Other Internet
* Book. The Other Internet, 2018-2024. Toby Shorin et al. 2025.
URL = https://otherinternet.metalabel.com/other-internet-book?variantId=1
Description
1. Toby Shorin:
"Documenting 6 years of research on crypto, cultural economies, and internet subcultures.
This book is many things at once:
1. A memorial artifact, rendering all our essays beautifully a physical publication for the first time
2. A behind the scenes look at how we did it, with 4 mini essays from Toby, Sam, Laura, and Aaron about
- how OI evolved and worked, a beautiful introduction from the ever-wise @keikreutler,
- an interview on the state of independent research with @nayafia, and more
3. An archival dump of 6 never-published rough-cut essays from our super secret internal learning processes
4. A time machine through the shifting existential narratives of web3, and speculations on the future of network society."
2. From the publisher:
"The 2010s were an exciting and contentious period in technology and culture. Amidst backlash against the growing power of big tech platforms, cryptocurrency technologies saw rapid adoption and blockchains became a serious object of study in art and academia. As a response to big tech, both mainstream pundits and technologists sought alternative narratives.
Research collective Other Internet recognized the significance of these events, and became both a leading participant and a keen observer of crypto’s institutionally disruptive technology scene, generating a body of work and ideas that have permeated contemporary discourse. Fueled by its members’ individual careers in and around the cryptocurrency sector, the collective became one of the most popular and influential digital publications of its time.
Over 5 years, Other Internet staged numerous interventions and published two dozen major essays by an emerging group of young technology writers, giving shape to concepts that would define the cultural vocabulary of the late 2010s. From parsing crypto’s vibe-based cultural economies (headless brands, squad wealth, lore), to its ideological directives (public goods funding models, credible neutrality) Other Internet engaged with and influenced the major social and cultural trends growing out of the nascent web3 ecosystem."