Non-Reciprocal Exchange

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Discussion

Alan Rosenblith:

"In our current world, much of what we do in service of each other is conditional upon receiving value in return. Usually this value takes the form of a claim on goods or services from someone else in the economy. We call these claims money. Money has served impressively to coordinate our economy in modern society. However, new forms of large-scale coordinated production are beginning to emerge that transcend conditionality in our giving.

Imagine a world where every time you expend your time and effort, the interaction is complete at the time of the interaction. In other words, your contribution isn’t conditional upon receiving value at some time in the future. You simply contribute because you make a sovereign choice to.

Think this sounds too pie-in-the-sky to be realistic for a global economy? Believe it or not this basic social contract is already working to enable large-scale group projects. When an expert on a giving topic chooses to spend her time writing or editing an article for Wikipedia, she doesn’t expect monetary compensation. The interaction is complete as soon as the article is. When a musician chooses a Creative Commons license for his work, he doesn’t expect royalties. Again, the interaction is complete as soon as he chooses the license. In both these cases, the contribution is based on intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation.

These social patterns have been very successful in the domain of information, where your gift can be replicated at virtually no cost. So, what kinds of communication tools would be able to support this kind of giving in other sectors of the economy?" (http://alanrosenblith.blogspot.com/2010/08/gifting-with-completion.html)