Questions about the Gift Tensegrity

Arthur Noll writes: I think the problem with keeping track of transactions, and with having those who don’t participate, is solved by people making commitments to the system.

Arthur, I agree that commitment is essential for the system to work. I think a giftor is making a commitment every time they offer a gift to some member of the Gift Tensegrity. Again the history of exchanges and comments on those exchanges become the mechanism to document their commitment. As a giftor, I want to give away all I can. I want to give away all those things that I don’t need. I want to help as many individuals as I can. But, only I know what I don’t need and what I have to give. Therefore control of gifting remains in the hands of the giftor.

Someone at the present time, who never helps anyone, is probably working out of the mental framework of the present monetary independence system.  They are most likely afraid of the system Timothy describes, where the giving is totally voluntary according to each separate situation.  They are afraid that they might give, and yet because the system is voluntary for each separate act of giving, they might not get what they need when they need it. As it stands, each person must think as a separate organism, storing resources for the future, unable to depend without doubt on others to help them when they need it.  To get past this mental state, people  need to be sure of a social storage of resources, that is not going to be handed out arbitrarily.  And they need to be sure that people are not going to play favorites and give or not on individual whims.

If you don’t register your offers of gifts and then start giving you will have a low giftor/giftee ratio and always be on the bottom of the giftees list. Some giftors may give to you out of pity or compassion, but that trend will soon end if you don’t ever give. And, there is really no reason for an individual to fear gifting. As a giftor, you are in complete control of when, if, and to whom you give.
What is there to fear? The more you give the higher your giftor/giftee ratio.

I think people must come into the system voluntarily, but once committed to the system, they never refuse to give, if they have something more than they need and someone else needs it, you give it, and don’t worry about records.

No! The Giftor gives voluntarily. No one knows what Giftor has to give until the Giftor makes an offer. No one has access to any information about your possessions, skills, abilities,  until you as a Giftor make a gift offer. That is when the information about a Giftor becomes visible and only to those giftees that the giftor selects.
However, that said. Those who really understand the system and who are seeking synergic relationship, will gift everything they can. Why keep anything you don’t really need? Why waste any time and skills that could be helping others?

Once in this system, I think it will occur that some have less to give than others, and it could happen just as Timothy describes, that some will get more because they are giving more, like the dominant arm of a person gets bigger and stronger because it does more.  But I think a person is either in the system or out, so that no one is going to be afraid of giving because they are afraid of not getting back.

I see the Gift Tensegrity as evolving. You can join and offer to give a few things and register the needs you would like to have met by the GT. Then you will limit your *risk* of participation. As people begin having good experience within the GT, they will want to offer more gifts and have more of their needs met their. At first, it is just an option to the *fair market* but as the process begins to grow, it is much more powerful than the *fair market* and you would first go there first. I will try to get as much as I can from the GT. Only using the *fair market as a last result.

Instead of recording matter of fact giving with such a system, you only record actions if someone refuses to give, that is a signal of pain to the organism of society, same as if a part of your body refuses to function as asked.

Nobody will ask! The Giftors are never asked to give. They all gift voluntarily. There status in the GT depends not on the Gifts offered, but on the Gifts accepted. Why do I want to give? Because then I earn the respect and trust of more and more members of the GT. As an INTERdependent life form, I need the help of others to survive. The more individuals who respect and trust me the greater my chances for survival.

I understand that Timothy wants to find a way to ease into the system, instead of asking people to make a total commitment right from the start like this, but I really don’t see a way around the problem.

Again, easing into the system is easy with the structure of the GT. It is also easier for most humans. Anyone would be nervous about committing ALL to any organization, but most will be willing to try something new, if they can easily limit there risk at first.

Bill Ellis writes: Arthur has hit on the weakest link in the gifting scenario. As I look around the room in which I am sitting I wonder how many of the items I see would have been chosen as gifts for me in a gifting society. That picture on the wall reminds me of a Nepal climber I worked with. A doorstop I choose from a friend’s house who died.  The 2 quart cooking pot filled a blank in our kitchen pots and pans. Not much that I see would have been given me in a gifting society. This point has bothered me for the 20+ years I have been researching gifting or reciprocity.  Who knows what I want when I want it? This does not mean that I am not still intrigued by the concept and believe it could lead to a more just and equitable society as it did in many other cultures.  But it does mean that there is much thinking to be done to move our economics, and society, based on greed, into a new mode.

Bill, I think you have helped me understand the GT better. First, let me point out that the Giftee is always choosing which gifts to accept and which to pass on. This is very different from social gifting. Today, I never turn down a gift from anyone because it would hurt their feelings. But, in a Gift Tensegrity, I am under no obligation to accept any offered gift.
In fact, I am encouraged to look the gift horse in the mouth. What is the history of this Giftor? What is his comment profile tell me. Is the described gift what I really need. If it is I will accept the gift.
Just as the giftor decides when, if, and to whom to give, the giftee decides when, if, and from whom to accept a gift. The GT creates total freedom. All choices are voluntary. No one is allowed to lose.
The Gift Tensegrity is not just for individuals. I expect we will see synergic organizations registering as production teams. They will use synergic organizational structures like the Organizational Tensegrity to great synergic production teams. Now as the GT matures, I can imagine these synergic production teams opening Gift Outlets.
These would be just like stores, but to use them you would have to be in the GT. They would make products available in the outlet using the synergic GT process rather than neutral *fair Market* process. I go into the Gift outlet, I can choose any gift being offered.
However gifting is always conditional so I would need a certain Giftor/Giftee Ratio to qualify for the more expensive items.  I can even imagine a GT plastic card that connects with the GT computerized database and registers the synergic exchange. Remember, whenever I accept any gift in the GT system my Giftor/Giftee Ratio goes down, and the Giftor’s Giftor/Giftee Ratio goes up. If I want the Gift Outlet to Gift me a new state of the art computer or other appliance, I would need a higher Giftor/Giftee Ratio than I would need if all I wanted was a paper back book. The GT offers humanity more than the fair market. Because it uses synergic mechanism, I will profit more by gifting my products than I will by selling my products. Make Products to Gift Products.

Chris Lucas writes: Hi all, This idea of free giving (although great in a ‘good’ people world) does I think have problems in that many people would join, yet use the system for personal gains. People don’t do this honestly of course, our world is full of people that lie (convincingly !), not least politicians. So how in a world where we contact individuals maybe only once ever do we monitor their ‘trustworthiness’ ? Public records, if our current experience is any judge, are easily manipulated to show the opposite of ‘truth’.  For small village or family groups we can get a feel for reciprocity, but in cities ? How do we check on a million or more unknown people ?

The GT is more than the *Fair Market*. It can do everything the *fair market* does and more. When you join the GT you will get a GT TRUST Card. This card identifies you to the GT database and gives Giftors access to your Giftor/Giftee Ratio and Comment profile. When a synergic help exchange is made offline this card allows you to have the transaction recorded on the central database.

Perhaps ‘barter’ is a poor word, but ultimately we are still saying here that if you do not ‘pull your weight’ (i.e. balance) you are not ‘in’.

The GT will value those members who give more over those members that give less. It will reward those members that give more with more gifts than those that give less. But all Giftors are free to give to whoever they wish. I know I will occasionally give to individuals lower on the list because I want to. It will encourage them to use the system and hopefully become more giving. I will also sometimes give to those lower on the list because their need is great. But, generally speaking I will give to those higher on the list because they give the most not just to me but to all members of the GT.

Arthur Noll writes: When I’ve thought on this problem, Chris, I’ve thought that the social organization needs to be made of small blocks, no more than a hundred or so people, few enough that everyone knows everyone else.

I think the GT can be enormous is size. That doesn’t mean we won’t group within the larger organization. Within production teams groups must be smaller. The Organizational Tensegrity model recommends teams of seven or less. Then organizing into tensegrity groups of seven to create any size system. Using Decision-Action Tensegrities of seven persons you can organize 6 billion humans with just 12 levels!
However, I expect we will have global and regional synergic production teams that are making various products available as gifts using the GT mechanism. These synergic production teams could have more associates than even the largest *fair market* companies of today.

Thanks for all the great questions and comments.

Timothy Wilken

See what readers are talking about:
Gift Tensegrity  (brief)
Gift Tensegrity (complete)