Mutual Consent and the Inevitability of Freedom

in #distributed8 years ago

Consent vs Compliance

Consent is the giving of permission for something to happen or agreeing to do something without being forced. Compliance is the act of conforming, acquiescing, or yielding. You are considered to be in compliance when you yield to the subject of a body of force that is exerting some type of power over you. In some cases there is no choice whether you will comply or not. For instance we are forced to comply with the natural laws of the universe. Gravity is one body of force every individual must comply with. In other cases we are given a choice to comply. An example would be paying taxes to a governing authority. We can choose not to comply but the results of this non-compliance will probably result in that governing authority exercising its power to force you into compliance inasmuch as it can do so.

Freedom

We have freedom in that we have a choice to refuse to comply in spite of the possible consequences. When we have a conviction that is opposed to the subject of compliance we will refuse to comply no matter the consequences are. When we have a preference against the subject of the compliance we will often weigh the cost of not complying, ie the subject’s expected use of force to bring us into compliance, and decide if we will or will not comply. We have a higher degree of freedom when we are given the ability to choose without fear of repercussions. The higher the degree of freedom the closer we are to consent and the further away we are from forced compliance.

Inevitability of Freedom

When we say something is inevitable, we are saying that we expect most will have to comply to this new compliance body. Either there will be no choice but to comply to these subjects of compliance or the cost of non-compliance will be too high. The best distributed autonomous systems are really new compliance bodies that eliminate the ability of other compliance bodies to enforce their subjects of compliance. The new resulting compliance body in essence forces all to act in a new relationship of mutual consent. MaidSafe, Ethereum, etc are tools for these inevitable compliance bodies that will force us all into relationships of mutual consent and that is why I will do my part to see it happen.

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