The basic idea is when you no longer have anything in production for a system the excess industry is dumped into a collective empire pool, which you would then control a slider to pick how much science/dust you produce with that extra industry. This will help to reduce micromanagement because you are not required to fill the end of every queue with industry>X conversion. It will also help players if they need dust now to flip the slider over instead of running in every single system and changing it only to switch it back a few turns later.