Existing Human Institutions
Current institutional infrastructure (how humans do alignment)
Ancient / customaryAncient-medievalAncient-modernMedieval-modernEarly modern-modern20th centuryIndustrial-digitalDigital era
Protocolsstandards & coordinationPreferencesaggregated wantsRightsformal entitlements & adjudicationIncentivesstructured payoffsExpertisecredentialed epistemic authorityNormsbehavioral expectationsThick Commitmentsarticulated shared understanding
Dyadic2 parties
Ancient-digitalHandshake protocols & shared formats
Ancient / customaryNegotiation & bargaining
Ancient / customaryMediation & fair dealing
Ancient-medievalContracts & escrow
Ancient / customaryMentorship & apprenticeship
Ancient / customarySocial conventions
Ancient / customaryVows & covenants
Groupteams, clubs
20th c.Team protocols & workflows
Medieval-20th c.Committee voting & prediction markets
Medieval-industrialBylaws & grievance boards
Ancient-21st c.Value-based care, bounties & risk-sharing pools
17th-20th c.Peer review & quality circles
Ancient / customaryTeam culture & unwritten rules
17th-20th c.Community covenants & intentional communities
Communityorgs, cities
20th c.Technical standards bodies (W3C, IEEE)
19th-21st c.Cooperatives, participatory budgets & local markets
Ancient-modernMunicipal codes & local courts
Ancient-20th c.Commons governance, quotas & access pricing
Medieval-20th c.Universities, licensing boards & professional associations
Ancient-20th c.Professional codes of conduct
20th c.Mission-driven orgs
Nationalstates, nations
20th c.National standards agencies (NIST, DIN)
Ancient-20th c.Elections and citizen assemblies
18th-20th c.Constitutions, courts & judiciary
20th c.Spectrum auctions, cap-and-trade & tax policy
20th c.Regulatory agencies (FDA, BaFin)
Ancient-20th c.Legal codes & regulatory norms
18th-20th c.Substantive constitutions & founding value documents
Globaltransnational
20th c.ISO standards & internet protocols (TCP/IP, HTTP)
21st c.Social media recommender systems
17th-20th c.Int'l law, treaties & tribunals
Ancient-20th c.Consumer markets, labor income & multilateral trade rules
20th c.Expert panels & assessment bodies (IPCC, WHO)
17th-20th c.Diplomatic protocols & soft-law norms
Ancient-medievalReligious orders & global faith traditions
Methodsdesign practices
Protocol designStandards developmentInteroperability testing
Electoral system designAuction designPreference elicitationDeliberative process design
Constitutional designDispute system designLegislative draftingComparative institutional analysis
Mechanism designMarket designMatching market designMetrology
Accreditation
Regulatory designLegislative drafting
Values articulation methodsHermeneuticsCase canon designAlignment writing