Manifesto
What if the future has been with us all this time?
The Pluggable Economy did not arrive in a conference room. It arrived at a kitchen table, on an autumn morning, when a power outlet finally got noticed. This is how it was born — in the inventor’s own words.
The Origin
The morning the outlet stared back.
Drew invented Pluggable in 2022. While standing beside his kitchen table one fine autumn morning, a power outlet stared him in the eye.
This lowly power outlet provides electricity, and will continue to do so in the future. Who knows what appliances and gadgets we will plug into it years from now? One thing is for sure: those gadgets will work. This outlet provides, and will continue to provide, reliable power. Guaranteed.
What if the business model of the future is similar to this power outlet?
Remember the first time plugging in a Tesla to charge. Most people are beyond delighted. It is like staring at the future. Many more whiz-bang gadgets will be invented, and each one will most probably plug into an outlet to recharge.
“What if doing business is as enjoyable as plug-and-play? We simply plug in and start playing.” Drew is getting excited now.
A plug is the gateway to the power plant. Neither the power plant nor the plugged device needs to know more about the other. Just plug in, and it will auto-configure itself.
“From where I stand, I can clearly see the future.” Drew beams with delight.
The Pluggable Economy is born.
The Moral North Star
Delight for all.
The Pluggable Economy is not built on efficiency, and not on profit. It is built on delight. Every product, every business, every connection is measured against one standard: is it delightful for all?
This is not soft language. “Delight begets delight” is a product philosophy stated as an economic law — a truly delightful product sells itself, more of it, more often. The moral imperative and the commercial imperative converge. Giving back to all eight billion people is not charity. It is architecture.
The Inventor
Drew Guitarte
The Pluggable Economy is one expression of a twenty-five-year research arc — the futurist and the researcher operating at different altitudes.
Andrew “Drew” Guitarte invented the Pluggable Economy in 2022. He is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Enduraman Corporation, an enterprise architecture advisory firm in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the inventor of the theory of Emergent Intelligence.
The Pluggable Economy is grounded in complexity science — the same foundation as his published research on wicked problems and agent-based models. Connections, in his framing, are complex adaptive systems: they sense and respond. That is the throughline from the research to the framework to the movement.
- 2015
- “Taming the Wicked Problem of Portfolio Management” — complexity science and agent-based models, at the Project Management Institute (PMI) Global Congress.
- 2017
- “Compliments to the CHEF” — emergent decision-making in financial services, with the Cutter Consortium.
- 2022
- The Pluggable Economy — the emergent architecture expressed as an economic framework.
- Today
- Emergent Intelligence — the unifying theory the whole arc has been building toward.
Plug In
The future is pluggable. Help build it.
The Pluggable Economy is for all, by all. Add your name to the movement, or start with the framework.