WSA/archive
2020-09-04 version
Overall
My WSAs are in two main parts: projects I originated and projects Tessa originated. At this point, we're loosely collaborating on both sets.
There are also two main areas of focus: (a) actually making things better, and (b) funding to enable the work on [a]
My Projects
My main making-things-better project starts with software intended to help people to:
- make collective decisions better, non-hierarchically
- tell truth from propaganda, without sacrificing any fine points or nuance
Aside from using this to help settle political debates (or, more realistically, sort out which views are evidence-based and which are tribal-loyalty-based), it should greatly empower cooperative enterprises to better manage their resources. Development is currently (2020-09-04) a #2 or #3 priority because money.
...which gets into the funding aspect, as my top priority right now is rebuilding an online retail operation I had to take offline a few years ago and then making it into a cooperatively-governed distributed kind of thing... which gets back into the making-things-better aspect, as my plan is to outcompete the hierarchically-organized giant-corporate business model by treating workers as fellow humans that we want to take care of rather than as "human resources" to squeeze for all they're worth -- prioritizing people generally (how is our work benefiting society overall?) and as individuals (what part of the overall work would this person be most enthusiastic and effective at?) rather than prioritizing profit (how can we most effectively make a small number of people much much richer than everyone else?) -- basically a socialist business operating within (and gradually eroding) the capitalist paradigm.
Meanwhile, I also work on various World-Improving Activities.
Tessa's Projects
Tessa's current main project, meanwhile, involves designing and building self-contained off-grid "pod homes" that support a 21st-century quality of life without requiring city services (water, sewer, electricity). (They're also working on a plan to make mesh internet more widely available, free, to remove that dependency as well, but that's a separate project.) They plan to sell these homes on a sort of pay-what-you-can-afford basis, selling them with a high margin to semi-rich people who want to be comfortable when society collapses (but can't afford their own multimillion-dollar subterranean retreat) and giving them away to homeless people who can't afford to buy. Toward this end they have purchased 20 acres of desert land in the Oregon badlands, and are building a production facility using volunteer labor.
They also have a lot of other plans, some much longer-term and more ambitious, but I don't yet know which parts I'm supposed to be talking about. As of 2022-03, they're accumulating resources for some substantial work on a small sustainable rural community in Oregon.