Our proposal is to build a bureaucracy that Hitchhikers can use as resistance: a coordination layer that is strong enough to protect people, but designed specifically *not* to become Vogon. The goal is not “no rules,” but: > Rules that remain answerable to humans.
A non-Vogon bureaucracy can be defined by principles like these.. - Minimum viable paperwork: every form must justify itself in plain language, and expire unless renewed by real need. - Right to a reason: every decision must produce an explainable trace a human can contest. - Human override with accountability: discretion is allowed, but must be recorded and reviewable. - Forkability: if the rules become oppressive, communities can split cleanly without losing their history or identity (Power of Fork). - Whistleblowing built-in: safe reporting channels that don’t require heroic sacrifice (Whistleblowing Protocol). - Anti-clique safeguards: private collaboration is allowed, secret corruption is not (Anti-Conspiracy Theory Protocol). - Literate rules: the constitution is readable by non-lawyers and maps to actual system behaviour (Literate Transparency). - Cryptography as a seatbelt: use proofs to prevent abuse, not to centralise power or to “automate away” appeals.
# Practical patterns for Hitchhikers
These are implementation patterns that make bureaucracy feel like hospitality rather than punishment.
- Receipts not black boxes: every interaction yields a verifiable receipt (what was requested, what rule applied, what happens next). - Local-first records: keep data close to the community; share only what is necessary for coordination. - Time-bounded secrecy: most conversations can stay private for a while, but with a path to accountable review later. - Small, federated registries: many small ledgers instead of one giant database, with bridges and translation layers. - “Kind defaults”: design for the honest majority; reserve heavy enforcement for repeated harm with due process. - Rituals that heal: replace Vogon poetry-as-torture with lightweight rituals that affirm dignity (clear language, gentle reminders, and humour that punches up, not down).
Bureaucracy is inevitable wherever strangers cooperate at scale. The Hitchhiker move is to treat it as a design space: to build rule-systems that are legible, contestable, forkable, and kind, so “the paperwork” becomes a tool of liberation rather than a weapon of control.