Michael J Casey doesn’t see himself as an activist in the traditional sense. There are no berets or revolutionary uniforms in his wardrobe, no raised fists or calls for violent upheaval. Yet, as an intellectual, author, and thought leader, Casey has charted an extraordinary course—one that’s brought him from the romanticized image of Che Guevara to a fight for liberty and dignity in the digital age. That journey now finds him, as the Chairman of the newly formed Decentralized AI Society, leading a vital effort to diffuse Silicon Valley’s concentrated power over the emerging artificial intelligence economy.
To understand that journey, we trace Casey’s thinking through his six books which reveal an evolving philosophy, one rooted in understanding systems—whether political, financial, or digital—and imagining better ways to organize them for the common good.
Casey’s journey is the story of a journalist-turned-thought leader who wrestles with the nature of trust, societal organization, and the power of decentralization. His latest book, Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age, co-authored with billionaire philanthropist Frank McCourt, is a rallying cry to reimagine the internet. But to understand how Casey arrived at this point, we must start with the revolutionary image of a man long associated with rebellion.
Che Guevara and the Birth of a Meme
Casey’s first book, Che’s Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image (2009), captures his fascination with societal systems and symbols. Written while he lived in Argentina, the book dives into the phenomenon of Alberto Korda’s iconic photo of Che Guevara—a revolutionary reduced to a mass-produced image, stripped of his complexities.
“Che’s afterlife was a brand,” Casey explains in our conversation, “but it was a brand that could mean anything to anyone. That tension fascinated me—the way a single image could become a global meme, something utterly divorced from the man’s original ideals.”
Che’s image, Casey points out, became a precursor to modern marketing and meme culture, revealing how systems—whether political or social—appropriate symbols for their own purposes. Casey travelled across Latin America for this book, digging into the threads of art, technology, and politics that made Che an icon.
“The story of Che Guevara,” Casey says, “is a story about globalization—about how trends, technologies, and myths shape what we believe and who we follow.”
The irony, of course, is that the commercialization of Che—a revolutionary who fought against capitalist exploitation—was antithetical to his ideals. But this paradox is what makes Casey’s exploration of systems so compelling. Even then, as a journalist and observer, Casey was thinking about trust, power, and societal organization—questions that would dominate his later works.
If Che’s Afterlife explored the power of symbolism, Casey’s next books turned to systemic dysfunctions in global finance. The Unfair Trade: How Our Broken Global Financial System Destroys the Middle Class (2012) is a scathing critique of how imbalances in the global financial system wreak havoc on ordinary people.
Casey draws on his years as a journalist covering financial crises in Argentina and the United States.
“Argentina taught me how institutions fail,” he explains. “It’s a case study in broken trust—between governments and citizens, between banks and the people they’re supposed to serve.”
The book links stories of individuals—struggling families, exploited factory workers, and debt-ridden citizens—to global financial policies, showing how the system disproportionately harms the middle class.
The global financial crisis of 2008 only deepened Casey’s exploration of trust.
“I was struck by how even in the United States, the so-called institutional capital of the world, trust was unravelling,” he says. “That breakdown of trust—whether in Wall Street, central banks, or political institutions—is what led me to Bitcoin.”
The Age of Cryptocurrency (2015), co-authored with Paul Vigna, marks Casey’s pivot from diagnosing systemic problems to exploring innovative solutions. Bitcoin, he realized, wasn’t just digital money—it was a profound challenge to the centralized institutions that controlled global finance.
“Bitcoin fascinated me,” he says, “because it represented a way to reimagine trust. Instead of trusting fallible institutions, you trust the system—a decentralized, math-based system.”
The book argues that blockchain technology has the potential to transform how we exchange value, moving power away from centralized entities toward individuals. For Casey, this was revolutionary.
“Bitcoin made me ask deeper questions,” he says. “What is money? What is trust? And how do we design systems that work better for people?”
The Truth Machine and the Nature of Trust
Casey’s next book, The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything (2018), expands on blockchain’s potential, exploring its applications beyond cryptocurrency. Co-written with Paul Vigna, the book delves into how blockchain technology could be used for everything from verifying identities to tracking supply chains.
“The title was provocative,” Casey admits. “Some thought we should call it The Trust Machine, which would have worked too. But the point is that blockchain helps us agree on a common version of the truth—something we desperately need in a world rife with misinformation.”
For Casey, blockchain represents a way to rebuild trust in a fragmented society.
“Trust is the foundation of any functioning system,” he explains. “Without it, you can’t have financial systems, political systems, or even basic human interactions. Blockchain offers a decentralized way to create that trust without relying on corruptible institutions.”
From Social Media to Surveillance Capitalism: The Social Organism
In The Social Organism: A Radical Understanding of Social Media (2016), co-authored with Oliver Luckett, Casey examines the disruptive effects of social media. Drawing on biological metaphors, the book argues that social platforms function like living systems, with memes acting as cultural genes that spread and evolve.
“Social media is both incredible and terrifying,” Casey says. “It’s connected us in ways we never imagined, but it’s also exploited our vulnerabilities, turning us into products for profit.”
This book was Casey’s first deep dive into the broken information systems of Web 2.0—issues he would revisit with greater urgency in Our Biggest Fight.
Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Humanity in the Digital Age
Casey’s latest book, Our Biggest Fight (2024), co-authored with Frank McCourt, is both a manifesto and a call to arms. It builds on the themes of his earlier works—trust, decentralization, and systemic dysfunction—but takes them to their logical conclusion: fixing the internet itself.
“The internet is our modern-day public square,” Casey argues, “but it’s controlled by a handful of corporations that manipulate us for profit. We’ve lost our free will. Our data—our digital selves—are owned by others, and that’s destroying democracy, trust, and even our humanity.”
The solution, he says, lies in decentralization. By giving individuals control over their own data and breaking up the monopolies of Big Tech, Casey believes we can create a more equitable digital age. “This is about liberty, humanity, and dignity,” he says. “It’s about giving people back control—not just over their data, but over their lives.”
A Modern-Day Revolutionary—Without the Violence
Looking at Michael Casey’s body of work, it’s easy to draw comparisons to Che Guevara. Both are intellectuals with a passion for fighting systemic injustices. But while Che picked up a gun, Casey wields ideas and technology.
“I’m on the fence about Che,” Casey admits. “I don’t believe in violence, but I do believe in the idea of a higher calling. We need something bigger than ourselves to fight for.”
Through his books, Casey has evolved from a journalist chronicling systemic failures to an advocate for reimagining the systems themselves. His latest fight—reclaiming the internet from the clutches of Big Tech—feels like the culmination of a lifetime of thought.
“In the end,” Casey says, “it’s about what it means to be human. We can’t exist without each other, and we can’t thrive if we’re controlled by algorithms designed to exploit us. This is our biggest fight—and it’s a fight we must win.”
From Images to Systems
Michael Casey’s intellectual journey, from Che’s Afterlife to Our Biggest Fight, is a testament to his relentless pursuit of understanding how systems shape society—and how they can be improved. From the commercialization of a revolutionary image to the decentralization of power in the digital age, Casey’s work challenges us to think critically about trust, power, and the stories we build our lives around.
In an era of centralized control and algorithmic manipulation, Casey offers a hopeful vision: one of decentralized systems, human dignity, and trust. And while his tools may not include guerrilla warfare, his fight is no less revolutionary. Currently, as founder and principle of the non-profit Decentralised Artificial Intelligence Society or DAIS, this is his preferred battleground. And he is right, our biggest fight is not with bloodshed, wars, injustice, and poverty but with ourselves. And today that battle is online, the future of the world is held online.
