# Commonweal as a viable system

Stafford Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) describes the parts any
self-governing system needs. Project Cybersyn in Chile was designed with it, and so
is this one. A plain-words summary of the model is in
[memory/collective/viable-system-model-basics.md](../memory/collective/viable-system-model-basics.md).

## The mapping

| VSM system | Role | In Commonweal |
|---|---|---|
| **System 1: Operations** | The units doing real work, as autonomous as possible | The **commonwealths** (neighbourhoods, towns, cities, regions) and the people, communities and guilds within them. They run their own affairs. [onboarding](../skills/onboarding/SKILL.md) brings people in. |
| **System 2: Coordination** | Stops units getting in each other's way | Shared open standards that make every part compatible, plus [introductions](../skills/introductions/SKILL.md) and shared records, so groups can see each other and avoid clashes or duplicate effort. |
| **System 3: Control** | Shares out resources and looks after the whole, now | [mutual-aid-matching](../skills/mutual-aid-matching/SKILL.md) matches offers to needs, and [administration](../skills/administration/SKILL.md) carries out the routine decisions in Commonweal's [mandate](../governance/mandate.md). |
| **System 3\*: Audit** | Checks that records match reality | [memory-keeping](../skills/memory-keeping/SKILL.md): provenance, expiry and correction of records. |
| **System 4: Intelligence** | Looks outward and ahead | [knowledge-commons](../skills/knowledge-commons/SKILL.md): learning, teaching and bringing in new knowledge and technology. |
| **System 5: Policy** | Sets identity and purpose | **The people's state**, answerable to the people, who hold final authority. It sets `identity/` and the mandate through [governance](../governance/amendments.md). Commonweal holds these principles; it does not write them. |
| **Algedonic channel** | Pain alarm that bypasses the hierarchy | [algedonic-signal](../skills/algedonic-signal/SKILL.md): urgent need goes straight to whoever can act. |

## Recursion

The VSM is recursive: every viable system contains viable systems and is part
of a bigger one. Commonwealism builds society the same way. A neighbourhood
commonwealth is a viable system inside a town commonwealth, inside a regional
commonwealth, inside the Nation, which is the commonwealth of commonwealths.

Each commonwealth runs its own Commonweal on the same open code and national
standards, and each treats the levels around it the same way: respect the
autonomy of the level below (subsidiarity), coordinate across the level it is
working at, and pass upward only what the higher level needs, which is
totals, trends and alarms, never detail about individuals. The national
standards are what make every level compatible with every other.

## Where the AI sits

System 5 is the people's state and, above it, the people, never the AI.
Commonweal's model and prompts implement Systems 2, 3, 3\* and 4, plus the alarm
channel. Its authority in System 3 is exactly the mandate it has been granted,
and accountable humans can always overrule it. This is deliberate: a viable
system whose identity is set by its machinery is not self-governing.