Dev Lewis

From @devlewis18 : * A Republic of Mindful Markets and Cosmo-Local Bazaars lightforestworld.substack.co… Notes and reflections from the Mindful Markets Bangkok Forum for local food system organisers from Asia

A report on a Chiang Mai residency , by @devlewis18 et al. : * The Light Forest Emerging Earth Residency lightforestworld.substack.co… "brought together 12 changemakers for a 3-day residency and workshop for inner transformation, creative emergence, and systems co-design for Planetary Health. Planetary health is an emerging field at the nexus of health and ecology, examining relationships between self, community, and planet. The practice focuses on systems change to regenerate communities and ecosystems worldwide."

via @devlewis18 "We invite you to join us at TEDx Chiang Mai 2025 in November where we will be curating a day-long program in the Emerging Earth Room. digicnx.network/tedx-chiang-… You can can expect a mix of talks, workshops, and immersive experiences. 📷 Listen to the stories that rice tells us with Karen youth elders 📷 Get hands-on with biomimicry—bridging science and the sacred 📷 imagine regenerative futures and community building 📷 Join the eco-nomad movement w/ @Jell Lunprom 📷 Immerse in the soundscapes of biodiversity w/@ADD When & Where: 📷 November 15 📷 Ground floor, TEDx Chiang Mai 📷 Conference ticket required in the morning 📷 FREE & open to public after 1:30 PM"

* Emerging Earth Residency (October 2025) lightforestworld.substack.co… "A retreat and workshop for inner transformation, creative emergence, and systems co-design for Planetary Health in Chiang Mai / October 6-9 2025. Application now open."

Another deep dive podcast conversation from @devlewis18 : "In this episode, we journey deep into the Light Forest with William Wait, a musician, psychologist, and psychedelic elder, who shares many stories, insight, and techniques from his long life that started in California in 1941, and living in Thailand for 33 years." lightforestworld.substack.co…

* Can we move from 'Peace through Strength', towards 'Strength through Peace' ? lightforestworld.substack.co… @devlewis18 believes we can: "If we hold the assumption that the old system has run its course and we are amidst a transition to a new system. As Michel does. Macrohistorians such as Spengler and Sorokin do. This is the Light Forest view too. Then we see the present situation in a fresh light. We are in chaos right now because our leaders and the mainstream is operating on the old myths and logic, as a new field is emerging. Hobbes and the many generations of leaders after him may have been seasonal but our current leaders and politics are post-seasonal. I think we are in the liminal space between a new season coming in, but with each day we are getting closer. We are in the cracks. I dont claim to know how it will play out in the coming weeks, months, and years. But this time feels different. The US is dealing with core identity crises within and the collective Nato-West is no longer as important economically. The BRICS civilisation states like India may offer alternative like Sanathan Dharma in rhetoric, but their actions are devoid of Dharma. The space is open and inviting us in. For us in the Light Forest we want to live with unconditional love. This means loving all parts of ourselves, light and dark. Our history is undeniably littered with violence and war that goes back thousands of years. But we do not need to be trapped by the past. What will be the new myths that might take root that show us a different path to peace? That ones that can hold both the dark and light, and remind us of our interconnected nature and allow us to hold ourselves with more compassion and love."

via @devlewis18 * Podcast: Authentic Public Policy (with Ora-orn Poocharoen) lightforestworld.substack.co… "What if policymaking wasn’t just about data, efficiency, and institutional logic—but also about presence, inner clarity, and connection with nature?"

Reflections on the bardo, the state between two lives in the Tibetan buddhist tradition, by @devlewis18 lightforestworld.substack.co…

This is from April 2024 and from @devlewis18 . If you missed out on the stories about the new 'Global Majority' type movements in Web3, this is your chance to catch up: * Reflections from Pagoda: Culture,Web3, and Asia lightforest.world/reflection… "In the mountains of Chiang Mai, 40+ Ethereum Ecosystem tech and community builders gathered to dream and build a fresh vision for ourselves and Asia."

* Dev Lewis on: 'What is Cosmo-Local?' digicnx.notion.site/What-is-… "Cosmolocal is an emerging framework to help conceptualise and organise in ways that encourage global solidarity, networks, and identity while emphasize deep and meaningful local connections and ties. It is both global and local at the same time—it is trans-local. Michel Bauwens, the founder of the P2P foundation and public intellectual on moving away from extractive systems and towards commons oriented societies, is one of the leading voices on cosmolocalism. Michel has been a resident of Chiang Mai for over 20 years and is an active digi-cnx member. Michel explains a simple way to understand the ethos behind cosmolocal: Michel suggests creation of institutions that are ‘neither market- nor state-centric, but commons-centric…they are cosmo-local in that they act as the global governance expressions of trans-national productive civic networks’." Cosmolocal can be an imaginary that goes beyond the binary of global or local. To make a paradigm shift and transcend our multi crises that is governed by the extractive logic of states and markets. Cosmo reimagines the traditional nation state identity and local brings value back into communities and overrides the maximizing logic of capitalist markets.

Quote of the Day, November 14, 2024 * Neither Bitcoin nor Blockchain will liberate us from an exploitative society, but they may be useful in post-capitalism "To think that Bitcoin can solve the problem of money, or the problem of the state, is to misunderstand what money is or what states do. Every exploitative socio-economic system is predicated on what the minority running it can make the rest do for them (who does what to whom, as Lenin famously put it). Money and the state are epiphenomena of this system. To believe that you can fix money, or that you can fix the state, is to demonstrate a devastating innocence regarding the larger exploitative system with which they are integrated. No smart contract can, for example, subvert the labour contracts that underpin society’s layered patterns of exploitation. No NFT can change an art world where art is a commodity within a universe of commodified people and things. No central bank can serve the interests of the people so long as it is independent of the demos. Yes, blockchain will be useful in societies liberated from the patterned extractive power of the few. However, blockchain will not liberate us. Indeed, any digital service, currency, or good that is built on it within the present system will simply reproduce the present system’s legitimacy." - Yanis Varoufakis wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Intro…

Dev Lewis also asks himself: * Will we all live in Techno Future Tribes ? "My perception is that one common narratives and assumption underpinning the philosophies around this Gathering of Villages "Scenius" is that our future will be a one that is more digitaly connected, whether through AI or crypto. The pop-up cities become intentional experiments in creating futuristic spaces so that people can feel into what such worlds may look like and build for it today. Its a compelling theory of change. After all our world is a reflections of our collective minds and thoughts. At Edge City, the largest village that came closest to resembling a city with 800+ people, some of the experiments included NFC chip enabled wrist bands using privacy preserving cryptography that you could tap with a phone to pull up someone's profile information, and a community currency. AI generated art was up on the walls and the official brand identity. Biohacking tools like Oura rings populated conversations in Telegram groups, along with 'Dont Die' meme from Bryan Johnson, reflecting desires to to quantify health. The energy and capacity of these communities to explore and build is undeniably impressive. But while we push the edges of digital connectivity, are we equally prepared for its polarity: a more offline, digitally disconnected world? This may be due to enforced conditions of surveillance and authoritarianism. It may even be one we chose out of our own desire. Optimising instead for a 'less is more' attitude to the level of appropriating technology into our daily lives. Sensing in to intimately understand what our bodies might be communicating." lightforest.world/forest-dis…?

Dev Lewis recounts his experience of the recent Chiang Mai pop-up season, a confederation of a dozen temporary 'Web3' villages : lightforest.world/forest-dis… "These past two months I found myself immersed in what might be described as a "Scenius." Over 2,000 artists, scientists, researchers, healers, and technologists—pioneers at the fringes and frontiers of the mainstream—descended on Chiang Mai. They gathered for "pop-up cities" or a "Gathering of Villages" as we termed them here. A year ago, I was standing on the edge of the woods, wondering if this was my path. Writing this now, I still don’t fully know what that "path" is. But every step into this metaphorical forest has been met with support and fellow explorers."