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The Current System is Obsolete

In a settlement that practices neotopian order, people with (outside) debt could seek refuge. If the bank comes to take the home they live in, within the settlement, the home does not belong to anyone (as it technically belongs to everyone) specifically and is therefore not for sale. The bank has no possible claim.

Our economy would be fundamentally sound, without anyone trying to skim off the top as middlemen in transactions, as is the case in a capitalist market. An economy where scamming others for personal good does not pay off even a little because it's so much easier to do it the right way.

Our current markets are obsolete in a sense, as they are fragile, but they do indeed function pretty well when used honestly. The problem is essentially this. Those that control the mechanisms of the economy, in this case bankers, are in a prime position to exploit the system without anyone finding out. Power is too great a temptation for most men. Eventually the system becomes corrupt and collapses.

I feel as though this is a feature, not a bug. Market values are based on how investors feel, a whim even. There is no raw data in the numbers that means aything useful because it's all based on arbitrary currency values.

A stable system would result from keeping detailed economic statistics of consumption and production, supplying useful indicators to everyone. Even creating such a system would likely garner popularity, eventually enough to go mainstream. Essentially, it would be a credit card linked to a website to track exactly what you buy and how much you produce. The cards could be anonymous, too. Since the purpose is to gain economic data, anyone using any card is still going to record the data. As an incentive, people could look up their own card number to check out their statistics.

This economy is driven by everyone doing free work. Because they work for free, the work is never obligatory. The credit cards are used to track task accomplishments, but otherwise, working is pretty much the same: you show up at a particular time, do some work, have the supervisor sign off on a job well done, and swipe your card. Pretty simple. Not only that but you are also credited with Experience Points (XP) for your work that should approximately reflect your skill levels in a particular area.

The people do work for free because they know a simple fact. Society provides them with everything they need and want, so in return they give freely to their society, knowing they will be rewarded in kind, even though the reward is indirect. Having all your data stored on this card is useful for merchants to determine whether or not they should give you a 'rare' item should you ask for it. If you contribute nothing, the Porshe dealer will not give you a Porshe, but you will still get what you need to live and prosper

Representative-based government is now obsolete. The internet makes it easy for citizens to represent themselves, to have their own voice be heard. Moreover, neotopian citizens are constantly voting with their actions anyway. They do not necessarily need their voice to be heard on an official website because they can make the changes themselves.

The core principles of neotopian society are as simple and sound as can be. First is that no one is granted any authority over anyone else. Essentially, you must abide by 'treat others the way you wish to be treated'. This also means no punishment is allowed, but that doesn't mean we are defenseless against criminals. With the internet as pervasive as it would be in neotopia, every citizen having access, common criminals, if there are any, would be quickly called out and pressured by society to change their ways. You must always remember there are no police stopping you from murdering someone, but instead you are opening yourself up to the consequences of humans, some of which are wild animals. Proceed with caution (don't piss people off) and you will have no problems.

Another core pillar of neotopia has to do with knowledge and its wide accessibility. Everyone is responsible for everything. Therefore, we must provide public documentation for every system that runs in society. With documentation and general education, the population will know how to do all the jobs several times over. It would be the equivalent of the effect interchangeable parts had on the industrial revolution. This knowledge of systems would be of value because they are useful and would probably comprise a sizeable percentage of the settlement's value, even though it could not be measured economically. Value, in this case, being defined as something that is useful.

In the end, all we need to do is provide the public with good alternatives to the things they dispise. Creating new, novel systems to replace the old failing ones seems pretty easy in this day in age. If nobody beats me to it, I will spend a fair percentage of my time designing the systems that would be necessary to completely replace centralized authority and control, instead giving it to the people, the individuals, the only ones that actually live in this country.

Comments (2) 06.02.2011. 03:25

My Moral Code

[subject to change if it must]

No human has any authority over any other human. Thusly, I treat everyone the way I would like to be treated. This includes telling them things they might not want to hear but need to hear. It also includes not submitting to behavior regulation attempts used by theose in power. Every person can reject attempted authority and should not be criticized or otherwise punished for standing up for themselves. Only cowards would denounce a person for defending their livelihood. Of course, you should also defend yourself in a way that will not get you squished. It is better to run and fight another day.

Nothing is good or bad. It just is. It is our own point of view that makes it either. I choose to view everything in my life as good because I love life and everything about it. You see, all events, good, bad and seemingly unrelated, are contributing to my destiny.

Life is about choosing what you want happening around you. You have the power to change anything about your life so long as you are willing to make the sacrifice it requires. If you are unhappy with what is currently going on around you, you can simply choose to walk away. It's really that easy. Though, as with all abilities, you must too exercise this one with care.

Be mindful of your vibes. Your actions affect everyone else and everyone else's actions affect you. Take care not to make others angry by neglecting your actions, for you would not want them to anger you. Conversely, spend as much time as you can sending out good vibes, actions that will likely make people happy and give them good spirits.

"There's no such thing as problems, Mr. Green. Only situations." - Avi, Revolver by Guy Ritchie

We should explore all possibilities. When these possibilities become power, we must choose to exercise them with care and caution, but always exercise them, even if we are afraid to do so. Making things illegal is a declaration of fear. We must confront our fears and understand them so that we may defeat them.

Only the adaptable survive. Never stop, never quit striving to become better. The ones most willing to respond to change will survive in the long run.

Live for the moment. Choose your future.

Question everything always, especially your own and others' certainties.

Your primary objective is personal survival. If your success must come at the cost of others, you are hurting yourself in the long run for short term gain. A good survival strategy, therefore, is to dedicate considerable efforts toward saving the whole so they will save you. It would suck if you were the only one alive.

The objective of life is to reverse-engineer the fundamental laws of our universe and use them as we see fit. Once we are masters of our domain, we must strive to go further. We must remove all objectives that prevent us from accomplishing this goal of constant advancement.

Be the change.

Comments (0) 05.29.2011. 16:07

Enslaved by Paper

Hey you. Yeah, you over there. The one stressed about your financial situation or future. I have something to ask you.

Can you eat money (and survive)? Can you make clothes (that you would want to wear) out of money? Will it power your car? Can you drink a refreshing glass of cash when you are thirsty? Can you build anything from it?

The answer to all of these questions is no. Unless you're a troll. Regardless, money is worthless. It has symbolic value and power which we give it.

Let's take a look at what has happened in the past few years. Our Congress sold us out using our own money. Bankers are making record-breaking bonuses while the economy isn't doing so great, pitiful you might call it. The American public suffers indignities or worse.

I have a suggestion for you. Stop paying your debts. All of you. Your friends too. Every time we give our money to the banks, we give them more power to continue bending us over in a methodical fashion, emotionless, down to a science. It sounds ridiculous, but they can't take everyone's house, and they will try.

The game they play is simple. They have something that you want: credit. Rather, they can make sure you get and maintain a good credit score if you play by their rules. Your fear is losing your credit. If you are unafraid to lose your credit, they have no power over you. If you are unafraid to lose your car, your house or have a lien put on your property, then you have beat them in their game.

I have heard "debt" defined as a claim on future income. The only way we can ensure future income is with a salaried position at MegaCorp, Inc. A peaceful refusal to modern slavery is to simply stop paying your bills. Obviously, you must be prepared for the consequences, but if we unite against our common enemy, we can win our lives back.

How many of you will be in debt the rest of your life? The next 25 or 30 years (new homeowners)? Maybe the next 4 years if you bought a car. Maybe the next 10 or 15 years if you went to an expensive university.

You willingly accept this slavery, believing it is the price you must pay for having a place to live, an education and transportation. You must work 40 hours a week in a job you probably hate to have a chance of making enough money to pay any type of loans.

By generously lending money, banks ensure that you work for them your entire life. They want to own you.

End modern slavery. Vote with your actions, not your money.

Comments (0) 05.26.2011. 06:06

Project Personal Freedom Mission Statement

"The problem is choice" - Neo.

We all have the choice to be free. Pure freedom means zero security and vise versa. I have had security my entire life, and now I'm going to push the limits of my freedom and security. I choose to be free.

Freedom will not be an easy journey. Freedom is not a destination because you are inherently free by default. You choose to be secure by alleviating yourself of the burden freedom brings.

I will find my own freedom, my personal limits, and describe them as well as I can for you. Once I have adequately described the limitations of human freedom and survival, I will help you to find your own path there.

Freedom is not having to rely on anyone else for your survival. I want to teach everyone to be free and I want to build the infrastructure for doing so.

On my journey I will meet everyone I need to meet to accomplish my goal of freeing the world from slavery.

In a lot of ways, I think the Matrix is really about society instead of the literal interpretation of the movie. Those in power are pulling the wool over our eyes with the myth of a perfect world and using us for energy while they do it. They will and do say and do anything to keep you jumping through their hoops and not your own. If they had the technological resources, I am almost certain they would implement something like the Matrix to keep us in control.

You see, science fiction movies have never been warning us about technology destroying us. Quite the opposite. It's all about the ways we will destroy ourselves if we are not careful. The Matrix and Skynet aren't artificial intelligences that decided to kill humans one day. Instead they were are result of the current societal machine that was allowed to become too advanced. If allowed to go unchecked, our current machinery will drive us straight off a cliff and only the ones that learn to fly on the way down will survive.

Between now and the end of the road society is on, I am learning to fly.

I don't honestly believe society will fall from a cliff though. I'm certainly not the only one that recognizes we can't continue on like this. Humankind is procrastinator and I feel like we will pull through by the seat of our pants. However, pulling through by the seat our pants won't cut it in the long run. So instead, I'm going to figure out how to do things the right way from the ground up.

It is my ultimate goal to open an institution of enlightenment so to speak. By that name, I mean a facility where students can learn to be free.

I won't go into too much detail, but essentially I want to experiment with systems to allow peaceful anarchism. I know the biggest fear of anarchy is that someone will run amuck with no one to stop them. To prevent this, you will need some type of system that is not under the control of any one group of people. Using the scientific method, I intend on figuring out such a system.

Why?

Glad you asked. Individuals can only achieve anywhere near their full potential if they are truly free to do whatever they want, to learn the world in their own way. I don't want to just solve our economic and political problems. I want to go beyond. Only once we have resolved these inner-tensions can we begin to live life to its fullest.

Here we are, it's the year 2011 and people are pretty much pissed that we don't have anti-gravity cars and teleporters yet. What people don't realize is how much technological magic comes before we even make these gadgets. Imagine a world where a magic wand could spew fire and cast spells. A place where you can download your food or the newest car. A place where you can transform a sofa into a dog at the push of a button, assuming you'd want to do something like that. This is a world where possibilities are only limited by our imaginations.

Not only can we get there, we are destined to. Well, at least some species from this planet is destined to. If we don't get our act together, it won't be us. The fastest we can get there is for everyone to be free. The people that rule the world aren't using their power to its potential so I'm kind of sad about that and it needs to change.

So. Step 1: personal freedom. Step 2: teach everyone else personal freedom. Step 3: ??? Step 4: magical powers. Sounds like win to me.

Comments (0) 05.17.2011. 02:10

T Minus Fifty Four Days

Well, I have 54 days left until the big plunge. I've been in a slow process of making piles of stuff I own that I will either take with me or leave behind in some manner.

I feel sort of ridiculous to be honest, telling people my plan. I mean, what sort of person has a decent job, a place to live and a car and suddenly decides to up and leave? It seems like a lot of people are, actually. I have a friend that rock climbs and he knows a bunch of them that left traditional society to rock climb. Check out http://www.dirtbagdiaries.com/ditch-logic for a story about two friends that left their "perfect" lives to find themselves on a bike ride from Alaska to Argentina.

In the end, I know I'm doing the right thing. It's my life and I will live it as I choose, not how others choose for me to live it. That being said, it's still terrifying. Leaving the comfort and security of a bed, hot showers, groceries within two miles and the security of twice-monthly paychecks, something I've known my entire life, is unsettling to say the least.

I feel like I'm underplanning, but I also think it would go against the nature of my journey to plan too much. I'm not really sure what my life will be like after July 1st, so I can't say what I will need to accomodate it. If you don't have a final destination, you are forced to proceed one step at a time. So that's what I'm doing. Between now and then, I will have to finish going through my things and decide what I will take with me.

I also have to figure out what to do about my bills, but I have some things in mind.

Events I'm attending in the future include my skydiving trip on july 2nd, then the OAR concert July 29th. After that, it's Burning Man 2012. Other than that, I will be a plastic grocery bag blowing in the wind. For money, being a linux geek, I can put ads on craigslist if I really need to, but I'd sort of like to experiment with some sort of bartering. It will be an experiment to say the least, but I'd like to try giving away my services for free, or more specifically a 'pay what you want' system. I don't accept cash. My services are widely varied... I can repair computers and cars and most things around the house and yard. I'm also an electrical engineering dropout, for what that's worth. I would say I could be very useful in any community. I hope to be a valuable asset to the world community.

Comments (0) 05.08.2011. 14:51

The Human Organism

How our world is presently changing.
Less than 50 people rule the world. It's a fact. Look it up if you like. Maybe the name 'Rothschild' will get you started. But I won't go into it here. They are remnants from a time when the world was easily controlled.
Consider that in 1970 there was less than 4 billion people on the planet Earth. 40 years later, there is almost 7 billion. Coupled with diversity, the world becomes nearly impossible to control.
You might have noticed that every attempt to control humans fails after a period of time. Every single government ever. Except of course those still standing today. They will eventually however, and here is why:
All particles in the universe flow freely. They have a particular orbit or path in their life, but within this plane, they are free to move as they wish. Translated into people, we can choose to do anything we can think of, we have the ability to flow freely. There are some that take advantage of their freedom by using it to restrict the freedoms of others. This results in various forms of government. The worst part is, people actually like being ruled.
For the societal machine to run efficiently, it must be lubricated, or literally, people can't have their wants impeded.
Tell me, what would happen if you legalized murder? Chaos? War? Anarchy? All three?
No. Not even close. The people that pissed everyone off would die. Though, if you did that, then people would start murdering people over property, slaughtering them and taking their lands. Of course, we could prevent this by making property easy to obtain. Easier than it is to kill someone anyway. But if we did this, then there wouldn't be enough for everyone is a common lie. There is plenty for everyone, but the people in power don't share so well.
So if murdering is legal and letting everyone have a share prevents murder, surely we should all grow lazy for not having to work for our share. If only there were a way to let the whole world know how much a person contributes versus how much they consume. I know, why don't we put it on Twitter? And you know, if we have all this data for product consumption and production, we have a pretty accurate way to measure our economy. Look at that, suddenly, we don't even need money anymore.
The best solutions are a result of everyone working together, trusting each other to do the right thing. So how can you trust someone you don't know? While we're logging all this data, I don't suppose we could log a person's deeds, do you? For instance, if you met a person and somehow instantly knew that they've killed 5 people, you would be afraid of them. Of course, if you read further, you would find out that they were murdered because each of them had murdered 10 others. If you read on, you'll find that the 10 people murdered by the five that were murdered by the man you've just met, you'll find out that those five were oppression assassins who dedicated their lives to ensuring freedom for everyone (except of course the oppressors... hypocrite). So now you should not be afraid of them, unless you are an oppression assassin, but you should probably give him a mean look for being anti-freedom.
All of this knowledge would be a complete and accurate live feed of human history. This would only work if you could hear and see everyone at all times... a fascist's wet dream. On the other hand, you might accept that if we knew we were being watched at all times and accountability was guaranteed, we might not want to do anything "bad". We need our privacy, though don't we? Not really, to be honest. If everyone is on public TV all the time, then you'd be lucky to have people that want to spend their time watching you masturbate or have sex with your wife. After all, there's always someone more twisted than you. The point I'm making is that embarassment can be solved by making it public. It is an insignificant price to pay for total accountability.
Having taken these steps, we can create a stable system where nobody has more freedoms, rights or responsibilities than any other. It would be rather straightforward to delegate all tasks to the public. You would need a way to categorize the skills of the individuals to ensure their capability of task completion, which at this point should be no problem.
So how does it all work? Mass communication, the ability to let everyone know everything. The data will naturally become organized in an optimal fashion over time. How? That's the best part.
A free market cannot work unless it is completely free. An ideal system must be run in ideal conditions. Capitalism is not a free market system because it lets some have more control than others through the amount of capital one obtains. It essence, it is unfair. Nor can the free market be plagued by rules and regulations for what should be obvious reasons. The only way to have a free market is one that is based on the actions of the individual.
Society becomes a machine where voting is done through action. It is equal because we can only do one thing at a time. That thing is our free choice. It is fair because no one interferes with any other. If they do, it is up to us, as it has always been, to prevent oppression.
It all happens with the free transmission of information. Information is the ultimate source of wealth and power. If we give everyone all the wealth and power that exists, we achieve unimaginable feats of greatness. We must admit that we are all here to do the same thing... live our lives. Nobody was here first because we're all here right now if we live in the moment. Then we must learn how we get in other people's way. Then we must learn the fundamental laws of nature. That everything can be manipulated for good or bad so we must always be vigilant.
The greatest threat to mankind has always been itself. It's time we started keeping a watch on it. We can remove the baby monitoring devices one we can all trust each other.

If you want, go ahead and dismiss my ideas as radical and nonsense, especially in our lifetime. But I'll tell you why this is inevitable. Like I said, everything works best when we work together. Social media is exploding, quickly making mainstream irrelevant. Open source software is as good if not much better than commercial software, not only for the pocketbook but its potential to do good. Corporations that implement an equal-ownership model make more profit than those with a CEO. Everything is better with teamwork. Eventually everything will be done with teamwork because it is better and more efficient.

We will soon be faced with the decision to become efficient or risk societal collapse and probably the deaths of all but relatively few. The inefficiency is further complicated by the fact that hierarchical design structures are inherently slow and not very adaptable due to the chain of command that must occur for tasks to be executed. In short, the human organism is a big dumb animal.

Since you're still listening, I have one last thing for you to ponder. If the societal machine is made of people and the machine is forced to get better or die, eventually, the best possible societal machine will result. If each person is the owner of one of Earth's most powerful programmable processors, and the Internet will result in all the processors being wired together, then Earth's resultant societal machine will be the most powerful supercomputer man has ever imagined. If the processors can communicate a large majority of our sensory perception to everyone else in real-time or near-real-time, the supercomputer would spawn a super-consciousness. This god-like entity would quickly become more and more intelligent, consuming knowledge and solving problems effortlessly.

Earth (or any planet for that matter): a rock floating in space that will grow a mini-god with just the right amount of sunlight.

Comments (0) 04.25.2011. 18:09

The Quest Giver

More and more I see my life through the viewpoint of a person playing a very realistic MMORPG.

MMOs are adventerous and a lot of fun. But the MMO we call IRL is the best one yet. I've decided to play IRL the way I want to play it, not how everyone else want me to play.

A few days ago, maybe a week ago, I put in my resignation notice at work. My last day is July 1st, 2011. Incidentally, I'm going skydiving for the second time on July 2nd with some friends.

Since I put in my notice to work, I've been very exhuberant about life. I can't wait for the adventure to fully begin. Until then, I need to start gathering supplies and tying up any loose ends. People are asking me what I'm going to do. I don't really know what to tell them. I'm just going flow with the river of life.

So the Insight cable man came by my house yesterday. He wanted to know how my recently installed internet service was working out.(as it happens, I'm paying extra for turbo service (15Mbit) but I'm not getting the speeds. the tech that came out told me there's 500 to 1000 customers all using the same 42Mbit switch. upgrade your damn network!). After some conversation, I told him my plan to go adventuring and he gives me my first quest!

The cable guy tells me about a city I would really like called Cooke City, Montana. He proceded to tell me about why it is a good location and a man that I should talk to named Tom. I will know Tim because he drinks Moose Drool beer at the Elk Head Hotel. He wrote the details on a bright orange flyer and gives it to me. This is EXACTLY like the type of quest in World Warcraft (and probably other games) that helps you advance the storyline! Very exciting.

Cooke City won't be my first destination, as I have a few stops to make along the way, but I'll make it there eventually, Hopefully while the weather is warm. Here is a link to Cooke City.

Until next time, enjoy your life's quest and stay safe.

Comments (0) 04.20.2011. 11:40

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