Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future (6 page)

"The
amazing part," Cynthia pointed out, "is that, once he had
done all that and started the major work in Australia, the citizens
of Australia decided to merge with the project. The entire continent
of Australia -- all 2 billion or so acres of it -- became the
Australia Project."

Linda
continued, "Eric also started with several core principles that
govern life for people living in the Australia Project. One of those
principles, as I mentioned, is that everyone is equal. Each person
gets an equal share of the resources that the corporation owns.
Another is complete recyclability. The resources owned by the project
are finite, and by making everything completely recyclable, they are
reused over and over and never diminish. The LC for this catalog, for
example, is manufactured entirely from carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in
the air. If you burn it, it returns to the air. The same thing
happens if you drop it on the ground and it decomposes. Every object,
every product that the robots make for us is completely recyclable in
the same way. Whether the object is made from carbohydrates, carbon
polymers, aluminum, glass... it is all completely reusable. All that
you need is energy and robots to break any object back down to its
core elements and then form it into something new."

"Another
one of Eric's core principles is that no one owns anything. It is
quite likely that, when you lived in America, you leased everything.
You never owned anything, but someone else did and you had to pay for
every single thing you used. That's another form of resource
ownership that concentrates wealth. In Australia, you own nothing,
but neither does anyone else. Whatever you have is yours until you
die, and then it gets recycled. Or you can give it back to be
recycled whenever you want. There are lots of people who do that
constantly with clothes. They wear something new every single day,
and the old clothes are recycled."

"That's
what I do. I like to be up-to-the-minute on fashions," said
Cynthia.

"Another
core principle is that nothing is anonymous. Eric grew up during the
rise of the Internet, and the rise of global terrorism, and one thing
he realized is that anonymity allows incredible abuse. It does not
matter if you are sending anonymous, untraceable emails that destroy
someone's career, or if you are anonymously releasing computer
viruses, or if you are anonymously blowing up buildings. Anonymity
breeds abuse. In Australia, if you walk from your home to a park,
your path is logged. You cannot anonymously pass by someone else's
home. If someone looks up your path that day to see who walked by,
that fact is also logged. So you know who knows your path. And so on.
This system, of course, makes it completely impossible to commit an
anonymous crime. So there is no anonymous crime. Anyone who commits a
crime is immediately detained and disciplined."

"There
has not been a murder in years. It is impossible to do it
anonymously, and everyone knows what happens when you murder someone
else. People do commit crimes occasionally. Mostly it is kids who
have not completed their education." Cynthia said. "They
are disciplined and the problem goes away. You'll learn all about
this in the orientation."

"Can
I ask you something?" I asked.

"Absolutely.
That's why we are here." Linda said.

"You
are telling me that you live in a society where everything is free.
And everyone is equal. Everything is completely recycled, so I take
it there is no pollution..." I said.

"True,"
Linda said. "Zero pollution, because of total reuse. To have
pollution, it would mean that you are spewing something into the
environment rather than reusing it. There can be no pollution in our
society because of Eric's core principle on reuse."

"And
there is no crime?" I said.

"There
is minimal crime," Linda corrected me. "People will make
mistakes, even in a perfect world, especially while they are
learning. Mistakes are a part of learning, and everyone accepts that.
But as soon as the mistake is committed, that person is detained and
retrained. The core principal is 'do no harm.' The legal system is
set up to detect and correct harm automatically. Re-education is
usually all the discipline needed, because at the root most crime is
a misunderstanding of the rules of society."

"And
everything is not free in the way you are probably thinking."
Cynthia said.

"That's
what I wanted to ask about. If everything is free, then what's to
stop me from demanding a 100,000 foot house on a thousand acres of
land and a driveway paved in gold bricks? It makes no sense, because
obviously everyone cannot demand that. And how can anything be free?
That is hard to believe in the first place." I said.

"Everything
is free AND everyone is equal." Linda said. "That's exactly
how you phrased it, and you were right. You, Jacob, get equal access
to the free resources, and so does everyone else. That's done through
a system of credits. You get a thousand credits every week and you
can spend them in any way you like. So does everyone else. This
catalog is designed to give you a taste of what you can buy with your
credits. This is a small subset of the full catalog you will use once
you arrive. You simply ask for something, the robots deliver it, and
your account gets debited."

"Let
me show you." said Cynthia. She opened her catalog to a page,
and pointed to one of the pictures. It was clothing. "This is
what I am wearing." she said. "See - it is 6 credits. In a
typical week I only spend about 70 or so credits on clothes. That's
why I like to wear something new every day."

"The
robots did manufacture Cynthia's outfit for free. They took recycled
resources, added energy and robotic labor and created what she is
wearing. It cost nothing to make it. She paid credits simply to keep
track of how many resources she is using."

"Where
did the energy come from?" I asked.

"The
sun. The Australia Project is powered mostly by the sun and the wind,
and the wind comes from the sun if you think about it."

"Where
did the robots come from?"

"The
same place Cynthia's outfit came from. It's the same thing. Robots
take recycled resources, add energy and robotic labor and make new
robots. The robots are free, the energy is free, the resources are
all completely recycled and we own them, so they are free. Everything
is free."

"The
credits simply make sure that everyone gets equal access to the
resources. There is a finite amount of power that can be generated on
any given day, for example. Things like that. The credits make sure
everyone gets an equal share of the total pool of resources."

"Holy
shit." I said. I was looking through the catalog again. Page
after page after page of products. There were thousands of different
types of housing, for example. And they all seemed to fall in the
range of 100 to 500 credits per week. Clothing cost nothing. Food
cost nothing.

"I'm
not getting this." I said. "I'm not sure I could spend a
thousand credits if this catalog is right."

"Many
people don't spend a thousand credits." she said. "If you
are working on a project you might, but that's about it."

"So
how do I earn the credits?" I asked.

"Earn?"
Linda asked back.

"No
no no..." said Cynthia.

"Do
you give me a job? The reason I am here is because I have no job,"
I said.

"No.
You see, it's all free. By being a shareholder, you already own your
share of the resources. The robots make products from the free
resources you and everyone else already owns. There is no forced
labor like there is in America. You do what you want, and you get
1,000 credits per week. We are all on an endless vacation."

"So
why are you here?"

"What
do you mean?"

"How
did the robots get you to come here to talk to me?"

"We
choose to do this. This is what we want to do. Just seeing the look
on your face now, and seeing all the looks you'll have as you go
through orientation, makes this an incredibly fun thing to do. I
mean, we remember exactly what it was like sitting where you are
sitting right now. It's a joyous experience to introduce people to
the Australia Project. Cynthia and I have done this once a year for
four years now. It's a different kind of vacation for us." Linda
said.

"This
sounds totally unbelievable. But you said at the beginning that this
is all true." I said.

"It
is all true." Linda said. "I didn't completely believe it
either. But it is all true. And it gets better every day."

"You
said that I could leave the terrafoam system today. Did you mean
that? Can we leave now?" I asked.

"There
are two minor things we have to cover first."

"There's
always a catch." I said. I had a sinking feeling.

"No.
It is not a catch. The first thing is that you have two shares in
4GC, Inc. Your father probably purchased one for you and one for your
wife. You can use only one of these shares. Is there someone else you
would like to bring with you? Obviously you are not married. But is
there a friend or a relative you would like to give your other share
to?"

"Can
I bring Burt?"

"Who
is he?"

"My
roommate. The guy I came in with?"

"Certainly.
You can bring Burt. Can you find him now?"

"That's
easy. He is two doors down. What's the other catch?"

"You
have to agree to the core principles." Linda said.

She
pulled a sheet out of my catalog and handed it to me. It only had
about 50 words on it. The title was, "The nine core Principles
of 4GC."

"By
signing this sheet of LC," Linda said, "You agree to abide
by Eric's core principles for 4GC. The only way for the Australia
Project to work is for everyone to abide by the core principles. They
will go over these principles in detail in the orientation, but this
is the high level. Within a week you will be able to recite these
from memory. Do you agree with these principles?"

I
read down through the principles. Each one was very short:

-
Everyone is equal

-
Everything is reused

-
Nothing is anonymous

-
Nothing is owned

-
Tell the truth

-
Do no harm

-
Obey the rules

-
Live your life

-
Better and better

"That's
it?" I asked. "You must be kidding."

"That's
it. You will be surprised how all-encompassing those 27 words can
be." Linda said. "That's what the orientation will help you
with."

"Can
I ask two questions?" I asked.

"Surely."

"How
can I do anything besides living my life?"

"Well,
you are living your life now..." Linda said, "and
personally I have to tell you that it leaves a lot to be desired!
Those three words are very important. Live Your Life means that you
are able get the most out of your life, as opposed to the least.
Instead of dying in Terrafoam, or dying in some job that you hate,
you live your life in the Australia Project in freedom and
prosperity. Live Your Life means that you are in control -- again,
the emphasis on freedom of choice. You decide what you want to do,
and then you are able to do it. You reach your full potential. Live
Your Life is the idea of thinking about your life as a whole, as
something that you get to design and control. Does that make sense?"

"More
sense than you can imagine."

"What
is your other question?" she asked.

"Better
and better?"

Linda
replied, "That is a declaration of innovation. The goal is to
make things continuously better and better for everyone in the
Australia Project through constant innovation. We are constantly
looking for problems, identifying them and solving them. We are
constantly looking for and implementing new ideas. Things get better
and better every day. Terrafoam is, by contrast, 'Worse and worse.'"

"Sign
me up!" I said.

She
handed me a marker from her pocket and I signed the LC. "Now
press your thumb on the square to authenticate it," She said. A
black thumbprint appeared in the box when I lifted my finger.

"Congratulations!"
They both said in unison.

"Can
I go get Burt?"

"Yes.
If you don't mind, you can sit with us as we explain 4GC to him, and
then we will leave."

I
found Burt in Mike's room, brought him down, and in 20 minutes he had
signed on as well. He was as incredulous as I was. We went down the
elevator and as we walked through the first floor of the building,
Linda spoke to the robot that approached her. Burt and I put on
headsets and signed out of the Terrafoam system with her. We walked
about a quarter mile to a waiting bus.

When
we got on, the bus was nearly full. It was easy to tell who was who.
Every terrafoam resident was wearing a brown coverall like me, while
all the escorts were dressed like rainbows. Everyone was looking
through the catalogs and talking.

Linda
and I sat down on one side. Burt and Cynthia sat down on the other,
and the bus pulled away. Like everyone else I was looking through the
catalog, reading and asking Linda questions during the whole drive.
We were on the bus for about three hours, but it seemed to go by in
10 minutes.

This
had all seemed something like a dream, but it started to become very
real when we arrived at our destination. It was an immense airport,
with dozens of jets waiting at the gates. There were dozens of buses
dropping off passengers, and hundreds of people moving through the
facility. Every jet was painted bright green and marked with a blue
4GC logo on the tail, and all of the buildings were painted the same
way.

We
got off the bus and it really hit me as we walked into the first part
of the building. "This is our first stop," said Linda.
"We've got to get you out of those dreadful coveralls." She
and Cynthia guided Burt and me into a room on our right, which opened
up into an immense store. It was filled with racks and racks of every
conceivable kind of clothing."