Operational Concepts

Proposals and Issues

As any member might potentially submit unlimited items to be voted on, the electorate would eventually drown in an endless sea of proposals, imperiling the important ones. To address this inevitable noise, a “proposal” is submitted to the River for evaluation and placement before their targeted electorate as an “issue,” which is voted on to become a “law.” Sages affirm that the member’s proposal addresses some actual problem that either might exist or does exist within the relevant Body(s), and ensure the proposal is sufficiently prepared for the electorate’s vote. A proposal becomes an issue either through River Sage approval, or by electorate petition. Although Sage approval is not guaranteed, when a sufficient percentage of the entire targeted electorate signs a petition to back the proposal that meets voting standards, it is immediately approved.

Categories

Just as the human mind is basically a categorizing machine, all relevant, unique aspects of the Cult are listed and defined in the Novel Universe Cult’s Category Codex. For instance, categorizing the entities of our neural-democracy– issues, voters, Frames, input bias and weights, etc.– allows each to properly function within the mathematically-based complexity of our unique governing system. In the house example, neural-democratic categories would include such things as the home’s occupants, neighbors, style, and within one of those categories, next-door neighbors, and on-the-block neighbors, for example. Category creation and definition is a “perpetual” process that happens solely through the membership’s expression of our neural-democracy for the purposes of clarifying our terms. On the other hand, unless a concept isn’t unique, or at least used or defined somewhat differently by the Cult, assume our usage of the related term(s) is meant to follow a common vernacular.

The lines separating ideas can be vague, so Cult-defined categories use commonly agreed-upon language that is intended for everyone’s understanding. To sharpen definitions, each category limits shared characteristics with other categories whenever possible. Optimally, NUC categories are designed as standardized puzzle pieces that potentially fit any number of others in any number of ways, “assembling” more complex, useful objects. “Root” categories, like “person,” are built from multiple levels of “subcategories,” such the subjective ideas of “class,” “gender,” or “occupation,” as well as objective ones like “species,” “height,” or “age.” Moving down the assembled hierarchy of age, for instance, we find age’s subcategories, “child,” “teenager,” “adult,” and “elderly,” with specific parameters for each. If the Cult finds the need for additional categories or subcategories, these are added neural-democratically, as spelled out in our Voter Guide.

When a proposal is sent to the River to become an issue, Sages may approve intersectional categories to boost specific voters’ input bias. For instance, a proposed construction project making a lot of noise during the day would most impact those neighbors without day jobs, likely the very young or very old– elderly or child neighbors. “Elderly-Neighbor” would be a combination of the two distinct categories of Elderly and Neighbor, what we call an “inter-category.” Such inter-categories are useful to amplify the intersectional voices of those most affected by a potential law.

The Standard Frame

Just as variables are initialized so apps don’t crash upon startup, the Standard Frame is a special Frame Effect “set in stone.” Examples of when the Standard Frame are used include NUC voting, when all voters have an equal stake; or when establishing our “Perpetual Issues,” when adjusting the entries of an issue’s Frame or definition. With each spelled out in our Voter Guide, the specific values of the Standard Frame are designed to allow enough time for its effects to be experienced, while simultaneously, be agile enough to pivot without Sage intervention.

Perpetual Issues

In our house example, we discovered many residents unhappy with their houses, and felt as though their voices weren’t adequately heard. Going forward, we’ll respond with a change to how an occupant’s vote will be counted, amplifying their voice by increasing the weight of a “resident” input bias from 2.5 to 3.25. Changing this number wasn’t the result of a new issue becoming law, but a tweak to a Perpetual Issue. NUC assumes that certain, core metrics– definitions, weights, Frame numbers– might forever improve to one degree or another. Instead of having to be separately raised each time as a proposal, each variable cycles in and out of Status Quo– permanently fluctuating between a state of consideration and implementation. Through separate, unique processes for each type of value to be updated, each spelled out in our Voter Guide, members participate in a multi-tiered system of voting rounds to, first, signal a desire for a specific value to be updated, and second, agree on what that change should be. Various core items of our democracy, including input biases and category definitions, will always require tweaking.

Contrary to the Supreme Court’s faction of Originalists, who believe that the “correct” view of the US Constitution is to interpret it through a fixed lens fashioned by the Founder’s “original” intent, NUC’s neural-democracy assumes nothing. Unlike those Originalists, whose mindset flies in the face of basic Darwinism, the inherent flexibility of the Perpetual Issue embraces the reality that adaptation is key to survival, just like the plasticity of a brain.

Automatic Update

Once an update to a voting metric is made, does this mean the altered Issue will be scrapped, and a new vote initiated with those new value(s) applied? If that were the case, the potential chaos would discourage the process altogether, risking a future where only the most problematic values are intermittently addressed. When voters don’t feel heard, or feel bogged down by red tape, they disengage, allowing corruption to take root. Historically, corruption has always underpinned the disintegration of effective governance in any form. Encouraging evolution, participation, and transparency annihilates the threat. Therefore, instead of starting over with a new vote after the resident input bias weight is updated to 3.25, the vote is simply recalculated with the new value going forward, and an Automatic Update takes place.

Should an issue / law with an open voting window use a Perpetual Issue to make a change in its definition, a change in some category’s voter weight, or a change in any of its Frame Effect numbers, the Sages must resubmit the issue / law to the Stage with these updated values applied, along with a personal notice alerting voters who have already weighed in. Unless these voters take affirmative action to remove or change their vote under the new situation, their vote and its expiration date is automatically applied to the updated issue, reducing the friction associated with Perpetual Issue adjustments.

As Status Quo removes all votes after an issue becomes a law, an Automatic Update has no practical effect on the newly created law. It would, therefore, be impossible for future updates to the Frame’s values, whether minimal or not, to potentially reverse the law as there are no votes to be weighed and counted. However, under some number of drastic updates to the values of the law, when it was an issue, it would have been possible to have had a different outcome with those updated values. Still, going forward, we require voters weigh in under the current situation should they desire that alternative outcome under the new values– establishing and overcoming a reasonable amount of inertia is a primary key to a functioning neural-democracy.

Digital Data

The Novel Universe Cult is a religion based on information as the foundation of all things. The creation and use of large amounts of data are critical for day-to-day operations. Where access to the tools of technology is available, URLs, digital documentation, and the like are used to process, disseminate, and archive data. In places where access to digital technology is limited or non-existent, hard-copies are produced for these uses and retained for record keeping. These hard copies stay regularly updated by volunteering members, in the interest of keeping data relevant and fully accessible to our membership. There are a few instances where information is intentionally restricted to the River and its Sages for the purposes of anonymity or noise reduction, such as Status Quo sequestering a law’s specific voting history, but even the siloing of information amongst tribes of Power– a core characteristic and right of their Cult Body– is still accessible, as is all NUC information, by River for the purposes of oversight.

With this in mind, after a proposal is approved to become an issue, a web-accessible Issue page (URL) is created to host the vote, and inform the voters of the issue’s details. Should the issue become law, its Status Quo “timer” begins, its Issue page is archived, and a Law page is created with all necessary information about the new law. The archived Issue page, along with the details of every member’s voting history and final position on the issue, is restricted to the Sages, and will only be accessed if the information becomes relevant, like under investigation of fraud. Next, an entry is made in the Log of Laws (LL) with the original issue’s metadata: a title, brief abstract, date of passage, and link to the law’s page with its complete description and details. Archiving the Issue page, while creating a separate Law page and metadata entry into the LL, encourages a primary function of Status Quo– individual voters “forgetting” about their previously held positions when future issues of a similar nature are raised, or when the law’s voting window reopens at the end of Status Quo.

Metaphorically, the difference between the brain’s right and left hemispheres is a stage and its spotlight. The stage (right hemisphere) represents the wider context of the onstage performance– its story, participants, setting, and environment. The spotlight (left hemisphere) represents the performance’s specifics– its dialogue, character placement, and detailed action, in other words, how each scene actually plays out. NUC uses this two-tiered approach to disseminate voting information, and to keep the electorate engaged with issues that warrant attention, such as current issues or laws with closing voting windows, ISDs, new issues, laws whose voting windows have reopened, etc. The “Stage” is akin to a landing page, while the “Spotlight,” like a tailor-made menu of the most important items of the day. Additionally, each Stage and Spotlight is hosted in one of two different scopes, akin to “federal” versus “state.” Whenever a member engages with their neural-democracy, they open the common “Global Stage,” where Cult-related information awaits, and, should they belong to a Body of Love and / or Power, find that additional link to their “Local Stage.”

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