In the previous post, I talked about how the National Intranet and the LERE Process could be governed by Social Forums presiding over computer networks, servers, and active websites. Equivalent to the Councils of a functioning Council Democracy, each Social Forum acts as a digital space where website administrators, content creators and others can convene all matters related to the LERE Process. Everything from the operation of automated machinery and Artificial Intelligence software programs to governance of the LERE Refineries and valuations of Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld is orchestrated among the Social Forums. A single Social Forum is attached to an Intranet Service Provider responsible for providing the Totality with access to the National Intranet across a given jurisdiction. The Intranet Service Providers are administrated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, relaying matters pertaining to the National Intranet to the State Council.
The purpose of this post is for me to brainstorm some potential applications of the Social Forum. The possibilities may seem endless, given the technological implications of the digital realm, but they can still be outlined in some form of detail. The Blockcycle Technology that would make the LERE Process conceivable on the National Intranet will undoubtedly play its own role in this endeavor as well.
As one could surmise from the implications described so far, the Social Forum is capable of facilitating Digital Governance. The Totality can participate in the affairs of the Social Forums as they would with the Councils through the political process. In fact, the Social Forums are meant to ensure that the Totality is capable of reapplying the political process to the National Intranet, creating a “Council E-Democracy.” Any technological advancements affecting the National Intranet will enhance the features and capabilities of a “Council E-Democracy.” What are some well-known examples that could be easily envisaged for the National Intranet and based on any topics already covered in The Work-Standard or The Third Place?
The most obvious is the LERE Process. In the LER Process, there is an “Arbeit-into-Geld” and a “Geld-into-Arbeit.” While this is technically applicable to Actual Arbeit and Actual Geld, it should not be too much of a stretch to assume that similar operations could occur with the LERE Process. One could transfer Digital Arbeit to the LERE Refinery and convert it into Digital Geld for the Central Bank to register as Actual Geld. One should also be able to perform the reverse operation: turning Actual Geld into Digital Geld that could be spent on creating Digital Arbeit.
That possibility was already presumed to be a given in the existing descriptions of the LERE Process. To ensure that the Work-Standard could hold its own against the plethora of existing Cryptocurrencies, the Sociable Currency will be designed to have its own digital equivalent. In addition to paying in Actual Geld through cash and payment cards, the Totality could streamline their online transactions by relying on the digitized variant of their Sociable Currency. This would require the presence of Digital Geld to conduct those online transactional sales.
Suppose for a moment that one could use Digital Geld to pay for the maintenance of a gaming server, the cyberdefenses of a computer network, or place orders for 3D Printers or AI-driven vehicles to execute. Would Digital Geld suffice instead of Actual Geld? I see no reasons why anyone would not conduct those payments in Digital Geld. If anything, their Digital Geld could even be used to pay for any Taxes that they might owe to the Council State.
Speaking of the LERE Process, any Taxes that may be levied by the Council State are also applicable to the National Intranet as they would for the VCS Economy. A good example is someone purchasing alcohol or tobacco from an E-Commerce website. That possibility should not be ruled. Since the Council State already has Taxes placed on all sales of alcohol and tobacco, it is natural to expect the Council State to enforce those Taxes on the National Intranet.
Guilds of Small Businesses, Cooperatives, and Workshops do not need to convene inside a conference room or office building. One should anticipate the possibility that people might form a Guild on the National Intranet because the bulk of their economic activities occurs on the National Intranet. The Economic Planners and Inspectors overseeing them could coordinate their efforts from a Social Forum. If chatrooms do not suffice, group video chats may be arranged.
Another possibility worth mentioning is for the Social Forum to assist the Intranet Service Providers in the transfers of encrypted medical data between doctors and their patients. Patients pressed for Zeit (Time) could arrange their medical appointments with doctors on the National Intranet. The Intranet Service Providers will respect the confidentiality of their conversation and allow patients to transmit any information to their doctors.
And as I had pointed out in The Third Place, the National Intranet can serve as a valuable instruction tool for educators and teachers of the national educational system. The SSE’s Student Tournament could include the National Intranet, allowing members of the Student Body to apply their everyday applications of the National Intranet in the pursuit of their Vocations. Their Vocation might even have something involving the National Intranet and the national educational system could help them make that ambition a reality.
I can keep going on the number of possibilities that can be done with the National Intranet. The Social Forums should serve as the digital counterpart of the Councils to promote Digital Governance of the National Intranet. This Digital Governance, in its attempts to establish an E-Democracy, needs to serve as an extension of the Council Democracy. The result is an “Council E-Democracy” where many of the practices of Council Democracy established in The Work-Standard and The Third Place can be conducted through the Social Forums.
Even so are there any other possibilities in which Council Democracy can be reapplied to the National Intranet? I am certain that there are certain applications beyond my knowledge that have yet to be realized but are not feasible as of late because the required technologies have yet to be described, not to mention signs of a working prototype or proof of concept.
Should the National Intranet reflect the organizational structures of Council Democracy? Let us not forget that Technology is capable of being imbued with the design philosophies of whoever designed them for the Totality. The Blockcycle Technology associated with the LERE Process is intended to bring the LER Process to the digital realm. The conduct of MTEP (Mission-Type Economic Planning) is capable of demonstrating how economic planning can be done on the National Intranet as part of creating Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld.
But does it need to be as decentralized and even disorganized as the World Wide Web (WWW)? The WWW in its initial conceptualization from the 1990s resembled a vast, open space that had yet to be organized into what it now resembles today in the 2020s. While the “Internet Service Providers” ensured access to the WWW, many of the websites, servers, and computer networks that existed in the 1990s are no longer active or even compatible with the current technologies. Popular message boards that were once vibrant in the 2000s now stand idle, their members having moved on to larger, more centralized “social media firms.” And if the retirement of Adobe Flash in 2020 was any indication, the WWW’s past is at risk of disappearing as the world advances further into the 21st century.
Categories: Compendium
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