Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ about the Ten-Tier System
Who is meant to be making this happen? Who would install this structure?
Why ten tiers?
Where is this going to be happening?
What exactly does the TTS replace?
Would AI be running the show?
Who’s going to be deciding these algorithms and principles? Who builds these systems?
What about third-world countries?
How exactly is the TTS meant to make us happier?
What if people can’t decide? Will this democracy really work?
What about people who want to shut this down?
Is this a cult?
How is it different to socialism and communism?
How is the Contribution Index functionally different from money?
How can we be sure this system is secure?
What do I do with this information? Where do we go from here?
Where can I find out more?
1. Who is meant to be making this happen? Who would install this structure?
Short answer: we are.
At present, the ten-tier system is just a concept, an idea to be pushed out into public for consideration, critique, discussion, and refinement. In gaining popularity and traction, money will continue to be raised and generated that will support necessary developments and further content to help inform, educate, and engage with people.
Hopefully, in the coming years we will have an intact democracy that will permit such a concept to be considered for development, trial, and installation. Democratic installation with government or public funding could support this in a way that is structured and official. However, it could be possible for different groups around the world to create their own versions of this system to be trialed and implemented independently, which can later be made to be universally compatible.
It is an idea that could be done on official terms or by guerrilla rebellion to displace an autocratic government.
2. Why ten tiers?
The ten-tier system is named after a pyramid-like management structure for the whole of planet Earth. The number is arbitrary, and it doesn’t have to be ten, but each of these ten tiers represents a different-sized portion of society—a community or area of jurisdiction—to be managed. Like Russian dolls, the smaller tiers would fit inside larger tiers. Tier 10 would be made up of Tier-9 groups; a Tier-9 group would include a number of Tier-8 groups, and so forth.
Tier 1 represents the smallest portions of society, like a house or section of private property. A tier-1 council (e.g. a family) would be in charge of this property—managing, maintaining, and developing it.
Tier 10 represents the entirety of global society. Everyone belongs to the same international Tier 10 society.
Tier 1 would be responsible for local management while Tier 10 is responsible for international management. This way, our whole planet can be managed effectively with standardised degrees of jurisdiction, allocating responsibility and budget proportionally.
As an example:
A Tier-1 group (e.g. a combined household) might include around 10 people.
A Tier-2 group (e.g. a neighbourhood) might include 10 households each with 10 people in them.
10 households x 10 people per household = 100 people in the neighbourhood (this specific Tier-2 group).A Tier-3 group (e.g. a suburb) might include 10 neighbourhoods.
10 neighbourhoods x 10 households x 10 people = 1000 people in the suburb (this specific Tier-3 group).
This concept continues until we have ten different scales of global community. There would be millions or even billions of small Tier-1 communities, while there is only one single all-encompassing Tier-10 community. Each ‘tier community’ has representative(s) as part of a ‘tier council’ to help discuss and effect democratic decisions. See the pyramid below to get an idea of how we might standardise decision-making councils.
3. Where is this going to be happening?
The idea is for the TTS to be implemented right across the globe, including every country. However, the structure can still work at local levels without requiring the entirety of the planet, allowing for gradual or uneven adoption.
The design of the TTS permits a staggered or staged implementation, meaning we can trial it in smaller communities before scaling up to a global structure. In the future, if the human race expanded to other planets or we came into contact with other advanced species, the design of the TTS structure allows for a continued expansion and integration.
4. What exactly does the ten-tier system replace?
There are a lot of existing structures and systems that the TTS would seek to replace. Some of these include the legal, financial, political and industrial institutions of society, seeking to make some structures and protocols consistent across the globe while still allowing for individuality of culture or design.
Two main systems being reinvented by the TTS are the capitalist and democratic structures. Capitalism represents our economic and industrial systems and establishments, while our current forms of democracy include our political, governmental, and decision-making structures. Both have seen outright corruption at a dangerous level, and so the TTS seeks to implement a system that proofs against corruption and gives power back to the People for these operations of society.
5. Would AI be running the show?
Definitely not. The use of artificial intelligence would be carefully considered and designed with limited powers. AI for the TTS would only be involved as an advising and coordinating role, collating information and helping human decision-makers to manage and develop society.
The dystopian AI films where machine sentience takes over humanity is only a possibility when its designers have ill intent, are irresponsible, and/or can provide these machines/programs with authorisation to effect their own changes. With proper supervision and carefully considered designs, AI can be our best friend in a future society.
6. Who’s going to be deciding these algorithms and principles? Who builds these systems?
With an open-source design, we can ensure democracy and transparency in any system we implement. The idea is for such a concept to be created by the citizens of society, rather than by an institution that could have ulterior motives to control or exploit people. If there is any question around whether a government is altruistic in its intent, it is very possible that such developments will have to be done in a way that disregards government and sanctioned institutions to stay as a purely grassroots movement—a rebellion, if need be.
Ultimately, the idea is for the citizens of the world to design and maintain these systems democratically. A TTS concept in full functionality will be able to make use of the full breadth of humanity’s expertise, experience, skills, and knowledge. Any changes or calibrations can be decided through the proposed digital democracy.
7. What about third-world countries?
No doubt there are further challenges in countries where digital infrastructure and education are less established. In truth, not everyone has the mental faculties to be contributing meaningfully to democratic management and societal decision-making. Don’t worry—this is all accounted for in the TTS. The weighted voting system and revised education system will empower those who have interest and contextual qualification for contributing to this management, though it will not be compulsory. The intricacies of the digital democracy here are too complex to explain in a paragraph, although the design is to allow full participation while finding an intelligent, fair way to make use of our collective expertise while mitigating the risks and downsides of democracy.
There is something of a guarantee that quick fixes will not be possible, and it may not be possible or beneficial to engage an uneducated third-world populace fully in this democratic process. But in the long-term, with a focus on improving systems and building up the necessary infrastructure, these people and countries in theory could be just as functional if not more so than countries currently considered ‘first world’.
8. How exactly is the TTS meant to make us happier?
There are many ways this question could be answered, and it could take us on a long journey of philosophical and psychological discourse, but in simple terms: we would be healthier physiologically and mentally, have more freedom, feel more empowered, live more fulfilling lives, and with a greater sense of community.
The TTS works to invest in the citizens of the world, giving additional resources to the health, education, and life fundamentals (food, water, housing). Through improved efficiency of society and its operations, we would free up time and resources that can improve quality of life and facilitate enjoyment in a number of ways, including one’s work life, social life, and general existence. One of the principles of the TTS is to uphold fairness in society, which among many things would help people to feel more valued.
With the TTS comes an expected transformation of culture. A more communicative and collaborative society that upholds sustainability and health as some of its founding principles should manifest happiness both culturally and biologically, supporting a change in humanity’s collective philosophies and mentalities. There is no guarantee this would happen, only opportunity. But if this system is implemented as designed, it’s highly likely humanity will evolve in such a way that will bring an overall improvement in happiness and life satisfaction.
9. What if people can’t decide? Will this democracy really work?
The digital democracy is designed so that decisions will be easy to arrive at. Intelligent algorithms and AI can help to adjudicate discussions to arrive at timely decisions in a way that is fair and reasonable. It’s guaranteed that humanity will not always agree unanimously, but that is a fact of nature with or without democracy. The design behind the digital democracy is to implement a weighted voting system so that a completely even split between voting options will be highly unlikely. What’s more, an intelligent voting system does not have to have static options, and in fact our discussions and proposed democratic system can work to develop and compromise on proffered solutions, simultaneously working to inform, educate and include our citizens so that we arrive at the fairest, most agreeable, and most intelligent decisions possible.
10. What about people who want to shut this down?
Given so many people are protective of the current system, their money and power, and/or the vision they have for themselves and humanity, growth and implementation of a grassroots movement is unlikely to be a walk in the park.
People with great money and power will not so easily roll over and dethrone themselves as rulers of the Earth. There is the very real possibility of danger for the individual who stands alone. But we are not alone…
Propaganda, bioweapons, governmental powers, industry, banks, control over authority, could all be weapons used against the people to coerce or manipulate us—and I would argue already are being used. Instead of fearing this minority, a collective awakening is not just sought after, but inevitable. The growth in strength and numbers of the common people is a powerful thing, especially united against an authoritarian new world order. We should not fear them; they should fear us.
But violence should never be our first option. All we need to do is make them redundant, strip them of their power over humanity, and keep our vision clear and positive. It’s hard to say what dirty tricks can be played against a well-meaning populace, and equally hard to say what measures should be taken to overcome these challenges and attacks, but we should never underestimate our own power when we combine our optimism with the intent to work together.
11. Is this a cult?
Not at all. The TTS is proposed as a dynamic system that welcomes and makes use of critique. There is no associated dogma or foundational philosophy outside of the argued belief that a functional democracy is the most powerful way to manage society.
The TTS is primarily the means to coordinate and integrate our global society, and each country or culture will be able to maintain their own religions, cultures, and local policy. The TTS proposes a skeleton structure that permits the citizenry to design their own rules and regulations, although recommends a number of sub-systems that are complemented or empowered by the TTS framework.
12. How is it different to socialism and communism?
Socialism and communism, just like capitalism, are founded on a principle of separate government. It is primarily this separation that permits abuse of power and the citizenry, and open the gates to corruption. The Ten-Tier System (we are calling Intertribalism) is founded on an integration of government and citizenry, where the People are the government and the government is the People. This is a decentralised system of governing that has a great number of systemic checks and balances, ensuring that the masses always retain power over the few.
Taxation would not exist under the Ten-Tier System. Where socialism’s equality of outcome philosophy punishes individual success and unsustainably undermines natural human motivation, this would not be sought in the TTS. Rather, equality of opportunity would be facilitated, aiming for fairness of opportunity and universality in quality education. Fairness was a primary philosophy and design feature of the TTS, although it does not undermine uniqueness or individual success in order to do so.
There is some similarity in the first glance at what resembles ‘State ownership’ when it comes to commercial business and possibly land ownership—but it must be reiterated that there is a fundamental difference in the governance structures. Collective ownership and broadened shareholding structures ensure democratic management without risk of a dystopian situation arising from a centralised autocratic government.
13. How is the Contribution Index functionally different from money?
TTS theory argues that digitalisation of money is the smartest move in proofing ourselves against corruption, crime, and trafficking. ‘Economic credit’ would be earned and spent in a similar way to regular money, like through jobs, trading, and ‘side hustles’, although the main differences are in 1) how it can be earned, and 2) what constitutes its value.
With a fully digital quantification of value within society—applied to goods, services, acts of contribution, or anything else—the value of anything can change constantly as it does today. However, this can be based on intelligent and democratically agreed variables, rather than being dictated arbitrarily through tilted markets and monopolistic practices.
Instead of wealth being redistributed after being earned (tax), the Contribution Index allows wealth to be scaled so that proportions of wealth are more fairly valued and earned. Algorithmic AI will support the governance of this structure, although it can be continuously tuned through democratic involvement.
The Contribution Index allows the individual to diversify their income more easily, providing a number of lifestyle benefits and accounting for a greater number of ways people contribute to society, e.g. motherhood, leadership roles, environmental care, and beautification of society.
A digitalised spending system is not completely without drawbacks, although the pros tend to far outweigh the cons when it is secure and uncorruptible. While some of the disadvantages will be improved on as we move into the future, it still allows flexibility of purchase and trading, even in local power outages, yet be much more secure than cash in preventing theft, corruption, scams, and trafficking.
14. How can we be sure this system is secure?
The primary design feature of the TTS is security against corruption and intentional misuse. A number of checks and balances exist in the open-source structure of politics and business, with the intelligent democratic structure always keeping the power in the hands of the people. Not only would corruption be extremely difficult if not practically impossible, but the very design of the TTS removes the majority of incentives for corruption. The economic model aligns benefit of self with benefit of society, so any selfish endeavours would simultaneously benefit society at large. Plus with limits of commercial ownership and individual power, no one individual would have the ability to directly undermine the democratic will of the People.
With an integration of People and Government, and global cooperation facilitated, systemic divides and competition are minimised. Cooperation becomes a primary function of the world under the TTS, and any major issues that arise are much more quickly and reasonably addressed, with less reason to fight and a greater ability to achieve and maintain diplomacy.
With AI and digitalisation being a primary structure of the TTS, we need to ensure trust in this intelligent tech. The creation of this technology can be supervised, ensuring ethical open-source coding and agreed-upon principles of design. While the Digital Democratic Platform will help to govern and refine this as time goes on, it’s imperative that its original construction is secure. Use of the Blockchain is likely to play a part in this, with different technologies emerging globally to arrive at the same integrated system. With a number of systems being designed, those with greatest functionality and trust will be opted into, and it’s likely that a natural development and adoption will take place that parallels any other trusted product or system.
15. What do I do with this information? Where do we go from here?
The first step is to spread the word. The more people, the more discussion, and the higher probability of successful crowdfunding. Even critique is helpful at this stage, and the more people learning and talking about this will help the idea spread and continue on its road of development.
We’re always looking for more resources, skills, perspectives and volunteers. Check out the World in Progress website for more info and to put your name down to help out. We’re currently looking for camera men and women, animators, graphic designers, influencers, and anyone who can contribute to content creation.
Funding is supremely helpful to support the creation of new content and contribute to the funding of some design concepts directly, such as a prototype for the digital democratic platform. We hope to get to a point where we can get a team of coders and developers working full-time on this.
16. Where can I find out more?
We’re working to produce more content. The World in Progress Substack has a number of posts that dig into specific topics and aspects of the Ten-Tier System and the movement as a whole. Subscribe here for updates and new content:
We are also working to produce videos, infographics, and re-release the World in Progress book people can read for a deep dive on ten-tier system theory and related concepts for global development.
Our social media channels are on their way with a variety of multi-media content. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms will continue to bring you updates, developments, and further information.
Check out the World in Progress website for more info.
