Definition of Power and Rights
Definition of Rights
The rights inherently possessed by an individual include bodily autonomy, the right to think, and the right to act. These rights of self-determination are innate. This does not mean that these rights are necessarily protected, but individuals inherently can exercise control over themselves. While other individuals or organizations may infringe upon these rights, this does not negate the individual’s inherent right to self-determination. When an individual interacts with the external environment, these rights of self-determination are considered the individual’s rights. As individuals engage in more activities, the types of rights they possess also increase, including ownership and control over property, money, and so forth.
The process of an individual becoming an organizational individual involves the exchange of rights with the organization (the procedure of exchange is also referred to as rights conversion in my book). For example, in a restaurant (organization), a chef exchanges their right to control eight hours of their daily time for the right to own and control several thousand yuan per month. During this rights conversion, the chef’s right to control eight hours of their daily time is transferred to the restaurant (organization). Similarly, a consumer relinquishes part of their ownership and control over money to gain ownership and control over food, as well as the right to enjoy the food in the restaurant. During the rights exchange process between the chef and the restaurant, and between the consumer and the restaurant, both the chef and the consumer have corresponding rights and responsibilities with the restaurant. Therefore, as long as the rights and responsibilities delineation is not concluded, both the chef and the consumer are organizational individuals of the restaurant. However, compared to the chef, the consumer’s rights and responsibilities relationship concludes more quickly, so the consumer’s organizational individual status has a shorter duration.
All of an organization’s rights originate from its organizational individuals. An organization is essentially a container or processing center for the rights Conversion from its individuals. By managing, restructuring, or even engaging in further rights exchanges with other organizations, the organization expands and transforms the types of rights it possesses. It then redistributes these rights to its organizational individuals to fulfill their individual goals.
In the restaurant example, the restaurant manages the rights Conversion from various organizational individuals, accumulating money and other rights (increased ownership and control over money) through continuous rights exchanges. Greater control over money can be transformed into future investment returns for capital-supplying organizational individuals (such as shareholders or creditors) or future wage income for labor-supplying organizational individuals (employees). However, the total rights possessed by the organization are not necessarily equal to the sum of the rights Conversion from its organizational individuals. If the organization operates inefficiently and incurs losses, the rights it possesses may be less than the sum of the rights Conversion from its individuals in the past. Conversely, if the organization operates effectively and generates profits, its rights may exceed the sum of the rights Conversion from its individuals. However, considering that certain organizational individuals, such as capital suppliers (e.g., shareholders or creditors), may demand greater ownership and control over money in the future after their capital investment, or labor suppliers may demand higher wages as the organization’s accumulated rights increase, it can be concluded that all of the organization’s rights ultimately belong to certain organizational individuals.
Calculation and Description of Individual Rights
Since it is impossible to fully describe or calculate all of an individual’s rights, when calculating an individual’s rights, one can only describe and estimate the types and quantities of rights gained or lost after joining one or more known organizations. This calculation method does not require detailed computation in later parts of the book, nor is it necessary to derive calculations using formulas in constructing an Intelligenism organization. Therefore, readers only need a basic understanding of this definition. Understanding this concept of calculation and description allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of the form of individual rights Conversions. Skipping this section will not substantially affect the knowledge of the book’s content.
When defining the changes in an individual’s rights after joining a specific organization, one must first assess the individual’s rights status before joining the organization. For example, if individual A, when not part of organization B, can freely control their time from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, but after joining organization B, the organization requires them to work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, in exchange for a monthly right to own and control 5,000 yuan. In the relationship between individual A and organization B, to express the rights Conversion, it is impractical to calculate all the rights individual A possesses. Instead, the expression of rights Conversion only needs to reflect the difference between the scenarios of joining and not joining organization B. When expressing individual rights, it should not be understood as the rights an individual can control after leaving all organizations (as this is not feasible in reality). Instead, the change in individual rights must be understood within the context of the specific relationship between the organization and the individual. When examining individual rights from the perspective of individual A and company B, A’s individual rights (from the standpoint of company B) are the sum of all rights A possesses when not part of organization B. This relationship is expressed as: A individual-B organization-individual rights.
The A individual-B organization-individual rights expression reflects only the difference between the total rights A possesses when not part of organization B and the total rights after joining organization B. In this process, given the variety of rights involved and the fact that many types cannot be directly converted into the same unit for quantitative comparison, the lost right to control time and the gained right to control money cannot simply offset each other. Instead, these differences should be listed to describe the state of rights changes. For example, after joining organization B, individual A must work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., resulting in a reduction in their disposable time. However, the total rights A possesses when not part of organization B does not mean A is not part of any other organizations; it may include the rights A possesses after joining other organizations, such as C, D, E, F, etc.
Rights Conversion and Expansion
Joining an organization is a way to transform rights forms, to change the form of an individual’s rights to achieve their personal goals. If the method used in the rights transformation process is appropriate, the total sum of an individual’s rights can increase. However, the value of rights varies from person to person, and different individuals assign different values to various forms of rights. An individual may believe their total rights have increased, while others may perceive their total rights as unchanged or reduced. Enhancing one’s abilities can make rights transformation more advantageous and indirectly increase the total sum of rights. Expanding individual capabilities enables individuals to accomplish tasks or achieve goals that were previously unattainable, and the expansion of an individual’s behavior and capability range inherently expands their rights.
When an organizational individual has an uncompleted rights Conversion relationship within a specific organization, they may hold certain powers within that organization. They can also engage in rights exchanges with other individuals outside the organization. During rights exchanges with other organizations, the individual can convert the power within the organization into their own or others’ rights, thereby expanding individual rights. Thus, power can be understood as a form of rights that can be converted into rights held by individuals, achieving the expansion of individual rights. (Power will be further discussed below.)
Under the Intelligenism organization setting, market transactions, organizational employment, investment, and consumption are all defined as rights Conversions. For example, consumption involves a consumer relinquishing their right to control money to gain control over a certain item. By introducing the concept of rights Conversion, the Intelligenism framework unifies various types of commercial activities—such as consumption, investment, and employment—within the dimension of rights Conversion. By recognizing organizational individuals through rights Conversions, individuals engaging in different types of commercial interactions with the organization are unified under the category of organizational individuals. This is one of the foundational premises for the settings and construction of the Intelligent Consortium, which will be elaborated upon in subsequent sections.