The Humem State

The founder of the Humem State Foundation portends and advocates the next stage in cultural evolution. * How can we as individuals benefit from the astounding advances in technology without continuing to surrender the control, ownership, and privacy of our data to corporations and governments? * How can we ensure that our personal data will be securely accessible for our lifelong use and that parts of it, in accordance with our wishes, will benefit our families and society in perpetuity? Alan Brook offers fresh answers to these pressing questions and a comprehensive approach to understanding the underlying forces that drive the incessant growth of our digital data and, more generally, our extended presence-our personal imprint on the world exterior to our bodies. He advocates establishing formally recognized citizen-like entities, called humems, each encompassing an individual's digital extended presence, within a dedicated landless state environment-the humem-state. He demonstrates how this revolutionary but imminently feasible system can be incrementally instituted within existing jurisdictions, how even its incipient forms will provide immense practical value, and how it opens the way for emancipating these increasingly essential parts of our personas from the dictates of corporations and national governments. He describes how a humem-state existing in conjunction with a nation-state creates the essential foundation for our emerging culture, in which the union of each person and their humem constitutes the fundamental unit of society. Brook presents a compelling outlook for the impending future, but his purpose is above all immediate and actionable: to invite the reader to participate in the collective enterprise that will make this vision a reality-now.