Jetsons More Primitive Than Flintstones

I feel that most people generally equate technology with physical objects or artifacts. Tangible items we can hold in our hands. Given their invisible nature, social technologies seem to go unnoticed or unrecognized as “technology.” However, right now a very primitive technology has sprung up among the most high-tech communities. In an ironic twist of fate, I have begun networking with these self-proclaimed, “tech-geeks,” to learn one of the most ancient technologies out there: sharing.

Hunter-Gatherer societies have a long-standing tradition of sharing and trading food, tools and information. Hierarchical societies like civilization, define themselves through their hoarding of food, tools and information creating a powerful elite of those with, and a lesser powerful mass of those without. Though hackers may represent an entirely different end of the technological spectrum in terms of physical tools, they completely squash primitivists in terms of social technologies.

Open Space Technology & BarCamp
Open Space Technology refers to a method of organizing a large group of people based from indigenous governmental structures. The nature of the meetings make information sharing feel and look more like a party than an informative conference. That hackers would find out about Open Space Technology, or make it up on their own seems inevitable to me, given their ethic of sharing information. People have used this technology for years, decades even (and millions of years if we look who used it before whitey). Yet recently it seems to have become quite the trend.

Using Open Space Technology a hacker named Tim O’Reilly created an invitation only “unconference” which he called Foo Camp. A place for hackers to come and share information from eachother. A few angry hackers, who obviously disagreed on the ideology of having an invite-only meeting, decided to create their own non-invitation necessary unconference in response, calling it “Barcamp.” Barcamp has taken off and now happens all over the world.

I found out about our upcoming local BarCamp and signed up. I want to learn both how an Open Space works, but also I want to experience it, so that I may see how we can adapt it to primitive skills. I also like meeting new people, and an Open Space works as a great networking tool. I’ve already met up with a few folks from it, and we had a great time. Raven, the facilitator, even helped me fix my RSS feed on my blog!

Why the Techies Act More Primitive Than The Primitivists
Utilizing this ancient social technology hastens the flow on information. Hackers have understood this for a long time. The current form of primitive skills information sharing does not make rewilding easy or accessable to a broad audience and does not model itself on primitive social technologies.

By using these civilized forms of information sharing, primitive skills knowledge remains under lock and key by forcing people to participate in the economy of civilization for access to the information. As long as this remains true, we will never have what it takes to form these communities. I do not mean to de-value schools, books & rendezvous. I only point out that if you use money, civilization still owns you. Schools can work as a great first step, but if we yearn to move beyond civilization, if we wish to get the knowledge that will allow us to unlock the food, and live socially, we must work to unlock the knowledge. In order to accomplish this, we need change our strategies for sharing this information. Or add more strategies to our already existing list.

Current Strategies

*The Field Guide/Web Information

Books cost money. Some may perceive this as trading and not as hoarding; exchanging money for information. Information stored in books generally remain under lock and key. This may work for some, however in a field guide, the knowledge of skills remains locked in a book. Copyright laws prohibit an individual from dispersing the information. Also, books seal information in a state of fixation; once written down the information cannot change. This makes books themselves a kind of false guide, as any survival or primitive knowledge bases itself off the ever-changing landscape.

*The Primitive Skills School

By their nature, schools form hierarchical relationships. Information only flows one way, from the minority (of instructors) to the majority (of students). By paying an “expert” to teach you about skills. Or as an instructor you become obligated to give the students “their moneys worth.” Information at Primitive Schools remains under lock and key. In order for primitive skills schools to stay in business, free access to primitive skills information & communities must not exist. The schools themselves represent the lock and money represents the key to this knowledge. Therefore, ideologically those who start wilderness schools must not have the intention of returning to a primitive lifestyle and wanting instead, to keep people ignorant to the skills.

*The Primitive Skills Rendezvous

The Rendezvous represents the closest format of information sharing that comes close to Open Space Technology. Yet still, you must pay money to attend, and you must seek the approval of the organizers in order to hold a class. Some rendezvous do not cost money and some do.

*Emphasis on Artifacts

Most of these sources emphasis physical skills and crafts such as flintknapping, basketry and making deer skins into buckskins. How many of primitive books, schools, and rendezvous teach the invisible social technologies such as child-rearing, storytelling, group meetings, debriefs, etc.? Not many.

New Strategies

I can think of two possible ways in which we can begin a culture of sharing primitive skills. Please feel free to add to this list.

*The Free, Changeable Field Guide, That Anyone Can Edit

The internet, though created through unsustainable methods, can serve to spread this information very quickly to a wide audience. While I personally don’t see this technology lasting another 10 years, we can use it during this time to unlock (at least in some sense) this information in hopes that it will reach enough people to make a difference. Rewild.info serves this purpose. I like the irony of using the most modern technology to spread the most ancient.

*The Open Space Rendezvous

Of course, spreading the knowledge of primitive skills doesn’t further anyone’s pocket book. While BarCamp and such can find sponsorships through technology companies, primitive skills don’t have the same luxury. However, while currently it may prove hard finding sponsors for such events, as civilization declines more people and businesses may become more willing to donate their resources to make such an event happen. The only quasi-open space primitive skills rendezvous I know of has the name Feral Visions and finds itself facilitated by Green Anarchists.

*Emphasis on Social Technologies, not just artifact replication.

Conclusion
If we wish to unlock the food, but in order to do that must first have the knowledge of how to procure food, than it seems obvious that the next step involves unlocking this information. Rewild.info and Open Space Rendezvous make the primitive skills school, field guide, and old school rendezvous nearly obsolete (in terms of function). I believe it would behoove us to borrow the hacker philosophy of freedom of information and start spreading it as fast as we can using any means necessary from word of mouth at an Open Space, to writing your own zine, or blogging & adding to the wiki using the Internet.

*I wrote this blog in E-prime.*

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