Convivial Ecological Institutions

Discussion

Austin Wade-Smith:

"Convivial ecological institutions describe the myriad of ways human beings might participate in the expanded legibility of the living world. Convivial in this sense, is to be “alive with”. While the potential is truly vast, a simple starting point would be to explore the relationship of social oracles with data oracles. Could data oracle inputs prompt community governance processes, the outcome of which decides how the inventory of an ecological institution is used? People are part of ecosystems, not separate from them. Significant decisions on behalf of a forest should include governance by its guardians, because in one sense, people are part of the forest. In this manner, what is deemed an appropriate or meaningful action for an ecological institution is formed through social consensus. This consensus informs the contracts which drive the behavior of a convivial ecological institution.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from autonomous control systems, convivial ecological institutions might be an evolution of community governed resource management. Their impact is multiplied by the expanded legibility enabled by progressive formalism. Ecological institutions are durable containers which legitimize and bolster emerging patterns of socio-ecological governance across different systems, with the potential to “plug in”, and interface with existing social systems by occupying different roles. Decentralized protocols offer many opportunities to design governance frameworks in a modular and composable way. These social oracles, in collaboration with data oracles, create an enormous space of possibility which might integrate approaches from autonomous control systems, community resource management, and traditional ecological knowledge."

(https://mirror.xyz/austinwadesmith.eth/tv9z1XXrtqQxDIxE8FygZ_W39NpkQJkVfrtjCtdbzA8)