Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future (7 page)

"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."

Linda
and Cynthia picked out clothes for Burt and me. The robot sized us,
and we went to the dressing room and changed. Just that one thing --
putting on real clothing for the first time in a year -- made such an
impact on me.

It
was when we walked out of the store and got on the plane, however,
that I knew for sure we were not in Kansas any more...

Linda
and Cynthia seemed to know exactly where we were going. We simply
walked through the airport, then through a wide door with a large
group of other people. It was as though we were heading into an
auditorium, but instead we were on the plane.

This
airplane was immense. It had to be able to hold a thousand people at
least, and the entire cabin was appointed with the most opulent first
class features I had ever encountered. Every seat was a recliner that
was also able to fold out into a bed. They were arranged in pairs, 14
across at the point where we entered, and there were at least 5 other
doors that I could see with people streaming in. Linda took us to a
pair of seats and said, "This pair is for us. You take the far
seat." Cynthia and Burt sat in the next pair over.

There
was something odd going on, so I asked Linda, "How did we get
here?" Thinking back, I had realized something. There was not a
single sign anywhere in the building. There were no announcements
over any sort of PA system. Linda had never talked to anyone besides
Cynthia, Burt and me. The seats did not even have numbers on them.
Yet she had walked straight through the building, onto the plane,
straight to our seats and we sat down. So did everyone else.

"That
is one of the many things that you will learn during the
orientation." She said. "Now make yourself comfortable.
It's a bit of a flight."

"Can
I put my seat back?" I asked. I had seen that several other
people had already turned their seats into beds.

"Sure."
She said. She did not touch anything, but the seat unfolded
automatically and I had myself a very comfortable single-size bed.
She opened a drawer and handed me a blanket.

I
lay down, and I fell asleep immediately. It had been an incredibly
long day...

I
felt someone squeezing my hand as I came back to consciousness. I
opened my mind, and then my eyes, and it took several seconds for
things in my head to snap back into place so that I could realize
what was going on.

We
were still on the plane. Linda was still beside me, and she was the
one squeezing my hand. I looked at her and she looked at me. My seat
was raising itself slowly. All of that was normal. What was abnormal
was the walls of the plane.

I
had not really paid attention to it before, but this plane had no
windows. Instead, the walls, ceiling and floor had turned completely
transparent. Or so it seemed. I reached down and touched the floor
and apparently it was some kind of screen. The entire interior of the
plane was covered with this screen material, and it was displaying a
view that made the plane appear transparent. Overhead there was a
brilliant blue sky with a few puffy clouds. Beside us in the distance
were other planes. Below was a remarkable city and we were flying
right over it.

The
scene was absolutely amazing. An entire section of the landscape was
covered with the structure of the city, but it was entirely different
from a U.S. city. In the U.S. there would be rows of buildings
intersected by a grid of roads jammed with cars. Here the structure
was designed with an entirely different intention. The amount of
glass was the most impressive part. You could see huge glass bubbles
with lakes and parks inside of them. Tall buildings that looked like
apartment towers with an amazing variety of shapes sprouted
everywhere through the glass.

Up
ahead I could see the airport. It was immense, with dozens of planes
parked next to terminal buildings. To the far right of it were
several immensely tall black structures. With the plane transparent
like it was, I could see how tall they were, and apparently they did
not have tops. I asked Linda, and I was not the only one pointing to
them.

"Those
are the space elevators," she said, "You can ride them if
you want. They are just starting to be fully operational. There's
even an orbiting hotel and you can stay there for several days if you
like. It's a very popular spot for couples, but lots of people go
simply for the novelty of it."

"How
can you have space elevators built and operational already? Last I
heard they were still 50 years off in the U.S." I asked.

"Things
have slowed down a good bit in the U.S. I'm afraid." She
replied. "The economy retracted quite a bit when so many people
ended up in Terrafoam. Then you have the combined problems of egos,
politics and lawyers in the U.S. There are immensely rich people in
the U.S., but they all seem to have large egos. They would rather
compete and bash each other than cooperate. They are constantly suing
one another. And none of them wants to have anything to do with
taxes. With all that happening, it is very hard to get people
together to work on big projects. It makes it much harder to innovate
in the U.S. You will find that things are streamlined here, and we
are innovating at an incredible pace. It's all part of getting better
and better."

As
if to illustrate her point, the plane was now landing vertically.
There was no runway, nor any need for one. We settled next to the
terminal building and the walls became opaque and normal once again.
I suppose the walls could display anything, but they had become
beige. The floor looked like polished marble.

We
stepped out of the plane through the wide doors into the concourse
with about a thousand other people from the flight, and walked a
short distance. Here we stood in one of about 100 short lines. 100
"cars" would pull up, their overhead doors would flip open
automatically, two or four people would get in, the doors would all
close automatically, and those 100 cars would depart. A new set of
100 cars would arrive and the cycle would repeat. We stood in line
for less than two minutes and we were on our way. Inside the car,
Linda and I faced Burt and Cynthia sitting across from each other in
very nice reclining seats not unlike those on the plane. The interior
was roomy and well-lit, but there were no windows.

"We
are only going 24.3 miles," Linda said, "So this will only
take 4.25 minutes."

Since
the car had no windows, it was impossible to tell what was happening.
But I could feel the car accelerate briskly. Three or four minutes
later I could feel it decelerate. The door popped open and we stepped
out, through an archway and into the lobby of an enormous building.

From
the lobby to the roof there was an open atrium at least 70 stories
tall. The roof overhead was glass. Around the sides of the atrium
were balconies with plants streaming down, and then off the balconies
were thousands of rooms. It gave you an incredible feeling of light
and volume, and with the plants it was beautiful.

"This
is where you'll both be staying during the orientation," Linda
said to Burt and me. We walked a short distance and stepped into one
of the glass elevators that ran up one of the corners of the atrium.
There were no buttons inside the elevator, but it stopped on a floor
and we got out. We walked a short distance to a door that had Burt's
name on it. The door opened and Burt and Cynthia walked in. Linda and
I walked to the next room, which had my name on it, and entered.

It
was an amazing suite. As the door opened, I looked across a
remarkably nice living room and out through a floor-to-ceiling window
that showed a panoramic view of the landscape. To my left was a small
kitchen, to my right a short hallway which opened into a bedroom. I
walked toward the window to absorb the view. About a mile away was a
line of glass buildings, apparently identical to the one I was
standing in. On the ground between me and that line of buildings were
forests, gardens, parks, lakes, trails, streams. I could see people
riding bicycles, kayaking in a river, walking. Off to one side I
could see what appeared to be an amusement park and a stadium.

I
looked around the apartment. It was hard to believe, but yesterday I
was living in Terrafoam with no way out. Now I was living in what
appeared to be a 600 square foot suite at a 5-star luxury hotel.
Everything in the room was perfect. There was a basket of fruit and
munchies sitting on the coffee table, and fresh flowers on the
credenza. I opened the card in the flowers, "Here's to your
life! Love, Linda"

Linda
said, "The orientation is going to start in about an hour. Why
don't you take a shower and change your clothes. I'll relax here."
She sank into one of the chairs in the living room and closed her
eyes.

When
I was through with my shower, I found my closet filled with clothes
that all appeared to fit perfectly. I picked an outfit and put it on.
Walking into the living room I smelled food, which was a good thing
because I was starving.

"How
do I look?" I asked.

"Fabulous!"
she said. "Very trendy. I got something for us" It was a
extraordinary meal, although I had no idea where it came from.

"Today
is going to be an interesting day for you," she said. "It
will also feel a little odd. You've got the time zone change. You are
in a completely different country. There are many new things for you
to absorb. I just want you to relax and let the day flow. If you get
tired, let me know. But I doubt you will get tired today. You had a
good sleep on the plane. Let's get going."

We
took the elevator down, past the lobby and then below it. We got off
and entered a large auditorium with hundreds of other people
streaming in as well. Linda led us to a pair of seats and Burt and
Cynthia were already there. The presentation started about three
minutes after we arrived.

The
first presentation was remarkable, and it kicked off a series of
events over two days. These events combined 3D, sound, live speakers,
musical performances, tours, and testimonials to create an extremely
powerful production. It was one of the most inspirational things I
had ever seen or heard. I learned a number of details. For example, I
learned where we were located on the continent of Australia. I
learned that we would be living here for six weeks during the
orientation process. I learned that currently about 400,000 new
residents were arriving in Australia every day. I learned about the
daily schedule over the six week period. In orientation we would be
learning about the credit system, housing, the robot culture, picking
products - everything from food to clothing to vacation packages -
interacting with other residents, volunteer opportunities, physical
fitness, careers, the legal system, voting, etc. It would be a very
busy six weeks.

The
first two days acted as a general overview of the Australia project
as a whole, but spent a good bit of time covering three things -- the
history of the Australia project, the economy of the project and the
core principle of "living your life."

Distilling
two days of presentations down into a few sentences, here's what I
learned. As best I could tell, the basic idea behind the Australia
project was to create heaven on earth, or at least the closest
facsimile of heaven possible. Heaven was different for different
people, so your task was to define heaven for yourself and make it
happen. As long as your view of heaven did not unduly impinge on
anyone else's view, or require that you consume massive amounts of
resources at the expense of someone else, you could bring your
version of heaven to reality for yourself. It was stated in the
presentation much more eloquently than that, but that was the gist of
it.

There
was a very good explanation of why we needed the orientation process.
We would be entering a society very different from any society we had
ever experienced before. This society offered a huge array of
options, and those options grew constantly. The society was
well-balanced, with a huge pool of people interacting in very human
and humane ways, and there was no desire to throw off that balance by
letting a bunch of new people in who did not know how to participate.
To live our lives, we would be doing it in the context of this
society, and everyone wanted us making a smooth entry. There were
apparently no penalties for mistakes. If the entry was not smooth, we
would be re-oriented.

One
part of the presentation featured a speaker who absolutely blew me
away. He was the best motivational speaker I had ever heard. He asked
us to think about a set of basic, personal questions. Like: What am I
passionate about? What do I most enjoy doing? What have I always
wanted to try but had never gotten around to? How did I want to spend
my time? In what sort of environment did I enjoy living? What kind of
people did I like having around me? What kinds of hobbies did I
enjoy? How far did I want to take them? Were there any that I would
want to do constantly for a period of time?

For
the first time in my life, in other words, I was told I had nearly
total freedom to do anything I could imagine. All I had to do was
figure out what to imagine. The goal of the orientation process was
to make me aware of all of the possibilities and how to put them
together into my view of heaven.

The
presentation ran through a number of examples. Essentially, everyone
in Australia is living on a gigantic, luxury cruise ship. The trip is
already paid for, for life, and you are free to do whatever you like
with your time. The robots are doing all the work, and you get to
partake freely of their output. In other words, for the first time
ever, everyone is truly equal and everyone is truly free.