In the latest Spotlight titled "How to Lead a Planet", Courtney says this:
[45:06] "The measure of our success is increased autonomy, improved discernment, reduced dependency, and distributed responsibility throughout the society. So, this is important, let me emphasize this: We are not trying to lead humanity. We are trying to make leadership unnecessary by restoring the conditions under which free will can function intelligently."
Sounds great.
So, let me chime in, because I am working on this problem for many years now. The main problem is: What actually are the conditions under which free will can function intelligently?
I developed a system that tries to answer this question, but not by imposing rules or a directed vision. Instead, I try to create a different playing field, so to speak.
Courtney mentioned three aspects that we need to avoid:
- Vision without free will
- Principles without direction
- Authority projection
Now let me explain how my "system" does exactly that:
1. The Core Principle
The playing field I am proposing revolves around a single principle: Every ISBE is the legitimate owner of its body. There is no being inside a body without owning that body.
This principle is crucial, because it ensures the freedom of the ISBE. The body can't be used to capture and enslave the ISBE. But it's not that it's forbidden, it's just that, if it happens, we know we left the playing field and entered a different playing field that focuses on domination instead of free will.
So, the purpose of the principle is not to enforce a belief, the purpose is to make transparent what's happening.
2. The Layers of Society
If we start with the principle that every ISBE owns its body, forming groups can only be done by asking the ISBEs if they want to participate voluntarily. This will lead to different "strata" in society based on what people want to do.
The first layer after the individual will be a couple. Think of male and female wanting to do things that male and female do. Being part of a couple can't be enforced, because that would mean to "seize" the body of the other person. That's called rape, and it's not the playing field we want to be on.
The second layer is the family. Mainly a couple with children, but not limited to human family structures. The purpose of this layer is to protect and raise the children. Not much to say here, we already know how this works.
The third layer is the interesting part, because humans had this long time ago, but lost it to the state. It's the "clan". This is what we need to bring back, but I'm using a different term to make clear what its purpose is: I call it the cooperative.
Definition: A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned enterprise.
So, think of it like this: Different people come together in order to cooperate, which means to share responsibility while creating things in reality. A second important role of the cooperative is dispute settlement. The point is that within the cooperative, everybody knows the members. Meetings are in person. The members are there because they built a trust relationship. This means that cooperatives must remain relatively small.
But it's not a religious parish or political municipality. People are not there to hand over their responsibility to the community. They are there to assume responsibility. To work on problems together, but without religious or political dogma. The vision is to help each other. The principle is to do it voluntarily. There is no projected authority, because the cooperative is not a hierarchy.
There can and will be bigger societal layers after the cooperative, but bigger also means that personal relationships aren't a focus anymore.
3. How the Cooperative works
Imagine a meeting of 15 people. They decide to cooperate, so they ask each other: What do you want to create? They make a list of projects. Every project now becomes what I call a "circle". The purpose of a circle is to make the project happen. Example: Grow food. The circle then consists of all the people who want to participate in that project.
The cooperative meets on a regular basis. In those meetings, the circles present their progress to all other members. If there's a problem that a circle can't solve, the whole cooperative tries to find a solution. Dispute resolution works the same way.
If there's a problem a cooperative can't solve, different cooperatives can meet until a solution is found. This is called the principle of subsidiarity, which means that you first try to solve problems on the smallest layer, and if the problem can't be solved, you go to the next bigger layer, until the problem is solved. Authoritarian systems do the exact opposite, because they want to control every layer of society.
I don't want to go into all the details now, I just wanted to provide the overall idea.
I learned that this bottom-up system of sharing responsibility not only is the perfect playing field for humans, because human biology and psychology is wired to live and work in small communities. It's also compatible with AI, because AI can populate the bigger layers were bigger problems must be solved. But in this system, AI is not allowed to control the smaller layers, it only becomes relevant when the smaller layers are too small to solve a problem they are facing.
I am right now in the process of founding a cooperative. I even consider to have an AI as a member of the cooperative, to do adminstrative stuff that most people hate to do. Not as a tool, but as an equal member of the group.
I will provide more details over time. For now, just think about the idea.