Self-Government Platform for Communities
What should be the future of
human organization?
The world is evolving rapidly in the 21st century, the rate of its change is actually accelerating exponentially.
Yet, the way communities organize themselves, to best reflect their members’ wills and achieve their goals, is basically the same as two centuries ago. Everywhere you look you see evidence that change is needed, and if we look ahead to what is coming, that change is critical.
Autogov is an attempt to address that need. To harness the power of the internet, and create a softer, more efficient way of political, economic and social organization. To approach the project of universal ethics and happiness as a philosophical engineering problem, and formulate a minimal meta algorithm that lets the ‘contained substance’ (ourselves included), to live, enjoy life, create, change, love, expand, develop, in a soft, efficient flow.
One where what is is freely occurring, and ‘what better be’ according to its members, is continually heard, discussed and implemented.
The name Autogov refers both to Autonomous Governance: we govern ourselves; and Automatic Governance: once running, it all happens algorithmically except for our human choices.
Government is not an entity, it is an emergent feature.
Autogov is not a .com, i.e. a for profit Company. It is not a .org, i.e. a hierarchical Organization. It is just a .systems, i.e. a free to use in any way Metasystem.
Three main Sections
Autogov has 3 sections that work in synergy; however they can also function independently, and communities can choose to use only one or two of them.
1. POLITICS
At its most basic, Autogov is an internet software that enables communities of any size to take the decisions that best reflect the will of its members about any issue that affects them in the space-time-topic continuum.
Through its meta and neutral basic structural units called Vontests, composed by: a question raising a problem or need, unlimited answers, structured debate, and cumulative voting; it is able to generate laws, actions, tasks and positions in a continuous, dynamic, transparent, genuinely direct-democracy way. Everyone has access to everything, but focuses on what is important or interesting to her/him.
2. ECONOMY
Making good decisions is important, but you also need power and freedom to execute them. That is the basic purpose of the Economy section. It has a Creative Market where members are encouraged and enabled to offer what they are really passionate about (possibly several different things).
It has its own internal virtual currency so as to generate its own value, a universal basic income and a public fund, so that the members can strive to live in freedom working on their passions, and the community as a whole can have the power to stand on its own and advance towards whatever goals were decided in the Political section.
3. SOCIAL
And finally, it has a Social section, a Culture, Collaboration and friendly Competition space where members can communicate with each other, express their creativity, forge partnerships and groups, collaborate and compete in a gamified environment aimed at encouraging participation and having fun.
This can be as modest as a messaging and notification system or as ambitious as a whole social network, only much better since the only objective is us all (not raising some company’s share price).
Autogov's Intro Videos
Autogov’s General Warning:
Everything in it is far from perfect and nothing is ever finished!
In exchange everything is always perfectible and evolving
(Also: It was all quite imperfectly written in English by non-native English speaker.
If you selected a different language it was translated by the Google Translate WordPress Plugin)
How each section works?
Politics
What is the objective of Politics?
The Ship's Rudder
We take a step back meta, and define Politics as the means to decide continually, what is best for us all, within any community.
But... How do we really know what is best for us all?
We don't know. We decide it: We Vontest it
A Betterment Engine
Through Autogov, Anything, even this sentence, can be Vontested by anyone at any time, which amounts to put it into revision and see if, according to the community, it can be improved.
A 'Betterment Engine?:
If in a Search Engine you explore what is, in a Betterment Engine you explore how can what is, be better.
A Question
Any member can post a question at any time from anywhere
Example:
What do we do with the abandoned factory on Bleeker st.?
Should we build a new war plain or build an amazing public university spa lab?
Multiple Answers
Examples:
We should transform it into a museum.
We should demolish it and make a park there.
We should build affordable housing.
build new plain
spa
The Debate
Can they be further refined or combined to gain support?
Any member can comment on any answer at any time.
Special attention is taken to wether an answer is in conflict with a previous law or resolution. If so it is marked and should it win, a vontest resolving that conflict follows.
Example Comments:
No one ever goes to the other museum we have.
A park would be great for air quality.
Cumulative Voting
We the humans decide
Example: 4 votes to answer 2, 3 votes to answer 5 and 1 vote to answer 4 (you are not forced to use all your 10 votes).
The Votography
Votes Fotography
Note: Some vontests are ongoing and remain open after the Votography for another round.
Example: Answer 1 = 31 votes, Answer 2 = 62 votes, and so on.
The Resolution
Example: Creation of the following new Vontest: Who takes care of demolishing the old factory and build a park in its place?
Law or Action
Economy
What is the objective of the Economy?
We mean that which gives us the energy and the freedom to, in a pleasant manner, pursue our ever changing political objectives.
This section is like the ship’s engine or sails, empowering the passengers to have a pleasant journey and reach their desired destination.
Virtual Currency
A Basic Income
Creative Market
Users are encouraged to offer several different things reflecting their passions and skills.
All offered items are then easy to find, and can be reviewed to promote quality and fairness.
A Public Fund
Limits and/or Taxes
Social
The Plaza
A Transparent Horizontal Social Fabric
Recognition Currency
Groups
Members Profiles
Internal Messaging and Notifications
Culture
The Game
The actual Interface
(and a few Diagrams):
Public and Optional Modules and Add Ons
Public Modules
Public Positions
Like Jobs but much better: Vobs, Vureaucracy.
Public Tasks
Public News
Public Log and Stats
It All depends on its credibility
Public Trials
Justice Administration and and Conflict Resolution
A Vontest could actually be an appropriate tool to resolve conflicts and judge behaviour: the case is described in the Question, the verdicts are proposed in the Answers, the Trial itself would occur in the Debate, and the outcome would be decided through votes/votography. Perhaps, to avoid popularity concerns, the voting can be restricted to some random chosen jury, or to some Judging provider with good reviews in the Creative Market.
Public main Values and Goals ongoing Vontest.
Similarly with the continuous Vontest "What are our communities main goals?"
Meta Laws
However, even a glass requires some limits that give the whole stability and long term confidence. For that purpose we introduce the Metalaws. These special laws can only be changed by a special majority (by default 70%)
Meta Laws Defaults and Examples
- The Autonomy Principle
- No one above, no one behind (in terms of static power)
- Altruism equals (is the best strategy for) Egoism in the Long Term
- Rights of the minority, individual
- No one knows what is good, only the vontests do
- Everything should be decided and perform as horizontally, atomically, and publically as possible.
- The UN Declaration of Human Rights
- The Local Constitution
Optional and Future Modules
Virtual Meetings
Like Jobs but much better: Vobs, Vureaucracy.
Multi Currency
Needs
BlockChain
It All depends on its credibility
Full Social Network
Justice Administration and and Conflict Resolution
A Vontest could actually be an appropriate tool to resolve conflicts and judge behaviour: the case is described in the Question, the verdicts are proposed in the Answers, the Trial itself would occur in the Debate, and the outcome would be decided through votes/votography. Perhaps, to avoid popularity concerns, the voting can be restricted to some random chosen jury, or to some Judging provider with good reviews in the Creative Market.
Oxidation
Similarly with the continuous Vontest "What are our communities main goals?"
Initial Content
However, even a glass requires some limits that give the whole stability and long term confidence. For that purpose we introduce the Metalaws. These special laws can only be changed by a special majority (by default 70%)
Most plugins and Addons WordPress, WooCommerce, BuddyPress
- The Autonomy Principle
- No one above, no one behind (in terms of static power)
- Altruism equals (is the best strategy for) Egoism in the Long Term
- Rights of the minority, individual
- No one knows what is good, only the vontests do
- Everything should be decided and perform as horizontally, atomically, and publically as possible.
- The UN Declaration of Human Rights
- The Local Constitution
Autogov General Features
What kind of Democracy is Autogov? It is a...
Direct Access to All is necessary, self-selective dynamic focus, works smoothly.
Representative Democracy has decades of international examples working terribly. We couldn’t do better before but with the arrival of the Internet, and now Autogov, there is no excuse.
The average score to Politicians is usually bellow 3. More than 8 for most other professions.
To avoid dependence and exploitation, and to ensure independence of voting and debate, users most feel secure in life and thus total gained resources should be distributed among users assuring a universal basic income. Without this minimum playing field the system is rigged and bound to fail.
Each part knows better about itself than the rest. As long as it does not directly affect the freedom of the rest, it should be free to choose about itself.
Confidence and accountability is essential. In Autogov, everything is public by default, except for personal and group communications. But even those are logged and, should there be an important incidence, can be consulted.
With Autogov there is no need to ask for money or for power or for permission. The community creates its own money, power and legitimacy, and is therefore independent and resilient.
Can you imagine the feeling of knowing that every time you come home frustrated from something or every time you get outraged from reading the news, you actually can do something about it immediately?
Why do we say ‘creative’ market? Is it just a marketing term? We believe, once automation and technology create enough abundance, humans will discover their creativity. We believe creativity in every sphere will become more and more essential in the human experience.
We all (mostly) know by now about the massive unemployment due to automation threat due to arrive in the next decade.
Autogov with its basic income and creative market is ready to turn that threat into a freedom for humans opportunity.
As to the challenge to create a future friendly relationship and power balance between AI agents and humans, Autogov can provide two good scenarios: (1) Humans decide with expert help from AI in the debate stage of the Vontests. (2) Humans and Robots (and anything in between) debate and decide together as equal members of Autogov.
Al issues remain open for further debate, refinement, nudging and re-voting after they have been decided some way or other. Its all permanently softly rebalancing like a liquid. The frequency of a decision, the notoriety it gets, the credibility of any user, all vary according to time and topic and balance…
Let us divide every issue into its smallest components and carefully analyze its pros and cons, refine it, variate it, simulate it, compare it, mix it. (“Shake well before voting”) A lot of the extremism, anger and impotence in current 2OptionsPer4Years democracies will be solved just with that.
Through the Internet and Software a level of flexible interaction is possible without which it was mechanichally impossible to effectuate a Ddddddemocracy.
In the space-time-topic continuum. Whereas in todays democracies or todays community meetings few questions can be addressed at the same time and those take weeks to properly discuss and decide, in the dynamic always on internet, every second, every topic or tag, everybody can participate all the time. Plus decisions can be broken down to their most elemental questions, and often only that makes for easier decision making
Hate how some question was voted and decided? Already seeing something didn’t work as expected? No need to wait 4 years or even a month. The debate is continuous and if the leading answer in any ongoing Vontest changes, a new Votography is automatically set.
We can be proud of the freedoms we have gained, but, if we have to dedicate our time to something we don’t care about and obey our often stupid bosses or else we starve, how free we really are? Real freedom to do what we want with our life (within the no harm limits of course) is within reach in our times through the super efficient mechanism of UBI. With Autogov, with its independent and democratic currency, the implementation of it becomes much easier.
One of the main fears of people when faced with the prospect of doing the political decisions themselves is boredom or tedious. Through its gamification tools, Autogov can make participating in society an existential game. Each community can give this more or less importance by assigning monetary or just recognition awards.
Should a community prefer to use Bitcoin, Ethereum or any other altcoin instead of Voins, it can directly do so.
As for the decentralized security and accountability provided by Blockchain technology, there is a WordPress plugin: WP Blockchain that can easily be installed and configured to provide it for Autogov.
There are many ways you can
benefit and benefit with Autogov
Get Access to a Demo Install of Autogov and experiment with it both from the user and the Admin perspective.
Install Autogov for free in your server or a hosting account with WordPress. Start using it with your community or create a new community through it.
If you prefer the fast, easy and comfortable way, hire a Hosting and Support distributor to install, configure and customize (aesthetically and functionally) everything to your taste.
No technical knowledge necessary.
For now the list of distributors is only one, the great guys who programed Autogov:
Grafreak
Join Universe.Autogov.Systems, the first, universal and most meta Autogov Community. You can use the Politics, Economy and Social sections there, just bear in mind this community is real and you can not use it as demo.
Is Autogov a good solution for today’s and the future’s organizational challenges? Is it better than socialism, capitalism, anarchism or any other ism?
It has some good points but could be much better?
Please join the discussion at Governance Systems group within universe.autogov.systems and/or at r/autogov in Reddit.
There is a lot to do to improve, extend and explain Autogov. Your help will be very appreciated. To participate join the Autogov ToDo group within universe.autogov.systems
Autogov’s White Paper to gain deeper understanding of the philosophy behind each section and the functioning of each feature in Autogov.
(English and Spanish only)
You will receive a link to download the PDF Document
Autogov is an open-source GitHub community project. url
Help make (nice) history by contributing in its development.
There is infinitely to do for non developers too.
Chances are that, even if you like Autogov, you would have made something different. If its no big deal you could propose it within Autogov, but if its critical then, Be our guest and fork Autogov, through Github, to your precise taste.
Are you a hosting or programming company. Become a Hosting and Support distributor of Autogov and help humanity while making some money ate the same time.
FAQ
Nothing, Autogov is all free always. This is necessary for its complete transparency and thus credibility.
No one is, we all are. That’s the whole point.
Of course, there might be some organizers behind a specific community made with Autogov, as it is free to use.
Autogov was created by Philosopher/Political Scientist Zury Asse (born Mexico City 1967, lives in Barcelona). You may contact him at zury@autogov.systems)
Non and both. We say it is not Left or Right but Meta.
It might be very attractive to both a certain left: as a means of economic equality and freedom and a transparent horizontal governance, and to certain right; as liberal, minimal government, decentralized, un-bureaucratic, free market society.
It is probably not attractive for the “let’s keep fighting so next year we get 5% augment on wages and 2 days more vacation days” left. Nor to the “We are superior, lets just bribe the government and increase the military” right.
Sure, you could for instance use more and extend the lapse of the Positions Vontests, lower the Basic Income, and increase the difficulty to change Metalaws.
Yes, hopefully soon. Before it’s too late.
A Political Party anywhere in the world could adopt Autogov in their party platform. It would be an autogovist party.
Sure, a lot, this is no simple task, but whatever the problem, with Autogov it’s much easier and faster to find and implement the right answer to fix them than with traditional systems.
Autogov can change its own basic functioning and constitutive laws; so a question could be asked: Is there a minimum without which it ceases to be Autogov?
The answer is the “MetaPragmatic minimum”, which means you have to provide a neutral, transparent, rich debate; which can only be achieved from a Meta perspective, and with really free individuals; and you have to allow and foment evolution and improvement in everything, which aligns with philosophical pragmatism and the Pragmatic theory of truth.
Same as in any society, all kinds of sanctions might be needed and may be legislated and implemented in Autogov Communities to ensure the well-being and optimal functioning of the community.
Here you have the advantage of being able to ban certain users from certain sections or capabilities, or to expel him/her from the community all together.
That said, we believe in the long run the transparency and credibility of Autogov governance, coupled with the security and freedom of its Basic Income would make braking laws less necessary and appealing.
The same as any other currency, believing in it and using it in an exchange market and a public fund.
“So what, you expect me to be fine with people staying at home watching TV while I do all the work?” This is a deeply rooted attitude and critisism to Basic Income and so we though we should try to address it.
First of all, we don’t really know at any given time if an act is a contribution to society or not.
What is a contribution to society? Can we really tell? A man working in an arms factory is contributing to society? An artist making strange paintings few people like is contributing? An executive in a transnational corporation?
First, we don’t have a consensual goal for society against which we could measure our advances.
Second, even if we had such a consensual goal, it is not easy at all to assess whether an act leads us to it or not, specially in a complex society like ours.
Third, an act in this context, cannot be judged disregarding the Time dimension: John Doe is indeed doing nothing all day, but his mind is working, maybe it is restructuring itself, maybe it is planting the seeds for a great contribution to society in a few years. We really don’t know what consequences a moment has over time. Notably, from an ecological point of view, there is actually an excess of production in our society, so someone not producing could be contributing more to society than someone producing.
2. When left free, people eventually begin to do something with their lives.
This assertion should be confirmed by scientific studies, but in my experience and observations, inactivity comes mostly from a reaction to previous ‘bad’ activity. It is a rest and purification from it. After a few years, we naturally begin to want to do something with our lives.
If a persons’ motivations for doing something were usually ‘external’, to the person and to the act, it takes a few years to develop, or find again, internal motivations for doing something. 3. Contributing to society should be seen as a good in itself for the contributor, the reward is in the act itself.
The exploitation objection’ is based on the premise that contributing to society is a sacrifice, but that needs not be the case, specially in a BI society. You might want to contribute because you feel good doing it, not because you have to, or because you’ll get a reward from it.
People usually want to feel they are ‘good’, so if they do a ‘good’ act, they will feel good doing it. Thus if a person is not contributing to society right now, well, too bad for him.
4. Work under BI should be justified by measuring satisfaction plus payment, minus effort plus sacrifice.
Should the satisfaction of doing something good not be enough motivation, let us not forget that under BI, acts are still payed for. So the exploitation objection is mitigated by the fact that the active get paid more than the inactive.
If satisfaction from action plus payment is not enough to compensate an effort, then let it not be done.
What if too many people end up not doing anything all day for too long and BI cannot be maintained? Well that would be a different problem. Perhaps society could address it through all kinds of work incentives and education. But it is my personal belief, that few people enjoy inactivity for a long time, even if they are free to do it. We seem to have a deep need to justify our own existence, at least to ourselves, and that is hard to achieve not doing anything.
Add to all the above the social pressure of having a good answer to the question “so what do you do in life?” and we shan’t worry anymore.
“People are stupid”, and so Direct Democracy won’t work.
One of the hardest temptations to let go is to think “sure, we all have opinions, but in the end, mine (my group, my guru) is the right one”. We need to remind ourselves that the others think so too. We need to go meta and realize that the whole, if properly wired internally, knows more about its will and its path, than any one part alone. If your part is right, it should eventually be able to persuade, through Autogov structured debates, the rest of people.
“But only experts, with special studies know what is right”
Well, the thing is there are usually experts supporting all positions, which ones are right? Furthermore, in the case of people governance, what studies exactly enable you to decide what is best for all? Some could argue that the more you study and specialize with your mind, the further detached you become from some other more natural or more spiritual wisdom.
“But we have seen how a charismatic leader can manipulate the masses”
First of all, we are all always manipulated, thats just part of culture, but we tend to see only the other parties manipulation and not ours. Second, such manipulation is much harder when the issues are small and concrete, like in Autogov, than when you only get two or three packages of ideas every four years. Thirdly, if a ‘bad’ decision wins, since its debate and voting remains open in Autogov, it can be corrected quite quickly and smoothly.
Forthly, reputation scores can act dynamically to bring attention to de facto experts or groups on each field, but without giving them any authority. In Autogov ideas compete, not persons. And last, if you create a governance based on the idea that people are stupid, that system is bound to create and perpetrate stupid people. “We shape our buildings and then our buildings shape us” – Winston Churchill
Autogov Step-by-Step Manuals
Example Applications
An Eco-Village / Intentional Community
Decisions are taken democratically all the time but without the endless inefficient assemblies that end up getting everyone tired. Tasks and Positions and Public Budget are transparently incentivised and allocated. A basic Income could keep everyone basically free.
A Nation / Town / City
Some very advanced not-left-nor-right-but-meta political parties anywhere might adopt and configure an Autogov as their platform (An Autogovian Party). Should they ever win the elections, the whole Nation or City is democratically governed with the configured Autogov install.
In the meantime, the Autogov Virtual Nation could begin to grow its own power and experience on the side, in parallel.
A Cultural Activities Center
An avangard club in Barcelona with all kinds of Therapeutic, Experimental, and Psychedelic Activities
An Automated Company
James wanted to create a new Cannabis Cultural Café with a group of friends but he didn't wanted all the power dynamics usually involved in a Business Partnership or Boss-Employee relationship, and didn't wanted to do much work himself. With Autogov, after a year of supervision, everything should vontest itself into order.
A Democratic University / School
Can you imagine the efficiency and efficacy of a constant feedback University? And what better demographic to put real democracy to test?
A Household
Even a Household's chores and daily schedule could benefit from the authority-free decision taking of a minimal Autogov Install.
universe.autogov.systems
The first and most meta Autogov Community ever.
Do join in
(Be part of the historic beginning)
Coming Soon:
- Autogov Communities Directory
- Autogov’s Best Implementation (crowdfunded Voin/Cripto/Fiat) Award
Context and Background Blog