The Australia Project

""The Australia Project was born in 2012 specifically to create a new form of
human civilization. It is a fourth generation civilization conceived of by Eric
Renson. Eric was an American who was heavily involved in what was then called
the open software movement. As an American, he had seen Manna in its earliest
phases. He could envision what Manna, combined with the coming robots, would
mean to America and Western civilization as a whole."

"He at first tried to fight it, but realized that was impossible. Instead, he
eventually came up with a completely new way to think about human societies. In
the Australia Project, humans get the best that the robots have to offer, rather
than the worst. He took the open source model of free software, added the robots
and brought the model to the material world. The revolutionary idea in open
source software is the fact that no one owns the code. Because there is no
owner, the code is free to everyone."

Cynthia picked up the thread. "Eric's key concept was extremely simple. What he
realized is that, in a robotic civilization, everything can be free."

"How is that possible?" I asked.

"It works like this. Let's say that you own a large piece of land. Say something
the size of your state of California. This land contains natural resources.
There is the sand on the beaches, from which you can make glass and silicon
chips. There are iron, gold and aluminum ores in the soil, which you can mine,
refine and form into any shape. There are oil and coal deposits under the
ground. There is carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen in the air and in the
water. If you were to own California, all of these resources are 'free.' That
is, since you own them, you don't have to pay anyone for them and they are
there for the taking."

"If you have a source of energy and if you also own smart robots, the robots can
turn these resources into anything you want for free. Robots can grow free food
for you in the soil. Robots can manufacture things like steel, glass,
fiberglass insulation and so on to create free buildings. Robots can weave
fabric from cotton or synthetics and make free clothing. In the case of this
catalog you are holding, nanoscale robots chain together glucose molecules to
form laminar carbohydrates. As long as you have smart robots, along with energy
and free resources, everything is free."

Linda chimed in, "This was Eric's core idea -- everything can be free in a
robotic world. Then he took it one step further. He said that everything should
be free. Furthermore, he believed that every human being should get an equal
share of all of these free products that the robots are producing. He took the
American phrase 'all men are created equal' quite literally."

I said, "That sounds great. In fact, that sounds perfect. But Eric does not own
California. Rich people own all of the land and all of the resources in the
United States, and they are going to give none of it to anyone. They expect to
be paid for what is 'theirs'."

"Yes, that is true. That ownership model is, ultimately, why you are here in the
terrafoam system. If a small group of people own all of the resources and have
complete control of them, then everyone else is at their mercy." Linda said.
"The key to Eric's brilliance is the fact that he found a way around this
problem."

"Eric realized that ownership, in the Western sense, is the problem. His
solution was to turn ownership upside down. Eric used the corporate ownership
model to create a civilization that accomplishes his goals."

"Eric formed a corporation called 4GC, Inc. He sold shares in this corporation
for $1,000 each to one billion people. You will learn about all of this during
your orientation. He put lots of rules around the shares to avoid abuse - for
example, one person can access only one share of stock. The upshot is that, by
selling one billion shares of stock in 4GC, Inc., Eric accumulated one trillion
dollars in the corporation."

"With that money, he started to build his new civilization. The first thing he
needed was land -- resources. He approached several governments, and eventually
formed a partnership with the government of Australia. He was able to buy 1.5
million square miles of the Australian outback for $250 billion. Eric then
began buying other resources he needed -- factories, mines, companies around
the world. He also began building new factories in Australia, all of them
completely automated, to build robots. With his $1 trillion, he needed to buy
all of the resources necessary for one billion people to be completely
self-sufficient. He was able to accomplish that goal in Australia for about
$600 billion."

"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 square 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."

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."

"Once you get to Australia, the way you order clothing will be nothing like
this. But this is what you are used to right now, so it is easier. Let's pick
you out some decent clothes."

...

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