Open Conversations: Economics as the Interconnectedness of Things (Navroop Sahdev)

funding the commons it's not just another Tech conference and it's not another bunch of crypto dudes conference when you use the word Commons you implicitly talking about caring for our shared resources and if that's it's not explicit it should be made explicit my name is n sa and I run an organization called the digital Economist where based out of Washington DC and we are thinking do tank kind of called myself a black sheep Economist because I you know studied research taught in many ways not as a professor but in other capacities economics uh which was sort of the traditional uh neoclassical if you may for the lack of better term um and I kind of put that away and I said well you know this doesn't make sense uh it's too reductionist and life is obviously more complex and more wholesome and there's so much more and there's interdependencies and so when I was learning about this work on you know complexity science Network Theory as kind of my journey evolved and and unfolded I also realized that this stuff is not really new I mean if you pick up the vas 5,000 years ago they talk about this you know wholesomeness this wholeness this interconnectedness and interdependencies and that's really the core premise of uh a lot of the work I mean we created these silos in order to um aggregate knowledge right because you cannot be a doctor and a president as an an economist and an artist and all of those things at once you have to choose but that doesn't mean that you know um there's only one way to do things or there's only one version of reality in in in that way which is true that discipline um so in many ways it economics is a very imperfect science because we use the tools of um uh you know Natural Sciences uh randomiz control trials Etc but then we deal with a lot of very human things um uh irrational Behavior other motivations you know than to just optimize utility so it's really hard to like um I think account for all of these and still sort of like call yourself like a classical Economist I don't know if that's something that could be Justus ified by a lot of intelligent and informed Professionals for a very long time for me I think that realization came fairly early on I was 25 years old and I said this just doesn't make sense we have to figure things out there have to be other answers funding the commons uh which is has bring together really a very interesting and eclectic group of uh experts various domains touching web3 uh blockchain AI to move the needle forward and how we um how we fund the commons uh which is again uh you know digital Commons specifically in this case but not only also the physical Commons um uh common food resources we need to find mechanisms to expand the space of um you know Commons um and so in that sense I I think um sort of the theme that um the conference brought together people on is really spot on at we recognize we're not sort of fooling ourselves by saying um that you know oh this is great and it's all going to be good but I I heard a lot of um concerned scientists and experts in in the room as well who are focus on tangible Pathways and smart ways to fund you know the comtable resources and those who are building those resources so I think that's really um you know both practical as well as keeps the focus on where it needs to [Music] be I learned about the term Commons I was in a class in uh Paris uh learned about all things IP economics of Ip law management and uh how open source has been the backbone of the the global digital economy but really the idea comes from physical Commons which is taking care of physical environments right so uh an example of a a local common would be something like a lake or a forest or you know uh Fisheries Etc so um traditionally there's you know a body of literature in economics on what is called the tragedy of the commments and the idea is that if it's a shared resource and everybody just optimizes for self-interest which is what a lot of Economics relies on it leads to overe exploitation of resources and this is very well known but you know the later Scholars went on to do this amazing work on you know how can we actually govern these common pool resources to not lead to tragedy of the commons very quickly there's a subset on digital commment examples Wikipedia the internet these are distributed decentralized systems that emerged you know on sort of like a common uh in a polycentric which means there's no one clear Center Way um and 10 years in I mean I I discovered blockchain technology in 2016 and I just thought it was like the most perfect way to uh to govern Commons effectively to ensure that we actually have a technological backbone as well as a mechanism uh to effectively uh you know regulate and and and govern our common pool resources I think one of the first challenges is when you're looking at uh you know stewardship which is kind of the core premise of of this work as well um do we actually have enough conscious individuals who are Keen to um you know to um to focus on that aspect right and I think that gives me hope on on sort of being in funding the commons and and and being in spaces where you know other like-minded individuals are there but I think a lot of the times uh you know in sort of a lot of professional spaces uh we see this race to just you know focus on the bottom line and I don't think that serves uh the larger whole the intcas of uh you know the the socioeconomic structures we have uh the care we must have for each other um as individuals as uh as as economic beings as well you know and that has direct implications for what it means for policy what it means for you know what we choose as priorities of uh not just our as as as societies but also as a as a global economy we' launched something called the Ostrum project here with funding the commons and Earth Commons it's a vision for a a shared planetary ecosystem where technology serves a role to um to allow us to be good STS of uh of our uh physical resources and also digital resources and so kind of you know the the vision of the project is think of like a um like a a loom you know like a universal uh uh Global um abstract idea of a loom and all the actions and all the Innovations kind of become these threads that go into it so there's this the idea of weaving we think of this and imagine this as as as a as a shared Loom where all of our actions kind of intertwine and contribute to this larg hole and this larger hole is in fact uh weaving this shared future that we want to see for us the the Ostrom project is you know on one hand carrying forward the legacy of Elenor ostram which uh personally I think from a purely economic science perspectiv is a lot there that's unexplored but also taking those principles that are already um already been established to to uh you know build better futures um and I really think we stand on the shoulders of the Giants and and you know a lot of uh a lot of us a lot of you know people in our generation particularly feel um kind of a disconnect in many ways but also a sense that okay we are innovating and using technology and oh probably the older generation doesn't know uh too much but I think uh that's not quite true uh what is true that um there is uh you know the challenges we Face have been uh have been around before even if the nature of those challenges keeps uh keeps emerging and as we call like an emerging property of the system uh but at the same time we also have uh a lot of the uh you know wisdom that we can apply to our current day and age you know and how to be better stewards uh of the planet and and that's really what the you know project is focused on