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Cognition Corp / COGNITION

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Cognition Corp.

The Premier Star Citizen Meta-Org: Helping Orgs Work Together

Minimal Government * Free Trade * Meritocracy

<<< Join us on Discord >>>



History

Elevator Pitch:

  • Governance Built On Economic Incentives Rather Than Decree* (Partner orgs keep their autonomy!)
  • Vibrant Intel & Job Network for Individuals* (Find your ideal group without pressure!)
  • Public Corporation Shareholder Ownership Model* (You quit, you still own your shares!)
  • Owned & Operated by Dedicated General Members*

At Cognition Corp., we commit to:

  • Encourage bottom-up decision-making
  • Emphasize fun & function over form & formality
  • Deliberately and openly share information
  • Maintain direct and candid communications
  • Keep only the most effective tactics and strategies
  • Avoid making formal rules

Our Mission

The function of Cognition Corp is to provide individuals and small teams with an opportunity to lead large campaigns, access a large scale information network, and offer a multitude of support roles within a larger context of the game of Star Citizen. It is our mission to do so while also thriving in an environment of threats, both PvE and PvP. Our goal is to preserve the greatest amount of freedom for individuals while maintaining an effective, stable, and protective large-scale organization as the backbone of the group.

Our Vision

Cognition Corp should provide the strongest financial incentives for pro-social behavior between players of disparate star systems, politics, and social groups, and its collective ownership intends to act as a feedback loop of economic prosperity because of those incentives. Cognition Corp’s consensus model navigates between the Scylla and Charybdis of authoritarianism and democratic gridlock, and as the organization grows it allows for the whole group to take decisive action while preserving individual liberty at every increase in scale.

Our Values

We believe that members and member organizations should be valued, and that Cognition Corp should demonstrate their value to them. We explicitly make no distinction between members based on race, gender identity, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation, and instead we make distinctions between members based solely on their individual and demonstrable merit.

We believe that the strongest organizations are highly aligned in their mentality but loosely coupled in their structure. We believe in delegating decision making to those demonstrating effectiveness and to discourage any unnecessary management. We believe in the practice of welcoming critical feedback, meaningful analysis, and improvement upon our processes, and then committing fully to an action after deliberation.

We believe that member representation matters, and that one can only be properly represented within a system that remains transparent and actively informs its members. We believe that effective leadership requires building trust through transparency, and that a good leader reciprocates this trust by delegating tasks to their members. We believe that members should be encouraged to pursue innovation by allowing room for calculated risks.

All of our organization activity is currently on Discord

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Timeline

2953.11.23: Imagine 2023 video published

2953.03.03: ownership shares distribution event
  • 3172 total shareholders: average equals 86.30 shares per member (mean = 0.010%, median = 0.010%, highest = 0.068%)
2951.03.03: ownership shares distribution event
  • 3085 total shareholders: average equals 94.54 shares per member (mean = 0.016%, median = 0.015%, highest = 0.067%)

2950.08.14: Connecting the Network Cognition Corp interview

2949.03.03: initial ownership shares distribution event
  • 2879 total shareholders: average equals 94.16 shares per member (mean = 0.031%, median = 0.031%, highest = 0.067%)
2949.02.16: government backbone published
  • The initial setup of the organization government in order to bring an in-game democracy to quorum

2946.10.25: Cognition Corp podcast the Star Citizen NeuralCast debuts // (retired 2947.04.23)

2945.03.21: organization registry created // (retired 2946.03.15)

2945.03.02: organization created
  • Over 100 organizations collectively founded Cognition Corp

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Artwork by Dan LuVisi and Jasmine Becket-Griffith

Manifesto

◇ True Neutrality

Gameplay As You Choose

Cognition Corp is a neutral organization and does not restrict member occupations according to in-game politics. All professions are equally viable within our network and all member organizations have access to our coalition resources. Our mission at Cognition Corp is to allow for all occupations to become viable for groups of all sizes.

◇ Total Independence

Flexible Commitment

This is a casual gaming community and does not require setting Cognition Corp as your main organization. Main org status in Cognition Corp should be reserved for those who would prefer to work as a multi-skilled generalists or casual members of the network. We believe that groups which are more specialized and have experience together are better and more efficient teams. The role of main members in Cognition Corp is to give those who haven’t found their ideal organization yet the opportunity to support and strengthen the efforts of our member organizations until they find their best fit.

◇ Foundations of Economic Prosperity

Properly Scaling Value Exchange

Some networks promise to work as a cartel. Cartels artificially inflate costs at the benefit of themselves and to the detriment to everyone else, essentially institutionalizing inefficiency and antagonizing neighbors. Other networks are nothing more than a list of contacts with no cohesive plan. Our meritocratic governance promotes the best candidates for their profession, and our capitalist philosophy and macroeconomic goals encourage a healthy trading environment.

◇ Meritocracy

Recognizing and Rewarding Value

As a consensus model, Cognition Corp is a capitalistic meritocracy. Members are given a weighted democratic vote based on their merits helping others in the network. The government operates without a hierarchy in an almost completely ‘flat’ structure, which means that anyone willing to contribute can engage with others in their campaigns at any level. Shares are permanently owned, even if you leave Cognition Corp., and it will be possible to transfer them to others as you wish. The next scheduled distribution event for company shares will take place on March 2nd, 2025. To ensure you earn a bigger proportion of company shares, be sure that you are officially signed up as an affiliate member or main member of Cognition Corp on the RSI website and that you maintain social activity in our discord server.

◇ Transparency

Trust With Verification

The human brain is only equipped to maintain about 150 detailed interpersonal relationships on average. To scale the assessment of trust and reliability of group members well beyond that size, Cognition Corp.’s entire governmental system is built to maintain transparency in its power structure, and every member is given opportunities to earn their stake in the network through standardized and quantifiable merit.

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PARTICIPATION

An organization’s values are demonstrated by their members and their practices. We value behavior aligned with our company culture:

  • Judgment – You are capable of making wise decisions in the face of ambiguity
  • Selflessness – You can see the broad picture beyond yourself
  • Courage – You are willing to challenge forces which threaten yourself or others
  • Communication — You can articulate complex ideas in a simple manner
  • Inclusion – You believe in the value of diversity and the variety of perspectives it brings
  • Integrity – You have the conviction to maintain your core principles in the face of adversity
  • Passion – You have the drive to maintain progress on projects to their completion
  • Innovation – You find novel solutions to complex problems
  • Curiosity – You have a desire to learn

If this sounds like you, then you would thrive in Cognition Corp.

LEADERSHIP

Cognition Corp makes an effort to identify potential leaders and give them opportunities for their talents. Our core values of leadership are as follows:

  • Leaders put the best interests of their members, objectives, and projects before all else
  • Leaders have the responsibility to properly educate themselves on all relevant matters they are responsible for, and how to best manage those matters
  • Leaders create systems that reward team members and stakeholders
  • Leaders learn from their successes and failures, and they openly share these insights
  • Leaders maintain consistent and relevant communication
  • Leaders maintain consistent and relevant records for future communications
  • Leaders delegate tasks but not responsibility
  • The team members of a good leader would never need micromanagement
  • Leaders extensively focus on risk, assigning specific roles to the team for risk identification and management duties
  • Leaders utilize meetings as sparingly as possible, preferring to get project or operational updates from other means
  • Leaders plan for all operations and projects, utilizing input from the team and all stakeholders
  • Leaders define the metrics for success and quality before embarking upon a project or operation, and they measure their own performance against those definitions both during and afterwards
  • Leaders document and assign specific individuals to all roles and responsibilities
  • Leaders adequately anticipate risks and have a response plan in place for any problems that arise
  • Leaders anticipate conflict rather than improvise it, and they channel it constructively
  • Leaders understand that mental models are fundamentally imperfect, and that attempting to reach perfection will reduce effectiveness

The level of leadership one desires should be in proportion to the level of work they are willing to commit themselves to as listed above.

Charter

Cognition Corp was originally founded in 2015 to address a few key issues:

  • Our EVE Online veterans recognized how important large, monolithic orgs can be in nullsec space
  • We collectively had dozens of individual organizations who wanted to retain their identity and ownership
  • Star Citizen’s fundamental gameplay mechanics are still developing

We decided upon these solutions to those issues:

  • We needed a governance structure which could pool resources and manpower to accomplish tasks only possible at large scale
  • The same governance structure needed to allow every individual the ability to remain decentralized at will
  • Our governance structure needed to remain as minimal as possible to avoid the inefficiencies of over-preparing

Rank and Structure

Cognition Corp is an organization owned by its members. Every member gains company shares over time. Each company share will eventually give a person a cut of corporate profits in the form of dividends, and the proportion of company shares owned by a member decides how much political influence that member holds when voting in Cognition Corp’s government. Every member is granted a single vote in elections, and each rank confers an additional vote.

  • Top 5% of Shareholders (★★★★★) = 6 votes
  • Between 5% and 15% of Top Shareholders (★★★★) = 5 votes
  • Between 15% and 30% of Top Shareholders (★★★) = 4 votes
  • Between 30% and 50% of Top Shareholders (★★) = 3 votes
  • Between 50% and 75% of Top Shareholders (★) = 2 votes
  • Bottom 25% of Shareholders (No Stars) = 1 vote

The Rules

  • No racism, sexism, ageism, or trolling
  • Respect the community and your fellow members
  • No griefing, cheating, or utilizing exploits
  • Do not spam promotions, sales, giveaways, or twitch streams
  • No tinyurls or other link shorteners
  • No spoilers

Violations of our rules can result in temporary or permanent bans.

What Level of Commitment Should I Expect?

Star Citizen is still in development! While we’d love to play some Arena Commander with you, your presence is not mandatory. We understand that not everyone has the ability or interest to game with us on a regular basis, and real life will always take precedence in Cognition Corp.

Reminder: we maintain our social activity on Discord, so if you have any questions or comments please join us there