NOTE: This the first revision (second version) of the "Hugs as a currency" idea. As an experiment, I propose that we keep each verion of this idea in its own Category on Whynot.net, called "Hugs and Stars." That way people are free to create their own, perhaps improved, perhaps more concisely written, version of the idea. Then we should sort the versions by the number of "votes in favor of the idea" each receives from readers. It would also be cool to see which revisions generate revisions, so after several cycles you could trace an end result back and give credit to those that made the most enduring, popular changes. I think this initial paragraph, explaining what we are doing, is very important to maintain (and improve of course!) in future versions. This concept allows one to work completely in the Public Domain, while still being able to get credit when credit is due (but not having to force attribution using copyright law).

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Lets set up a website on the Internet to allow people to give each other virtual 'Hugs.' This is a completely not for profit operation, being paid in turn by 'Hugs' from those who enjoy using the system.

When someone does something nice for you or "Helps" you out in some way, you can send a Hug into their online account, at the same time typing in a little note explaining why you gave them the Hug. You have unlimited Hugs to give people. Your Hug balance starts at zero and only goes up when you help people and they send you Hugs.

Everyone should understand, world-wide, what the value of a hug is (a "Hug" is the same as an old fashioned hug: small, but definitely nice).

When someone Helps you, i.e. does something for you that you feel is worth, say 10 Hugs, you send them a virtual Hug to thank them and you also send them, say, 10 "Stars" (remember the star system from kindergarten?). Initally, we have one Star as equivalent to one Hug (so everyone understands the starting point for the value of a Star).

You have a Star balance that starts at 0 and can go up and down (but not negative), as you receive Stars and give Stars. You generate one extra Star in your account for every Hug you receive.

This way the more people you can Help and get Hugs from, the more Stars you have to give out to people who Help you. It rewards people for philanthropic actions. It alligns self-interest with public-interest. It approximates how the universe works. It improves captialism, delivering all the benefits of a free, unregulated market while avoiding the problems of poverty and debt (more on that later). You have heard of Karma?

A group of people can work as a team (a new kind of business!) to generate Stars that they share. The leader of the group divides the Stars among the group according to how he/she values their contributions to the group. Stars will have an exchange rate that floats on the open market. People will sell their Stars as needed to continue to work within their government's current monetary system (e.g. make traditional payments to traditional businesses). We will see below that Stars do not hold their value very long, and that this is by design and a good thing.

The Star System... or maybe we should call it the Solar System, giving the Heavenly powers credit where it is due :-)

The Star System will allow and encourage artists, musicians, writers and other knowledge creators to share their creations publicly, without copyright, where their creations can evolve to be better than originally envisioned, maximizing their benefit to the maximum number of people. By incorporating the Star System into an HTML wiki that maintains every version of an HTML page, we can evolve HTML files that can contain text, photos, drawings, music and the list goes on.

When someone makes a change (a new version of the HTML page) that other people build on, it creates a "downline" where people can easily see where the credit is due and recognize, reward and encourage creators with Stars. Our best thinkers will be rewarded for giving away their great ideas for the rest of us to build on and enjoy. Perfect! (ok, nothing is perfect, but this seems close!).

The Star system is transparent so everyone can see who has received the most Hugs and Stars and what they did to deserve them. People will seek out their own talents and skills that others most appreciate in order to have a bigger impact on people and increase their Stars income. Maximizing your "profit" only happens when you maximize the Help you provide others. Beautiful.

First, join the free website ... (hugs.com ...or ?), then do some nice things to Help people (and get them to also join the website) so they can give you voluntary Hugs and Stars for your Help.

The next step is to tell the world what kind of Help you want. What are you looking for? How are you trying to get there? The website will give you a page for you to hold all this information and allow potential Helpers to search for people that are wanting their Help. The the Helpers will give you goods, services and information, trying hard to give you exactly the Help you want so that you will appreciate it the most and choose to give them a lot of Stars afterwards. The more Stars you are able to give people who Help you, the more people will strive to Help you, seeing that you have a track record of being generous with your Stars. In the same way, the quality of the Help you receive will improve as you gain and give more Stars (Stars that you received because you Helped others).

Because a new Star is added to the system each time someone receives a Hug, the total number of Stars in the system grows. This is a perfect result, because we want to encourage the Stars to keep circulating. Their value does not last because the "Star-supply" is constantly increasing. This encourages people to continue to work together to help each other, not just hit it big and retreat into selfishness again.

Since people get more Stars for providing Help that people really need, people will be doing 'Help' that they are really good at, and they will really enjoy the Help that they do (you are successful when you enjoy your work).

Hugs and Stars would make a great classroom exercise. You could demonstrate the concept in front of the class, then put up the student names on a big board where everyone can see how many Hugs (half-sheet of paper for each) and Stars (velcroed to the wall and transferred only by the Teacher from one student's "account" to another) each student has. Then you have Hug and Star time each day when students can give each other Hugs for doing nice things for each other. Pretty soon, students will be running around trying to figure out what it is that the other students would all really appreciate. That way they can do one really cool thing to get Hugs from as many people as possible, all at once. Then they are rewarded for doing something that Helps everyone.

Discuss this concept on the Hugs and Stars wiki!

What do you think of this idea or comment?
(You can change your vote at any time)

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