Expediency
The word expediency roughly means effectiveness or appropriacy, which refers to getting things done in politics in the first place; to focus on achieving the goals that society gets democratically.
This can be done through “issue voting”, whereby voters, where they are sufficiently willing and committed, vote on specific issues, much like referendums, beyond today's representative democracy, in the shape of parties.
There could also be options in between, such as voting on fairly general policies and related perspectives, such as being in favor of automation and things it generally entails, similar to single-issue politics.
The project is built upon Derivation.
Index
Index
02
Core theory
The core theory behind Expediency is democratic cyberocracy.
Democracy nowadays generally means a rule of people, where people have an equal say in the policy of society based on nothing more, or less, than the property of being a person.
Cyberocracy is a hypothetical form of government that governs through the efficient use of information. For example, when a society decides on a goal, it then takes collective knowledge and calculates what exactly is required to accomplish this goal, taking into account the resources and opportunities available.
Everything relevant is taken into account, including energy, transportation, mechanics, time, error factors and margins of error, and processed in logical and mathematical formulas to arrive at the most appropriate solution, according to the goals and other guidelines that may have been decided upon.
By making use of as much common knowledge and logic as possible, one tries to avoid ideologizing issues when it’s not necessary. More on this in the Derivation presentation, here.
Approach
Expediency is a political perspective with the ambition to align politics with shared knowledge, logic and common values as far as possible, to give it a decisive role in society, instead of letting prejudice and power interests rule.
It, like Derivation, wants to encourage conversation, discussion and reflection. This is crucial for further democratization and for achieving collective goals in society.
More concretely, this means that we invite people to brainstorm and share ideas and thoughts about relevant or conceptual aspects of policy, practical plans to apply these, how to formulate all this, and how to shape the form of cooperation.
Basically, Expediency has a theoretical core and proposals, which we want to develop with people's perspectives and the reasoning behind them. The aim of this would be to have a concrete, clear and detailed theory that as many people as possible can get behind, and then consider effective and unproblematic ways of implementing it.
Algorithms
The structure of the cyberocratic process is best understood through algorithms, which function like logical flowcharts, where processes are treated according to specific situations and circumstances, thus regulating decisions according to ordered systems.
Here is a link to a conceptual example of an algorithmic methodology, from the Derivation presentation, and here is a page on how symbolic logic is used.
The principle of this is largely the basis of cyberocracy, and it doesn't have to be about technology at all. Math, logic, algorithms and knowledge of goals and resources can theoretically be done with pencil and paper, even if it becomes very impractical.
Derivation
Derivation is the parent project of Expediency, which can thus be seen as an example project for Derivation, to show how it can be applied in practice. But also as a use case for Derivation.
Derivation aims to serve as the form of knowledge networks, within which knowledge is linked, systematized and derived, using logic and mathematics.
From these, Expediency draws the content of its cyberocratic method; the availability and accessibility of resources is calculated via Derivation, then considered with respect to the democratic goals of society, after which Expediency, with societal and collective actions, accomplishes these goals.
Whether Expediency can work without Derivation is hardly relevant, as it would require an enormous amount of paperwork and time, which would greatly reduce efficiency. But much of the conceptual basis of Expediency can be developed now, and concretizing and applying it becomes easier the more Derivation is developed.
The common values of the people, which would drive the substantive policy in a society with Expediency, are in principle to be derived democratically. The values then concern either goals, or guidelines for following those goals, as principles regarding what not to do.
What is proposed is to follow and adhere to the UN's human rights, and at least a number of its Agenda 2030 goals, in an order that first prioritizes a stable level of human living standards, and then environmental measures.
After that, it would like to continue improving people's quality of life, giving them the opportunities and freedoms to pursue and enact their goals, ambitions and potentials as long as these do not harm others.
This means not least automating as much of the work people don't want to do as possible, but in the long run, the goal is what many have called "spaceship Earth", which describes Earth as a planet where the relationship of its inhabitants is defined more by cooperation around common goals, rather than by conflict and competition as it would be for the crew of a spaceship.
Proposed goals
Automation
Something that Expediency enables is the automation of necessary processes in society, which is currently hampered so as not to cause a shortage of jobs.
One way to get around this problem is to reduce working hours, but not salary, as a larger and larger proportion of the workload in a society is automated. If the number of working hours a society requires goes down, then the working day and week can be shortened and the entitlement and availability of time off can be increased.
Of course, if people want to pursue a particular work-related activity instead of being replaced, they should not be hindered, unless it risks problems, like in cases where automation makes an important job more secure than the person would reasonably expect to do.
Some jobs will be far more difficult to automate, and they may require far more space to automate than humans take to do it, space that is probably saved by other automation.
The most appropriate and practical way for Expediency to implement its policies in a society is entirely dependent on the degree of influence of Expediency in that society. What that concretely means therefore varies in almost infinite steps based on relevant conditions.
Comparatively, it is easier to plan and speculate for a full-scale cyberocratic, Spaceship Earth society, as it would operate in accordance with itself much more easily than with current policies. What is more difficult is knowing the most efficient and least problematic bureaucracy in a society whose policies are a mixture of that, and the policies that exist now.
For example, with an incomplete influence over an area, such as a municipality, conflicts of objectives with other interests are likely to arise. If the richest people are taxed to provide human rights for the people in the area, they may change their tax districts. Other potential problems may come with the relationship with areas outside Expediency's influence; for example, how inter-area trade should take its most optimal form.
The long-term answer to this, of course, is that it should be resolved and decided democratically, either directly or derived from premises, which in turn are decided democratically. But before that, it can still be valuable to have the conceptual theory of proposals as developed as possible.
Transition
Methodology
Without Derivation, Expediency will not reach its full potential, most of what needs to be done for Expediency becomes much more efficient to do the more functional Derivation is.
Thus, Derivation's development is a central aspect of Expediency's success. If you start building a cyberocratic network of relevant knowledge for Expediency, you are creating Derivation in the process. One of the things Derivation is currently very much looking for are programmers to realize a Proof of Concept (POC). More on this in its presentation.
In any case, there are many things that can be done in Expediency right now, such as developing and concretizing a conceptual theory, by reading, discussing and deliberating on written theory, such as the presentations and selected resources that may be relevant (a thread on this in the Discord server), and writing new theory.
Also reaching out to people who might be interested via e.g. forums, by sharing the presentation, and coordinating communication regarding brainstorming and designing on forums and apps such as, currently only Discord, but later also Reddit and others. Link up with us for further communication and progress.
The project is still in an extremely early stage, and will develop over time, and that even faster with the help of people with the opportunity and interest.