How Nadnone's AI-Powered Economic Model Transforms Climate Action
What is this document about?
The RCED — Réseau de Cellules Économiques Démocratiques (Network of Democratic Economic Cells) — is a proposal for a radical yet pragmatic transformation of the Swiss economic system, designed by Nadir Felder and published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license. The document is a collaborative working document, partially assisted by AI, and version 5.1 specifically specifies the institutional architecture, particularly Layer 7.
The central idea is to build an economy composed of cells (local, cooperative, federated) linked by a transparent accounting system (blockchain) that makes wealth, carbon, and energy visible and steerable. The model is organized into layers, from the local base to the planetary horizon.
Paradigm Shifts (Patch v5.1)
Three major changes define the current version:
From private property to use-based property (Patch v4.4.3): Capitalist private property (the capital title that grants the right to exclude and extract rent) is removed. It is replaced by use-based property: a good is tied to whoever effectively uses it according to the rules of the commons, preventing passive rent extraction.
From redistributive taxation to the Commons Use Fee (Patch v4.4.3): Instead of collecting taxes after the fact, the model charges at the source for the use of common resources (energy, land, data). The contribution becomes a condition for access to the network.
From GDP to the Indice de Vie Bonne / Index of Good Life (IVB) (Patch v5.0.3): GDP is relegated to an internal variable. The headline indicator is now the IVB, calculated as the geometric mean of the social foundation and the ecological ceiling, which prevents compensation between the two.
The Full Layer Stack (v5.1)
The model is organized into 17 layers:
0 — Diagnosis: Observation of inequalities.
1 — Register of uses: Blockchain-based land register for energy, land, and carbon uses.
2 — Use fee: Direct charging at the source replacing traditional taxation.
3 — Capitalisation: Citizen sovereign fund investing in the real economy.
4a/4b — Production / Consumption: Cooperatives and democratic planning.
5 — Health / Time: Solidarity insurance and reduced work week.
6 — Coordination: Federated cells, where the market is merely a signal.
7 — Governance (DSS-PS-EE): 5 subsidiarity levels, 3 separated powers, elected expert colleges.
8 — Knowledge: Official training and accredited retraining.
9 — Propagation: 0% investment to create cells elsewhere.
10 — Time: Work indexation based on automation.
11 — National commons: Open-access infrastructure (rail, energy, digital) to purge rents.
12 — Ecological loop: Framework of the 9 planetary boundaries (Protocol 12.A for food, 12.B for plastics).
13 — Citizen mobilisation: Citizen service, thermal storage (sand), and relocalisation.
14 — Federated energy cells: Nested energy sharing in a network.
S.I., 15, 16, 17 — Commons Guard, Defence, Immunity, Verification: Internal security and territorial defence (Part II).
Governance: The DSS-PS-EE Model (§ 7 bis)
Version 5.1 fully deploys Layer 7 with the DSS-PS-EE model (Swiss Subsidiarity Democracy with Separated Powers and Elected Experts):
5 subsidiarity levels: From the commune to the supranational (dormant) level.
3 separated powers: Legislative (Assemblies), Executive (Collegiate Governments), Judicial (Elected/Sortition judges).
Elected Expert Colleges: Experts with degrees who are elected by the assembly and are revocable; they decide on technical matters under democratic control.
Fact/Value Border: A constitutional separation between verifiable questions (experts) and distributive arbitrations (Citizens' Assembly).
Asymmetric thresholds: High thresholds for fundamental rules, simple majority for transition measures.
Gains-Sharing Mechanism
Annual productivity gains (from automation) are allocated via a strict rule: Alpha + Beta + Gamma + Delta (+ Epsilon) = 1.
Alpha (45%): Reduction of working time.
Beta (35%): Citizen Sovereign Fund.
Gamma (10%): Sectoral reallocation and training (Layer 13).
Delta (10%): Decarbonisation Fund (Layer 12).
Epsilon: Federal contribution (Part II), active only if the Sovereign Fund surplus exceeds 2% of GDP.
Part II — The "Earth Federation" Project
This is an aspirational horizon, not deliverable within 20 years, conditioned on the maturity of the previous layers. This project aims to solve global coordination through a cascading confederal architecture: planetary commons (atmosphere, energy, minerals) fund their own redistribution through a dividend, without creating an authoritarian world-state. Security is provided by two levers: exclusion from the commons (non-violent) and a consented interposition corps (never assault troops).
Key Indicators (Reference Scenario, Year 20)
Indice de Vie Bonne (Good Life Index): 83.5/100.
Gross National Happiness: 72/100 (a +14 point progression).
Gini Coefficient: 0.185 (strong reduction).
Working hours: 28.5 hours/week.
Net emissions: -68% (Zero net trajectory 2050).
Sovereign Fund surplus: 19.7% of GDP.
How to read this document
Hybrid Status: Part I is operational and testable (cantonal pilots). Part II and the defence bodies are horizons for discussion.
Coherence: This is an ambitious conceptual architecture, not an empirically validated public policy. The results are projections of the model.
V5.1: Although the body text may sometimes mention previous patches, the document is a full recompilation patched to version 5.1.