The European and Open Source dreams of an alternative choice to tech hegemony has
failed, and is left behind by a savvy, precarious network of subcultures that harness the
para-real to build real networks of social and economic solidarity.

Fourteen years after the global financial crisis and the rise of platform capitalism, the
internet is as close as it can get to the worst case scenario. This is despite an entire
ecosystem of tech criticism, open source movements and European funders all acting as
change provocateurs. Today, we are caught in a ever-repeating loop of technocringe. A
parasitic cohort of companies and blue checks seize upon an obelisk of digital hype – the
blockchain, AI, the metaverse – and civic tech dutifully follows, demanding superficial
tweaks in the name of ethics or justice. The result: stagnation, surveillance and scams. But
there has always been better way. Left behind by FOSS and ethical tech, today’s vulnerable
subcultures subconsiously harness ‘the para-real’: a space, where digital and real
coalesce. They transact, skill-share, and have cultivated just enough power to have the
guns of the global neo-fascist pointed directly at them. In turn, they now leave us behind –
and we ignore them at their (and our own) peril.

Cade is the founder of New Design Congress, an independent research group confronting the gap between what is said to be happening and what is actually happening in digitised societies. With a multidisciplinary background in information security, interface politics and digital anthropology, Cade and his team study technology macro-scale influence on subculture, livelihood, identity, climate and conflict. Prior to New Design Congress, Cade spent ten years engaged in a design-focused digital security practice in Australia, the United States, Korea, Germany, Singapore and the United Kingdom. He was an information security researcher and head of design & production at the Berlin-based non-profit Tactical Tech, providing security consultation and bringing the NGO’s activism to audiences worldwide. He was an early contributor to the secure messaging app Signal and was Chief Design Officer at SpiderOak, an encrypted storage and communications company.

Personal site: shiba.computer
NDC: newdesigncongress.org
Social media: post.lurk.org/@shibacomputer

Collaborators: Elys ‘lightli’ Jones (NDC) and Andrew “Ån” Sempere (https://feralresearch.org/)
Images by: Cade Diehm