The development and spread of the internet changed everything. It changed our economy, it changed our social life, it changed our feeling of time. Naturally, it also meant that central planning as an alternative to capitalist production became obsolete as an emancipatory perspective. With the possibility of exchanging any kind of information between peers, the potential for a new kind of society according to needs and abilities appeared.
Caretaker Tech is not a brand, but the vision of a caring society’s digital sphere that operates beyond market and state: instead of buying goods, people share resources. Instead of working for pay, they contribute voluntarily. Instead of producing for profit, they make plans to meet needs. In this sphere, everyone can contribute according to their own values — and when such contributions are valued by others, one’s own effort pays off personally as well.
In the end, Caretaker Tech will dissolve into the interpersonal structures it helped to create, leaving just traces of its former existence. In the beginning, it connects those scattered souls who dream of a better tomorrow and those who are not part of capitals workforce.
Caretaker Tech does not yet exist and cannot be planned from the top down: it will emerge over time through activists’ desire for freedom and equality. As no one knows the shape Caretaker Tech will actually have, its structure can only be assumed. Therefore, this paper is an Assumption on Caretaker Tech, described as a map of digital functions that support a living beyond market and state. It can provide a vision of the kind of economic peer-to-peer structure that can be achieved and may help readers find their own path to building applications that integrate into the vision.