The Principle
The Principle is the foundational ethical axiom underlying OMXUS:
Do whatever you want.
Up to the point where another's "do whatever you want" begins.
There, we are completely free.
This is not a new idea. It is arguably the oldest functional social contract, rediscovered independently by every child on every playground, and forgotten repeatedly by every civilization that grows complex enough to obscure it.
The Washing Machine Problem
Consider two companies making washing machines.
To remain "economically viable" in the current system, each machine must:
- Last just slightly longer than the warranty
- Use cheaper, lower-quality components
- Include flashy but pointless features (why is my washing machine on the WiFi?)
- Be replaced every few years
There are approximately 30 pounds of steel in the average laundry machine. The energy required to produce that steel—around 800 kilowatt-hours—is enough to power your home for a year.[1]
And we throw it in the rubbish every couple of years.
The Hidden Cost
All those people making unnecessary machines have to work more. Their children grow up without parents. Or presence. All so we can have an intentionally-failing-early machine for two years, waste our efforts, waste our minutes.
For what? For whom?
A lot of people operate under the misconception there's a "global elite" benefiting from this arrangement. But even the people on the highest salaries are neither happy nor benefiting from this system—from the humble washing machine, to the t-shirt that pills after a year, to the millions of individuals who went into literally every item, every surface, everything our eyes may see.
Nobody is winning. It's a lost cause.
The Broken Toy
There's a childhood memory that illustrates the pathology:
Two siblings. One breaks her toy. Rather than accept that one child has a working toy and one doesn't, she breaks her sister's toy too—so neither has anything.
A six-year-old might be forgiven for lacking perspective. Our species doesn't improve with aging though. We still look at the other guy and try to poke him in the eye.
For what?
Money Is Nothing
Money is coloured paper. Neither good nor bad nor anything. Its value and mystique and lustrousness are all in our minds.
Unfortunately, that's the most dangerous place for us to store something like it.
The washing machine problem isn't caused by money. It's caused by forgetting The Principle:
| What we do | What happens |
|---|---|
| Your freedom to make washing machines | Great |
| Your freedom to make bad washing machines that waste everyone's time and energy | Crosses the line into others' freedom |
| Compete by making better machines | Great |
| "Compete" by making machines that fail faster | That's not competition. That's mutual destruction. |
Implementation in OMXUS
The Principle manifests in OMXUS's two-layer architecture:
Layer 1: The Line
These boundaries cannot be crossed, bought, or taken:
- Your identity (HER) — soulbound, non-transferable
- Your vote — one human, one vote (separate from economic tokens)
- Your safety — the mesh network responds in 60 seconds
- Your basic share — every verified human receives one Commons token
Layer 2: Everything Else
Do whatever you want:
- Trade your Commons tokens
- Accumulate more
- Give them away
- Ignore the economic layer entirely
- Build businesses on top
- Fork the code
- Compete with OMXUS itself
The boundaries aren't restrictions. They're what makes freedom possible.
The Math
If <math>N</math> humans exist, and each has inviolable boundaries:
<math>\text{Maximum freedom} = N \times (\text{everything} - \text{boundaries})</math>
Not:
- <math>1 \times \text{everything}</math> (tyranny—one person's freedom, everyone else's slavery)
- <math>0 \times \text{everything}</math> (chaos—no one's freedom is protected)
The optimal solution is <math>N</math> people, each maximally free within boundaries that protect everyone else's freedom.
Historical Precedents
The Principle has been articulated many times:
- John Stuart Mill: "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others."[2]
- Immanuel Kant: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."[3]
- Your grandmother: "Don't be a dick."
- Every functional playground: Figured out in approximately 5 minutes.
The difficulty isn't understanding The Principle. It's building systems that remember it at scale.