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Reason: You mentioned some of the mischief. That's really one of the defining characteristics of Cody's persona: a mischievous prankster. So what is the role of trolling for Cody Wilson in achieving his political objectives?
Solce: Perhaps at the beginning of his career, we could say he was more, I think, a literal troll filled with mischief and uncertainty of where things would go. But that…turned into trolling bigger marks, right? And learning the power of the symbolic, turning that into something that was real…in the court system that had a very strong ability to kind of change not only law, but change the principles of how things were going to be described and organized as First Amendment and Second Amendment issues.
So, yeah, trolling is I think is still…a strong part of what Cody does. But he doesn't do it effortlessly or without forethought or without knowing where he's going with it. There's meat behind what he's doing.
Reason: I want to talk a little bit about what those objectives are, what lights you shine on that with this documentary. There's one part where he talks about himself in Silicon Valley terms as a "disruptor." He rose to fame as the 3D-printed gun guy. But this clearly is not just about making guns because guns are fun and cool or hunting or even just self-defense. What is your larger understanding of Cody's objectives?
Solce: It's technopolitics in action. It's what most people don't understand or report on. It's really forcing processes of democratic solutions on two stages where most people have huge debates and issues. So specifically the gun, it's releasing it on the Internet. Once it's there, as we all know, it can't be taken off. It's kind of like the democratic distribution of information.
And from there, the statement becomes one of not just anarchy, but of who gets to control. So it's a demonstration of the inability of governments in this digital age to actually have utility and their idea of controlling and surveilling everything. We see this in all digital technologies from computers to bitcoin to anything in the crypto space.
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