Occasionally I badly want to make a webpage on a certain topic, but I never get around to it so I stop and say: "Forget it for now then. Make a forum post about it, so it at least has some sort of publicity, and you can worry about the webpage later" This is one of those times.
LOSC stands for Low Organizational Survival Communities. Without trying to look for an authoritative definition for it on the internet, I'm just going to give my own interpretation.
A LOSC is a community more adaptable to survive lots of basic exigencies like riots, floods, government shutdowns, and droughts, fires, famines . . . etc. They don't ensure everyone's survival. They just optimize survivability with general intuition and some organization.
LOSCS, unlike typical communities, don't immediately try to correct the problem by desperately trying to get back "in the network." Sure, they will take donations, but they respond to the catastrphe by saying "ok, supposing we're alone in this, how do we work together to work through this?"
If you have a lot of LOSCs out there in the world, you have less enslavement. Because they don't need a hierarchy. They are an independent node. They are not motivated by greed or rebellion. They are motivated by simple survival strategies.
We have 8 areas that help to govern how a LOSC operates. We also have 6 main ranks. Here are the ranks in order, and the 8 areas. The ranks and areas are not produced to make a "star trekky" fun appeal. They are with basic survival in mind and trying to adapt to typical human psychological adaptation. Simplify the problem, make people get it quickly.
RANK 0: Yes there's a rank 0. These are members of the community that cannot realistically contribute to the solution pragmatically. This system ensures that everyone has a rank regardless of their status. Rank 0 belongs to two specific categories: Those in care, and those under arrest. Either the community member is not able bodied enough to do anything particularly useful to the group (and we are only talking about "useful" pragmatically right now. They may yet have use in terms of inspiration, storytelling, etc). The other qualification is those that may be physically capable, but deemed untrustworthy until such a time that they are deemed once again trustworthy. A lot of different factors can contribute to someone categorizing Rank 0. But it should be less of a careful catologuing system and more of an intuitive concensus. "Popular opinion thinks this person needs to go rank 0. Ergo: They are 0"
RANK 1: This is the basic rank of someone that can contribute to the community. Don't think "Full grown able bodied adult." Instead, think "8 year old can gather sticks for the fire" or think "grandma stirs the soup while I go get the firewood" This rank is also a very basic concensus. If you're human and you're not Rank 0, you're rank 1 by default. That simple.
RANK 2: Now we're talking about the typical capability of an able-bodied adult. These are the people foraging for supplies, building a rain-proof canopy, growing a garden, cooking the meals. At this point they can choose a category out of the 8. Rank 2, like Rank 1, is a general concensus of the community. Not a specialized evaluation. "They're adult, they can walk and talk. There's no big talk about them being dangerous. Ergo: It's rank 2." Rank 2 people also can interchange day to day on the leaderboard of categories. Whom helps where. It's partly related to what the person wants to do, and where they're needed. The decisions are not carefully thought out. It's a basic triage. "Let's put Tina out with the wood gathering today. Bob, could you stay and cook"
RANK 3: This is where specialization becomes necessary. But Rank 3 is still in the domain of quick decision, not careful evaluation. This is the "apprentice" category. This is someone whom believes they could qualify for a specific domain. We are not evaluating based on their recognized education in a more "sophisticated" world. Even if they were a CEO, that doesn't necessarily make them immediately useful as a Rank 3. But if they have demonstrable survival skills, they are. But here's the twist. Rank 3 is initiated *by the member pursuing the rank* not by anyone else. It goes like this: If you are Rank 2, you may, at any time, alter your rank to 3 under any one domain. That's it. What you are doing in that action is you are signalling to the community that you are ready to be tested in that regard. "I'm good with ham radios. I want a chance at proving it. - I'm great at gardening. I want a chance at proving it." The rank 3 is watched under more scrutiny than a Rank 2, because they are in the process of "proving themselves" rather than simple work. This rank should not be thought of as a long drawn out process. We're talking about a day or two of evaluation. This is also where we start to move away slightly from general community evaluation and onto a more specialized frame of thinking. Now in the beginning, because there are no ranks, this moves up to Rank 4 by general community concensus, but it quickly becomes a matter of a more specialized process. The process as follows: Two Rank 5s of the same domain can promote the Rank 3 member into their Rank 4 team. In other words: The leaders whom are generally apt to this domain are selecting the apprentices by their own intuition. We don't need community meetings to sanction the promotion, we just get 2 of the "senior" members agreeing.
RANK 4: These are trusted members of a given domain. A Rank 4 member is entrusted with a key role in production. "This is Ted, our gardener. We give Ted a plot, he seeds it." - "This is Janet, she's very good with kids. We leave Janet with all the kids for the day and she watches them."
RANK 5: Leadership. Often, by necessity, a Rank 4 quickly becomes a Rank 5 because they need the help. However, the Rank 5 category is again a community decision that cannot rely on just one or two deciders. The promotion is of a more formal nature, if not a time-consuming one. This is where the community categorically agrees, by affidavit or by majority votes. The exact system may be different from LOSC to LOSC, but *some* formality is absolutely essential to the Rank 5 category. this is because we don't want quarrels about who's supposed to lead. We want a "paper trail" or a "decision trail" that shows this person was established for the position by the community. So that if there are disputes later on, the Rank 5 can categorically attest to an exact date and exigency where the decision was made to give them leadership. Rank 5s serve like a republic. They talk about things and their decisions will influence the community as a whole.
RANK 6: This is the final top level. But at this point, the level becomes more superficial, and yet still absolutely necessary. A Rank 6 member is "the leader" of the group by default. But the Rank 6 is essentially leaning on all the decisions of the Rank 5 members. Their decision is usually a reflection of the unanimous decisions, and only steps in to break a tie, or to call a vote if the disagreements are simply too chaotic. It's the default line, not the dictator.
We create these ranks not because we think all of human society needs a dictation of "the most efficient system." We create these ranks because *humans tend to organize like this, even though they don't always formalize it." There is usually a couple of dependents, a couple of helpers, a couple of able bodied volunteers, a few eager to take the reigns, a few trusted community members, a few that have earned the trust for direct leadership, and finally *one* that sort of becomes the voice of the whole group.
This is the logo for the LOSC system I and Solace propose.
You will notice a deliberate choice of 8 bodies around the centre. Onto the domains.
1-
Carpenters, builders, arrangers. These are the infrastructure domain. Their purpose is to establish a base ideal for human life. If humans can live in it, they're doing the job. They are usually critically necessary at the beginning, and become less crucial as the infrastructure stands, but of course necessary to maintain the infrastructure.
2-
Guards and diplomats. They do patrols, help keep order. Usually they are not like police or security. They are typically labourers. However, they are the ones charged with stepping in when things go dark. From disciplining the kids to investigating the fire in the distance that we don't know anything about, to obeying when a Rank 5 member says "we need to ask Andy some serious questions. Sit with me while I ask him, ok?" Note that community members usually have more than one active domain. This is an example where the domain is *added on* to something else. Standing there and looking pretty is not part of a survival community.
3-
This is communications. In a more low tech setting they are dealing with leaderboards and ham radios, there might be only 2 or 3 of them that keep a 24 hour post rotating between them. As technology advances, this the group that tries to establish internet, and so on.
4-
" />
This domain is the human providers. They have one job: Keep humans alive, using the resources they've been given. Able bodied, or non-able bodied alike. Get them food, keep them warm, and so on.
5-
" />
This is another role that doesn't necessarily have a large membership. But it's important to establish this domain. They are the knowledge keepers and particularly the decision codifiers. They need to be the reference point to when someone asks "why" or "how was that decision made." They are also the ones that articulate a fair system of rationing, triage, and so on. We could say that by default the Rank 6 member is of this domain. However, they may also choose to employ an administrator. So for example if the Rank 6 member wants an assistant, that assistnat might be a "Rank 4" of this domain.
6-
An extremely crucial domain: They keep the fuel coming. Food, firewood, and so on. They have one job: Keep supplies coming. The human survival domain should keep them well situated so they can go forage, garden, whatever it is. Pack them lunches, give them jackets, tools, etc. When you have someone you're not sure what to do with them, they will probably fit somewhere in this domain.
7-
Technology. Another specialized domain that might only have one or two members. They might look for broken down vehicles and get them running, or adapt a motor to do some other job. They invent, adapt, build. They don't directly house the community, but they work on "the next achievements" in technology, whatever that may be. Did we find copper wire and we're hoping to do something useful with it? Do we have lots of propane but no motors? These are the technological problem solvers.
8-
Now this is a tricky one. In a low tech emergency style environment, these are focused on wellness and teaching. They will likely be the ones training young children, helping adults gain new skills, talking through stresses, and providing a patient ear. Now . . . knowing what we know from Farsight . . . as things settle down - these are also the domain of the more esoteric like mentallics. They are healers, but also mystics. I won't try to elaborate from there. In the very beginning they have to show basic pragmatic roles, not airy things in the clouds. But as things settle, they will likely be the ones to explore that broader area.
