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Politics

Exploring the Borderland of Libertarianism and Cool Tech with the Free State Project

Brian Doherty | 6.17.2014 4:40 PM

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Forbes tech writer Kashmir Hill hangs out with members of the libertarian diaspora of the Free State Project (FSP) in New Hampshire and finds—no surprise to regular readers of Reason—that many of them are early adopters and innovators with cutting edge state-defying technologies.

Excerpts:

I discovered that this isolated group has fully adopted Bitcoin, and that it's extremely enthusiastic about other "freedom-enhancing" technologies such as 3D-printers and encryption. Everyone I met in the Project owned Bitcoin and was willing to accept it for goods and services. Of the couple thousand people living there, at least seven own 3D-printers. Though the idea originally was to get a critical mass to influence the political process, many in the movement now feel that the freedoms they want may be better realized through technology that routes around the government rather than engaging it directly…..

The Free Staters are into Bitcoin:

Erik Voorhees, a Bitcoin entrepreneur who recently made headlines for settling a suit with the SEC over selling shares in Bitcoin businesses for Bitcoin, moved to New Hampshire in May 2011 to join the Free State Project. It was there that he first heard about Bitcoin after someone posted about it in the Free State Facebook group. "Very few Free Staters knew about about it at that point. They don't like using government money, but they were more into gold and silver than virtual currency," he says. "I went down the rabbit hole and couldn't stop talking about it, and then warmed other Free Staters up to it." Voorhees notes that Roger Ver, a Bitcoin entrepreneur who lives in Tokyo, was also an early signer of the Free State petition, and bought Bitcoin ads on Free Talk Live, a libertarian radio station associated with the project.

They are into 3D printing:

 I also saw my first 3D-printed gun that weekend. A member of the Free State movement, Bill Domenico, printed the second-ever Liberator after Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson first made it a reality in Texas last year. Domenico, an electrical engineer, has lived in New Hampshire for 30 years, and joined the Free State Project in 2008. He has a 3D printer that he built himself as well as a commercial one. He has printed two guns with it so far, but only for himself. "It would be illegal for me to print guns for other people," he says. "I haven't used it heavily beyond that. Lately, I've been making memorabilia for PorcFest: Liberator earrings and porcupine trinkets."

And lasers as a means to communicate with fellow citizens:

Bill Domenico says another popular technology within the movement is the "Green Beam," a laser projector he built for campaigning for Ron Paul that now gets used to warn people about police checkpoints or to stage public protests, as when "Bearcat Equals Tyranny" and " City Council Sucks" were projected on a building in Concord. 

Indeed, if a cool tech is opposed by the state and helps route around its restrictions, libertarians are natural early adopters.

See our December 2013 issue, our most recent exploration of the libertarian implications of cool tech, and the state's often rearguard actions against it.

My reporting from 2004 on the roots of the FSP.

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NEXT: U.S. Captures Alleged Benghazi Ringleader, GM Recalls All the Cars, Lost Ayn Rand Novel to Be Published: P.M. Links

Brian Doherty is a senior editor at Reason and author of Ron Paul's Revolution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired (Broadside Books).

PoliticsScience & TechnologyFree State ProjectBitcoin3D PrintingGunsNew Hampshire
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  1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    I was hoping the Free Staters would be Luddites. Then I would come in with my technology and rule them like a king.

    1. Episiarch   11 years ago

      We'll soon stage an attack on technology worthy of being chronicled in an anthem by Rush!

  2. Juice   11 years ago

    While I support what the FSP is doing, I still find it amusing what STOP FREE KEANE!!! is doing to Free Keane, ie giving them a little taste of their own medicine. I hope it gives FK some perspective and they come back stronger and more sympathetic.

    1. Juice   11 years ago

      * Keene, dammit.

  3. mad.casual   11 years ago

    I haven't used it heavily beyond that. Lately, I've been making memorabilia for PorcFest: Liberator earrings and porcupine trinkets.

    Thousands of innovation and freedom-loving ideologues and only 3 3D-printers, one of which spends most of it's time printing earrings and trinkets sounds about right.

    I know if we have to fight without business card holders in the dead of winter on the banks of the Potomac who we can call.

    1. CE   11 years ago

      I'm working on cloning George Washington.

      1. Episiarch   11 years ago

        "We should have cloned twenties. Jackson wouldn't have given a shit."

  4. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

    But do they enjoy watching Game of Thrones whilst 3d-printing Bitcoins to pay for their lasers?

  5. Paul.   11 years ago

    I discovered that this isolated group has fully adopted Bitcoin, and that it's extremely enthusiastic about other "freedom-enhancing" technologies

    When freedom is put in scare quotes, I don't read past.

    1. Hyperion   11 years ago

      But, freedom is scary. With freedom there is no way to make sure that the government keeps you safe at all times and totally not responsible for anything that you do, ever.

  6. SugarFree   11 years ago

    Diaspora? Isn't really more of a voluntary migration of a geographically diverse group to a small area to concentrate political power, i.e. the direct opposite of a diaspora?

    How about Liberzionism?

    1. Hyperion   11 years ago

      How about Liberzionism?

      What are you, one of them space Joos?

      1. Paul.   11 years ago

        Guess Sugarfree can kiss his fourth term goodbye.

        1. Hyperion   11 years ago

          Well, he's totally screwed now, exposed as a space Joo... wait, 4th term for what?

          1. SugarFree   11 years ago

            [evil laugh]

          2. Episiarch   11 years ago

            NutraSweet has had three terms as the President of the Society for Disgusting Anachronism. He ran unchallenged as a member of the Anal Prolapse Party.

            1. Pathogen   11 years ago

              "He ran unchallenged as a member of the Anal Prolapse Party"

              Trigger warnings?

    2. Brian Doherty   11 years ago

      Yeah, that's true. I was quickly and carelessly just considering the "encouraging them to leave their original homeland" aspect of the Project, but you are right, it's not the most apt term.

      1. SugarFree   11 years ago

        How about ecclesia, which means "those who gather together"?

        And it sounds vaguely menacing. 🙂

        1. Paul.   11 years ago

          Sounds too much like a disease. Sort of like how Facebook causes Derpatosis of the intellect.

          1. SugarFree   11 years ago

            "You want to hang out this weekend?"

            "Nah. I got a bad case of ecclesia all over my love gun."

            1. Almanian!   11 years ago

              The Bible has a whole BOOK bout people with that disease.

    3. The Last American Hero   11 years ago

      Do they have rave parties like in the Matrix sequel? Because if not, I'm out.

  7. Brian Doherty   11 years ago

    "Libertarian zionism" is a phrase used in my book RADICALS FOR CAPITALISM, but not that portmanteau cramming together.

    1. Hyperion   11 years ago

      You're a Space Joo, also? Damn, we're being overran by Space Joos!

      1. SugarFree   11 years ago

        We prefer the term "Druish."

        1. Hyperion   11 years ago

          Oh gawd, I hear that those are the worst!

        2. Episiarch   11 years ago

          That's funny, you don't look Druish.

          1. Wasteland Wanderer   11 years ago

            His daddy got him a nose job.

            1. Eitan   11 years ago

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAZhtT-dUyo

    2. Paul.   11 years ago

      Why not Libertarian Manifest Destiny?

      I for one stand fully behind the use of loaded terms to describe people moving to an area and building a community around their ideas.

      1. Hyperion   11 years ago

        You got a zonin permit for that there 'idea' you got yerself there?

      2. CE   11 years ago

        Because they didn't pick Wyoming.

  8. Corning   11 years ago

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZVdR19E5mU

    1. Paul.   11 years ago

      Fun fact:

      Comedian Tosh had a bit planned where they wanted to get the real actor who played Ogre to run into the San Diego Comiccon and yell, "Nnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrddsss!!!"

      Comic con officials turned him down because they didn't think anyone would 'get it'.

      1. Episiarch   11 years ago

        Sadly, they were probably right.

  9. CE   11 years ago

    Democracy is a great idea, until you're outnumbered. Hopefully the statists in New Hampshire will find out one of these days.

  10. CE   11 years ago

    Despite a protest of the Bearcat and war gear flowing to local police departments across the country, Concord will get one this summer, according to its police department.

    So much for protests....

    1. Cytotoxic   11 years ago

      They're cops. They won't figure out how to use it or the importance of maintenance.

    2. Christophe   11 years ago

      That thing will stop running the first time it goes in for a checkup. Or the first time it's left unattended for more than 20 minutes.

    3. Pathogen   11 years ago

      Cram it, smelly hippy! These selfless protectors are at the busted end of the bottle, all day... every day, cleaning up the human filth festering this nation of law, and keeping you safe while you listen to your iPods and drink your mocha frappuccinos, oblivious to the dangers all around you! . Officer safety is more important than *you*, and what *you* want. Why do you hate our heroes in blue? What are you really hiding?

      /Police one

  11. RishJoMo   11 years ago

    Dude that is like way cool man.

    http://www.WentAnon.tk

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