Yes, you're right: the interviewee (MT) uses the word - erroneously - in both senses, without realising he's contradicting himself by saying first that social conduct in his world is based on players' self-rule and then going on to say that his authority is fast becoming 'autocratic' (i.e. totalitarian).

the point he's apparently making is that self-rule is the norm for vast sections of eve space that remain free from 'policing' but authority inside the big corporations/alliances of eve tends to be autocratic (i.e. centralised in the hands of one person). yet, there is no logical connection between the two: there's no proof - neither in the real world nor in eve - that self-rule leads to totalitarianism.

g.

From: p2p-foundation-bounces@lists.ourproject.org [p2p-foundation-bounces@lists.ourproject.org] on behalf of Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis [xekoukou@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 6:09 PM
To: P2P Foundation mailing list
Subject: Re: [P2P-F] autocracy as most efficient governance?

I think that what he is saying is that he is the ultimate ruler, ie an autocracy.

2011/7/13 George Dafermos <G.N.Dafermos@tudelft.nl>

Hi Michel,

there's a basic misunderstanding here. the passage conflates *autocracy* with *autarchy* (i understand that greek words can be confusing..). the author uses the former term to refer to a situation 'where players rule themselves'. That is, what he means to say is 'self-rule', self-government. that being the case, (s)he should have used the word autarchy instead; or even better: self-rule or self-management. in light of this correction, the subject line of your email should read: 'self-government as the most efficient governance?'

x,
g.

From: p2p-foundation-bounces@lists.ourproject.org [p2p-foundation-bounces@lists.ourproject.org] on behalf of Michel Bauwens [michelsub2004@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 10:53 AM
To: p2p-foundation
Cc: John Robb; Robert Steele
Subject: [P2P-F] autocracy as most efficient governance?

see http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/07/eve-online-audience-with-the-king-of-space/

Autocracy is the most effective form of government in null sec [the enormous sections of space within Eve Online with no AI police, where players rule themselves]. Council systems don’t work very well. Goonswarm is very lucky in that we have one large corporation, Goonwaffe, which used to be Goonfleet, which is mostly Something Awful members and has over 2,000 people. Since I’m the CEO of that corporation all the other ancillary corporations in the alliance are relatively powerless, and that works towards an autocracy. Council-based alliances typically have corporations of roughly the same size.

(I actually agree with this, in case of warfare, even egalitarian tribes had warchiefs for the duration of hostilities; or does anyone want to challenge thi?)

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Sincerely yours,

     Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis