Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future (5 page)

"No,
I didn't. But I should have. We shouldn't design a society like that
-- it's like the Nazi's designing the death camps." I said.

Burt
replied quickly, "Tell that to the Nazis. Tell that to the
people living like royalty today. They would give you a thousand
reasons why they deserve what they've got. They worked hard. Blah
blah blah. They would also gladly tell us why we, and all the other
poor people and welfare recipients, don't deserve anything. It's
exactly the same logic that allowed you to have a swimming pool while
half the world starved to death. It makes no sense, unless you are
the one with the swimming pool. Then it makes great sense to you. And
the people with the swimming pools have the power to enforce it, so
that's how it is."

"But
that's stupid." I said, "What possible justification is
there for a whole population of people to be living on welfare or to
be living in dirt shacks and starving?"

"Did
you think about that when you were swimming? Of course not. That is
not human nature. Out of sight, out of mind. You could not see the
people starving, so you did not think about them. You didn't care in
the least." Burt said.

I
replied, "We could change it now. Robots are doing all the work.
Human beings -- all human beings -- could now be on perpetual
vacation. That's what bugs me. If society had been designed for it
somehow, we could all be on vacation instead of on welfare. Everyone
on the planet could be living in luxury. Instead, they are planning
to kill us off. Did you hear that women were trying to drink the
water out of the river? Some people think they're putting
contraceptives in our food in the cafeteria."

"Yes.
I also heard that the river water makes you incredibly sick. The
robots don't even try to stop them." Burt said.

"They
need to boil the water."

"In
what???" Burt looked over at me. Then he looked ahead at the
river. Then he looked at me again. "OK, OK. So what would be
better? How would you create a different society, rather than living
like this?"

"I
have no idea. And even if I did, it wouldn't change anything."

We
walked on in silence for about half a mile. Three robots approached
us. One of them said, "Time to turn around Jacob Lewis105 and
Burton Forrester416. There is a rabid dog in the next zone and, for
your safety, we cannot allow you to proceed."

"Thank
you," I said, and we turned around. The robots followed at a
respectful distance for 50 paces and then dispersed.

"A
rabid dog? I've never heard that one." Burt said. We walked all
the way back to the building in silence. We took the elevator up to
the 14th floor, walked down the main corridor, then down our corridor
to our room.

I
walked in thinking my own thoughts, and then jumped back three feet
when I noticed them. I nearly knocked Burt over, except that he was
as surprised as I was at the sight of the two women sitting on his
bunk. They were watching the television and turned to us as we
entered with smiles on their faces.

"Who
are you?" I asked, stating the obvious question. The two women
stood. They were dressed casually but in very nice clothing. They
both wore jewelry -- something I had not seen for a year. Burt and I
were the same age, and these women appeared younger, although it is
so hard to tell these days. They certainly were not terrafoam
residents. And both were carrying thick books. They appeared to be
either phone books from a bygone era, or large catalogs like Sears
used to have long ago. I had not seen a book like that for many
years.

"I'll
second that, " was Burt's reaction.

"We
are so sorry to startle you," said the woman on the left. "We
know this is unexpected, but we are here to talk to Jacob Lewis105.
Are either of you him?"

"I
am Jacob Lewis105," I said. "How did you get in here? I am
amazed that the robots allowed it."

"That
will become clear within the next hour. Would it be possible for us
to speak to you alone, Mr. Lewis105?"

"I
guess. Burt, can I have the room for a little bit?"

Burt
said, "I'll go down and talk to Mike. Come get me if you need
me."

They
sat back down on the bunk, which really was no easy task given the
space available. They looked so tremendously out of place in the room
to begin with. They offered me a seat as well.

"Jacob
Lewis105, what we are going to tell you today may be quite surprising
to you, but it is all true. It will take approximately 30 minutes and
then, with your permission, you will be able to exit the terrafoam
system today. May we begin?"

I
reached out to shake hands with the woman on my left. "Call me
Jake," I said.

She
took my hand and said, "I am Linda." I turned to greet the
woman on my right and she said, "And I am Cynthia."

Linda
started right in, "Cynthia and I are here to talk to you about
the Australia Project. This is for you." She handed me the thick
book she had been holding. On the cover it said, "Australia
Project Catalog", with a picture of a happy group of people on
the beach, and along the right hand side there was a row of pictures
showing a house, a shirt, a meal on a table and several electronic
products. I started to flip through the catalog.

"Have
you ever heard of the Australia Project?" Cynthia asked.

But
I was still looking at the catalog. It was a giant paper catalog,
printed in full color. The paper was thin, and the book had to have
over 3,000 pages in it. It was a lot like an old-fashioned Sears
catalog -- pages and pages of products. As I flipped through it,
there were hundreds of pages showing different styles of clothing.
Hundreds of pages showing different meals. Hundreds of pages showing
all different kinds of vacation resorts. Thousands of pages of
"consumer products," for lack of a better word:
Electronics, appliances, furniture, tools, you name it.

"Is
this paper?" I asked. A catalog like this containing this much
paper was obscene. It was amazing to me that anyone still printed
paper catalogs.

Linda
said, "It's like paper. We call it LC, or laminar carbohydrate.
The terrafoam robots won't let us bring anything metal or electronic
into the terrafoam system, so this is the best thing we have to show
you what the Australia Project is about."

"Have
you ever heard of the Australia Project?" Cynthia asked.

"No,
I haven't," I said as I continued to flip.

"A
number of years ago, your father purchased two shares of 4GC, Inc. in
your name. These shares entitle you and one other person to come live
as citizens of the Australia Project. You may leave the terrafoam
system with us today if you choose to." Linda said.

I
stopped flipping and looked at her. "I can leave the terrafoam
system today? What does that mean?" I asked. She had my
undivided attention.

"It
means that you can walk out of this building with us today, fly to
Australia and begin a new life as a citizen of the Australia
Project." Linda said.

"How
is that possible? Why would the robots allow it? Are you telling me
the robots will just let me hop on a bus and drive away?" I
asked.

"More
or less. You do have to sign out of the system." Linda said.

"Excuse
me if I laugh out loud. And I don't mean to be rude. But if that's
the case, then why haven't I been able to simply walk away? I've been
trying to find a way out of here for a year." I pointed out.

"The
robots won't let you walk away because, if they did, you would end up
as a homeless person on some city street. Without a job, you are by
default homeless in the American economy. None of the wealthy people
want to look at homeless people, so you are warehoused here and
forced to stay here." Linda said.

"In
terrafoam, you are out of sight and out of mind, as they say,"
Cynthia added. "Since we are providing the transportation, and
we are taking you to another country, the robots are happy to see you
go. It means one less mouth for them to feed."

Linda
said. "If you would allow us, we would like to spend ten minutes
telling you about the Australia Project. What we are talking about
will make much more sense to you at that point, and it will be much
easier for you to make the decision."

"The
decision?" I asked.

"The
decision whether you want to leave with us or not." Linda said.

"I'm
all ears." I replied.

Linda
began describing.

"The
Australia Project is what we call a fourth generation civilization.
Prior to the Australia Project, civilization has been through three
phases. There was the hunt/gather phase, the agrarian phase, and then
the industrial phase. What you are experiencing here in the terrafoam
system is the ultimate destination for many of the industrialized
nations of the world. In your case, in America, robots created a
massive concentration of wealth that, eventually, imprisoned millions
of people."

Cynthia
added, "What you are experiencing in America is the worst that
the robots have to offer. Robots control the humans, rather than vice
versa."

Linda
continued, "The Australia Project was born specifically to solve
these problems and 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."