Relationship Anarchy and Technologies of Connection

I am...

Alex Ștefănescu (she/they)

• open-source dev
• activist, advocate for digital rights
• @catileptic@chaos.social

This is based on

• Relationship Anarchy. Dreaming In the Belly of the Whale
• Relationship Anarchy. Tinkering In the Belly of the Whale

would you like to distribute this zine? Let me know! :3

catileptic.tech

How we got here

• individualism
• political apathy
• privatization of care
• technosolutionism

Where can we go?

• prefigurate the future as livable anarchy

Relationship Anarchy

Relationship anarchy is honoring alterity while making yourself subject to others

• the minumum viable Relationship Anarchy

Useful metaphor: distance and friction

(How) can technologies take us there?

Collision-boxing

• run into the invisible wall at the edge of the map with pretty mountains painted on it
• blockchain -> collision-boxing
• genAI -> collision-boxing

Integer overflow

• pushing a technology beyond its limit loops into the opposite
• 129 -> -127
• recommender systems -> integer overflow
• "safe spaces" -> integer overflow

Prefigurate the future

• Relationship Anarchy doesn't prefigurate a political system nor a type of connection
• "relationships" & camaraderie & labour & antagonism
• no ideal technology
• hysteric-luddite

Thank you!