A Vision for a Transitioning Society

Working draft by Devon Summerhayes. Not a decision of any community.

Centricity starts from one claim: communities can meet more of people's needs, and share power more fairly, by building commons institutions that already work, such as land trusts, co-ops, shared budgets and citizens' panels, alongside public services, and by testing each one in public. Some of them may, in time, change what states and markets do. This page sets out where that could lead: everyone's basic needs secured step by step, more of what we rely on cared for together alongside markets and private ownership (a commons-based economy), and decisions made close to the people they affect, by many self-governing communities working under shared rules (polycentric democracy).

Nobody is required to join, and each part grows only where it proves itself. This is a design, not a result. Today's pilots test only the first stage, sharing without money, and the sections on security, technology and work beyond Earth are long-term aims, not matters for any pilot.

Foundation

Everyone is treated with dignity, and their basic needs are secured step by step. Some rights can never be voted away: free speech, privacy, a fair process, protection from abuse, and the freedom to leave. Children have these rights too, used in ways that grow with age, and families raise them within those rights. When someone causes trouble, the aim is to fix the problem and protect others, never to strip them of their standing as a person.

Governance

Many self-governing communities, from villages to the whole planet, work together under shared rules. Decisions are made at the smallest level they affect. Independent courts, with judges chosen by lot from qualified jurists, settle arguments about who decides and explain their reasons. Everyone's basic rights and standards are protected, and communities can go further but never lower. Larger groups help smaller ones build the skills to govern well. Anyone who draws on shared resources follows the rules for them and helps pay for their upkeep. Every body is reviewed regularly, and any that is no longer needed is retired. Whoever checks a body doesn't run it, isn't paid by it, and can pause it.

Participation

People take part directly or by lending their vote to someone they trust, much as in liquid democracy. Lending is limited, expires, and can be taken back at any time. Big long-term choices like infrastructure and climate are made on a set schedule. Randomly chosen citizen groups and open forums add to voting.

Basic Needs

The basics are secured level by level as funding allows: housing, utilities, food, clothing, healthcare, transport, and care for children, older people, and people with disabilities. The aim is a secure, good home for every household, based on need. Bigger or better-placed homes held in common go through a fair lottery that considers need, waiting time, and commons credits (recognition for service), and are for the winner's own use. Privately owned homes are not part of it. Residents of the lottery homes pay a modest charge based on the home's location value, which builds and maintains basic housing. None of this affects the basics. A shared fund on its own can carry only a thin floor alongside public services; a floor for everyone would be public, paid for by tax and decided by vote, as the NHS is.

Ownership and Stewardship

More things are cared for together alongside private ownership, through community land trusts, use rights, co-ops, and shared benefits. Your home and personal belongings stay safe, and the shared sector grows only where it does better on published measures.

Migration and Movement

Anyone can leave a community and ask to join another, and no one can be turned away because of discrimination. Basic entitlements travel with the person, paid from a pool shared across regions so none carries the cost alone, and newcomers get basic standing immediately. Communities publish how many newcomers they can welcome, and where one is full, applicants join a waiting list ordered by open, fair criteria while regional bodies help them find a place elsewhere. Shared investment tackles the reasons people are forced to flee.

Work and Enterprise

People choose how to contribute, and service is recognised in verified hours. Tough but needed work is reduced through automation, shared among willing people, and paid from the shared fund where it can be funded, and so is care work. Community-minded businesses (co-ops, social enterprises) build on open resources, earn money from what they offer, and share publicly funded results with everyone.

Economy

There is a shared currency for everything above the basics. Everyone who joins gets an equal base share each cycle. The aim is to hold its value steady against a public index of everyday goods, with regional bodies issuing it and adjusting how much exists, up or down, and it grows as agreement grows. Centricity's own stress test found that an index alone cannot hold its value, so the currency is deferred until something can give it a level. Energy, carbon, and water use stay within what nature can sustain, shared equally per person. Whatever you earn from business and paid work, in the currency or in money, is kept on top of your share, and personal balances above a published threshold gradually flow back into a shared fund, while money invested in businesses and long-term projects stays available. Commons credits recognise service and guide access to scarce goods.

Shared Power Over the Currency

Regional bodies chosen by lot from qualified candidates issue the currency, councils chosen by lot set the index and the credit rules, an independent audit body checks the work, and rotating stewards hold the shared fund in trust. Every body serves fixed terms, publishes its reasons, and can be challenged in court.

Markets and the Commons

Markets and the shared commons work best together. The commons gives everyone a secure base and looks after shared resources. Markets provide prices, variety, and the funding that big projects like medicine and large infrastructure need. Businesses that use shared resources give back, publicly funded discoveries are free for all to use, and limits on size and spending to sway decisions stop power from piling up.

Knowledge and Technology

Education, information, and technology are shared openly. Local differences and disagreement are protected, so communities can try new things. Powerful technology, including AI, is released in stages and opened once evaluated. Several overlapping independent evaluators, paid from a shared fund, check it, and it waits where any one of them finds the risk too high. They also test whether a system accepts correction and shutdown, including when it has reason to think nobody is watching, and whether it flatters people or takes more than its task needs, and they look at who deploys it and why, since a system follows the aims of those who set its goals and rewards. Decisions about a person's home, income or rights are made by people, and automated results can be appealed to a person.

Transition

It begins with working examples: co-ops, land trusts, community budgets, and open-source projects. These link into networks, gain legal recognition, and grow only where evidence shows they work. Nobody is required to join, and each arrangement's rules apply to those who join. Every pilot is measured against published goals and can be paused or wound down. Rules for shared resources apply to whoever uses them. An independent review chosen by lot compares each trial with similar communities, checks results beyond early volunteers, and decides whether it continues, adapts, or winds down.

Working Within Today's Systems

The currency starts as a complementary currency within existing law, checked with legal advice at each step, and land trusts, co-ops, and community budgets use legal forms that already exist. The basics are paid for first from a shared fund with reserves. They rise step by step: each level, once funded for a full cycle, is protected by a reserve sized through pilots, and anything above grows with what is funded. Legal recognition, open data and independent oversight build public confidence at each step.

Freedom

Less time goes to securing the basics, leaving more for interests, relationships, rest, and creativity.

Harm and Repair

People may still harm others or harm nature, such as through pollution, dumping, or damaging ecosystems. Everyone keeps their standing and a fair process. The person harmed is heard first, and the first response is to repair the damage, with proportionate steps if harm continues, and time-limited, reviewed protective care for serious violence. Punishment that turns someone into an outsider tends to produce the next harm, which is why standing is never removed. Community safety services answer to those they serve, under published rules, oversight, and limits on force. Groups that provide security against outside threats act only in defence, cooperate with neighbouring states, and are led by civilian councils chosen by lot, and never hold weapons of mass harm. Appeals go to an independent court, and prevention tackles root causes. Where someone who has not joined causes harm, ordinary law and public services apply, and the system works alongside them.

Trust by Design

Shared arrangements are open to everyone, fully or partly, as suits them. Votes are private, funding records are public, digital identity is minimal and protects privacy, and there are always paper options and real people to help. Promotion is honest, shows who is behind it, says how it was made (including any use of AI), is not aimed at children, and uses no one's personal data without consent. People find what exists through open directories, public notices and published results.

Gradual Emergence

Growth is organic, step by step, alongside existing homes, businesses, institutions, and traditions, keeping what already works. Approaches that bring security, health, and opportunity spread by example. Where different ways of doing things meet, they trade and share on open, fair terms, and independent panels settle disagreements. As people begin to work beyond Earth, the same fairness applies: shared resources are looked after for everyone, not claimed by whoever gets there first.

Evolution

Let's talk, try these ideas in practice, and let them develop. Centricity is simply a name for them. Unity means what people are in when they share, not something anyone is asked to believe or join.