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A core part of Las Piedras No Mienten

The Ludist
Manifesto

What if we designed societies the way we design the best multiplayer games?

Not utopia. An experimental proposal — with six specific elements, and six unsolved problems.

What is the Ludist Manifesto?

The Ludist Manifesto is a specific proposal inside the book Las Piedras No Mienten. It suggests designing social systems using principles from successful multiplayer games — Eve Online, FFXIV, World of Warcraft — combined with real-world voluntary-cooperation cases like Mondragón, Linux, and Rojava.

It proposes replacing forced-cooperation systems (capitalism, traditional socialism) with voluntary cooperation coordinated by auditable AI, transparent rules, and incentives aligned with the common good.

Why we need alternatives now

This isn't academic theory. The current system is collapsing.

💸

Economic crisis

The first generation poorer than their parents. More educated. More productive. Less access.

🏛️

Institutional crisis

Democracies that don't represent. Institutions that don't deliver. Trust at all-time lows.

🔥

Simultaneous crisis

Climate, economy, geopolitics collapsing at once. First time in human history.

"The question isn't whether this system will collapse."
The question is: will we design the next one before or after the collapse?

The proposal in the book

The Manifesto develops six specific elements with documented cases.

What does work

  • ✓
    Voluntary cooperation — Rojava: 4 million people, horizontal governance since 2012, in a war zone.
  • ✓
    Aligned incentives — Eve Online: a virtual economy of millions of players, no runaway inflation.
  • ✓
    Auditable rules — Linux: 15,000 developers, open source, total transparency.
  • ✓
    Coordination without elites — Mondragón: 80,000 people, 70+ years, no traditional hierarchy.

The six unsolved problems

  • ?
    Who programs the initial AI? — The coordination algorithm has to start somewhere. Who designs it? Who audits it?
  • ?
    How do you weigh different contributions? — Is a day of nursing worth more than a day of programming?
  • ?
    How do you prevent capture? — Every system can be captured by whoever understands it best.
  • ?
    How does it scale? — What works at 150 people may not work at 15 million.
  • ?
    How does it coexist with the existing system? — Global capitalism won't disappear by decree.
  • ?
    What happens when the system is wrong? — What's the correction mechanism when the AI or the committees fail?

Core of the proposal

The six elements of the Manifesto

The book develops each element in detail:

1. XP (Experience Points)

Objective, verifiable contribution. Measurable data on what you add to the system.

2. SP (Social Points)

Subjective peer recognition. Your community decides it — not an algorithm.

3. Levels

Access to resources based on contribution. NEVER power over other people.

4. Auditable AI

Suggests decisions that anyone can verify. Not AGI — small, transparent models.

5. Rotating Committees

Temporary decisions. Mandatory rotation. No permanent power for anyone.

6. Transparent Surveillance

Symmetric, not asymmetric. «If you watch me, I watch you.»

How do they work? How are they implemented? What are the trade-offs? It's all in the book.

Frequently asked about the Ludist Manifesto

Why design societies like games?
Successful multiplayer games solve coordination problems that legacy institutions can't: aligned incentives, voluntary participation, transparent rules, and an exit option. Their mechanics are testable, observable, and updatable in days — not centuries.
How does an algorithm replace governance?
It doesn't. Auditable AI suggests options based on objective data; rotating committees make the calls; symmetric surveillance keeps decisions accountable. Decisions aren't optimized — they're made transparently with their tradeoffs visible.
Why would this work where every utopia has failed?
It won't — at least not as a permanent solution. The Ludist Manifesto admits that every social system eventually collapses. It proposes one specific experimental alternative with metrics, fallback mechanisms, and an entire section of the book devoted to self-criticism.
How does it coexist with the current system?
The Manifesto proposes parallel experimentation: small communities, professional cooperatives, ephemeral DAOs. It doesn't depend on overthrowing anything. It depends on producing better-organized human cooperation than the existing institutional alternative.

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Honest

This system will also collapse.

Every human system collapses. Rome collapsed. The Indus Valley collapsed. The Maya collapsed. The USSR collapsed. Today's capitalism is collapsing.

The Ludist Manifesto is no different. It's one experimental proposal, not the permanent solution. That's why the book includes a whole section critiquing the Manifesto itself.

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

— Samuel Beckett

The Ludist Manifesto will fail. But failing better than the last one is already progress.

The six elements, in detail.
The six problems, dissected.
A brutal critique of the proposed system.
It's all in Las Piedras No Mienten.

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Petra

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