General Discussion

... September 2024, Srinivasan started The Network School, a school for people interested in developing "network nations" and "decentralized countries." Located in Forest City, Johor, Malaysia, the school had an initial enrollment of 150. Students are required to have an admiration of “Western values,” to believe Bitcoin is the successor to the US Federal Reserve, and to trust AI over human courts and judges

In 2022, in a self-published book titled The Network State: How To Start a New Country, Srinivasan elaborated on his ideas about online nationality and the need to break away from geographical governments. The book describes the concept of a "network state" in which digital communities crowd-fund resources to build autonomous cities and states.[31][32] The ideas in the book were inspired by the work of the economist Albert O. Hirschman, who sees two basic paths to reform, one called voice (remake the system from within) and another called exit (leave and build something new).[33]

In an April 2024 article for The New Republic, Gil Duran warned against dismissing the Network State as an unpopular fringe theory.[34] His article drew from Srinivasan's September 2023 podcast interview in which he called for tech-friendly people to seize political power and take control of cities. Srinivasan said his plan would exclude Democrats from areas the techies control. He suggested bribing the police (with banquets and jobs for their relatives) to prevent them from enforcing laws disadvantageous to technology companies.[34][35] Duran argued that Srinivasan's ideas reveal an "appetite for autocracy".[34]