Software as Fascist Operating System
New forms of imperialism are emerging on land, sky, sea, and space, led by messianic anti-democracy elites who seek to reshape the global polis. These new patriarchs wish to challenge the nation-state system itself, through the creation of privatised zones of exception such as seasteads, charter cities, and network states.
Framed as libertarian utopias, these emerging polities leverage ecological exploitation, patriarchal chauvinism, and colonial logics to enshrine the crowns and empires of tomorrow. What can be learned from the Athenian democracy and piratical governance, to destabilise today’s strongman supremacy?
After an introductory talk, we'll use the bespoke FAU0X SALON facilitation system to discuss together anti-charismatic, anti-scalar, and anti-individualistic approaches to collective governance, including sortition, mutiny, and sapphirepunk.
Wassim Z. Alsindi has spent the last decade orbiting the cryptocurrency space, first as enthusiast and then as critic. He holds a Ph.D. in ultrafast physics, and worked at the MIT Media Lab at the Digital Currency Initiative research group, where he co-founded MIT’s Cryptoeconomic Systems journal. Since 2018, he has written and spoken extensively on Bitcoin and network states.
He is currently writing a book, provisionally titled The Crusades Never Ended: From Holy War to Technofascism, and has written recently on Open Swords: Software as Fascist Operating System for an upcoming book published by Aksioma Press. Previously, he co-wrote the foreword to the book edition of CCRU member Anna Greenspan's PhD thesis, titled Capitalism's Transcendental Time Machine.
Wassim is also the convener of the 0xSalon event series, creative studio, and publishing platform. The 0xSalon is a collaborative endeavour which critically interrogates digital culture through discourse events and residencies, producing scholarly and creative interventions in the process. Stewarded by 0xSalon team members, our community researches topics, organises events, and authors lore, theory, poetry, music, games, theatre, and visual art.
Further reading & links
Fau0x Salon Card Deck (2023) - http://0xsalon.pubpub.org/fau0xsalon
The Sapphirepunk Manifesto (2025) - https://sapphirepunk.com/
Prophet Motives & Knightwork States (2023) - https://wassimalsindi.substack.com/p/the-chain-mail-gaze-i-prophet-motives
Bitcointingency (2022) - https://weirdeconomies.com/contributions/bitcointingency
Twenty-Two Years of Transcendental Time Machines (2022) - https://0xsalon.pubpub.org/pub/22yearsttm/
0xSalon telegram group for events & updates - https://t.me/+SfS9Nfv-quHzlpjg