What kinds of rewards ?

Context

We have already seen that it is important to connect people to the consequences for the long-term common good. Moreover, we have also seen that this connection should be made as much as possible on the same level.

Question

What should be the different types of rewards and penalties to connect people to the long-term common good ?

Study

The individual model

To better understand our needs, we can observe what, as individuals, are the categories of events that help us progress and those that hold us back.

Those that help us progress

Experiencing, understanding to improve.

We can understand what we did well or what didn't work; in either case, we improve. The understanding can be of deep mechanisms, allowing for broad improvement.

Realizing that we are useful to others (this can be a person or society as a whole) and that they are grateful to us.

If it is justified, it motivates us in a good direction. The same goes for the negative: if we feel useless and understand why, we can improve.

Directly benefiting from what we do.

For example, if we eat potatoes that we grew ourselves, it is much more satisfying than buying them.

Being free

That is, feeling that we can act effectively at all levels we wish and where we find it just to do so. This is a notion relative to our sense of justice. For example, we generally do not see Earth's gravity as a lack of freedom (to move vertically), but we may feel restricted by the repression of ideas that challenge power.

Those that hold us back

Loss of reference points

When we don't understand, when we can't improve, and there are negative events. For example, if we live in a society that stigmatizes the unemployed, cannot get out of unemployment, and do not understand that capitalism needs to have dominated classes.

Brusqueness

When negative emotions are too strong, our mind can't cope and uses protection mechanisms. It's a bit like building walls in our minds, which limits our freedom, joy of life, and exploration possibilities, and thus our evolution.

Lack of freedom

As intelligent beings, we tend to build a rather deep representation of reality. For example, we understand the concept of laws, the need for democracy, etc. If we cannot act on elements, we lose part of our being alive, which impacts our mental state. Freedom is so important that all free animals strongly revolt when their freedom is restricted because the restriction of freedom often has a scent of death.

The complexity between action and result

For example, if we smile at someone and they smile back, it is much more satisfying than if the other person gives us a dollar. In the second case, we move out of the normal social relationship and into complications often synonymous with future problems.

Transposing to the collective model

Let's try to transpose our individual needs to social rewards and penalties. For this, let's revisit what makes us progress and what place this can have in society.

Experiencing, understanding to improve.

We saw in the section on collective emotions that people with more effective emotional investments (collective, of course) have more emotional power. And therefore, more experimentation power.

Being useful to others and gaining legitimate recognition.

With rewards and penalties that reflect the long-term common good, people can rely on marks of success to assess the social success of a person.

Directly benefiting from what we do.

Money is convenient because of its flexibility of use, but it introduces a complex relationship. This is why there are often other rewards alongside money; for example, pilots benefit from free trips, or many consumers appreciate the human relationship with a seller or a small gift from the merchant in addition to the expected transaction.

Being free

This is already at the heart of Comind since the proposed collective intelligence system allows everyone to modify society as long as it improves the long-term common good.

Answer

Regarding the basic systems recommended by Comind, there is no need for additions to establish a good system of rewards and penalties. However, it is necessary that the various socially obtained gains correspond to the long-term common good.