Cybernetic Governance�in a Coliving House

Daniel Kronovet�krono@zaratan.world��🐢

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https://ssrn.com/abstract=4856267

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Sage House

• 9-bedroom coliving house in Los Angeles�
• Opened September 2022
• 22 total residents
• 13-month average tenure
• 98% occupancy rate�
• Minimal external management
• ~5 hours / mo�
• Residents self-govern with Chore Wheel
• Chores, Hearts, and Things

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Orienting Themes

1. Leadership
1. Quality leadership is expensive and inconsistent
2. Want systems which permit “parallel playing” leadership roles�
2. Cybernetics
• Leverage computation to handle the process heavy-lifting
• Computers as a memory aids and information-processing tools�

Goal is an environment which leverages leadership when it exists, but is stable without it.

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Ostrom’s eight principles of CPR management

• Clearly defined group boundaries
• All participants are house residents
• All participants join a house Slack�
• Mechanisms adapted to local conditions
• All mechanisms address coliving problems
• All mechanisms leverage local information�
• Members participate in decision-making
• Resource priorities determined by residents
• Norm-setting performed by residents�
• Effective monitoring
• Resource claims are validated by residents
• Requirements enforced automatically

• Graduated sanctions
• Intermittent violations - symbolic penalties
• Significant violations - financial penalties�
• Cheap and accessible conflict resolution
• Dishonest claims are easily invalidated
• Disputes resolved with a challenge process�
• Self-determination of the community
• Penalties are backstopped by enforceable lease�
• Multiple layers of nested enterprises
• Not applicable… yet

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Our four principles of “Distributed Digital Institutions”

• No managers or privileged roles
• There should be as few differentiated positions as possible
• Participants can flexibly “parallel play” leadership roles�
• Simple and intuitive inputs
• Choices made with local information and low-degree cognition
• New participants can start engaging quickly, improving resiliency�
• Humans for sensing, machines for bookkeeping
• Aggregation and high-order cognition done computationally
• Only humans make subjective judgments, preserving legitimacy�
• Continuously available, asynchronous processes
• Choices are available and aggregation occurs continuously
• Adaptive lazy consensus lowers coordination overhead�

In the DAO context, these can be understood as design patterns.

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Interlude: The Data Processing Inequality

1) Processing does not increase information, it makes existing information useful.

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2) Good analysis can not make up for bad data.

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3) Focus on getting the best signal at the point of contact with the world.��→ Chore Wheel does this

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Chore Wheel interface examples

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Chores data: distributed resource allocation

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Chores data: organic task specialization

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Hearts data: reputation in action

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Things data: simple interface, high engagement

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Discussion

1. Can we reject the null hypothesis?
1. Do the apps even do anything?�
2. Are the interfaces effective?
• Would people engage more if they were?�
3. Is this too much automation?
• Is freedom in fact an endless meeting?

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Get Chore Wheel

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Get in touch�krono@zaratan.world

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