When you cold email someone with a resume as storied and impressive as Jaron Lanier to pitch an interview, you go in expecting a sobering silence, a rejection, or some complex assembly of representatives, assistants, and publicists through which to navigate—only to get to the end of the labyrinth and experience the kiss of death: “Thanks, but we’ll pass on this opportunity.”

There has been a misunderstanding. It is a subtle but pervasive one, causing confusion about the nature of networks, democracy, and markets. And it is leading me to believe that the cherished “decentralization,” as a goal and a guarantor of benign aims like freedom and equality, has to be put aside.