Emergency Protocol

The Emergency Protocol is the constitutional “break glass” rule that grants temporary extraordinary powers during existential crises (e.g., asteroid impact) only when 75% of diverse Commons approve. Powers expire after 90 days with a mandatory 30-day cooldown before any renewal, preventing emergency measures from calcifying into autocracy.

The protocol balances rapid coordination with safeguards: transparency remains mandatory, and Proof-of-Diversity validation ensures responses reflect varied perspectives rather than a panicked majority. Historical abuses of emergency powers–from Roman dictatorships to modern states of exception–motivate the strict decay and renewal constraints.

By baking temporality and diversity into the rule, Unscarcity aims to preserve resilience without opening a backdoor to permanent centralization.

References

• UnscarcityBook, glossary and epilogue
• Livy, “Ab Urbe Condita” on Roman dictatorships
• Giorgio Agamben, “State of Exception” (2005)