Mutually Assured Abundance
Story
The opposite of the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction is the doctrine of Mutually Assured Abundance. That means the Open Source Economy, where technology, up to current microprocessors, is developed collaboratively without protecionism. This is a formula for industrial productivity on a small scale - meaning any region that can attain absolute prosperity - using only abundant, natural, local resources. This can be done by global collaboration. The OSE Experiment is one of demonstrating a practical, replicable scale for human prosperity - by creating startup communities such as Network States that start from scratch to build a new civilization based on justice and prosperity. This is attained by collaborative design for a transparent and inclusive economy of abundance. Antidemocratic forces in general stand in the way of this, such that security mechanisms must also be created because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is no match for a tank. That is, until humanity learns to be nonviolent.
Theory
Mutually assured abundance is a state of civilization, achievable at any point on the Kardashev Scale - when society gains a basic level of Self-determination. This implies the end of Artificial Scarcity, and common ills such as poverty and war. This also implies the end of corruption and mass control via politics and religion - as opposed to a more enlightened state. In the 14th century, humanity has reached the Enlightnenment, where scientific belief and fact has replaced superstition as the main decision-making force. However, in today's world, while some reason exists, there is still a vibrant mix of misinformation and reptilian-brain functioning in humans where misinformation, fear, and emotion dominate decisionmaking in most of the public.
Artificial scarcity is defined as the poor distribution of material wealth. Today's civilization lives in a state of artificial scarcity: where in the absolute abundance of natural resources and energy (we are currently at Kardashev Scale 0.0001) - the distribution of the economic product deriving from these natural resources produces a great disparity of wealth. Operationally, this is a result of Structural Evil - ie, the human institutions that codify, at the basic level, human psychology into law - but sociologically, may be defined more specifically as human frailty. Ignorance, post-truth, low self-esteem, and fear remain as the generic psychogical state of most people, resulting in politically manipulable societies that give rise to dictatorships. That is still an issue that we need to solve.
OSE presumes that solving artificial scarcity - by availing open source tools, knowhow, and Distributive Enterprises - towards the ample provision of human needs - is a first step towards creating a civilization based on Self-Determination, where people pursue their dreams instead of worrying about how they will make a living. We believe that resource wise, technology wise, and energy wise - there is plenty of resources for everyone. Even on a limited earth? Yes, because there is no reason why exploration should not include the deep ocean and outer space - as civilization explores to expand it time and space horizons. Only recently, in 1522, have humans proven that the earth is not flat.
This is a state opposite of the notion of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) - in that Mutually Assured Abundance eliminates the safety net that is presumed to be found in the doctrine of MAD.
Attribution - MJ recalls hearing the term mutually assured abundance first from Yoonseo Kang in his Thiel Fellowship presentation.
Practice
- Open source hardware
- OSH-based currency, abundant and ephemeral.
- Decriminalizing the theft of non scarce goods. Ie, eradication of patents and so-called intellectual property.
- On-demand production, including military hardware if needed. On-Demand Military Production
