This blog is dedicated to wireless mesh networks such as Meshtastic, APRS, AREDN, and community-organized WiFi mesh networks. We need to take back control of our communications platforms and wireless mesh networks offer one of best ways to do so.

We need to build our own decentralized communications systems, owned by individual people and free from influence of corporations, governments, bots, and algorithms.

As someone who grew up at the dawn of the internet I’ve seen the internet devolve. In the early years we talked to each other on BBS chat rooms and IRC chat. We blogged. We shared with each other on Napster and LimeWire. Life was good. Then the tech oligopolies came in and created walled gardens. People began posting less and consuming more. The tech overlords introduced algorithms which at first tried to simply keep us on their platforms longer. Then the algorithms devolved into showing us less of our friends and more sponsored content in order to boost profits. Then, seeing the opportunity to take over our democracy, the tech overlords tweaked the algorithms to enrage us and divide us. They introduced bots to amplify divisive content and shout down anyone who dares to oppose them and shadowbanned any of their opponents who get too popular. For people uninterested in politics the algorithms showed them puppies and dance videos; Any political content they saw was AI generated, fake, misleading, or tailored to reinforce their priors. The algorithms have clouded and confused our communication to a point where we have trouble discerning reality from fiction. As Neil Postman put it, we are Amusing Ourselves to Death. With 50% of us hating the other 50% it is easy for them to use the algorithms and bots to influence the 1% of swing voters who actually decide the elections.

Since 2010 (not coincidentally right after the introduction of smart phones) we have seen a dramatic backsliding of democracy around the world.

Just as in the twilight years of the Soviet Union, we too are facing a collapsing system but because of our tech-oligarchy controlled communications system we can’t seem to see the way out to a better system:

"Everyone from the top to the bottom of Soviet society knew that it wasn’t working, knew that it was corrupt, knew that the bosses were looting the system, know that the politicians had no alternative vision. And they knew that the bosses knew that they knew that. Everyone knew it was fake, but because no one had any alternative vision for a different kind of society, they just accepted this sense of total fakeness as normal. And this historian, Alexei Yurchak, coined the phrase 'HyperNormalisation' to describe that feeling." - Adam Curtis

The Enshittification of the internet has become so bad that we can’t seem to imagine an alternative. We know the internet isn’t working, we know the internet is corrupt, we know the tech overlords are looting the system, we know that our politicians have no alternative vision. We know everything on the internet is fake, but most people don’t have a vision for a different kind of society.

I believe wireless mesh networks are the alternative.

Imagine the alternative:

• Local text-based communication via wireless mesh networks like meshtastic, owned and controlled by individuals rather than corporations, where real people communicate with the other people in their neighborhoods without the ability for foreign actors to influence the discussion. Bulletin Board Systems built on top of meshtastic that allow people to hold long-term conversations and organize politically.
• Wireless mesh networks that are solar powered, decentralized, and encrypted – allowing people to organize protests in a way that is impossible to shut down.
• Community based wireless mesh networks that allow people to access the internet without sending data through giant corporations which siphon off their data for mass surveillance by governments.
• Decentralized social media platforms like Bluesky, Mastodon, Urbit, and Scuttlebutt, that allow people to organize and communicate globally, free from the botnets and algorithms controlled by tech billionaires.

Building our own internet is just the first step. Imagine a solarpunk future where we control our own energy, with rooftop solar and decentralized community-owned energy grids. Imagine a world where we produce our own food with backyard chickens, community gardens, and local farmers markets. Instead of driving through a suburban hellscape in our single-occupancy gasoline cars, which themselves are becoming ever more expensive and fueled by a finite supply of dead dinosaur juice that is resulting in the sixth mass extinction, imagine a world where we we travel by electric bikes in small local communities. Collapse now and avoid the rush – let’s start building our own future today.