Pax Internet

The next world power isn’t a country. It’s all of us.

The freedom fighters of the future will be Hackers. Wars will be fought and won online.

This is the new order of international diplomacy:

  • Old: Convince governments, and people will follow.
  • New: Convince people, and governments will follow.

Ukraine’s greatest ally in its fight against Russia isn’t other countries, it’s public support.

  • When President Zelenskyy posts videos online, his audience isn’t just his citizens and his enemies.
    • We’re all his audience. We’re all his potential supporters.

Pax Internet will encourage nonviolence by unifying the public into a force greater than any military.

  • The power of enough people supersedes the power of any government.

Even the largest armies in the world aren’t that big by internet standards:

Memes have a long history of being used to rally civilians in wartime.

  • Ukraine is winning the meme war vs. Russia.
    • Will this be enough to overcome a 5:1 disadvantage in active military size?
      • I think it will. We’ll see.
Rosie the Riveter, J. Howard Miller, 1942.
Zelensky the Chad, r/memes, 2022.

Don’t fear the end of Pax Americana. Pax Internet is here.

  • “War is what happens when language fails.” ― Margaret Atwood

Pax Internet is on my list of solutions to The World’s Biggest Problems.

  • This idea is a work-in-progress. If you’d like to riff on it, hit me up @neilthanedar on Twitter!

Published by Neil Thanedar

Neil Thanedar is an entrepreneur, investor, scientist, altruist, and author. He is the founder & GP of Utopic, a pre-seed biotech VC fund investing in the future of science. He is also the founder & chairman of Air to All, a 501(c)3 nonprofit medical device startup, and Labdoor, a consumer watchdog with $7M+ in funding and 20M+ users. He previously co-founded Avomeen Analytical Services, a product development and testing lab acquired for $30M+ in 2016. He has also served as Executive Director of The Detroit Partnership and Senior Advisor to his father Shri Thanedar in his campaigns for Governor, State Representative, and US Congress in Michigan.