Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future (8 page)

Some
people on a cruise ship like this would want to spend their time
lying by the pool tanning and sipping margaritas. They are free to do
that. Some people would want to spend a lot of time raising their
children. They are free to do that. Some would want to be bass
fishing all day. That's OK too.

But
there would be a tremendous number of people who would want to
fulfill life-long dreams -- they would see the unlimited free time of
a life-long cruise as an amazing opportunity. Anyone with creativity
would start creating.

For
example, anyone with an artistic bent would start creating art,
because they now have the time and the freedom to do it. Let's say
that you are, or have always wanted to be, a musician. You would get
yourself the instruments and equipment you need to make music. It's
all available - just ask the robots and it is delivered to your door.
There are thousands of options in the catalog. You would have the
time and freedom to expand your talent. You could take classes,
practice, hook up with other musicians, form a band and start
performing.

In
the same way, writers would start writing the books that they have
always dreamed of writing. Inventors would work on their inventions,
using materials and equipment provided by the robots. Scholars would
do their scholarly research, finally free to study whatever they
like, using the infinite intellectual resources available on the
network. Scientists would start pursuing their scientific goals using
research facilities provided by the robots. Dancers would get
together and dance, and then perform. People who want to create films
would pool their talents together and create them, or do them solo.
The robots would provide equipment and studio space and let them have
at it. Athletes would train and compete. Programmers would write the
programs they have always dreamed about. Designers would design
whatever they felt like, and then the robots would build it. There
are people who are experts in their various fields -- engine design,
scrap booking, fusion reactors, needlepoint -- and they would love to
pass their knowledge on to other people. They would write books, make
videos or have live lectures and workshops for people to attend.
People interested in the martial arts would practice them every day.
People interested in video games would play them every day. People
interested in gardening would garden every day. The majority of
people have a talent and, if they had the time, they would cultivate
that talent and use it. The huge cruise ship known as Australia is
the perfect place for every human being to reach his or her full
potential.

It
was fascinating to think about this and contrast it with the life I
had known. In the U.S., everyone had to work, and in most cases
"work" meant doing something that a rich person wanted so
that the rich person could get richer. Thinking back to the jobs
available at the turn of the century -- you could work scrubbing
toilets in a hotel, or you could flip burgers in a fast food
restaurant, or you could restock shelves and check people out at a
retail store, etc. -- No one wanted to do any of these jobs. No one,
as a child, ever aspired to scrub toilets or flip burgers or restock
merchandise. But you had to earn money to live your life, and these
were the jobs being offered to tens of millions of people. People had
no choice but to take them, and in the process a rich person became
richer. Then robots replaced those workers, and they ended up in
Terrafoam.

In
an economy like that, there were all sorts of musicians who wanted to
do nothing but practice, write music and perform. There were
programmers who wanted to do nothing but program their own creations.
There were scientists who wanted to do cutting-edge research. These
people did not care about money. They simply wanted to do what they
do best. Getting paid for it was a necessary evil for these folks --
they had to have a day job to pay the bills, and then when they got
home from work at night they would indulge their real talents and
their passions.

In
Australia, these people could completely fulfill themselves, and
humanity would be much better off because of their contributions.
Creative people want to -- need to -- create. That is their passion.
Instead of millions of talented people working in jobs that had
nothing to do with their dreams, simply to make ends meet, in
Australia they could follow their dreams.

The
goal in Australia is to encourage and nurture creativity and
innovation. This allowed, for example, there to be a nearly infinite
array of clothing designs to choose from. A fashion designer -- any
person whose passion or lifelong dream involved designing clothes --
would create a design and submit it to the catalog. If the design was
worn by only three people, that was fine. The robots custom-made
three copies of the design and delivered them. Or a design could be
wildly popular and worn by millions. In that case, the designer
gained a great deal of notoriety, won accolades and awards, and so
on. This designer would appear in design shows and people would
breathlessly await new designs. At the same time, another designer
could have a very small group of passionate followers. Both designers
had the chance to do their thing, and any new designer could break
out into the mainstream at any moment simply by drawing something
that caught the public's attention. It meant an amazing level of
creativity and innovation in every product category -- food, housing,
architecture, vacation resorts, restaurants, furniture. Whether it
was basic research or final consumer products, innovation was
everywhere. The innovators had the ability to take their research,
their inventions and their ideas as far as they could.

The
space elevators were a good example of a larger-scale process.
Millions of people had said that they would gladly take a trip to a
weightless hotel in orbit, and they were willing to contribute their
credits up front to make it possible. With the credits available, the
robots allocated the resources for research and design. Scientists,
engineers and designers interested in the project worked on it simply
to have a part in it and make it a reality. Then the robots built the
space elevators to meet the demand.

When
you thought about it, this made a lot of sense. For example, the
American moon shot was one of the most innovative programs ever seen
in the United States. Thousands of scientists, engineers and
designers came together and worked 18-hours-a-day to make the moon
shot happen. Did they do it for the money? No. None of them became
millionaires. They did it because they loved it and believed in the
idea. Einstein did not create the theory of relativity for the money.
The Wright Brothers did not create the airplane for the money.
Creative people create for the joy of it.

In
other words, Australia was a permanent vacation resort for some of
the residents. For creative people, Australia was an amazing
intellectual playground. This meant that innovation was progressing
at an astonishing rate.

Each
day, robots cleaned my apartment, changed the sheets and so on. It
was just like a luxury hotel. Food and drinks got delivered as
requested. If I wanted room service Linda would order it. If I wanted
to cook for myself, I could do that. If I wanted to eat out, Linda
and I would go to a restaurant -- there were thousands of them, all
different kinds, scattered throughout the habitat. We would decide
what we were in the mood for and she would take us right to the
restaurant. Sometimes we could walk or ride a bike. Other times we
took a car like the one that delivered us from the airport. The food
and drinks were all essentially free because the robots were growing
and processing all the food from free resources. This concept of
"free" was just like on a cruise ship. Once you bought your
ticket, everything was free on the cruise. This cruise just happened
to last a lifetime.

At
the end of the second day of orientation, we were told that day three
would cover the Vertebrane system. Details on this system were
sketchy, but I knew it had something to do with accessing the network
and ordering things.

On
the third day, Linda woke me as usual with her arrival. It was a very
nice way to wake up in the morning.

"What's
on the schedule for today?" I asked.

"We
are actually going to spend some time together today." Linda
said. "We are going to talk about the Vertebrane system."

"I
am full of questions about it." I said. Obviously this system
was important, because it seemed like the tool you used to request
almost anything from the robots. "How does it work? For that
matter, how do I access it?"

"Sit
down and let me show you something." said Linda. "It will
help you to understand."

We
sat down on the couch together.

"Did
you know that this window is adjustable?" she asked.

"No."
I replied. In the bedroom, the floor-to-ceiling window actually had
drapes. They were part of the decor. But in the living room the
window was a seamless floor-to-ceiling sheet of crystal clear glass.
There was no frame or border of any kind. There was no obvious
control for adjusting it.

Linda
said, "It can be frosted." And the window frosted. "Or
it can be opaque." It turned black, and the lighting in the room
came up to compensate. "I can take the lighting down or bring it
up," She said as the lights adjusted. "It can even look
like stained glass," She said, and the window took on a modern
stained glass design. "Or paisley wallpaper." And it became
what appeared to be a solid wall-papered wall instead of a sheet of
glass. Then it became the familiar clear window again.

"How
are you doing that?" I asked. She had touched nothing. She
hadn't really moved. She was speaking, but the window often changed
as she was speaking the sentence, almost as though it were following
her thoughts rather than her words.

"I'm
using the Vertebrane system. Ask me anything." Linda said.

"OK,
What size shoes do I wear?" I asked.

"We
don't have shoe sizes here. Each shoe is custom made for the wearer.
Next." She said. "Try to ask me a factual question."

"How
tall is the Empire State Building?" I asked.

"1,472
feet to the tip of the antenna. 1,250 feet if you don't include the
antenna. Next." She said.

"In
metric?" I asked.

"448
meters and 391 meters. Next." She said.

"In
light years?" I asked.

"About
1.5 light microseconds." She answered. "Next."

"How
do I know that you are right?" I asked.

"Take
my word for it. Or ask me something that you can verify right here."
She said.

"How
wide is this room?" I asked.

"16.5
of your shoes. Check it." She answered.

I
checked it by pacing off the room. She was correct. "Lucky
guess." I said.

"Next."
She said.

"Will
we ever make love together?" I asked.

"I
cannot predict the future." She said. "But I would say that
the probability of that event is high."

I
looked at her and she looked at me for a moment.

"Ask
me something that is impossible for me to know." She said.

I
thought about it. Burt had a tattoo on his butt. I knew about it
because I had seen it several times in the showers in Terrafoam, but
there is no way Linda would know.

"What
is tattooed on Burt's butt?" I asked.

She
paused for a moment. "The name Angie in a heart." She said.
"On the left cheek."

I
paused for a long time.

"How
are you doing this?" I asked.

"That
is what we are going to talk about today..."

Linda
looked at me and started to explain, "The Vertebrane system lets
me access the entire information network here in the Australia
project. It is like a network connection, a telephone, a TV, a
computer and several other devices all rolled into one. You asked me
what was tattooed on Burt's butt. I used the Vertebrane system to get
the answer."

"Yes."
I said, "But how did you get the answer?"

"Let's
say you were holding a telephone in your hand. How would you get the
answer?" Linda asked.

"I
guess I would call Burt and ask him." I replied.

"Right.
But Burt doesn't have a phone, so I called Cynthia and I asked her.
She asked Burt. If I thought the answer was on the network, I could
do a search instead."

"But
how did you do it? You never moved. You never picked up a phone. You
didn't do anything -- how did you call Cynthia?"

"This
is the interesting part about the Vertebrane system. I am going to
explain it to you, but I want you to relax while I do it. Different
people take this differently. That's why I am sitting here with you
privately, telling you about it one-on-one. There's just no way to
talk about it in a big group during orientation, because everyone
reacts differently to it. I want you to understand that the
Vertebrane system is a good system. It is the most advanced
communication and networking system ever created. But it freaks some
people out when they hear about it. My job is to help you get past
that." Linda was looking at me with an expression that was one
of serenity. She just wanted to talk to me about this thing, whatever
it was.

"I
won't freak out." I said. "Just answer me one thing. Where
is this system? How do you access it? This has been a question since
I got here. In this room there is no computer, no TV, no telephone. I
would expect my room to be filled with electronic devices, but I have
not seen a single device since I got here."

"That
was the problem that people started to notice. The more advanced
everything got, the more devices you needed. Think about the state of
electronics in the U.S. -- computer, TV, telephone, PDA, GPS, stereo
system, portable music players, video players, video recorders,
cameras... At some point the number of devices becomes insane. Sure
you can integrate some of them together, but then there are
compromises. Plus there are the problems of screen sizes, multiple
screens, batteries..." Linda explained. "The Australia
Project, with its level of innovation, was producing more and more
devices in myriad forms and it was becoming quite unwieldy."