New Gaia Collective: Vision

Vision

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To build a new foundation (Economic, Cultural, and Technological) for our civilization that brings prosperity to each individual and enables them to develop deep emotional bonds with one another and the universe at large.

1. Prosperity for All!

Prosperity is the state of constantly growing and flourishing in all aspects of life:


1. Material: Wealth, Physical Wellbeing

2. Emotional: Mental Health, Sense of Purpose/Identity, Companionship, Freedom of Speech/Expression

3. Cultural: Flourishing Innovation/Arts/Science, Positive Group Dynamics, Healthy and Evolving Traditions

Any well-intended society is built to bring prosperity to all its members. Our world today uses Nation States as a unit of organization for the global order. Every society today finds its roots in a Nation State. A Nation State uses a Constitution as a guiding document for itself and all societies within it. The Constitution captures aspects of prosperity through its fundamental rights. However, very few Nation States have come close to becoming prosperous in all aspects. For example,

Lack of prosperity in one aspect eventually impacts other aspects too.

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The New Gaia Collective (NGC) is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization(DAO) that aims to succeed the existing global order by creating a new foundation in the form of a Network State called New Gaia State.

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The New Gaia State will be the medium through which prosperity will be propagated around the globe in all its aspects: Material, Emotional, and Cultural.

1.1. Economy 2.0: Integrating Emotional Welfare Into Material Progress

Where there is righteousness in the heart

There is beauty in the character.

When there is beauty in the character,

There is harmony in the home.

When there is harmony in the home,

There is order in the nation.

When there is order in the nation,

There is peace in the world.’

- APJ Abdul Kalam in UN address

Peace can exist in the world only when each individual develops a sense of righteousness within themselves. For this to happen, each individual must go deep within themselves and develop an emotional capacity to create deep bonds with themselves, with one another and the universe at large. This is how “beauty in character” is created. Our deep bonds are what enable us to scale as a society and evolve from a tribe to a civilization. This conveys the essence and importance of the process of emotional development. Today, we as a society seem to have missed out on emotional well-being at large. The root cause of this problem lies in the very nature of Nation States.

1.1.1 Origins of Nation State

Early civilizations used religion as their foundation. Religious authorities were in charge of all aspects of a society (Economics, Culture, Progress). Over time, these religious authorities lost ingenuity and became motivated by personal gains. This pushed our society into bloody conflicts that were finally resolved with the separation of “Church and State” and the birth of Nation States. As Religions evolved into Nation States they also took over every aspect of our society. While this worked well for providing basic material welfare and individual liberties, the church-state divide missed out on Emotional Well-Being. The church took care of the essential spiritual development within individuals that Nation States could not compensate for. This is how we lost out on emotional welfare.

Lack of Emotional Well-Being

Nation States were never built to take emotional welfare into account. Political Economies measure economic progress by metrics like “GDP”, “Per Capita Income” and “Purchasing Power”. Even the so-called “Happiness Index” is built on indicators of material progress. It's not a surprise that we live in an emotionally fractured society.

Economies are built on Scarcity

Furthermore, these economies are built on some form of scarcity bound to a State’s “National Reserves”. Control of these reserves is restricted to a few elites. This leads to the concentration of wealth in the hands of a select few ‘elites’ to govern the mass populace creating an eternal cycle of resource scarcity, bureaucratic corruption, and an inefficient system.

We propose the following major changes in the way political economy functions today:

  1. Bringing emotional welfare to the core of our society alongside material progress. Any progress must represent all aspects of prosperity. New metrics of ‘development’ need to be calibrated.
  1. A new kind of Economics must be invented that works on abundance instead of scarcity.

Both of these are massive problems and have remained unsolved. To solve these problems we will use a combination of Creative Economy and Web3 to invent a new kind of political economy.

New Gaia State will demonstrate how we can build new political economies that place emotional development at the core of economic progress.

1.2. Culture

Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society.”


- Source:
Boston University

While economic systems determine incentive mechanisms in a society, our culture defines how we interact with one another and the environment around us. Culture is also responsible for setting up mechanisms through which we pass down our behavioral patterns from generation to generation. Even if we as a society manage to become prosperous in all its aspects, our culture would determine if we can persist prosperity across generations.

Culture can be understood by segregating it into various aspects:

  1. Social Dynamics captures our behavior towards each other as individuals and also as a group.
  1. Design of Institutions that we as a society use to govern ourselves and propagate values across generations.
  1. Our shared sense of Beliefs and Identity that forms the foundation of our participation in Social Dynamics and Institutions.

1.2.1 Social Dynamics

All of us have certain inner motivations that control our behavior towards other individuals and together as a group. Some of these motives come from immediate needs like hunger, material greed or have their origin in perennial needs like one’s sense of ethics or aesthetics.

Basic Motives

All of us have certain needs stemming out of our very existence as biological beings. This takes the form of hunger, material needs, sexual desires, etc. These are temporal (short-lived), in a state of constant flux and often link themselves to some form of scarcity. Scarcity leads to a sense of insecurity that often manifests in the form of fear, anger, greed, lust, and hatred. Any group dynamic built on basic motives is quick to gain traction but is often short-lived and unable to scale beyond a certain limit due to the very nature of these motives. Most economic and political movements today are built on basic motives. This leads to a highly polarized and competitive world.

Evolved Motives

There are certain needs that push us beyond our biological nature. These are perennial, often originating from our shared sense of beauty(i.e. aesthetics) and righteousness (i.e. ethics). Love, compassion, empathy, sense of purpose are some of the ways in which evolved motives manifest. These emotions have an aspect of abundance to them. Any group dynamic built on evolved motives requires a much stronger alignment amongst individuals and is initially slow to build. But once built these group dynamics are fast to gain traction and have no limits to their scale. Any social movement, art, literature, or science stemming out of evolved motives outlives its creators and is unshaken by time.

Most group dynamics be it Religious, Political, or Economic have elements of both basic and evolved motives in them. For any healthy culture to flourish it must anchor itself on evolved motives. This can happen only when institutions and individuals shaping a culture foster healthy integration of evolved motives and basic motives. New Gaia State would fuel its social dynamics by constantly enabling individuals to tune into their evolved motives.

1.2.2. Design of Institutions

Culture often spreads through a society and propagates across generations via institutions that represent it. Institutions enforce governance mechanisms to maintain order in a society and reinforce its evolved motives using soft power. Soft power is grown by encouraging the development and spread of arts, literature and sciences. It is therefore very important for us to design our institutions correctly. Despite living in the 21st century most of us are still governed by institutions designed towards the end of the feudal era (14th Century) during Church-State separation. It is about time we redesign our governance institutions to become more dynamic.

Overcoming Outdated Institutions

Historically institutions often start with the right intent but decline over time. While bad leadership is one of the reasons for decline, they often deteriorate due to rusty bureaucracy that fails to catch up with rapidly changing environments. Bureaucratic inertia finds its roots in democracy, regionality, and subsequent centralization. Consequently, a lot of irrelevant organizational inertia propagates across time as dogmas and outdated policies. This is how values are lost across generations. Values are not destroyed but often fail to reinvent with times. It's time we use our technological and social progress to redesign our institutions. Network States and DAOs provide good design inspiration for new-age institutions. New Gaia State takes design inspiration from Network States and the web3 movement at large.

1.2.3 Belief and Identity

We often start connecting with certain ideas and identities even before we fully understand them. If an individual believes in certain evolved motivations he will gradually also start embodying them. Providing belief-based pathways that enable individuals to go deeper within themselves to expand their identities is integral to building an inclusive and expansive culture. That is how belief translates into knowing. This is how the mass populace align themselves with evolved motivations beneath a culture.

Fostering group dynamics through events, workshops, and seminars is a great way to enable individuals to strengthen their belief in evolved motivations into knowing. This also helps build a good culture by setting the stage for the right kind of social dynamics. Workshops, events, and mentorship programs are going to be a key aspect of New Gaia State. This would enable its participants to strengthen their beliefs in their motives and help uncover a larger identity for themselves.

1.3. Evolved Humans for an Evolved Society

Our society is only as good as the individuals who take part in it. Building new economic and cultural frameworks can work only when we as humans are evolved enough to participate in them. History is filled with countless examples of ideas failing due to people not being ready for them. Any drastic change in global systems must go hand in hand with an equally big transformation in individuals who take part in them.

Personal transformation journeys always begin by creating a healthy Relationship with Self and end with a healthy integration into society. This is how an individual establishes a positive Relationship with Society.

1.3.1. Relationship with Self

No individual with an unhealthy relationship with oneself is capable of creating a healthy society. An individual’s Relationship with Self determines their relationships with everything and everyone in general. This shapes our culture and also manifests how products, services, technology, systems, and organizations are created and maintained.

All of us live by certain beliefs, values, and certain gifts and pains. We are not only an expression of biological evolution but also an expression of all that we have gone through individually, socially, and collectively.

Acceptance of our Identities

Our journey towards acceptance of our identities begins with cultivating a sense of awareness towards our life. As we examine our strengths-weaknesses, and accept our basic-evolved motives we can gradually mature into a life of fulfillment. We are a product of our pasts and carry strong emotions around a variety of experiences that have shaped our lives. An honest examination of these emotions is a necessary step towards acceptance of our identities. It is through our emotions that we connect with one another and build healthy relationships with our surroundings. Once we are in tune with our emotions and have fully accepted our identities we arrive at fulfillment. Only a fulfilled individual can live in gratitude and compassion towards oneself and those around them. Only those with happiness and fulfilment inside can create things, products, technologies etc which brings happiness and fulfilment to others. Happiness and bliss breeds more happiness and bliss; and vice-versa.

Self-Love & Self-Worth

How we treat ourselves is a cornerstone of how we treat the world. Our relationship with ourselves determines our relationship with the world. We must therefore learn to love ourselves before we can love others and our society as a whole. “Loving Ourselves” is what we call “self-love” and acts as an important step towards unleashing our “self-worth”. Individuals with high self-worth derive their personal value from their underlying identity that lies beyond their past experiences and associated traumas. When individuals bury their true identity underneath their fears, anxieties, and other traumas they live in scarcity. By accepting our true identity we live in fulfillment and all our outlooks have an essence of abundance attached to them. At a collective level when each of us unleashes our self-worth we create a secure and abundant society.

Personal and Emotional Development is therefore going to be the cornerstone of any of NGC’s initiatives.

1.3.2 Relationship with Society

When we as individuals form a collective to coordinate various activities we create a society. Our behavior towards one another within a society is a function of our individual value systems and also the pre-existing “law and order”. By developing ourselves emotionally we also contribute to the development of the society at large. While this journey is always going to be an ongoing process it reaches a culmination when we discover roles in society that are an externalization of our self-worth.

Developing Value Systems

Every activity in a society has a certain direction to itself. This direction is often a reflection of our collective values as a society. Any collective is a sum of the individuals that make it. Therefore, to have strong value systems as a society it is important for us to have coherent value systems at an individual level. Our high “self-worth” that we cultivate through our pursuit of “self-love” must translate into value systems at a societal level. When we have strong value systems built on a sense of abundance our actions also imbibe similar values amongst others in the society. This ensures that even when we as a society lose a sense of direction our value systems put us back on track. The NGC is committed to enabling each individual to develop strong value systems for themselves and their environment at large. This ensures that the NES is not dependent on a handful of individuals for its sense of direction.

Order as a Reflection of Our Values

All of us are subject to various “law and order” systems as per the immediate environment that we live in. Any “law and order” is also a reflection of underlying values that a society had at some point in time when these books were written. As individuals, we constantly evolve our values as a consequence of our inner journeys toward understanding our true identities. This evolution of values might move much faster than what is reflected in the current day’s “Law and Order”. Here it becomes important for us to build institutions that can enable us to evolve our “law and order” as per the constant development of our values. The NGC aims to use the NES as an example of how our “law and order” can also evolve as we as individuals evolve.

Integrating Into the Society

We believe that each individual who takes up their emotional development journey has a role to play in NES. The NES through its sub-societies provides sufficient options for contribution and development. As individuals develop themselves they become capable of bringing something something unique into our world. The NES offers its complete support to such individuals by enabling them to build communities and economies around their unique ideas(i.e. Creative Assets). This is the core strategy through which the NES aims to scale its society and associated economy.

1.4 Putting Things Together

To bring prosperity, the New Gaia State (NES) aims to build a new culture and a new economy (“New Gaia Economy”) that places emotional development at its core and works on abundance. In doing so we:

  1. Nurture an intimate community of individuals that work towards embodying NGC’s vision.
  1. Ensure each of NGC’s member satisfy their own needs around growth and survival to feel fulfilled both economically and emotionally. The expansion of an ecosystem should never come at the cost of one’s health and values. This is the only way the NGC can build and retain the capacity to offer emotional development services across the globe.
  1. Nurture human capital that is capable of leading and participating in various sub-societies within the New Gaia State(NES).
  1. Re-invent our institutions. We move away from centralized organizational design and take inspiration from the DAO model. In doing so we also provide the means for global order to succeed from Nation States to Network States.
  1. Utilize Creative Economy as a framework to build new political economies that can measure and incentivize emotional development alongside material progress.
  1. Provide the necessary infrastructure (Technology, Economy, and Culture) for multiple sub-societies to emerge within NES and operate on their specialized domain of creative assets.
  1. Utilize NES and its sub-societies as a means to create prosperity globally in all its aspects: Material, Emotional, and Cultural.

Let's explore these in much greater detail in the sections below.

2. Re-Inventing Institutions: Succeeding Nation States

NGC is not the first to think of creating a “New World” that brings back emotional welfare into the big picture. Let's study the possible approaches to creating new societies and examples for each of them.

2.1. Past Approaches and the Road Ahead

One approach is to set up New Nation States that bring back emotional development into the foundation of our society. This was the approach taken by visionaries like Sri Aurobindo-Mirra Alfassa (Auroville) and Rajneesh (OSHO Oregon City). These unfortunately could not scale beyond their regions and often got into conflicts with Nation States. Due to their commune-like nature, they could not get sovereign recognition and evolve into full-fledged Nation States.

The second approach is to establish Global Societies in existing nation states and enforce new ways of living within these societies. This is the approach taken by most religious organizations or alternative living movements around the world. Some successful examples include the Theosophical Society (Madame Blavatsky - Colonel Olcott), Art of Living (Sri Sri Ravishankar), etc. These have sustained but utilize economic systems and culture of Nation States they reside in. This prevents them from providing an alternative foundation for our civilization and solving problems inherent to their respective Nation States.

For New Gaia State to function independently and scale globally without friction from the existing order of Nation States it is important for them to disconnect from Nation States at both economic and decision-making levels.

The web3 movement has given a third alternative in the form of “Network States”. This is a combination of the first two approaches. Network States use blockchain technology to construct independent economic systems without reliance on any of the existing Nation States. This allows any collective to evolve into a parallel society without creating conflicts with the existing establishment. Here we combine the best parts from Nation States and Global Societies without their limitations.

2.1.1 Network States

A network state is a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states.

- The Network State, Balaji Srinivasan

2.1.2. Building a Network State ℹ️

The sequence of steps involved in the creation of a Network State are as follows:

  1. Network Union

A network union is an online community aligned over a common interest with a capacity for collective action. These are typically organized in a social tree structure, to enforce a structure in governance. The network union engages in collective action on behalf of its members.

  1. Network archipelago

A network union that begins acquiring and networking properties in the physical world. The physical interaction is key for building trust.

  1. Network State

A network archipelago that gains diplomatic recognition from at least one legacy state. The diplomatic recognition is key for attaining sovereignty.

2.2. Network States and DAOs

While Network States have shown an additional way to organize the global order, they fail to answer questions around “how we can govern ourselves?”. To understand how we can govern ourselves better, let us first examine the roots of inefficiency in existing systems.

2.2.1. Why Are Existing Systems Inefficient?

  1. Regionality

Most systems that we use for governance were designed in an era before the internet (or communications technologies in general). In the pre-internet era, collective decision-making required individuals to be present together in a single location to engage in debate and discussions. This made any democratic decision-making very inefficient. The advent of the internet enables individuals to get into discussions irrespective of their geographical location.

  1. Representative Democracies Are Slow

Democracy is supposed to be a form of governance that is “By the People, for the People”. However, as the population of a democracy increases it becomes very difficult to coordinate among them and hence “Representative Democracies” are born. The mass populace elects a small group of people to represent them and make decisions on their behalf. These elected representatives however need to continuously appease their voter base to stay in power. Therefore, in practice, a lot of time goes into appeasement than constructive governance. Modern Technologies like AI and Blockchain are now ripe to enable aspects of “Direct Democracy” where people can directly participate in decision-making without the need for any representatives. “Representative Democracy” can be limited to decisions that need expert consensus. This combination of Direct and Representative is what we call “Liquid Democracy”.

  1. Colonial Law Was Never Built to Scale

Our world is still run by colonial legal and judiciary systems that carry vast amounts of inertia. These systems were never built to serve the mass populace due to their excessively centralized and bureaucratic nature. Making new laws/policies and implementing them is very inefficient and time-consuming in these systems. This also makes any reform unlikely due to the large gap between ideation and manifestation. Web3 through the use of Smart Contracts offers a good antidote to this legislative inertia. It also opens up the possibility of a reliable Decentralized Judiciary that can offer an alternative to today’s clunky justice system.

2.2.2. Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)

DAOs allows us to design a new form of democracy which is more stable, less prone to erratic behavior, better able to meet the needs of its citizens, and which better uses the expertise of all its citizens to make high-quality decisions
— Tony Blaire Institute for Global Change

A Decentralized Autonomous organization or DAO is a collectively-owned, blockchain-governed organization working towards a shared mission.

DAOs allow us to work with like-minded folks around the globe without trusting a benevolent leader to manage the funds or operations. There is no CEO who can spend funds on a whim or CFO who can manipulate the books. Instead, blockchain-based rules baked into the code define how the organization works and how funds are spent.

DAOs offer an internet-native approach to governing communities. This organizational model promises to replace deadlocked and corrupt governments. DAOs enable a “liquid democracy” — an optimal blend of representative democracy and direct democracy that can be applied at scale. No longer will citizens need to place trust in a an elected representative politician to represent their best interests or have to worry about popular legislation being blocked from a vote; instead, the DAO’s code automatically enacts the majority view of its members.

2.2.3 subDAOs

A subDAO is an approach to addressing the operational challenge of delegating responsibility within a DAO — without sacrificing decentralization. SubDAOs have an independent foundation and ownership structure but use their parent DAO as an economic and ideological base. Any Tokenomics in subDAOs ties back to their parent DAO’s Tokens.

2.3. New Gaia State, its Sub-Societies and Forks

The NGC would work towards the development of its first Network State in the form of New Gaia State (NES) that will act as a foundation for other Sub-Societies to emerge out of them.

The subDAOs in New Gaia State will form their own Sub-Societies around themselves but the sovereign recognition would stay with New Gaia State.

New Gaia State will scale by enabling sub-societies to emerge and function within its Infrastructure (Technological, Economic and Cultural).

2.3.1 New Gaia State

New Gaia State or NES is going to be the heart and soul of NGC’s agenda. Its aim is to bring back aspects of emotional development to the core of our society that we missed out on when we transitioned into Nation States. Any new world order is created on a concrete foundation that offers Cultural, Economic, Technological, and Spiritual Leadership. NES is going to be an initiation for a new world order built on Network States.

2.3.2 Sub-Societies and Derived Network States

NGC through its human development programs will empower individuals to become creators in their own right and start their own Sub-Societies within the sovereignty of the New Gaia State.

Each of these sub-societies will operate independently via a subDAO with the NGC DAO being its parent. Doing this ensures a stable backbone economy while giving sufficient room for experimentation and decentralized growth. These Sub-Societies will inherit aspects of culture, technology, and economy from the New Gaia State and gradually evolve into independent societies with sovereign recognition. This is when they would have an option to transition into an independent network state.

Parent Network State → New Gaia State → NGC DAO

Sub-Societies → subDAO

Derived Network States(evolve out of Sub-Societies) → Independent Sovereign Societies

2.3.3 Forks

The NGC by design will open-source the majority of its technology infrastructure. This might inspire several project ‘forks’ around the globe for a variety of use cases, some of which might involve the creation of Network States. While the NGC is not going to be directly involved in these fork projects, we recognize and encourage them in building a new global order that brings prosperity to all of us, in addition to us.

3. Creative Economy as a Framework For New Age Political Economies

The United Nations looks at Creative Economy as a byproduct of the economic activity produced by the “Creative Industries”. UNCTAD defines creative industries as cycles of creating, producing, and distributing goods and services that use creativity and intellectual capital as primary inputs. They comprise a set of knowledge-based activities that produce tangible goods and intangible intellectual or artistic services with creative content, economic value, and market objectives.


- United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD) 2022

When we look at any asset we first perceive its utility in our minds. This utility translates into value. An Economy deals with the supply, distribution, and consumption of assets with a perceived value. An asset can be something physical like “Sofa”, “Coffee” etc. An asset can also be something creative or abstract like “Jewellery Design”, “Computer Code”, “Music”, “Video Advertisement” etc.

While existing political economies work well with physical assets, they don’t seem to work as well for creative assets whose existence is more abstract. Physical assets are distributed via systems in the physical world and come under the territory of one Nation State or another. Creative assets are best captured by digital mediums and the internet acts as the de-facto distribution channel for these creative assets. Today, there is no way to bind the ownership of creative assets to Nation States. Internet native distribution demands Internet native ownership and monetization to enable the creative economy to unlock its full potential.

3.1. Creative Assets as a Foundation for New Age Markets

Creative Assets are an outcome of a combination of Human Creativity and Intellectual Capital. Both of these truly belong to an individual and are not something regulatory bodies or centralized institutions can control or own. These “Creative Assets” have managed to create entire markets around themselves amounting to net wealth of about 2.25 Trillion USD or 3% of the GDP as of 2024.

Due to the Internet markets are evolving to become more “Creative Asset Centric” rather than “Institution Centric”. The advent of cryptocurrencies enables any creative asset to create a free market for itself independent of any middleman or institutions. For example, today a music artist can release their music as an NFT without bringing production labels in between, with ownership staying with the artist. We are starting to get rid of institutions as middlemen and are limiting them to be used as distribution channels.

3.1.1 Creative Assets and Emotional Development

NGC places services and programs around Emotional Development at its core. Services around Emotional Development or Human Development are also a creative asset and everything discussed above applies to these as well.

Apart from services around Emotional Development being a creative asset, there is a special link between creativity and emotional welfare, which make these a special kind of creative asset. Creative Assets are the output of an individual creator or a group of creators. A creative asset’s impact is a direct reflection of its creator’s creative faculties. We at NGC believe that an individual’s creative faculties are dependent on his underlying emotional welfare. Our understanding comes from our team’s extensive experience with Eastern Philosophy, Human Development, and Spirituality in general. This gives us sufficient ground to make Emotional Development a necessary path to increase the quality of a creator’s creative output.

3.1.2 Measuring Impact of Creative Assets

While creativity is something that is subjective and immeasurable, we can definitely measure the impact a creative asset produces on a society. This impact can be horizontal or vertical:

  1. Horizontal Impact: This is measured by the number of unique individuals from various interest groups a creative asset manages to engage.
  1. Vertical Impact: This measures how much attention a creative asset captures on average per individual.

Measuring these will enable us to design new economic models that let’s us derive and assign value to a Creative Asset. These models, called Tokenomics, that distribute value via tokens will govern the creation, exchange, and consumption of value in a way that aligns the incentives of all parties involved. This value will propagate across all sub-societies and also be exchangeable for various services from NES. Our Tokenomics will thus, take into account the emotional maturity of a creator and hence incentivize and encourage emotional inquiry and development of the society as a whole.

3.2. Abundance Based Economies

We have finally figured out how value creation can be linked to emotional development. However, current economic systems are still based on a scarcity mindset. This “scarcity” seeps into aspects of political economy that nurture a scarcity mindset across the mass populace and the ruling class, giving rise to conditions like poverty. Is there a way to overcome this problem?

3.2.1 Abundance is a Natural Condition

All of us are born into abundance. As we grow we undergo experiences that bind us to certain concepts more than others. This makes us feel certain things can only be done one in certain ways. This is how we start perceiving scarcity in every aspect of our life. Our collective sense of scarcity manifests into how our economies operate.

Any asset gains value because of an underlying utility that we perceive in our minds collectively as a society. This is what creates demand for the asset which eventually translates into a value. When we bind ourselves to particular assets and their underlying utility we create scarcity around them.

As a society, we should be free to explore an infinite number of asset-value combinations and run economies around each of these combinations. When a middleman interferes and promotes certain asset-value combinations more than others it creates a sense of scarcity in the society. Today Nation States are this middleman. When a Nation State limits all utilities to one currency bound to its reserves it creates an artificial scarcity in the economy. If we shift our order to Network States we can recover these infinite asset-utility combinations. Each Network State or each sub-society within a Network State can be used to experiment with a new set of asset-utility combinations.

3.3 Back to “State of Nature”: New Gaia Economy

All sub-societies within the New Gaia State together will create a superset economy (”New Gaia Economy”) that will run on abundance instead of scarcity.

The NGC aims to use the Creative Economy as a framework to create custom economies around their own asset-utility combination. Each of these economies will also have their own culture and will exist independently as a sub-society within the NES or as a Network State. Making Creative Economy as the foundation would limit the nature of assets to creative-assets. This is necessary in order to avoid conflicts with the existing order of Nation States. Nation States have their own way of dealing with physical assets but fail to deal with creative assets giving sufficient room for NGC to come in.

3.3.1 Linking Creative Assets to Physical Assets

While the NGC would initially focus on creative assets (Emotional Development Services, Multimedia Content, Digital Marketing etc.), it can potentially also expand into Physical Assets via loyalty models and custom ownership laws. It is our understanding that any physical asset first exists in the idea form as a creative asset. This should make it possible to re-invent our laws around ownership of physical assets to make them an extension of creative assets. The world of physical assets can evolve from a scarcity-driven world to an abundance-driven world.

3.3.2 An Open Economy

Bringing abundance into the world of physical assets will remove notions of scarcity around our basic necessities. Removal of scarcity would imply a drastic reduction of costs around utilities that can satisfy our basic needs. This can potentially lead to a situation where all basic needs(physical and emotional) can readily be satisfied at both individual and at a societal level.

4. Dharmic Creativism: Beyond Capitalism, Communism and Socialism

4.1 Creativism

Creativism: is the conscious application of creative principles to everything in life

As a society, we are constantly faced with challenges, and solutions to some of those challenges that have worked in the past might not be suitable for the present/future. We must learn to rely on our creative faculties to devise solutions as the nature of challenges and circumstances evolve. One such approach to do so is “Creativism” and we believe that this should be the guiding principle of progress for any society. The NGC advocates for a particular kind of “Creativism” called “Dharmic Creativism as a core ideology for the construction of the future.

Before we get into the details of “Dharmic Creativism” let us first understand what we mean by a Political Economy and review the kinds of Political Economies that exist today.

4.2 Political Economies of Today

A Political Economy captures the inter-relationships between individuals, society, markets, and the state, using a diverse set of tools and methods drawn largely from economicspolitical science, and sociology.
- Britannica

A Political Economy defines how markets, governance institutions, society, and individuals interact with one another within a Nation State. Political Economies of today take inspiration from three distinct ideologies:

CapitalismSocialismCommunism
DefinitionThis theory advocates profit as a motive for advancement and the ability of free markets to regulate and drive the economy on their ownPromotes the idea that the production and distribution of goods and wealth are maintained and regulated by society, rather than a particular group of people.Advocates for shared resources, including property. In communism, the government directly controls and oversees the distribution of resources, wealth, and services.
Resource OwnershipResources are Privately OwnedResources owned by the entire Society(or Whoever represents the society). Resources owned by a bunch of elites who form the government
Role of GovtEnsure there is room for more players to come in and discourage Monopolies from controlling the market.Act on behalf of society as per their demands.
No room for monopolies as they take away ownership and rewards from society.
Ensure absolute equality in production and consumption. Govt becomes the monopoly.
Optimization CriteriaIndividual growth by encouraging profits, free markets, and private capitalCollective welfare of the society through the distribution of ownership and capital.
Controlled Markets.
Absolute equality and movement towards communist utopia.
DrawbacksExcessive focus on profits might come at the cost of the collective welfare of society.
Capitalism has often been held responsible for the growing divide between the rich and poor.
Excessive control of markets leads to suppression of individualism, slow progress and potential stagnation of economies. The absolute power of government leads to misuse and corruption.
Emphasis on egalitarianism in economic aspects can kill incentives and lead to stagnant economies.
ExamplesUSA, UK, Germany, Singapore, South KoreaIndia, VietnamSoviet Union, China, North Korea

A Political Economy acts as a “Software” for Nation States(”Hardware”) to function. As we upgrade the “Hardware” of our society from Nation States to Network States, it also becomes important to invent new kinds of “Software” or Political Economies that make full use of the capabilities of Network States.

4.3 Nation States vs Network States

Let's look at how each aspect of political economy can differ between Network States and Nation States.

Nation StatesNetwork States
Markets 1. Nation States deal with markets within their physical territory and use Capital as the basic unit around which markets operate.

2. A capital-oriented market grows in proportion to the growth of its underlying capital.


3. All Capital within a Nation State is
linked to its State Reserves which keeps its economy functional. State Reserves are always limited and hence create an artificial sense of scarcity in all forms of underlying Capital.


4. Individual ownership in the form of Private Capital is often subject to scrutiny by its underlying state and can be taken away at any point of time. Therefore, in a Nation State Private capital is just a subset of State Capital.
1. Network States primarily deal with Internet Native Markets and use a Network as the basic unit around which markets operate.

2. A Network-oriented market is concerned with growth in terms of number of members, average engagement and diverse interest groups it represents.

3. A Network usually has one or more
Creative Assets at its core that engages its members to keep the Network’s Economy alive. While engagement around any creative asset is limited, the number of Creative assets can be infinite and ultimately create abundance.

4. Individual Ownership is enforced by binding Creative Assets to a Public Blockchain like Ethereum that are not bound to the Network State.
Governance1. Governance is over a pre-defined physical territory and automatically applies to all its inhabitants. Not possible for the average citizen to opt-out unless another Nation State finds them resourceful.

2. Still run on post-feudal/colonial institutions(from 14th Century) where it is very difficult to manifest any new idea at a societal level.

3. Despite its flaws Representative Democracy is the most efficient governance model possible.
1. Governance is over a Network and not bound to any Physical Territory. Individuals have a choice to opt-in and opt-out at their convenience.


2. More dynamic systems due to the advent of DAOs where multiple ideas can manifest at scale with ease in much shorter time.

3. Facilitates movement to Liquid Democracy that addresses most challenges in Representative Democracies.
IndividualismAn Individual’s sense of sovereignty is limited by the Nation State(s) they belong to. Identities such as “British”, “Indian”, “American” or “Russian” end up defining one’s Individual rights. Any static definition is a limitation.An individual’s sense of sovereignty is independent of Network State(s) they participate in. An individual chooses to be a part of any Network State(s) and can also start his own Network State if he/she is dissatisfied with existing options. Network States are a way to expand one’s sense of identity as per their interests and not limit their sense of individualism.
Society/
Social Dynamics
A Nation State’s Society is bound to traditions and communal dogmas linked to it’s National Identity. An individual has limited scope when it comes to opposing certain Social Dynamics bound to circumstances at a Nation State’s founding. Social Dynamics readily evolving and can fork out healthy aspects from existing Nation/Network States. Possible to start a new Network State with new Social Dynamics.

4.4 Dharmic Creativism: Our Solution

We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.

Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.

We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.

Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakable.


― Shakyamuni Buddha, The Dhammapada

The Buddha uses these words to explain how we tend to create our circumstances through the nature of our thoughts. When our thoughts come from a deeper sense of righteousness they create constructive circumstances for oneself and society as a whole. When our thoughts come from a sense of fear, anxiety, or scarcity they create unhealthy circumstances and lead to conflicts in our society. Therefore as a society its important we make emotional development a top priority. It is only through our emotional development journeys that we can discover a sense of righteousness within our hearts.

The Indians used the term “Dharma” to refer to this sense of righteousness within us. It is through our “Dharma” that we create deep bonds with one another and create positive outcomes for our society. It is important for us to differentiate creativity built on this sense of “Dharma” from other forms of creativity. We have coined the term “Dharmic Creativism” to refer to Creativism built on a sense of “Dharma”.

We believe that “Dharmic Creativism” can work as a great ideology for constructing a Political Economy for Network States.

We have already identified how Political Economies in a Network State are fundamentally different from those in Nation States. Let us now look at how Dharmic Creativism leverages each aspect of Political Economy in a Network State.

4.4.1 Markets

Markets in Network States have one or more Creative Asset(s) at their core to keep their Network engaged. Any kind of monetization is tied to this engagement. Market growth is directly linked to Network growth in terms of engagement, number of participants, and interest groups represented. This growth can either be achieved by creating more creative assets and/or improvising on existing assets. Dharmic Creativism represents an integration of “Creativism” and “Dharma”. For example:

4.4.2 Governance

Let's take a look at how Dharmic Creativism fits into key aspects of governance in Network States:

Geographically Agnostic

Network States are not bound to any geographical territory. Most preceding ideologies were applied to a territory that had a history. A territory whose wealth has been drained by Colonialism would view Capitalism in a negative light and choose Socialism or Communism to ensure there is an equitable distribution of wealth. A territory with vast amounts of resources and a handful of people would prefer Capitalism to maximize individual potential. Ideologies are often a reflection of circumstances. In Network States we can build from scratch and give people the choice to take part in certain circumstances or experiments . This makes it favorable to create multiple trajectories and give people the choice to take part in one or more of them simultaneously.

circumstance/

Dharmic Creativism believes that any problem can have multiple possible solutions and advocates simultaneous implementation of multiple creative solutions as long as they represent deeper alignment towards “Dharma”. The NES would support this by enabling each sub-society to operate on their own creative solutions simultaneously. An individual can choose to opt-in or opt-out of any of these sub-societies instead of having a single blanket solution for everyone.

Dynamic Governance

DAOs enable a much more robust form of governance that can leverage analytics, AI, p2p encryptions, and smart contract automation to enable much faster cycles of evaluation-ideation-legislation-execution. Such a system minimizes the time between ideation and manifestation, enabling new ideas to become a ground reality in much shorter time-spans. This needs to go hand in hand with an ideology that supports such dynamic cycles of ideation and manifestation. Creativism defines that a solution must always be rethought from first principles as per the change in circumstances. Applying 19th-century law to 21st-century circumstances is not the ideal way to deal with problems. Emphasis on “Dharma” ensures that any new solution is intended to create positive outcomes for our society. This makes “Dharmic Creativism” a very compatible ideology for Dynamic Governance through DAOs.

Liquid Democracy

Some decisions are better off when taken by experts alone. Others are better off with the direct or indirect involvement of citizens. This dynamic combination of technocracy, direct and representative democracy is called a Liquid democracy as the nature of democracy is constantly evolving with changing circumstances. The Indians used a wheel to represent Dharma as a wheel keeps changing its position to make room for new ground and take the vehicle forward. Ancient India had Dharma at the heart of any governance mechanism and manifested different governance structures as per changing environments. Dharmic Creativism is an attempt to revive this approach of not believing in a “One size fits all” solution like some of the other ideologies. The only thing that must remain constant is the alignment towards Dharma.

4.4.3 Individualism

The aim of any Political Economy has been to enhance the sense of sovereignty in its subjects. However, the binding of solutions to national identities and their inability to evolve as per circumstances produces the exact opposite effect.

Dharmic Creativism is not bound to any national identity. Network States can formulate their own set of creative assets or also evolve existing assets to add value to its subjects. Here, you can have infinite number of creative assets and an individual can choose to be a part of one or more Network States. This ensures that there is always abundance and an individual can use their interactions with creative assets as a means to expand their sense of individualism.

4.4.4 Social Dynamics

Nation States have certain circumstances at their founding that give rise to certain kind of social dynamics as an inherent part of their identity. Political Economies are also chosen as per these circumstances and further reinforce certain social dynamics over others. Let’s take India as an example.

India as a Nation State was founded in 1947 as a consequence of the De-colonization of the British Empire and the two-nation theory that also gave birth to Pakistan.

  • Excessive drain of capital due to colonization led to Socialism being the prime choice as a Political Economy. This nurtured an anti-wealth social dynamic that discouraged any kind of excessive private capital even if it did not come at the expense of other individuals. At a collective level, this led to the eventual stagnation of the Indian Economy as fewer people took up entrepreneurial journeys.
  • The two-nation theory eternalized the conflict between Hindus and Muslims. Indian politics to date is built on this conflict and this also reflects upon the social dynamics of Indian society.

Network States are free from historical baggage and can afford to construct their Social Dynamics in a much more dynamic manner. Dharmic Creativism enables Network States to use new creative assets to rapidly evolve the nature of their social dynamics. This, when combined with the focus on “Dharma” ensures that any social dynamic is built on a sense of abundance and enables multiple interest groups to integrate into the society.

5. Prior Art

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) | ethereum.org
An overview of DAOs on Ethereum
https://ethereum.org/en/dao/
Our Philosophy - Conscious Capitalism, Inc.
Conscious Capitalism Philosophy Learn about the 4 Tenets of Conscious Capitalism​ Elevating humanity through business begins with knowing WHY your company exists. Without this, you have no compass to find and stay focused on your True North. Businesses should exist for reasons beyond just making a profit. We see profit as a necessary means to […]
https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/philosophy
The Cultural Build
Implementing Ostrom's Principles into the TEC
https://token-engineering-commons.gitbook.io/tec-handbook/what-is-the-tec/the-cultural-build#ostroms-8-principles
articles Archives - Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure
Articles written by members of the iDPI team.
https://publicinfrastructure.org/tag/articles/
Towards Dharmic Capitalism
The question of money and wealth is perhaps the most vexing of all issues confronted by those who aspire for a more conscious way of life. Money has a subtle corrupting influence even on the best of minds. It is for this reason that money is amongst the first things to be rejected by the […]
https://bluone.in/towards-dharmic-capitalism/
What Is Creativism? By the author of A Creativist Compendium
What is creativism? Devised by the author of A Creativist Compendium Orna Ross creativism is all about applying the creative process to life
https://ornaross.com/from-orna/what-is-creativism/
😇
Scarcity” comes from space-time limitation of the physical world. Everything is limited and unlimited at the same time. There is apparent “scarcity” while in “unlimited” abundance. Its important to keep ourselves anchored in unlimited abundance while we deal with scarcity in our day-to day lives.


Inspirations

Prosperity” by Charles Fillmore

“Abundance” by Peter H. Diamandis