### Intro μοναστήριον (mah - nuh - stare - ee - on) - greek for monastery first used by Philo of Alexandria to describe an obscure sect of possibly Jewish Buddhists called the Therapeutae (meaning: the ones who heal their souls through worship of the divine). Secular society has forgotten that meaning matters. In response, we looked to those who devoted their lives to pursuit of meaning—the mystics, the scholars, the sages—and reimagined that passion and devotion untethered from religious, dogma, academic bureaucracy, and institutional conformity. The Monasterion Network is a modern sanctuary for those craving depth, community, and transformation. Here, individuals nurture passions, collaborate on meaningful projects, and embark on the journey of self-discovery. Offering the profound dedication of a monastery reshaped for our times, it’s open to all who wish to engage deeply with the world. In the Monasterion Network, passion and devotion converge to fuel human flourishing. These secular sanctuaries are communal havens where artists, technologists, activists, and thinkers dive deeply into their work—from composing music and developing sustainable technologies to crafting policies and exploring new artistic frontiers. Life here is dynamic. As projects evolve and interests grow, members move freely between different houses across the network—each one a hub of creativity and innovation. Picture artists sketching alongside engineers, writers exchanging ideas with scientists, entrepreneurs brainstorming with activists. The Monasterion Network is a constellation of interconnected spaces, unified by a commitment to personal growth and societal progress. This is a home for those who believe that meaning matters and that transformation—of self, of community, of the world—is possible. ### Core Beliefs At the core of the Monasterion Network is the belief that when passion and devotion converge, magic happens, and valuable creations emerge. This synergy fuels societal advancement through shared creations and serves as the greatest catalyst for human well-being, as true fulfillment arises from dedicating our lives to what deeply demands our devotion. All of us have the capacity to live in this way, no creed, color, race, religion, region, gender, or ideology has an exclusive claim to the magic that is passion. (≠Laïcité, =Vires in Diversitate, in english pluralism not secularism) Value is created by solving problems. All value moral, aesthetic, financial is the result of making someone's life better[^1]. This can be thought of as solving a problem they are having maybe it's artistically they are having a hard time getting in touch with themselves or understanding something. Or morally a group of people can't figure out how to cooperate so the create rules that make interacting easier. Financially when you solve someone's problem they pay you for it. Value is unobvious, in contrast to the paragraph above it's not always obvious if something is valuable. Humans are strange adaptable creatures who when they have had a problem for long enough they cease to recognize it as such. And even more fundamentally not all problems are known. Sometime something is made only for it's value to be recognized a generation later. ### Structure If you imagine the Network State as a Social Contract tree then there are three types of children: * Sub-Networks * Nodes * Goods *All children inherit the rules and stack of their parents*[^2] ###### Sub Networks These are as the name suggests networks inside the greater network. You can imagine these being based around shared beliefs (i.e. christianity), thematic resonance (usonain, rural, solarpunk, etc), or even stack preference (rust, hoon, etc). From a technical perspective these networks are a smart contracts which nodes stake their representation in (NFT that represents the node). Legally networks don't exist and could only be observed by the strange relationship between the legal forms of the participating nodes. Memetically you can think of them as adding in specific clauses to the social contract that confers specific benefits for it's members. Networks are kind of trying to appeal to people but they are trying to appeal to nodes even more so. Financially each network is a smart contract wallet that is controlled by it contract and nodes. ###### Nodes Nodes are spaces where members can live and in this regard there are two different types of nodes: * Sanctuaries * Temples Sanctuaries are spaces where like-minded individuals come together to live and work on their projects in community, but unlike Temples, they are more private and inward-focused. Temples, by contrast, are mixed-use spaces that serve both as living quarters and public venues. A typical example of a Temple is a yoga studio where the upstairs is a co-op where the teachers live, share meals, host events, and organize activities. Temples offer some public access, which generates revenue and supports community activities, while Sanctuaries are secluded spaces designed purely for the members to live and collaborate without outside involvement. Just like Networks, Nodes are a smart contract, through which membership is mediated. Although because Nodes are real physical spaces each contains a server who's content is managed and almost exclusively accessible to the current members. This server hosts key functions like a house wiki, calendar, and group chat for member coordination all encrypted. It also hosts the Node's public page on the Network's new internet. The Node's [[gift clause]] pot is stored as NFT's that hold each current and former member's past contract where the NFT is owned by the Node. ###### Goods Goods are nodes owned by networks for the use of the members of said network, think 3rd space, coffee shop, maker space, etc. These are extremely network specific and as such not much can be said about the category as whole. But due to the Networked nature of the whole system there are a type of network good node that is done for the whole of the Monasterion Network: Centers. Centers are like a mix between a data center and a public space for citizens. They house massive banks of communally owned compute which is used to secure the network, and acts as miner, and galaxy for the community. The building itself can be thought of a one machine with 'access points' so that anyone in the community can query the machine. I imagine these spaces to be the civic hub of whole network activity. --- [^1]: Better here is meant as AUC grows not as the traditional hedonic meaning. More akin to their total experience of life in increased. [^2]: another way of saying this is actions taken by the children must be compilable to actions the parent node could take.