Can a cooperative economy satisfy complex needs?
„Can collective intelligence save the planet? It's the only hope we have“
Patrick Joseph McGovern
To be able to produce complex products (like computers etc.) a cooperative society will have to find means to implement complex self organization in an efficient way. In our current society it’s the markets and the monetary system which make sure resources get allocated efficiently.
People must know, what they should do to serve society best. Is it writing a software (and if yes, which one?) or setting up a factory for toilet paper? Which project should they join, where should they work and what should they do? They must also know how much or which resources they should use to accomplish their goals. It does not make sense to feed bread to pigs.
I believe that this problem can be solved also in a cooperative society which works without money and markets. In the open source world this seems to work on a simple level: users express how much they like the different projects by giving them upvotes. Useful projects with many upvotes then find it easier to find new contributors and grow faster. Open source software development (which works very well today) is a good example, because it will be one of the few real jobs which will remain: most other jobs will be automated away (see the next chapter).
It seems to be possible to build a similar, more sophisticated digital tool/platform which helps to allocate resources for all kinds of products and services. Such a platform would have to offer ways to express pleasure and gratitude for work done by people (because this will be the new currency!).
Let‘s look at some ideas how such a platform could work in detail. It should enable the efficient allocation of resources in a gift based and money free economy. This should work also on a large geographical scale: people should be able to make gifts to people on another continent. This is important as complex products are often produced in many steps taking place at different locations (production of upstream products).
Let‘s assume some people produce wooden ponys (or maybe only a part used to build them, like the wheels) in Europe. Now they have two problems: 1. Why should they do all the work when some of the toys end up far away (like Africa)? How can we make the job rewarding? They will only produce the ponys if they truly enjoy doing it. 2. To whom should they give the toys? They cannot give them to the end users (children) but have to give them to a dealer (or a chain of dealers) who brings them to the children in Africa.
Each toy is equipped with a QR code at the factory. If the toy arrives at the finals destination (i.e. somebody picks it up for free in a „shop“), people can scan this QR code with their mobile phone. They are directed to the platform where they can leave a thank you message. This could be a text or an image of a child playing with the wooden pony. The people at the factory (any factory which was involved in the creation of the product) can visit this platform too and see an endless stream of pictures of happy children playing with their product. This answers the first question above.
Now let's assume the Italians send mostly pictures of happy children playing with the pony whereas the British often send pictures how they are burning the toys in their fireplaces (if you are British don't be offended, its just an example). The people at the factory know to which dealer they gave which toys (the QR code also contains a unique ID). They will then, to maximize the satisfaction from their work, favor the dealer which gave them to the Italians. Note that a „dealer“ in this new economy is somebody who is trying to maximize the pleasure from some kind of products by giving them to those people who enjoy most (or another dealer which they know does a good job). If a dealer does a poor job by giving the products to people who waste them, people will give him fever goods to „trade“. Products can be passed on to other people if they are not used anymore and several people can generate thank you messages. This also encourages reuse and a sharing economy.
As a positive side effect, such a platform would generate tons of valuable information about how the „customers“ use the product and how it could be improved.
People could also scan the QR code and, instead of leaving a thank you message, leave a „please produce and send“ message. This means that the product is in high demand and more of it should be produced. Like this, people who would like to produce a product could check which products are in highest demand right now.
But the construction of such platforms is sure a very important area where good ideas and research/engineering will be required.