LifeSystems

Version 2.0 · October 16, 2026

A comprehensive blueprint for a voluntary, AI-powered post-labor economy

96 pieces across 18 sections. Every principle, clause, and open question has its own thread — open any one and tell us how to make it better.

Working policy and system-design reference — a proposal, not an empirical forecast or enacted law.

?New here? What LifeSystems is, in 30 seconds

LifeSystems is a proposal for how society could work once AI and robots do about 99% of the jobs, leaving most people without employment through no fault of their own.

  • A basic income for everyone. Every eligible adult gets a tax-free monthly payment (UBI), job or no job. You can turn it off and back on whenever you like.
  • Living packages from co-ops. Worker-owned cooperatives compete to offer affordable bundles of housing, food, healthcare and more, paid for with that income.
  • Freedom stays. You can keep your home, run a business, earn more, or skip the whole system. It's a floor, not a ceiling.
  • Funded by land. Mainly through a tax on land value, the one resource machines can't make more of.

Tip: words with a dotted underline have a plain-language explanation. Click one, or browse the glossary.

  1. ◇The starting assumptionThe premise everything else rests on. If this is wrong, the plan needs to change.4 pieces
  2. ◆Executive summaryThe whole idea in two paragraphs.2 pieces
  3. 1Foundational principlesThe ten commitments everything else is built on.10 pieces
  4. 2Assumed technological environmentWhat the world has to look like for this to work.2 pieces
  5. 3UBI: entitlement, opt-out, and reentryWho gets the dividend, how to step away from it, and how to come back.6 pieces
  6. 4LifeSystems subscription marketplaceCompeting cooperatives offering living packages — and how different people would use them.7 pieces
  7. 5Worker ownership and democratic governanceHow cooperatives are run, and how AI informs — but doesn't replace — human decisions.8 pieces
  8. 6Housing, renters, homelessness, and property rightsA home without a job — and what happens to homes people already own.3 pieces
  9. 7Land, scarcity, and taxationThe one resource robots can't make more of — and how it might fund the floor.3 pieces
  10. 8Individual economic freedom and parallel lifestylesA floor, not a ceiling.1 pieces
  11. 9Personal AI, health, purpose, and social developmentAI that helps people flourish — without watching or steering them.6 pieces
  12. 10Public institutions and constitutional protectionMaking the floor hard to pull out from under people.2 pieces
  13. 11Draft constitutional amendmentDiscussion text — six sections, every word up for debate.7 pieces
  14. 12Expected benefits and limitsWhat we hope happens — with the honest fine print.10 pieces
  15. 13Failure modes and resilienceHow this breaks, and how it recovers when it does.6 pieces
  16. 14Phased transition roadmapFrom here to there, in six stages.6 pieces
  17. 15Questions to resolve in Version 3.0The questions we can't answer alone. Start here.10 pieces
  18. 16One-page policy summaryThe elevator pitch.3 pieces