “real world” (actually the fake world) and are into privsec are really just slaves still, opting for PrivacyLite™
Anyway here is some links that I have that made me think of Cypherpunk Homesteading
https://reticulum.network/
Can be used over any network protocol that can carry packets including bluetooth. You can essentially create your own internet. There is also a messaging protocol built for it LXMF
(I can only put two links in a post ugh, so I will put the others in subsequent posts i guess)
open source hardware, modem which you can use to run Reticulum.
the site mentioned before has many “homesteading cypherpunk” type links to various software. Not sure if he is the same person who make reticulum or not.
Good call making an exit to greener pastures. In your case, a higher altitude.
I think you’re right: placing oneself in a position where resources and services are not plentiful, let alone accessible, can promote intelligence in the form of lateral thinking and ingenuity.
Would you say you are designing something of a mesh network for others in your proximity? What radius do you hope to cover? A mountain village might be an excellent place to test some autonomous tech.
All the homesteaders I know are completely in the dark with regards to the digital revolution and revolutions in computing.
There is a tendency to give low priority to anti-surveillance tools and privsec/anonsec, which is a glaring blind spot to me in a community of people who relish the private lifestyle but then sabotage it by their unthinking yet loyal use of spyware.
But at the same time I can understand that because digitalisation is very much at odds with land-based living. It doesn’t have to be though, and I think that’s where the cypherpunk spin on homesteading shows real promise.
Mark Qvist is brilliant, I think. Have you read his blog posts? All the contributors behind Reticulum, LXMF, Sideband, and the ecosystem are rockstars for helping out with the Great Work in this way. Super promising stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Uber valuable tools for the homesteading movement.
My intention is to make a data network, similar to e-mail, on a worldwide scale.
Last summer I was trying to make contacts with my old citizen band transceiver from Spain, and I was able to contact people from Germany, Italy and Romania, using 14W, in LSB mode, and a vertical antenna; I suppose that if I had had a directional antenna I could make successful transoceanic contacts.
The data network I want to implement would use the same technology: 27 MHz citizen band transceivers. And in most countries the citizen band is free: no exams, no license, no fees.
Citizen band transceivers only have analog voice channels, so you have to do “extra steps” to send digital data. In this case I am going to program a “sound card modem”, with AFSK modulation: text in UTF-8 format is converted to hexadecimal, each hexadecimal symbol is assigned a low frequency tone, those tones are sent over the transceiver, on the other side the tones are received, converted to hexadecimal, and finally to text in UTF-8 format.
I am trying to keep the hardware construction to a minimum; just a VOX circuit for those radios that need it.
As for the protocol, I am still trying to design something small but functional. I have already decided that I will not use data packets, instead small datagrams will be sent in bursts. And the datagram distribution will be done in broadcast mode. I know it is not the most optimal, but considering the large amount of noise in the HF band, this seems to me the most appropriate.
When I have everything ready, I will put the documentation in my Codeberg repository.
I have dedicated very little time to the project in the last months, so I have made little progress.
But I have made some progress: I have already decided on the programming language, the DSP library, the working frequency, the audio frequency tones, the symbols to be encoded, and the basic datagram.
I still have a few things to decide: how to create a unique ID for each user, how to encrypt the data in each message, and how to exchange the key pairs for encryption.
It may seem easy, but in a network with such a low bit rate and so much interference, it is really complex.
