We are embedded in systems of power that distribute resources and opportunities very unequally. That’s what all of our designs need to respond to – and interrupt.
Aspiration doesn’t produce equity; structure does. This means building explicit structural mechanisms into the accord layer of every protocol: inverse weighting (smaller organisations’ voices count more, not less), caps on accumulation (no agent holds mandates across too many domains), mandatory “who is not in the room” checks before network-wide decisions, collective pre-emptive boundary-setting, and automatic redistribution triggers when accumulation exceeds consent-defined thresholds.
In addition, critique and contemplation in our protocols need to make sure we regularly interrogate these structures: How do they actually distribute access, power, opportunity, labour? Where do we need to change them in order to interrupt asymmetry?