© 2026 John M Frazier
We need to go back beyond the origins of liberalism, the vast wealth producing edifice that has made large numbers of people rich beyond imagination. We must in speculation visit the possible, logical origins of governance to deal with the autonomous automated machine economy before it elbows us into oblivion.
The earth begins as an agricultural, hunting commons. Access to it is rationed by anarchy and agreement, by war and diplomacy, and eventually by the establishment of relations between communities of interest, koinonia, resulting in the establishment of governance, the polis, concerned with the rationing and increase of the economic commons for the purpose of proper flourishing, eudaimonia or the pursuit of the virtuous life, as a condition of moral existence in the presence of economic surplus.
Once possessed of governance and surplus and philosophy the koinonia, the community of interest, develops more abstract commons in the exploitation of agricultural surplus. The essential economic commons, total consumer demand, is rationed by bazaar operations of utility and scarcity and location determining price, of arbitrage generating secondary surpluses to be so rationed.
Alfred Marshall in his legendary Principles of the nineteenth century states that a healthy economy is one in which Labor shall have, that they will possess the means to demand the stuff of flourishing., of pursuing a virtuous life. This defines a commons of consumer demand and determines that it be rationed humanely.
This observation predates liberalism. It defines the koinonia as a community of interest in a commons of consumer demand exercised upon a commons, however rationed, of agriculture and husbandry. That is my definition and it is the only definition I can generate that will allow us to navigate the treacherous waters of the post robot economy.
Why is the Post Robot Economy treacherous? It has two limiting cases of demand insufficiency, one is high unemployment as a result of the deployment of the autonomous automated machine economy and, solving that problem, the natural demand insufficiency of the limits of human appetite in the face of productivity increases approaching infinity.
The Economic Singularity, robots making and maintaining robots, marks the beginning of an era of unimaginable plenty pressing the limits of resources. It will bring unique problems with it. All of which are amenable to the concept of a governance of a commons for the purposes of humane rationing and commons increase.
The future begins now and it begins with governance as steward of commons, commons that require redress when damaged such as making robots pay a portion of their labor when displacing human workers and damaging the commons of total consumer demand.
Do Well and Be Well
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