Building democratic tools to unbreak the world’s most important systems
The important problems in society all come from some failure in our democratic systems.
Name a problem, from massive social inequality to environmental degradation to corporate oligarchy to war to corruption to potholes, they all originate from people not having tools to see a problem, discover its mutually acceptable solutions, and fix it together.
This is the mission of Unbreaking Lab, to create systems that are fair, effective, and robust, so groups of people can work together to solve problems they couldn't before.
There are literally infinite ways do democracy. We just happen to use the worst ways.
Democracy is just a social system like any other. It can be designed well, or it can be designed poorly.
We aim to make systems so robust that
direct democracy can work at scale.
Structural change is the only way forward
we need new toolsThe same group of people, with the same beliefs and preferences, can make completely different choices if they use different social systems to make them.
The failures we see all around us aren't intrinsic weaknesses of democracy itself, but the specific ways we've implemented democracy.
All these failures can be fixed.
What makes a good system?
theory can guide us Good design is guided by solid theory.
These are the principles we aim to bring to the real world.
Accountable
So citizens always remain in control.
Adaptive
So change can happen as soon as citizens agree something’s wrong.
Decisive
To avoid the quagmire of vetocracy.
Robust
To avoid being rigged or exploited.
Calm
So citizens use their slow logical mind instead of their impulsive monkey brains.
But we aren't going to just sit around and theorize!
we need change nowIt doesn't matter how elegant a system is on paper if it fails in the real world.
But we can't experiment in government, since the stakes are too high and the waiting too slow.
For this reason we've decided to incubate new organizations, specifically cooperatives of all kinds, in order to test our new systems. Doing so will immediately create real economic and social change.
We're done waiting for permission.
Let's unbreak things together
subscribe, contribute, or donateUnbreaking Lab is an independent nonprofit that has filed for IRS recognition of 501(c)(3) status. Whether that happens is up to the IRS, but if it does your donation will qualify as a deductible charitable contribution.
If you're also tired of waiting for someone else to fix everything, join us!
We can't wait any longer, and we can't afford to give up.