First principles

K4M2A is a conversation, not a doctrine. But a conversation still needs a starting point, and it is only fair to say plainly what ours is. These are the beliefs everything else on this site rests on. We hold them firmly enough to act on and loosely enough to change.

This may sound like a lot of certainty for a group that says it is still finding out. It is meant the other way round: by writing our beliefs down, we make them easy to test, and easy to show us where they fail.

Each belief below is tagged by where it comes from: from Madhyasth Darshan, our reading of it, or our proposal. Under each we say why we hold it, and what would show we are wrong.

Belief 1 · From Madhyasth Darshan

1. Everyone wants the same four things

Madhyasth Darshan names four things together as the human goal: resolution, prosperity, fearlessness and coexistence, which we write as clarity, enough, trust and harmony. It holds that every person is working towards them, whether or not they can name them. None of them holds up alone, and together they are what we mean by good.

Why we hold it: The source names them together as the human goal (Paribhasha Sanhita, मानव लक्ष्य, p. 148). In our own conversations so far, when people say what they want for their lives and for the earth, their answers tend to come back to these four, in many different words. That is our experience, not a survey.
What would show we’re wrong: People in some cultures or circumstances, after careful thought, want something these four cannot describe, or would give up the others for one of them. That is a claim about everyone, so it is the one we most need to test.
Read more: The spec, part 1 · What should AI be aligned to?

Belief 2 · From Madhyasth Darshan

2. The wish to be happy is not optional

Every human being wants to live a happy and prosperous life, and to live it continuously. We don’t think that wish is selfish or naive. It is the most reliable starting point we know.

Why we hold it: The source observes that people act in the hope of being happy, and that neither war nor indulgence has made that happiness continue (Vyavaharatmak Janvad, p. 45). The wish is shared; the routes people take to it differ.
What would show we’re wrong: Many people, on reflection, turn out not to want happiness to continue, or to want something else more, for reasons that don’t come back to it.
Read more: How to make happiness last · How much is enough?

Belief 3 · From Madhyasth Darshan

3. Happiness comes through understanding

Happiness is a resolved present. Pleasure depends on conditions and passes. What makes happiness stay is understanding, and what makes prosperity possible is knowing our needs.

Why we hold it: The source puts it in four words, समाधान ही सुख है: resolution is happiness. And it says understanding is at the root of that resolution (Vyavaharatmak Janvad, p. 43).
What would show we’re wrong: People who come to understand a difficulty find it returns just as strongly, with nothing else to explain it. Illness, injustice and lack of means are real causes of unhappiness, and we would not count those against the belief; we would count them as limits to it.
Read more: How to make happiness last · How to truly rest · The thesis

Belief 4 · From Madhyasth Darshan

4. Understanding is verified by living

Being able to explain something is not the same as understanding it. The test is what becomes different in how we live. That is slow to confirm: living cannot be verified in a day. And because conduct also depends on health, means and circumstance, from the outside it can support a claim of understanding, not prove it.

Why we hold it: The source says that what is verified in experience holds for everyone, and that the only way to see it is to live it (Manav Karm Darshan, p. 82).
What would show we’re wrong: Understanding turns out to be reliably measurable without looking at how people live, or how people live turns out to tell us nothing about what they understand.
Read more: The test of understanding is how you live · How we intend to test it

Belief 5 · From Madhyasth Darshan

5. The family comes first

A good system for the planet starts as a good system for a family, then for a village, and grows from there. We start with the family because it is where most of us first learn relationship, and what is missing there is hard to supply anywhere else. By family we mean the people we live in relationship with, chosen as well as born; people who live alone, and the support that reaches beyond any home, are part of the same picture.

Why we hold it: The source calls the family the first step in which humanity shows its worth, and says that what is left missing in a family cannot be supplied anywhere else (Vyavaharatmak Janvad, p. 102). We read “family” broadly, as above.
What would show we’re wrong: Work that starts with families turns out to change less than work that starts with schools, workplaces or communities, or starting with the family leaves out people it should include.
Read more: How to calculate enough for a family · How can eight billion people share one earth?

Belief 6 · Our reading

6. Relationships before rules

Rules can stop harm, and many do useful work: they help people coordinate, remember what was agreed and protect those with less power. But a rule cannot supply understanding that was missing. We would rather build relationships in which exploitation makes much less sense, so that a good system needs less control as the people inside it understand more.

Why we hold it: The source places justice in relationship: recognising a relationship and fulfilling its values so that both sides are satisfied (Manav Vyavahar Darshan, p. 174). Our reading is that rules work best resting on that, not instead of it.
What would show we’re wrong: Groups that invest in relationships turn out to need just as much control as those that don’t, or people with less power end up less protected.
Read more: Rules or relationships? · How to settle a dispute

Belief 7 · Our proposal

7. Technology should serve understanding

Technology amplifies whatever purpose we already have. Its greatest contribution may be to free people to understand themselves and each other, and we try to build with that in mind.

Why we hold it: Madhyasth Darshan says nothing about technology as we know it, so this is our proposal. Tools carry the purpose of the people who build and use them, so the purpose has to be clear first.
What would show we’re wrong: Tools built to help people understand turn out to do them no more good than tools built for attention or growth.
Read more: The spec · Beyond engagement

Belief 8 · Our proposal

8. Nobody gets there alone

What we write is not one person’s view. It is understanding we are working out together, and anyone who wants a good earth is welcome to take part.

Why we hold it: Understanding is checked with other people: in a family, a team, a conversation. A view nobody else can test is hard to trust, including ours.
What would show we’re wrong: Working together makes us agree too easily, so mistakes go unchallenged. That is why we ask for counterexamples.
Read more: Welcome the counterexample · Contribute

What we don’t believe

That rules are useless. Many protect people. We want them resting on understanding, not standing in for it.
That wanting things is wrong. Needs are real. Enough is a figure each family sets for itself, not one we set for anyone.
That a family has to be a traditional one. Chosen families, and people who live alone, are part of the picture.
That technology is the problem. It amplifies whatever purpose it is given.
That you must accept Madhyasth Darshan to take part. Every practice can be tried by anyone, and disagreement is welcome.
That we have finished understanding. None of us has. “I am not enlightened” is how we describe ourselves.

Limitations

We may be underestimating how much people’s wants genuinely differ, across cultures and lives.
Starting with the family assumes families can be safe places. Some aren’t, and our approach has to account for that.
Most of these beliefs come from Madhyasth Darshan. We find it convincing, but it has not yet been widely tested, and we may be reading it imperfectly.
The tags are our own judgement. We may have drawn the line between the source, our reading and our proposals in the wrong place.

References

Madhyasth Darshan, given by Shri A. Nagraj, and its Paribhasha Sanhita, especially मानव लक्ष्य (the human goal), p. 148.
Shri A. Nagraj, Vyavaharatmak Janvad, p. 43 (resolution is happiness), p. 45 (the wish to be happy) and p. 102 (the family as the first step).
Shri A. Nagraj, Manav Karm Darshan, p. 82, on seeing by living.
Shri A. Nagraj, Manav Vyavahar Darshan, p. 174, on justice in relationship.
The essays on this site, where each belief is argued in full.