Collaborative love

Relationships with objects have always involved strict rules: in most cultures, for a long time, only certain men could be considered the owners, then all men, and then women and children had had access to this right, each time with very specific rules concerning transmission, exchange, access, lending and selling. The mores have made equal progress in this regard, with some delay: men were able to get rid of women, for a long time, as if they were objects. Then, almost everywhere, women have gained rights. What if the mores were to continue to evolve as the ownership of objects did? If the collaborative economy were to give birth to collaborative love? The following is not my wish, just an intuition of the world to come.

Objects will soon no longer be the property of men, they will be shared among them, according to their use. This has been obvious for a long time now with music, that friends can share. Also with house swapping, that you can now exchange between strangers, on a marketplace for vacation places. A lot more objects will thus be made available by those who own them. Cars will no longer be rented, we will rent – we already rent – other people’s cars, made available on a car service platform. Later, when vehicles will be without a driver, there will no longer be any reason to own one, since it will suffice to order one, on demand; cars will no longer have to park and they will be used all the time. They will become the property of specialized companies, mostly former car rental companies, that will provide this service. In the same way, music is owned by platforms, where it is made available.

Similarly, the energy produced by each person will be pooled, by selling it when not making use of it, to neighbors from whom they will borrow books, since they will discover on an exchange site the content of their library. One can even imagine a world where no one would own their homes, but would just have the right to use it during the time when they need it: this is already happening by no longer assigning a fixed desk, and can happen for the principal residence, as it is for some second homes, occupied by several people organizing their schedules.

The economy will be turned upside down by it. In a collaborative world, a lot fewer cars and household items will be produced, in complete transparency and total surveillance. But this will create a huge purchasing power to acquire health, education, and entertainment services.

For human beings, the same trend is already underway. Fortunately, in modern societies no one is the owner of anyone else’s life. However, in considering that everyone can share a person, male or female – or persons – (who shares one’s life) with others: we are not there yet. Swinging remains marginal – and is frowned upon. Perhaps we will never be ready for such an evolution. Nevertheless, one can imagine in the logic of collaborative economy, a world where everyone would be free to have love and intimate relationships with people other than their main partner, allowing their present love partner also to have relationships with others, in full awareness, without any sense of ? ownership ? of the other. This is already the case for some young people, and the practice of social networks where many people have virtual relationships with many others, without it meaning ownership, or even exclusivity, even during the moment shared – which does not always remain virtual…

This could happen, in a fully transparent way in real society. For people and objects alike. And ? collaborative love ? would complement ? collaborative economy.? This would create such a fundamental and disruptive change in the concept of the family and the conditions regarding the education of children which we cannot imagine, without major precautionary measure, that they may be shared.

Thinking about the issues involved, even if it seems impossible or unacceptable, is a good way to understand the dynamics of the world. To guide it with open eyes.