THE VIRTUE OF THE DAO is a classic text of Chinese pragmatic nondualism.  It is ascribed to the legendary sage Lao-tse (and if he didn't really write it -- well, somebody did).  This ancient booklet is famous for its poetic descriptions of the contemplative, medicinal and strategic value of fluid resilience, spacious receptivity, complex naturalistic patterning & the use of post-social/post-symbolic consciousness.

DAO also stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization -- a type of blockchain-enhanced quasicorporation.  Most of us have heard this term.  Few of us are clear about how to make the best use of it.  The intersection of technology and new social organization has incredible potential but remains poorly understood across most of the liminal meta-networks. 

That's part of the reason why the Metagame Community is hosting a two-week online DAOCEMBER (Dec 1-15). 

What are DAOs?  Why might they be essential?  How to start one?  Why the one you started isn't thriving?  How entrenched social forces try to recapture innovation organizational systems?  Exactly.

We could all use an increase in our social organization intelligence.  Experimental social alternatives have a long history.  Democracy itself is such an experiment.  Constitutional monarchy.  Chartered corporations.  Bicameral legislatures.  Secret ballot.  Ranked-choice voting.  Proportional representation.  Sociocracy.  Holocracy.  Etc. 

The experiments keep coming because we do not yet have a strategy for collective intelligence, empowerment & sensemaking that can clearly outplay the dominant Game A architectures. 

Even a group of wise, well-informed and well-intentioned people may find their ability to self-regulate and cause change to be significantly limited by their protocols for information sharing and mutual decision-making.  We need to get way better at this.

DAOs may be an important piece of this puzzle.  Or they may be the opening of a pathway that leads to the discovery of a crucial piece. 

Using the logic of blockchain, smart contracts and tokens, they create a decision & implementation system that emphasizes decentralization, participation, community and public verification. 

If that sounds good OR sounds like gibberish, then you may be the kind of person who needs DAOCEMBER. 

Or, perhaps, the Dao we can discuss is not the true Dao...



* BONUS *

Here's an episode of the Metagame Podcast with Dekan  Brown of DAOhaus discussing his 30 years of insight into these kinds of projects.