Saving the World

We noticed that something was wrong, but there were too many theories of what it was for effective collective action to emerge. We noticed that our tribes and villages were mostly gone, that our families were in trouble and that our individual psychological meaning was disintegrating. We also noticed that before the industrial revolution, all these organizations were still intact (though tribes began to wain with the agricultural revolution), and moreover there was no Global Warming, or any of the other too-slow, too-far global feedback issues between human action and natural responses. We studied and contributed to emergence and multi-level-selection theories and understood that capitalism (even in its purely mercantile phase) was what started this dissolution of these levels of organization. It did it subtly, by making us more comfortable and offering conveniences we couldn’t refuse, and we didn’t know that the tradeoff was a destruction of all these levels of human organization. There were other critiques of capitalism that turned out to be wrong, as well as some benefits of capitalism that we kept.
We didn’t need to convert anyone. The mathematicians, emergence and evolutionary theorists were the first who understood. They realized that integrating their own psyches was necessary but not sufficient, and that we needed to restore all these higher levels of human organization to inoculate ourselves against capitalism, and build new ones properly including nations and federations of nations. We got together about 200 of them in an institute that was a place for theory, development and experimentation in novel techs, and resuscitation of pre-industrial techs that were able to provide for human needs in a localized way. It was funded by eccentric, visionary and environmentally-inclined venture capitalist who realized that the missing ingredient to a real AGI was proper nesting and a third attractor network topology. We further screened the initial pioneers with surveys that ensured a good balance of liberal and conservative tendencies, the first for creativity, the second for keeping good part membranes at all levels.
That was the first village. It produced happy and prosperous people, was regenerative to and symbiotic with the local nature around it, and also produced the first symbiosis between AIs and humans, with humans providing material and energy inputs, and AIs providing computational power. Its success inspired 10 other such villages and they formed a trade federation that respected proper nesting rules (more sharing of material resources within a level than above it, unlimited informational sharing across levels, informational and material synergy among parts at each level, some beneficial-to-current level competition among parts, and local in spacetime feedbacks between actions and consequences), so only luxuries were traded among them, including the ability of federation members to travel among them, and raw materials for the AIs. The Matryoshka Federation grew and outcompeted organizations outside of it, mostly in a peaceful manner, though some investment in defensive infrastructure had to be made. Most people joined because it was a better way to live, not for altruistic or visionary reasons. The diagnosis and prognosis of the problems of humanity provided by the federation also outcompeted other diagnoses and prognoses.
The Matryoshka Federation encouraged research into the emergence of Classical Mechanics from General Relativistic (with singularities and event horizons) foundations unified General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, and this also made it possible for human cognition to do things that were previously termed magic. This also gave the Federation an advantage in competition with capitalism, psyops, as it were. Both competition and cooperation were needed for these developments.

 

Oh, what a century it has been! It is 2050 and there are crowds of people gathered outside Taipei 101, counting backwards as they waited for the time to tick the new year in. I stood up, gazed out my window, and watched in awe at how our planet has evolved. Fireworks crackled, displaying lights that covered the skies, while people danced in circles celebrating their new beginning. I reminisce about how far we have come as a society. It reminds me of when I was fresh out of university, barely knowing what I would be doing for the rest of my life; I never knew life could be as simple after the world underwent this transformation.

Around 25 years ago, life was not as forgiving. Inflation was at an all-time high, and graduates like me were barely living as living costs soared up. One could say most people in my generation were always struggling to make ends meet. I was one of the lucky ones to graduate without student debt, but that is not to say I am fortunate with familial problems. After graduation, I got rejected in all the interviews I went on. Every rejection was like a dagger piercing through my back, it felt as if I was not good enough. Not only that but with financial stress, my empty pockets only mocked my dreams. It was a struggle that went beyond finances; it was a test of resilience, and at times, it felt like a battle against the world.

Fortunately, through some past connections, I was able to land a job and started working fully as an English teacher in an elementary school near home. And even though I had a job, my salary was not sustainable. I remember feeling helpless and alone, thinking my classmates were living much better lives. I used to blame myself and my family for putting me in these difficult conditions, making me live life in difficult mode while others were in easy mode. How unfair I thought it was.

However, with one enlightening night, as I walked my way back home after school, I found myself stumbling upon a flyer, about a study group on how to make more money. Which at first, I thought was a sign from the universe. But it was just an “association of rebellions toward the system,” as they called themselves. I was critical at first, but as I spent more time with the group, I found myself learning so much about how I should perceive life, and that systems are always going to be unfair. In the end, I stuck with the association; I had nothing going on in my life, and it was the first time I felt understood. These people felt the same way as I did, and in a sense, I felt I belonged.

My time with the association was the most educating time of my life. I felt like I was not mentally challenged at school, but with them, everything fell into place and made sense. Think about it! As long as there is a system, there will always be “order” versus “chaos.” We would prefer systems to have everything in order to avoid chaos. Hence, I had always believed that law and order had always been about what is deemed acceptable behavior. But now my question is, to whose standards?

Our association was not just a regional thing; it was secretly international. They have been trying to teach people how politics and agenda work, how inflation makes the poor poorer, and the rich richer, and with the sudden growth of AI in the early ‘20s, the association was able to share their knowledge through social media. In consequence, they only accumulated more people.

As societal perspectives shifted over the years, smaller groups of rebels started to form. People striving for basic human rights also began rallying on their own. When the time came, everyone busted to their own city halls, demanding a better quality of life and a change of system. And we did not just stop there; we collectively invaded banks and took our money as well. We were unstoppable! The massive numbers of civilians working together as a collective to end this unfair system was a sight to be admired.

And we were only able to do all these due to the fact that AI has already replaced lower labor duties, and it is only a matter of time for developers to create ones that are for all kinds of labor duties. And after a few years of waiting, they finally did, and it caused huge fluctuations in the stock market, made multiple currency values unstable, and after a couple of months, money was technically useless.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and it is the late ‘30s. AI has indeed revolutionized our workforce while continuing to boost the momentum of environmental revolution. As expected, AI found multiple ways to reverse climate change, battle world hunger, and provide help with tackling certain Earthly problems. It definitely proved itself useful to humankind. With these revolutions, AI drove us towards a future where equality and environmental consciousness prevailed, hence allowing us to reach Type 1 in the Kardashev scale, with researchers now trying to reach Type 2.

Nonetheless, there were still a substantial number of people clinging to their gold and private properties and their billions and billions of assets, and it was still a hard fight that we had to finish. A couple of months later, people started throwing away every bit of their money and remolded them into materials used for construction. It will surely take some time for civilians to get used to a more eco-friendly, renewable, and free energy lifestyle, and there is nothing wrong with that. Everyone is yearning for a life where everyone is equal, and free from labor and financial stress.

Now, in the mid ‘40s, we officially started this new era for human beings, where money is not a source of problems, and power of one nation is not governed by one entity. Being able to live in such an era is a wonder one can only dream of telling. Now we do not even need politicians or representatives, people work for themselves. And after five years, I can say for sure that this is how we humans should be living our limited days. We can travel as much, study whatever we want, work whenever we can, and just live life as it should be lived.

Now, one might ask, what do we do with so much time on our hands? This is a question that should tell you how difficult it is to think of life where money is not the sole reason for living. But anyways, I will tell you, my dear readers, about how one would live one’s life in this era. Let us begin with a “get ready with me” session. Firstly, I start my day waking up whenever my body wants to; time is my ally and there is no shame in taking time and being lazy. I typically get out of bed at 10 or 11-ish, and then I do my morning routine of going to the gym, eating brunch, taking a bath, and so on.

Now in the afternoon, I can decide if I will continue with my work. And yes! I do work! Do not get me wrong; people still strive for the career that they want to pursue; it just means there are more opportunities for everyone. We are motivated to work, whether it is for ourselves or to help other people, and not because of money. If I chose not to go to work, I will instead meet up with my friends, maybe watch a movie, or meet with my parents, find a long-lost brother, or just walk along the park, watch other people go about their day, and just take life easily, maybe watch the sunset afterward.

Tonight specifically, I will be congregating with my fellow members of the association. We plan to catch up on how we are doing with life and drink some wine as we await the dawn after Taipei 101’s fireworks display. I know, I know, I should be doing something fun now and not waste more time. I am almost fifty, and my partner and I are not getting any younger. Some people would prefer to do the extremes so as to not waste a minute: like snowboarding, skydiving, first-time unprotected sex. But others like me would prefer to keep it simple and slow, and I know that “time we enjoy wasting is not wasted time,” but that is the point: I do not have to worry about any of these—I have time.

Hi Suzanne

There doesn’t seem to be an option to attach a document to this submission. I’ve uploaded my essay as a blog post so I can share the link here. Around 3k words felt like a lot to copy and paste into this little text box 🙂
Please let me know if that’s okay for you. I’m open to suggestions for different ways to share the essay with you. Until then, here’s the link to my blog.
https://wombwithaview.weebly.com/blog/about-how-we-pulled-off-saving-the-world

I hope that your project inspires collaborative actions that help us to fulfil the prophecy of peace on Earth by 2030.

Love, light, and laughter

Karmilla

New Year’s Day, 2050. Looking back now, on the last 30 years, it hardly seems believable that I should be here at all, writing this; and yet, here I am. I was asked to write an elegy, to be broadcast during the commemorative services that will be held around the world over the coming weeks, celebrating the life and achievements of SOS Love. 

I suppose the organising committee felt that I was the most appropriate one to call on: My not insubstantial poetic skills and my role as revolutionary and statesman in the movement, must have led them to believe that I was suitably qualified for this; but how do you honour a man who singlehandedly provided the catalyst that changed our world? 

My name is John Tremayne. SOS was my beloved teacher, my friend, my confidante. He was the most extraordinary individual I have ever met, divinely inspired and simultaneously fully human. A husband, a father, he lived his life as did we all, before the change, struggling to get by in an insane, oppressive society, bereft of God and any evolved, humane sentiment. 

There was a trend, in the early decades of this century, for “dystopian” fiction: books and films about how society was unravelling and how we would soon have to contend with a “dystopian” world government. The irony of this trend, as SOS had made clear to us back in the early days of the movement, was that we had never known anything other than “dystopian” governments. 

Humanity’s “history”, the veracity of which is questionable to say the least, is nevertheless one long sordid chronicle of misery and suffering, despotism, death and destruction: Millennia of tyranny and exploitation of the masses by the mighty; endless successive generations of the ruling elite, brushing the crumbs off the banqueting table for the starving multitudes. 

Much has been publicised, of SOS’s exploits, over the last 30 years. This information, carefully redacted to avoid any potential backlash, whilst the movement was growing exponentially, has never been brought to light before. Only the devotees of the original Sangha, who formed the core of the movement, after the formation of TOP, were privy to it. 

Now, 6 years after his passing and with the world finally redeemed, it can be articulated, since it will make no difference. Man has finally taken his rightful place in the cosmos and nothing can destabilise his confident march towards infinity. It has fallen to me to reveal this final piece of the puzzle that was SOS; and I am proud to do so. 

I was asked to write an elegy. I refuse, on the grounds that anything I can write will pale in the face of SOS’s own considerable anthology, most of which has been read and studied assiduously. Instead, I choose, as is my right, to write this requiem, drawing on his own divinely inspired poetry to fill the spaces in my text. 

After his enlightenment experience, in 1996, SOS saw clearly what needed to be done in order to overcome the ancient malady: His revelation, of the true nature of God, the universe and all manifest existence, embodied in his Divine Theory of Everything, would be the catalyst, allowing struggling mankind to grasp, for the first time, the fullness of the Truth. 

This is the way the World works 

The Mind of God recedes 

The Mind of God returns 

In tiny pieces that cluster 

To form Everything there Is 

You are a being within a BEING 

You live in a space of sentient seeing 

A constellation of little traces 

Constrained by the rules of all these places 

And bounded by your greater Celebrity 

You are a miracle in Time 

You are the Breath of the Divine 

Each magic piece of you aglow ☼ with the beauty of the W_hole 

Each encounter with your Self 

BIG or small; and All unchanged 

Though nothing happens, All appears 

You’re Father, Ra and Holey Ma 

You are that I AM 

You are 

I 

cs 

29 March 2007 

We are all familiar with these words, from the opening sequence of The Divine Theory of Everything, having read them in one form or another as children or adults. This remarkable manuscript that forms part of the curriculum of basic study, in our enlightened education system, hints at the depth of feeling and occasionally, despair, that he felt in the early years. 

 

LOO INTO MY EYES… I AM NOTBA ME. 

LOOK INTO MY EYES… I AM NOT SANPAKU! 

I HAVE CROSSED THE GREAT DIVIDE THAT SEPARATES SOUL FROM SOURCE. 

I HAVE VENTURED BEYOND HUMANITY, BEYOND THE HUMAN CONDITION, HELPLESS AND HORRIFYING; AND I HAVE RETURNED, AS I DID BEFORE, TO SHOW YOU THE WAY  

I HAVE NOT COME BECAUSE YOU ARE ATTRACTIVE OR ENGAGING, BUT BECAUSE YOU ARE A_PART OF ME; AND I LOVE YOU. I TELL YOU THIS: YOUR ENDLESS SUFFERING PALES, BEFORE THE FINAL GLORY OF YOUR TRUE DESTINY. 

WHERE TO START, WHAT TO SAY; WHAT DIFFERENCE WILL MY WORDS MAKE ANYWAY? HEED MY WORDS FOR THEY HAVE POWER! I AM HUMAN, WHO ONCE WAS GOD; AND MY HEART IS FULL OF YOUR SADNESS… AND OVERFLOWING. LET ME SHOW YOU THE WAY  BACK TO ME. 

SOS knew that for the dissemination of this knowledge to be permitted, in the world at large, it would require an extraordinary act of courage and commitment. In 2016, after a hiatus of 21 years of waiting for the appointed time, he published the Divine Theory of Everything and began the arduous task of gathering the ones who had been sealed to him. 

The creation of the Sangha in Cape Town, brought an eclectic mix of individuals to his cause. My brother James and I were drawn to him, instinctively, as were Peter and Andrew Cavouras and, of course, Judith Isakow. We were the first to acknowledge his Divine heritage and we threw in our lot with him, choosing to fight and die, if necessary. 

When the movement began, there was a completely different direction to our duties than what finally evolved into the formation of TOP and the ensuing political activity. At the time SOS felt that only a very “big stick” would suffice to begin the process of dismantling all the political structures that held humanity captive for so long. 

His poem “Styx and Stones”, written in Johannesburg in 2019, when we were preparing for war, for the holy jihad that would begin to cleanse the cancer of human affairs, provides some insight into his conflicted state at the prospect of challenging the South African government of the time, to provide a national foothold for the emerging ideas of the “Common Cause.” 

STYX AND STONES 

Do not take me 

For what you choose 

For I am all of these: 

Saint and sinner 

Charming and perverse 

White knight astride 

The mare called Duty 

Or Hades upon the loins 

Of Persephone 

Do not confuse me 

With your dreams 

For I am not a part of any 

Creeping mediocrity 

The slow Death that 

Having sunk its claws 

Into your withered hide 

Will then make merry 

Whilst your Soul’s denied. 

What went through his mind, as he was preparing for his enforced isolation in the Lesotho Highlands, his “gestation period” of 9 months, when he left us to our own devices to cement our will for the struggle ahead? Perhaps his poetry can provide some inkling of his abhorrence at the methods he felt compelled to use, against his own nature. 

Why, you ask, should he have felt conflicted? After all, the formation of a new political party, TOP, “The One Party “, was hardly cause to revile his actions. Ah… but there’s the rub. Politics was never SOS’s game. From the beginning he had planned an event so startling, in its audacity, that it would take the government by complete and utter surprise. 

At the time, the Sangha, which numbered 216 adult devotees, had 2 bases: the public retreat in Darling, Cape Town and a very private farm in Hennops, northwest of Johannesburg, near the Hartebeestpoort Dam. Each location housed 108 devotees. Each site provided 2 nomadic groups of 24 and 12, respectively, for assignment to covert operations. 

If this is beginning to sound, vaguely, like a military organisation, it’s because it was. All 216 devotees had undergone clandestine paramilitary training for 2 years. Amongst our ranks we had professional soldiers, telecommunications specialists, biochemists, nuclear physicists and a host of other skillsets, necessary to the appointed task of usurping an illegitimate government. 

SOS knew from the outset that any attempt to supplant a national government would bring swift and violent retribution upon the perpetrators. Wether this manifested as a political movement, or as a revolution, the halls of power would ensure that those responsible were either co-opted or crushed. How then to stage a successful coup, particularly if there was to be no bloodshed? 

The solution was as radical as it was unique: 

“How do you change the world, John?” he asked me once. 

“You can’t change the world, Da” I replied. “It’s too big, too powerful. We are too small.” 

“A mouse is small; but it can climb into an elephant’s trunk. Make it go insane.” 

“The mouse would be destroyed, Da.” 

“Perhaps; but what if it reaches an understanding with the elephant? Stays inside, issues orders; moves only to reinforce its control – to ensure that the elephant moves only in the required direction.” 

SOS applied the principle of this philosophy in an unprecedented manner. First he gathered around him a group of devotees whose motives were pure: After being exposed to his teachings, altruism and noble purpose were our guiding lights. To simulate the mouse, we embarked upon a course of action fraught with danger and potentially catastrophic, but we were stalwart. 

One slight misstep would have resulted in defeat; and we would have gone down in “history” as the most spectacular failure of all time. We would have been labelled terrorists and lunatics; but we were adamant: Better to go down in a blaze of glory, sanctified by our attempt to liberate all human beings from their captivity, than to endure in a world gone mad. 

Our strategy was simple: In a co-ordinated paramilitary operation we would simultaneously take control of 2 nuclear power stations (Koeberg and Pelindaba) as well as 3 strategic water supply installations in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and the Free State. We would bunker down and threaten to unleash the apocalypse if our terms weren’t met. 

Madness? Perhaps; but it was a good plan, well thought out, assiduously prepared for and set into motion by a dedicated group of highly disciplined jihadists, essentially, fighting a holy war for the liberation of humanity. The threat was to meltdown the reactors in the 2 major commercial hubs and to poison the water supply for a significant portion of the population. 

Our demands were simple: The government would step down whilst members of our group would remain ensconced indefinitely, in the occupied locations, to reinforce the threat, until the principles of “Consensus Economics” had been operational for long enough, in the country’s affairs, for the general population to realise what a groundbreaking gift they had been granted. 

At that stage we would assume the running of the country and the long-term benefits of “Consensus Economics” would result in a new utopia for its many millions of citizens, accustomed to the repressive colonial and Calvinistic norms of the last 400 years. This success, we had hoped, would permeate slowly to other countries, thirsting for their human birthright, freedom. 

So what happened? Since I had known SOS he repeatedly amazed us with displays of limited prescience, but he was always adamant that he could only use this power sparingly and not rely on it to fix outcomes, lest he conjure up deviations that went against the intent of the Great Spirit. He was, of course, the Divine incarnate and had the power to influence our destiny according to his whim. 

After he returned from his isolation, we noticed a subtle shift in his demeanour. We were all champing at the bit to get going, having trained so rigorously, for so long and having endured his absence stoically for 9 months; a stratagem that had precisely the desired effect of tempering us, collectively, for the struggle ahead and removing all our doubts and contradictions as to the wisdom of our endeavor. 

The start of the pandemic at the end of 2019 signaled the reversal of all our plans. Whereas previously he had denounced the idea of a political struggle, now he announced that all our readiness and resource would be rechanneled into the formation of TOP and the dissemination of the party’s manifesto to the general public. It is a testament to the esprit de corps that he had forged, that we didn’t flounder. 

Like a well-oiled machine all of our troops went into battle, but a battle of the intellect not of attrition. As a group we had marshalled some impressive resources and these were employed, at grass roots level, to insidiously persuade the exploited masses, weary at the betrayal of their aspirations by their own “struggle” heroes, of the efficacy of our philosophy. The rest is history. 

The insanity of the “global pandemic” in 2020 played right into our hands, as SOS had known that it would. The aggrieved population, manipulated into further penury and loss of civil liberties, had had enough! The countrywide unrest in 2021 resulted in the referendum of 2022, which finally brought down the beleaguered government with a resounding majority. 

In a few short years the astonishing success of our policies transformed the country into the utopian “rainbow nation” that had been anticipated in 1994. As this achievement permeated into the minds of the citizenry of other nations, an atmosphere of greater tolerance emerged and TOP was able to transcend national borders bringing salvation to all. 

Of course much still had to pass before the world changed: the ring fenced nuclear war of 2024, which obliterated most of Israel and a good part of the Arabian peninsula; the forced relocations, over the decades of the 30’s and 40’s, of vast numbers of human beings living in low-lying coastal areas around the globe and the consequent loss of trillions of dollars of infrastructure in those countries. 

The pyroclastic eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 2026, which changed the geography of North America forever and led to the first widespread uprisings of American citizenry, enraged at the atrocities committed by the National Guard during the crisis. It took another fourteen years before the successive coups, the anarchy and the religious mania eventually toppled the hollow edifice of the almighty dollar in 2040. 

They say that the most powerful thing is an idea whose time has come. The formation of ECHO, the European Conglomerate of Halcyon Order, in 2030, was the first major breakthrough for the western world, the Europeans having already been conditioned to the idea of a transnational society. Europe provided the cultural backbone of legitimacy for the burgeoning world government. 

The founding of AUNTS, The Asian Union of National Territorial Sovereignties in 2036, brought “Consensus Economics” to the world’s most populous region, with the resulting transformation of countries like China, India and Russia that had known only disparity for thousands of years. Old habits die hard and the rapacious rulers had fought desperately to maintain the status quo. 

The United Northern Confederacy of Labour Economics (UNCLE), which resulted from the fall of the dollar, provided the seat of the new world government at Bethesda, on Ile de la Province, in the middle of Lake Memphremagog. The now defunct Canadian and American governments had ceded it to TOP in 2039 and SOS had taken up residence there, with his family. 

I visited him shortly before he died. He had lived an ascetic life for many years in sylvan Quebec, although as the nominal leader of the new world government he had access to any resource, any extravagance, if he so desired. The aged body, the translucent skin, the racking cough from a lifetime of marijuana consumption, brought tears to my eyes. 

He was sitting up in bed, reading some official-looking documents. The family was not around. He looked every bit his eighty-eight years; although frail, he still had the commanding presence that had arrested all the arguments and objections of eminent scientists, politicians and business tycoons, over the years of the party’s ascendancy. 

“How are you feeling?” I asked him, with a lump in my throat. 

“Lousy.” 

“Are they helping?” I was referring to the doctors and medical personnel that staffed the Bethesda facility. He shrugged. I burst out laughing, as he began to whistle the old ditty, which had gone to no. 1 in the charts, seemingly a lifetime ago. 

“No problem, my friend. Don’t worry, be happy!” 

Judith came into the room: “He refuses to take the rejuvenation treatments, or any bionic enhancements and his condition has deteriorated, over the last week.” 

“Who’s looking after him?” 

“Pearson and the medical team.” 

“He’s in good hands, then.” 

“Yes, but he’s not going to budge. You should know that by now.” 

“Why won’t you take the treatments?” I asked him. “You were the one who said long ago: ‘When my body parts stop working I’ll replace them with bionics’”. 

“Stubbornness is not a treatable condition” he replied, his rheumy eyes twinkling with mirth. “What do you want me to do, John?” he asked, diffidently. 

“Seriously, SOS, they called to say you weren’t doing well and had asked for me. I came as soon as I could, leaving Jian Ping, Fedorov and Singh fuming at lunch.” 

He started to speak, then was suddenly overcome by a coughing fit, which lasted seemingly an age. After he had recovered, he replied slowly, measuring his words: 

“The time has come, my boy. May I call you that? You’re young enough to be my son or grandson and we certainly share a bond that is closer than most families. Once I believed that I would want to live forever: In this body, in any body. To roam in realms unknown, in breathless wonder. That seemed to me the pinnacle of human achievement. Now that I am faced with the decision, I find myself strangely reticent. I gave up caring for this body a long time ago, when I chose to put all of us beyond the pale of our aberrated world. Now that we have won and I have no use for it any more, I cannot bring myself to infringe its dignity, by chopping and changing its parts. Whatever the Divine has given me, will be mine to use until it breaks; no treatments, no modifications. I will go quietly into the dark, without a whimper.” 

I struggled to hold my tears at bay: “What about the movement? What do you need me to do?” 

“Nothing. I just wanted to see you. To tell you that you have been a true friend: one that I would have felt honoured to die with, at any time in the last twenty-five years; as it turned out that wasn’t necessary. We set out to do the impossible and we succeeded, by the grace of Providence. How many men can say that? The movement is self-perpetuating now, as human beings have freed themselves from the thrall that has kept them in check for millennia. For me, I have decided that even if I were to live for a billion years, I would not be more fulfilled than I am now; and even if we did manage to change the whole world, what of it? What does it matter? In a hundred years from now, who will remember our story; and remembering it, will they tell it true, or will it be distorted through the prism of Time, into another irrelevancy?” 

‘What should I tell the others?” I asked him. 

The others were the original core of the movement: the 12 who had started the Sangha and who now held oversight positions in Europe, Africa, South America, Australasia and Antarctica, the new faux-temperate continent, experiencing burgeoning growth, under the auspices of TOP’s world council. The entire world had slowly succumbed to the seductive philosophy of “The One Party.” 

“Tell them this: ‘In the end, only three things matter: how much you have loved; how gently you have lived; and how graciously you have let go of those things that were not meant for you.’” 

I walked over to the window to hide my emotion and stood, looking hard into the sun, as he had taught us to do, so many years ago. The quote was attributed to Siddhartha. 

“Don’t believe everything you’re told,” SOS had said to us, when he first challenged us to take up the discipline of the shaolin monks, practiced by adepts in every culture. After I had mastered the technique, the idea of alternate realities had no longer seemed so improbable. For a while now those alternate realities had been manifesting before our very eyes. 

I had flown ultrasonic from Novgorod, where I was based, heading up the Oversight Committee of the Asian Union. I had had to excuse myself from a meeting of LE Counsellors, of what had previously been China, India, the Soviet Union and a host of smaller Oriental and Arabic countries, which had successfully transitioned to the new world government. 

There were always stragglers; some small, obscure, national interests, mostly with fundamentalist overtones, which continued to frustrate TOP’s mandate, to unite the entire world under one equitable economic system for the first time in history! These rigid, repressive regimes continued to exploit their populations, using the age-old tawdry platitudes of the elite, ad nauseam! 

They had to be assimilated, over time, through osmosis. After the South African government fell in 2022, allowing the first working model of a truly utopian society to be established, SOS had never wavered in his assertion that no government would ever again be usurped, militarily or economically. Their peoples would be allowed to make the transition to “Consensus Economics” without coercion. 

Never again would human beings use force to impose their political will on others. The stragglers were a nuisance, of course, but the walls of Jericho were slowly crumbling, everywhere. In another decade, all of the remaining tin pot dictators would have been deposed, bloodlessly, by the due process of their own institutions. Never again would might be right! Compassion was the language of the new politic. 

I flexed my newly-fitted PedoCorp bionic right leg that resolved years of suffering from the old baker’s cyst that I had picked up so long ago in a martial arts tournament. The Cessna Waverider that I had commandeered at the party’s depot at Jean Lesage, had brought me to the pupil, the central building in the “Eye of Horus” complex that Bethesda was fashioned in. 

The Zeiss Ocularius transceivers, my only other concession to replacement body parts, fed back information and visuals on the superimposed holoscreen in my field of vision. I aimed the solarplane at the landing area and fired up the small VTOL landing unit. Antigrav would soon supplant all the fossil fuel frenzy of the last two centuries, creating incredible new fields of endeavour. 

Overland, undersea and in space, we would create new frontiers. The old jargon still held me captive: space was now time, as even a six-year old knew, but old habits die hard; and until antigrav was widely assimilated into everyday life, I would continue to think in terms of space as “The Final Frontier”. In truth the human mind was the final frontier; consciousness and all its ramifications our goal. 

I held the papery warmth of his hand for a while, then kissed him on both cheeks and walked outside to hangar the Cessna; it appeared that I would be staying for a while. As I left I heard him humming: 

“Bro-o-ther Sun; and Si-i-ste-er Moon, 

I hear you ca-lling, I can hear your tune. 

Mmmm-mmmmmm…” 

SOS’s legacy is well known. His “Divine Theory of Everything” married science and religion in an ecumenical exposition of our Divine nature which cut through all the dogma and the lies and half-truths that we have fasted on, for so long. His “Common Cause”, incorporating the principles of “Consensus Economics”, provided a simple, yet elegant solution to the seemingly eternal problems of sustenance and divisiveness. His will, which is our collective will, gave the impetus to the inertia of our long captivity. 

Viva, SOS, Viva! 

THE INEFFABLE SADNESS 

When I was young and all was blind stupor 

I knew the World and knew it well 

I grappled with its lustful cries 

And silenced its naïve goodbyes 

As I grew older I awakened, slowly, from the dream 

With pins and needles I revived my sight 

And knew of ancient wisdoms, fresh imaginings 

Old age and youth; the dawn, the twilight and the night 

Then I grew older still in Time, in no time 

My dreams flew off the wall, and landed 

Splayed, in postures of discomfort 

To my intense dismay I cried 

Now Death which stalks me slowly as I slide 

With open eyes I watch its firmness 

That proceeds along my weaker side 

Alone. A gentle tap; and then the dance 

I am a Being who must die 

To move on in the memory of Man 

I tread the path of breathless wonder, for a day 

And then to rest 

 

The writer recounts to her friends how it came about that a group of people, concerned by the nuclear issues of their time (the early years of the 21st Century), looked into the whole subject with a “feminine gaze”, and saw how there was a metaphysics of the atom that the scientific method could not see or register.  The outcome of this approach opened the door to seeing how the atomic particles are social and sentient, the same as us humans. And how we have Humanity have the potential, and indeed the responsibility, to care for them and their world.

 

– How my hindsight is 2020

Those who are not sailors may not recognize how innovations in that sport helped propel the mass migration more rapidly from the land to the sea in the 2030’s. That population relief eased many pressures on Earth ecosystems and helped the global trade culture switch from pillaging the ocean to cultivating it for the first time in 6,000 years of conquests.

This is why I thought a review of sailboat racing and my involvements would be interesting for readers now. I’d also like to think my work with the Institute for the Study of Consciousness and the book: Emerging World contributed to the general paradigm shift from faith in randomness as the origin of species to a recognition of teleology and how life is continually intent on re-designing of itself. Clearly many contributors were needed to change that self-defeating ideation in past paradigm assumptions. Systems thinking had to replace the focus on isolated individuals, as there really aren’t such separate things in the universe. That tired old meme:

“Survival of the fittest” was replaced by

“Thrival of the fittingest” and recognition of the paramount importance of symbiosis.

That century of self aggrandizement was nonetheless a needed stage of development to learn from. Wisdom for powerful collaborations emerges when each contributor feels secure in their unique gifts. Integrating suppressed internal faculties of intuition and compassion seems to be naturally concurrent with the wider social release from suppressed love relationship styles and gender rigidity.

 

I was not much into sports or sailboat racing myself, but I can understand why that challenge to get the most out of available wind energy was part of the mindset needed to make a technological transition from consumption to conservation. Sailing was always a prestige activity, so there was also plenty of money invested rapidly.

 

To give more context on future visionaries of the time, there was a brilliantly predictive old TV show released in 1990 by James Burke. “After The Warming” was set as if looking back from our time in 2050. It showed some very realistic mass relocations and refugees of climate chaos. What it missed about predicting our current success is the opportunity for fun migrations onto newly created habitats, expanding carrying capacity where the earth has never supported much life: Vast deep water tropical oceans.

Another visionary, Marshall Savage recognized the kelp growing opportunity and published a book about space migration in 1992. His scenario started with growing symbiotic life support pods on oceans instead of attempting escape from a depleted Earth to outer space. Only by myriad experiments in self-contained life support systems where mistakes are not so deadly, will we learn to be an agent of Earth giving birth to independent worlds under this sun.

Growing kelp in places it had not been before was fully proven in the early 2000s by the Climate Foundation, and other 3D ocean farmers.

The Seasteading seeds had been sown in my mind, but I did not get involved until 2020. In hindsight, my attending a renegade festival called Ephemerisle during that first pandemic quarantine shutdown year, was the empowering adventure which set my new course for Eco Villaging. I sailed there on my 16-foot trimaran and maintained the recommended 6-ft distance to others in the open air. The boat was five separate loads I could carry and reassemble by myself. That experience reinforced the value of light construction for habitats and versatility of relatively self-sufficient boats for navigating any pandemic or broken supply chains. My anticipation of a more deadly pandemic was widely predicted. Thus many were somewhat ready when it happened. That accelerated ocean migration suddenly.

I had advised friends to sell their real estate because it would start to go down in price and stay down when enough people saw the low power, low cost luxurious lifestyles in ecological tropical boats. Only a few heeded my warning; when the big pandemic hit, it was too late to cash out. Real estate took years before starting to climb again in some places, but may never return to the high valuations of the early 2030’s.

 

In 2021 my urge was to try a larger yet trailerable sailboat. It cost much less than just transporting my 33-ft offshore ketch. A 24ft. monohull CAN be outfitted stoutly for ocean travel. However, after living on that Bay boat for just a few weeks, I knew I needed more room for continual dwelling, especially headroom! Long-term sailing cruisers of the time generally owned catamarans with lots of space and wind drag, or trimarans if they wanted better sailing performance. All were vulnerable to cracking up with age because waves continually torque on the structure. A veteran blue water sailor advised me not to get one, especially not a used one for that reason. Quadmarans with articulating, wave power absorbing hulls were unheard of.

Now sailplanes on hydrofoil tethers are the fastest ocean racing sailboats, but at the time an engineer and I built the first quadmaran, trimarans with hydrofoils were the top ocean racers. Before that, windsurfers held the world sailing speed records, but surfboards are too small to live on and could not have the sail be controlled by autopilot to cross oceans. The next speed record holder (unsurpassed for many years) was the first to use wing lift with the horizontal superstructure as an airfoil. It takes advantage of the surface effect, an air cushion on which pelicans coast.

These features informed my design for a light, strong, comfortable and fast cruising home. Essentially it became the “covered wagon” of ocean pioneers. Others took it in the racing direction again. The signature motif of separately turnable hulls proved very versatile as a work platform or a people mover, or a single home, or a tug boat in a flock of homes pulling kelp gardens together.

Having a vertical wing sail as a cabin is not the absolute fastest racing design, but if you want to be comfortable living in it, this is the efficient choice. You can outrun a hurricane too, because it is strong enough to take high winds and just go faster. (Down wind) Kite sails add as much power as desired in light airs. Long ocean wave surfing is enabled as well. That feature of lifeboat durability was severely tested and is ironically why the world sailing speed record keeping was terminated; record seekers would take foolish risks flirting with hurricanes to clock a higher speed. Their tragic antics were nonetheless useful in further refining robust sail craft.

Back in the mid 2020s, we raced our small prototypes against each other in the surf break to refine our designs for rough conditions. By 2029 there was a proliferation of quadmaran types built by and for avid sea homesteaders all over the globe.

My focus shifted to enforcement of values. Every boat using the patented features had to have fully self-sufficient systems with water makers, waste treatment and spirulina growing tubes as standard equipment on all production vessels.

I didn’t want the new migrants to be spreading microbes around the globe. Too many past migrants have infected places unconsciously. Breaking down environmental barriers has spread disease and driven extinctions more than most people realize. Turds are not discharged into the ocean; wastes are steam sterilized and utilized for food production on board. With this lifestyle, attitudes have grown for conserving and valuing resources as well as honoring the sanctity of uncontaminated biomes. This is the practical embodiment of the Star Trek prime directive of non-interference. I surmise other intelligences in the galaxy would come to the same understanding of value in variety being important to preserve. Probably the prevalence of this universal conclusion is why alien visitors have not been prominent.

 

Teaming up with many sailing seasteaders to build and manage kelp farms was thrilling, spirited work. Seeing dolphins and whales visiting and breeding by our fertile islands was a heartwarming reversal of the previous century of slaughter. Learning the Humpback Whale language and hearing their story-songs carried through generations of their experiences was an awesome awakening for humanity to wise up to our scientific name, Sapiens, and create truly a civilization.

 

Picture of a popular island style: bit.ly/ethicalFrontier

 

Advancements in wave energy collection systems on our Quadmarans and from Liquidrobotics.com allow kelp farms to be any size without having to anchor to the sea floor. The floating island size of just a few hundred members who all know one another has been my preference. Our float isle culture is becoming very coherent with regular celebrations and shared understandings.

The hardest thing for me to get used to was eating “corn fakes” for breakfast made from the processed kelp. Of course I could have stocked up on imported food, but the principled local choice is satisfying.

 

Achieving food self-sufficiency was just in time for the worst pandemic in history. It brought migrants in great droves to permanent enclaves on the ocean

Fortunately, solar smelting of ores and also earth-crete materials to create the floating island structures had been developed enough for the massive building expansion to be no detriment and actually benefit climate stabilization, aiding species preservation around the globe.

 

The low cost of the highest quality seafoods cultivated at kelp Islands put many rapacious food industries out of business, especially with continued mercury contamination in trawler caught fish and bycatch fed to so-called “farmed” penned fish.

People abandoned lands with mosquito borne diseases and other problems. Monocrop land businesses failed more frequently. Fences came down and native species roamed again.

 

There were some float isles proud of “pirating” software, but I was proud to be a citizen of a float isle using the first value accounting system which distinguished work contributed to the commons from work detracting from the commons. The unique currency is given to software creators and content artists of all sorts in proportion to a local usage and appreciation formula. The exchange rate with each fiat currency is based on the proportion of that currency representing known value added, not value taken. — Money infamous as the “Route of all evil” is devalued. Recipients can buy bio-fuels, produce, or labor from us and others in the world using this ethical accounting system at favorable rates. As our trading partners expand, I predict people will recognize the corruptness of the casino currencies (including Bitcoin) misrepresenting actual values. It’s uses will plummet and the wealth will migrate to cooperative creators, not takers. Greed is not rewarded in this economic system. Push advertising is not used to support worthy offerings, as they are well supported by this accounting system, and most people recognize the push attempt as suspicious of corrupt motives. News reporters and scientific researchers are supported independently.

All kinds of production continues to be softwarized with more capable 3-D printers. Things are made from local materials or recycling, not centralized mass production and distribution.

 

As the land and sea egg baskets of the world multiplied with more independence from physical supply chains, both social interconnection and cultural diversity increased along with security from existential threats. Longevity confidence is better than at any time since the atomic bomb awakening to our awesome powers and risks.

 

2020 taught us more than just our vulnerability: Remember to stop and reflect on priorities; online meetings became the norm instead of travel; censorship backfires.

 

As was true so many times in the 12,000 years of the Holocene epoch, boats enabled humans to expand across Planet Water. This time, we wisely secured places for other species in the process.

 

–End.

 

An updated version of this story of & by Chris L S Panym is at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I6v0JTjgd9D7AccmNuvsUMNTqqtTIkIjQn_d4zsA4E8/edit?usp=drivesdk

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