Project summary

The really big issues facing us involve a failure of cooperation. Formal models can facilitate shared narratives by moving parties beyond sound-bites of an issue to a complex and subtle co-understanding. This can work even among people who do not understand each other or even like each other. But formal modeling is hard and expensive. Our software will bring this power to the masses who can make models in natural language and share them on a peer-to-peer network. These models can then be used to cooperate with the rest of the world on personal, national and global issues even in the face of finite shared resources.

We have written protocols for these interactions and are in alpha testing of a reference implementation of the software.

Project goals

We have completed the design phase and the main coding phase of the project.

The next steps are to finish alpha testing, construct a demonstration / video that can be understood by non-technical people and prepare for the next phase which involves facilitating the creation of foundation models, porting to phones and Windows/Mac and ensuring the user experience is easy enough for everyone.

How will this funding be used?

The funding will allow us to work on the project full-time for 3 months. This will be enough time to finish the demonstration and do the networking and presenting needed to jump-start the next phase.

What is your (team's) track record on similar projects?

We never stop. I have been a professional software developer and have done full product life-cycles for medical devices. Our team is very dedicated and our design has no "magic" code areas. We are reasonably certain that there are no remaining surprises in the design or code.

How could this project be actively harmful?

This software can use models to rapidly make good decisions and automate many things. We have spent a lot of time and planning to ensure that it is safe on many levels. But if a single entity were to have access to it and somehow keep everyone else from using it, or if a powerful entity could control the models it uses, they could control the narrative and act selfishly faster than others. They could become really powerful. It is important that the big-roll out and the P2P network are done correctly so that this doesn't happen.

What other funding is this person or project getting?

We currently get about $500/month from supporters on Patreon.