Community, Cooperation, and the Technological Condition

Every Sunday, a new lecture. Meeting starts at 9:00 AM with friendly conversation. Dialogue begins at 9:15 AM and is followed by an open Q&A discussion.

This week, we begin with the work of Elinor Ostrom, whose research transformed how we understand cooperation and governance. Ostrom challenged the belief that only governments or private markets can manage shared resources. Through decades of real world research, she showed that communities can successfully govern themselves when they have autonomy, clear boundaries, shared rules, and active participation. Her work suggests that self governance often works best when institutions operate at a human and relational scale.

These natural limits are explored through the research of Robin Dunbar, who found that humans can maintain about 150 stable social relationships. This idea, known as Dunbar’s Number, raises an important question for modern society. What happens when social, economic, and technological systems grow far beyond the number of relationships people can realistically sustain? When systems expand past human scale, trust, accountability, and social connection can begin to weaken.

The philosopher Ivan Illich helps us understand this problem through his idea of conviviality. In Tools for Conviviality, Illich argues that technology supports human flourishing only when it strengthens independence, creativity, and meaningful participation. When technologies grow too large, they can become what Illich calls radical monopolies. These systems reduce choice, isolate individuals, and organize society around efficiency instead of human well being.

This concern becomes even more visible in the work of Jacques Ellul, whose analysis of modern technological civilization remains highly relevant. In The Technological Society, Ellul argues that modern societies increasingly organize themselves around efficiency and technical optimization. Over time, these systems begin to operate according to their own logic instead of human values. Ellul warned that technological systems do not require harmful leaders to gain power. They naturally reward those who can manage growth and efficiency most successfully. In the process, technology can separate people from nature, from meaningful labor, from one another, and sometimes from their own sense of identity.

Together, Ostrom, Dunbar, Illich, and Ellul help us examine modern artificial intelligence, digital communication, and institutional life. Their combined work encourages us to ask whether modern technological systems still serve human needs or whether they increasingly operate according to their own priorities.

We hope you will join Plato’s Cave and the Orlando Stoics for this discussion on technology, governance, human scale, and the future of community in the age of AI.

READING MATERIALS

Elinor Ostrom
Elinor Ostrom Overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom
Governing the Commons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governing_the_Commons
The Ostrom Workshop
https://ostromworkshop.indiana.edu/

Robin Dunbar
Dunbar’s Number
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

Ivan Illich
Ivan Illich Overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich
Tools for Conviviality
https://monoskop.org/images/4/4d/Illich_Ivan_Tools_for_Conviviality.pdf

Jacques Ellul
Jacques Ellul Overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul
The Technological Society
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Technological_Society
Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes
https://monoskop.org/images/4/44/Ellul_Jacques_Propaganda_The_Formation_of_Mens_Attitudes.pdf
Rediscovering Jacques Ellul: Prophet for the AI Era
https://www.mediavillage.com/article/rediscovering-jacques-ellul-prophet-for-the-ai-era-and-guiding-voice-in-the-age-of-technological-totality/