[Note: A shorter ‘Employee Handbook’ view of this concept is here:
Awesome, Incorporated: Employee/Citizen/Owner’s Handbook
There are a few small improvements (I like the tightening of the principles, nice firm line that ‘we’re offering you a job’ point, isn’t it?) but this can easily be considered a supporting document with more details of some options]
[Note: This is a draft document that contains placeholder art and is incomplete (currently missing the follow up details and links), it will be updated over time and when it is complete this part will vanish. This entire document will be broken up into several sections for easier reading and reference, much of the content comes from
Much of the content is being incorporated from this site here, which is a consolidation of several hundred pages of documents and online sources]
Does it sometimes feel like everybody’s part of this big tug of war over who gets to control everybody else? Does it seem to you like all that pushing and pulling is just making more of a mess of things?
Are you thinking that tug of war is a really boring game?
This is where you get to let go of the rope.
Instead, let’s imagine a world where most children are raised by people who are well trained and love what they do. When those children grow up they have the opportunity to choose.
How about getting to choose what sort of economic system you’re part of? What sort of government? What the work/life balance is like? What standards you (and all the other people you have to deal with) hold themselves to? What purpose does your life have? What values do you share with everybody you meet? What gets the most out of you while letting you have the most fun? Do you live in somewhere modern, back to nature, or a combination of the two?
Or you could stay right where you are and do things the way you are, that option also has to exist.
If you’re held to some basic ‘don’t be a jerk to anybody, do a bit of useful work, and clean up your messes’ standards but are told that otherwise you can quite literally start from scratch, what sort of dream could you imagine living? What sort of life could you create?
A few of us have been bouncing around this idea, and while it’s not perfect it’s a big step up from where most of us are now. It is, however, completely plausible and doesn’t require something magic to happen, the tools are already there. The really cool thing is there’s a nice, seamless transition into it for probably half of the world once it gets going without having to do anything terribly radical. . . in fact this isn’t fighting anything, it’s more of an end-around. Everybody just takes a step to the left and into a new life.
I’m sure some of you are thinking ‘Yeah, it’ll be fine until it gets big enough to become a new evil empire’ or ‘Jerks’ll screw this up’ or ‘There’s probably some socialism and lazy people will ruin everything’ . . . and don’t worry, we’ve got you covered several times over. It’s not that we’ve got the best and only answers to all your questions . . . but we’ve got at least one if not many solutions to the problems that have cropped up. Feel free to try to come up with something new though, this idea’s not afraid of poking and prodding, it wants it.
We could do this in years if not months or weeks, and at the core is educating a generation to be less brainwashed, less insincere, and less broken than we are and giving them the option as to what to do next. In fifty years we’ll have given the earth back to the meek and turned everything around. That’s it, fifty years. Start to finish.
That might sound a bit cocky, but I’ll stand behind that. And that’s just the part I can comprehend. This is an idea that knows it’s just the seed for something else, and it’s cool with that. . . because whatever happens next. . . it’s going to be fantastic.
Instead of digging into details (most of which you probably don’t need) and generally boring you to death right off, this is an attempt to make it a little bit more fun and easier to grasp, using a story. We’ll get some details and options in later. I think starting from a future makes several of the key elements easier to digest, however this is just one way of saying something that can be said a dozen different ways, so it’ll be linked to a few other attempts from different directions as well.
Hopefully Unnecessarily Disclaimer: This is a personal spin on an idea that’s been discussed with several people and I’m certain is in the minds of thousands if not millions more to some degree or another. I’m not particularly attached to any specific part of it and really consider every option to be one of many, but it’s easier to visualize if you get some detail in there. Don’t mistake a little cockiness for arrogance, I know that if things go well every good idea I’ve had will be overshadowed by something better. Heck, you’l probably have better ideas while reading this, so go ahead and just merge them in there in your head, as long as you’re not screwing with anybody else then you’re most likely going to be able to make it fit.
It’s only a few pages in script format and I know not everybody’s a Doctor Who fan, but the general idea of a time travelling alien optimist actually works really well as a literary device. If this doesn’t work for you, we’ll think of a different angle, and maybe you can just skim and get the idea without being overtly traumatized. Heck, there’s probably a callout in there for you somewhere, I’m kind of a dork for fan service. ☺
And for the fans, this will be quite a bit of fun . . and there are a whole lot of them, aren’t there? You can’t fault me for trying to take a slightly easier route for a really hard task.
Because it’s more a story written to explain something, it’s a little uneven in a couple of areas because I’m not a super-duper-awesome author, but I did my best to smooth things out. Keep in mind while reading that this is just tiny part of a very large world. The idea is to have a framework to use yourself and options to choose from rather than to just arbitrarily decide what’s best for everyone.
A Primer
[Must add many links here, methinks. Also some smaller graphics in areas to break things up]
So, for those who haven’t been following the recent BBC hit, Doctor Who is a slightly madcap gentleman who exists in a universe where he’s constantly bouncing from TV-worthy scenario to TV-worthy scenario. His current companion is a girl known as Clara, and by companion I mean ‘person who he hangs with to keep in touch with his humanity’ rather than something more exciting. Presumably the aliens are also British.
The story also features Strax, who is a delightfully quotable alien who is a bit of a cult favorite. I also included Craig Owens and his son, Alfie, who prefers to be known as ‘Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All’ (The Doctor can apparently speak baby) just for fun. The other characters are all new, and believe it or not there’s a lot of science behind most of what they’re talking about and doing. The only truly implausible bit is the time travelling alien. And the talking baby. And Strax.
Last, but not least, every now and then when the Doctor is severely injured (or perhaps one Actor decides he wants to try something new) he regenerates into somebody else. This somebody else has taken on a number of faces over the years, and since we’d just heard when I wrote this that the current Doctor (Matt Smith at the time) was moving on I figured I’d incorporate that. The idea was to let people mentally throw whoever they want in that role.
So feel free to do so . . . whether it’s Capaldi or Neal Degrasse Tyson or Timothy Leary or Christopher Walken or Rosario Dawson or Bill Nye or Felicia Day or Yahoo Serious. William Shatner doesn’t work though, I’ve tried.
The Doctor’s Way
[The Doctor has just finished his most recent regeneration]
THE DOCTOR: Right! Nose. . . check. Two eyes, good! Chin’s a bit less chinny. . . I’ll have to get used to that. . .
THE DOCTOR: No! No! Don’t need one! I’m fine, this happens to me quite often, I just . . . [attempts to take a step, falls entertainingly] I’m okay!
THE DOCTOR: See! I’m fine. The floor just arrived too soon. Different legs. Takes getting used to, doesn’t it?
CLARA: Wouldn’t know. Just had the one set the whole time.
THE DOCTOR: That’s right! You lovely people do that! Or don’t rather. Right! So . . . where was I? Hungry! Do you have any Jelly Babies? I think I’m craving some.
CLARA: [slightly horrified] Jelly. . . babies? Jelly doesn’t have babies, it’s smooshed up fruits. Fruit is babies, I suppose?
THE DOCTOR: No! Not like that, little sugary soft things shaped like little people, I think they used to be a comfort food.
CLARA: Like Gummi bears? I quite like those.
THE DOCTOR: Bears? Bears! Aren’t we ambitious? No, it’d have to be babies, wouldn’t taste right otherwise. No. . . no. . . forget the cravings. [begins fiddling with controls on the TARDIS, stops abruptly, looks around]
THE DOCTOR: [To the TARDIS]: Really girl? You sure . . .no no, of course you are, you always are.
CLARA: I’m pretty sure you’re not talking to me anymore, are you?
THE DOCTOR: [Excitedly] It’s happened! I KNEW you guys were going to have done it! We have somewhere to be! Somewhen to be! A pivotal moment! You get to pick your future!
THE DOCTOR: Yes! Very yes! [He pauses and grips Clara by the shoulders and alternates between standing on his toes and hunching down] Wait, what have you done with your height? Your eyes are . . . at the wrong place.
CLARA: That’s you, Doctor. I’m still the same.
THE DOCTOR: Right! [chuckles to self, grinning broadly] Bears! You humans are positively adorable sometimes, you know that?
CLARA: [Indignantly] We don’t really think we’re eating bears, you know.
THE DOCTOR: Do you ever bite their heads off first?
CLARA: I always bite the heads off first, that way they don’t suffer.
THE DOCTOR: [Nods] Quite right!
[Epic TARDIS activating and such follows]
[Credits and Dr. Who song (Classic version or KLF version)]
THE DOCTOR: Earth! The year 2207. I went a BIT too far ahead, but that’s okay! We’ll improvise, I do that well, don’t I? Do I? Yes, yes, I do. This way makes more sense anyway. [Pats TARDIS] Thanks, gorgeous. This way is so much better, you’re quite right.
THE DOCTOR: So! Here we are, Earth! Not at the magic moment when you got it right, but a little bit later. Well hello, who have we here?
[Clara follows The Doctor’s gaze and notices a strange dog-like creature with stripes and an odd hunched posture]
CLARA: That’s… a strange dog. Is that a dog?
[The creature rears up on its hind legs threateningly and opens its mouth impossibly wide, making a strange chuffing sound and a growl]
THE DOCTOR: [to the creature] Easy, beautiful. . .we don’t mean any harm. You’re just watching out for your little ones, aren’t you? Terribly sorry for disturbing you, we’ll be on our way and you can get back to sleep. [to Clara] They’re generally nocturnal, probably woke her when the TARDIS arrived.
[While The Doctor is talking to Clara the creature backs off into the forest and vanishes]
CLARA: What on Earth WAS that? That wasn’t normal.
THE DOCTOR: Not normal? That beautiful thing was a thylacine! A Tasmanian Tiger. You probably never saw one because they were extinct. There’ll be more around, come! This way!
[The Doctor strides boldly forward in a seemingly random direction. Clara hurries after him.]
CLARA: So we’re in Tasmania, then? And we’re bringing back extinct species? We were talking about that with mammoths or something like that, weren’t we? I suppose that’s. . . .
[They break the treeline and Clara stops in mid sentence. The terrain is grassier and the immediate vicinity has scattered tree-houses connected by zip-lines, but very little like anything she’s seen before. In the distance is a beach with a stretch of water past it. . . and beyond that is a ring of strange buildings and structures that seems to circle to the left and right as far as she can see.]
CLARA: . . . not what I expected.
[The Doctor clearly struggling to contain his excitement]
THE DOCTOR: Aren’t they brilliant? What better place to experiment with repopulating species than a floating city? Isn’t it lovely, they’ve learned to stop screwing up nature! They finally learned how to learn lessons!
CLARA: That doesn’t sound like us. . does it? This must have cost . . . more money than I can imagine!
THE DOCTOR: You still think in money! That’s right! No, they don’t have money anymore. I mean, some of them do. . . but only when they want. Generally most of you are better off without it.
[While The Doctor and Clara are talking they notice a strange vehicle heading in their general direction. It seems to be suspended above the ground and stops some distance to their left. A younger woman exits followed by middle aged man and somewhat older woman. Despite her age, the three walk briskly towards the Doctor and Clara, followed by thirteen creatures that look like animated teddy bears with long legs.]
[As they approach the group, the younger woman seems to be controlling the teddy bears and has the bears fan out in front of the three humans. It also becomes apparent that her legs have some sort of mechanical braces on them, they appear to hinder somewhat, though less than one would expect]
OLDER MAN: [Observing Clara’s reaction, he leans to the younger woman.] I know you’re eager to help, Jen, but look at the woman, you’re making her nervous with your herd. Trust first.
JEN: [With sudden realization leading to a burst of confusion.] Why is she. . . she doesn’t know what they are? Oh my! [she quickly directs her bears behind her and they fall into place.]
CLARA: [slightly indignantly] I can hear you, you know. I’m not just a ‘she’. I’m Clara!
OLDER MAN: [Stepping forward] Hello Clara, my name is Griff. It’s a pleasure. May I introduce [he gestures to the older woman] Kaylee, [he gestures to the younger one] and as you’ve likely surmised, this is Jen.
JEN: And this is my herd! This is . . [she begins pointing at the various odd animated teddy bears] Mystic, Rum-tum-tugger, Mister Bojangles, Queen Nefertiti, Halloween, Yngvie, GIR, Conan the Librarian, Alfred, Morton J. Throckwoddle III, Bela, Barry the Bare Bear, and Animala.
GRIFF: Ha! No, they’re just robots. You’re really from somewhere interesting, aren’t you?
THE DOCTOR: That we are! And lovely to meet you all. I’m The Doctor and this is still Clara. [whispers conspiratorially] She’s wonderfully impossible!
KAYLEE: So, now that we’ve got introductions in hand. . . how DID you people get here?
JEN: [Excitedly] Is this a game? What’s your signcode? Which net?
THE DOCTOR: [holds out ‘psychic paper’ (invisible)] See? Everything’s in order, mind if I show Clara around some?
KAYLEE: [looking at psychic paper] You’re. . . The Doctor from. . . Gallifrey? [nodding faster as she remembers] Oh, like from the old television show? With the blue box that went through time!
[The Doctor and Clara both do double-takes, even The Doctor looking somewhat flummoxed]
CLARA: It is! How did you know that?
JEN: [Excitedly] You . . .are . . . AMAZING! Are you a method actor? How do you stay in character like that?
THE DOCTOR: Quite right, and since Clara is so wonderfully “in-character,” I trust you won’t have trouble answering her accordingly? Just be part of the story!
[All three smile and nod knowingly]
KAYLEE: [coming off as quite spry for her age, acting in on the game.] Of course! So. . . Doctor. If that IS your real name [eye wink and little lopsided grin], why are you here?
THE DOCTOR: I’m here to show Clara all the amazing things you’ve done! It’s kind of a vacation from all the world-savings we do, right?
CLARA: What? Oh! Yes, right. So . . . what do you guys do?
KAYLEE: Well, I’m a genetic engineer and DNA coder most of the time. My specialty is extinct or endangered species.
THE DOCTOR: Ahh, so is it you we have to thank for that lovely creature we met on the way? A thylacine?
KAYLEE: [laughing] Oh, no! Charismatic megafauna bores me. I like little things, they’re more fun, I suppose you can credit the Lake Peddler Planarian to my name, but I’m guessing you didn’t observe any flatworms on the way?
GRIFF: Don’t let her sell herself short, she’s amazing. Tell them about the protoceratops!
CLARA: You brought back a DINOSAUR?
KAYLEE: [Laughing] Not me! No! And you can’t get much more megafauna than that, can you? OH! I mean [winking conspiratorially] . . .yes, a dinosaur! It was one of the first big ones they think they got close.
Dinos are complicated, especially if they’re not therapods, these guys branched off way before any modern anologues . . . so they already had their work cut out for them there even with so many samples to work from. They still had to guess a lot, and of course we’ll never be sure we got them even close to right. But every creature is an ecosystem and we haven’t really had that much luck getting any microfauna from back then.
[She pauses and sighs sadly] We’ll never know how much we’ll never know, will we? And we only have ourselves to blame the last extinction. . . the one that would have had the most cures. . .the people we could have saved. . . [she appears about to break into tears, but quickly composes herself.]
Sorry, it’s just. . . painful. Anyway, we had to pretty much try to give them modern gut bacteria, and apparently they had something in them way back when that they depended on to make some pretty specific proteins. . . or they were way off, hard to say. I led the team that managed to crack that particular nut. We wouldn’t have gotten that much attention but they’d been stalled for a while, and the mini versions are really popular as pets in some places, so yeah, that was kind of cool.
CLARA: Wow. [She pauses for a moment, clearly a bit awed] Okay. . . right. [to GRIFF] and you? What do you do?
GRIFF: Right now? I’m in the middle of a stint as a travelling scribe. I go from community to community, gathering ideas and stories, inventions and gifts, jokes and dreams. Then I mingle for a while and share adventures of other spheres and so on. We also stir things up and make sure nobody’s feeling useless or hopeless.
CLARA: That sounds really fun!
GRIFF: It is! I used to be a Park Ranger, and just tried the scribe thing as a vacation of sorts. Turned out I had a knack for it and loved it, so my vacation became my career. It’s been a great experience for me, I’m loving it.
THE DOCTOR: Wait! That’s a new one. Your vacation became your job?
GRIFF: Oh! You’re making a story too! Sorry, I thought you were a mentor or something.
THE DOCTOR: [winks to Griff] Shh. . . in character!
GRIFF: Right! Sorry, just a totally new sort of game, takes a bit to adjust, you know?
GRIFF: Anyway, yes. We have to take at least one vacation a year, and we’re also encouraged to take at least one second ‘intern-vacation’ as well if we’re interested in exploring something that we haven’t already, makes us better people, I think, too. And you’ve got to admit, the idea of having a vacation that you can turn into your life has a certain appeal to it, doesn’t it?
CLARA: Umm. . yes! I like that quite much actually! [To JEN] How about you? What do you do?
JEN: I’m a Teddy Bear Herder of course, we’re the closest thing we have to Emergency Management here. The herd [nods to the bears] also helps with disaster recovery and occasionally enforcement if somebody has a bad moment. We usually spend a couple of days a week with the kids acclimating and goofing around. I love that part best, that’s where they got their names. I suck at naming things.
CLARA: [Taking note of JEN’s distinct lack of bigness and apparent handicap] Enforcement? Like law enforcement? How’s that work? You’re tiny! What would you do if somebody just pushed you around?
JEN: [Laughs uproariously] Why would they do that? I mean, unless it’s part of a game or something I guess. [She taps her legs] They’d know better to think that we let a little accident of birth slow us down, I just keep don’t keep ‘em powered up all the time. Besides, seriously, nobody does anything like that. What if you get fired?
GRIFF: Jen! Don’t scare Clara. Nobody’s gotten fired for over a century now, and that was a mutual thing.
JEN: Yeah, sorry. Anyway, we don’t use guns anymore, except for fun. No, that’s what these guys are for.
JEN: Oh, no! Why would anybody want to hurt anybody else? Even if you don’t get along there’s always somewhere new to go, right? These guys are just to help keep bad moments from becoming worse. They just entangle you in hugs.
CLARA: Why does the track stop here? Why not go all the way to the trees?
JEN: We’re not lazy! [She snaps and all of her bears hop into a big-wheeled wagon that she pulls behind her effortlessly]
[Jen sticks her tongue out at Kaylee and Griff]
GRIFF: This is what we call a ‘slow zone’. We don’t use any vehicles at all here for getting about, except for emergencies of course.
KAYLEE: It’s just our way of keeping our world the size we like. It’s a popular experiment, and one lots of us are really well suited for. When our world is largely limited to where you can walk, you get a whole new sense of community, and we have the autonomy to do pretty much what we want with our environment.
GRIFF: I love the ziplines! This is my fourteenth slow zone and first time I’ve seen those. I’ll definitely be passing that on and have some great vids.
JEN: [Smirking] That’s if we let you leave!
GRIFF: [Sticking his tongue out at Jen] “I get to go wherever I’m invited . . . “
JEN, GRIFF, and KAYLEE in unison: “. . . and nobody would ever consider stopping me.”
JEN: A little guilt’s allowed!
CLARA: That was. . . odd. Is this a new thing, sharing sentences?
KAYLEE: [Winks to Clara] You’re GOOD! I mean. . . man, how do you kids keep in character like this? It’s hard! [she briefly recomposes] Oh, that’s just one of our principles — “I get to go wherever I’m invited, and nobody would ever consider stopping me.” We only have a few, we all agree on them in a zone, it keeps us all on the same page when we’re interacting and really cuts down on the stress. Plus we get things done faster when we’re not always trying to think around each other. It’s an easy trap, we love our games.
JEN: They didn’t have them before! It was a mess. I heard that way back when, people would always fight over the stupidest things. They didn’t even have ‘Awesome Cubed’! They stopped at ‘win-win’! And they almost got eaten by bears walking the streets!
GRIFF: That was just one old vid, Jen, and the point was that we discovered a need to create interfaces we could feel and use while walking that weren’t so poorly designed. They didn’t actually have a bear problem.
JEN: But Grand-High-Muckety-Muck Colbert said. . .
KAYLEE: Oh Jen, he started as a comedian! A satirist! He was being silly. My dad was a HUGE fan and I watched a whole bunch of those old vids with him. Said it was important to really understand the world we left behind without getting sad.
KAYLEE: Yup! He was a riot, too! I remember holding my belly and laughing so hard it hurt, when I was your age.
JEN: Pfffft. You were never my age.
[They finally arrive at the treehouse they were heading towards. It’s definitely larger than it seemed from a distance, with stairs circling around it. It’s also unusual in that the tree itself makes up an significant amount of the construction material, as if the tree was partly grown as part of the house.]
[Clara is more than a little winded as even the elderly Kaylee kept up a brisk pace. The Doctor is eagerly studying the tree.]
THE DOCTOR: Oh! This is wonderful! Look at this gal! She’s GORGEOUS! And so healthy! [To the Earthlings] She likes you guys!
[The begin making their way up a spiral staircase. Jen has all but two of her bears go into a bole at the base of the tree]
GRIFF: They do love their trees here. I’ve seen some amazing gardens and such too, but nothing like this. I think these guys are my favorite stop so far, either them or the ‘Guild of WoW!’, they were fun, too.
GRIFF: They were a delightful bunch! They took an old computer game and built their whole town around it. They spend every moment in the town in-character and some of them are pretty wacky. Amazing craftsmen too. I think they’re in the top percentile in overproduction, it’s like they’re addicts to getting things done. They call it ‘grinding’
JEN: I bet they have fun stories!
GRIFF: They do! Remind me to share some later. They have this ritual, they call it ‘The Ding!’, it’s totally surreal, it could happen anywhere, and anytime!
[They reach a door, which opens automatically. The group enters.]
VOICE: Welcome back Griff, Jen, and Kaylee.
[The three pause, then all eyes turn to The Doctor and Clara]
THE DOCTOR: [Pulls out psychic paper again, holds it out somewhat hopefully]
JEN: [holding one eye closed and with her fingers of her left hand tapping odd patterns on her leg] I’ve got. . . a whole bunch of Gallifrey communities, and a whole bunch of ‘The Doctor’, but… hey, he’s an old Exemplar! You’re not supposed to play Exemplars!
GRIFF: It’s not just that, Jen. . . they also don’t have chips of any sort.
GRIFF: [to The Doctor, slightly accusingly] Were you dishonest with us?
THE DOCTOR: Dishonest? No. . well, not as such, no. I don’t think I was, [looks at Clara] was I?
CLARA: Yes. You led them on. [to the others] To be fair to him, nobody believes him when he tells the truth.
KAYLEE: [frowning] That’s. . . not the right way, you know? You’re supposed to always try to be honest and up front, especially when meeting new people. [having a revelation] You poor people, how were you RAISED?
THE DOCTOR: Right! About that. What if I were to tell you that I WAS actually from Gallifrey, the actual planet. The blue box is my TARDIS, she’s definitely bigger on the inside than the outside, and I can travel through time.
JEN: [Immediately] I’d have asked to see the box, because that is the most easily verifiable part of your scenario.
CLARA: Well, that’s . . . quite logical of you, actually.
JEN: Thanks! I have good logics.
GRIFF: [Stepping away from really awesome computer interface] Okay, HUB thinks I’m crazy, but they’ve already got another Sat over the forest and they’ve sent some bots ahead to that blue thing that . . . and this is the strangest part. . . somehow just appeared there… [partly to himself] and it might be massive? Or not? This is actually kind of strange.
KAYLEE: Well, at least one thing makes more sense now.
THE DOCTOR: Ooh! Good, and what would that be?
KAYLEE: I’m on a bit of a vacation, and I could’ve sworn I had unchecked all the ‘spontaneous games’ and the rest from my profile. I had figured this was some sort of game for Jen and Griff and I was the one who was glitched. Now I know it’s not me, it’s you!
CLARA: I’m not glitched! Well, sort of. It’s complicated.
JEN: Can we go check out the box?
GRIFF: Not just CAN, we’ve been asked to. I bet you’ve got instructions already, this is your arena, Jen.
JEN: [Closing one eye again] Oh! I do. . wow. Umm, lots of messages. Official request to go, or send proxies if invited. . with the herd. . and a science package. They’ve got two at the Station, let’s go!
CLARA: What, now? Like, right now?
[The Doctor, Clara, and the Earthlings have gotten back into the vehicle and are cruising back towards the forest]
CLARA: So, how many people are part of the same. . . thing?
GRIFF: What, the village? A little over a hundred, that way we can grow a bit without running into any monkeysphere issues.
CLARA: No . . . monkeythings? The whole thing that you’re part of, I guess? A corporation, I guess, if people can get fired, right?
GRIFF: Monkeysphere, you know, Dunbar’s number. [seeing that she doesn’t know] The point at which people start dehumanizing other people. It’s a science thing, not my field. Seems to work great though. We don’t HAVE to keep small, but the Cooperation makes it easy for us to form the group sizes we want and this is where we end up more often than not.
CLARA: Umm, right. But how many of you are part of the. . . thing?
GRIFF: Yeah, that’s, well, most of us really. Twelve billion or so, usually about a third of us are at holdfasts and universities and the rest of us are living more outwardly productive lives on one path or another. There’s another hundred million badlanders or so and a maybe twice that many aboriginals?
KAYLEE: [Nods] Sounds about right, that’s probably about where we’ll stay until we finish the Tall Tower, then we get the whole solar system! But that’s another decade or so away.
JEN: That’ll be so cool! I hear you can just hop off from the top and be in space! Talk about awesome!
CLARA: And you’re all part of the same corporation?
KAYLEE: Did you say corporation?
KAYLEE: We haven’t had one of those in any of our lifetimes, unless the badlanders have something like that. They had those back in Mr. Colbert’s day, though. Lots of them! And a corporation is one of the things we started as.
KAYLEE: They were a bunch of people with a common purpose. It wasn’t so much one thing as several woven into something new. Corporations could recruit, nations could make citizens, eco-villages and cooperative towns could inspire, charities took in all the orphans. Kind of a tapestry, really. [looks at Jen] did you know that? Are they teaching that anymore?
JEN: [shakes her head ‘no’] Nope, that’s probably something we rewrote.
THE DOCTOR: [Looking a little surprised himself] Rewrote? Whyever for?
JEN: So we stop clinging to stupid things, of course!
CLARA: So. . . what, you just pretend it all didn’t happen? Isn’t that how you end up repeating things?
KAYLEE: Rewriting the past wasn’t exactly a new thing. We just did it for a good reason this time. Nothing’s forgotten, we just aren’t clinging to the bad bits anymore, it made it easier to break out of some cycles we were trapped in. Everybody needed fresh starts, it turned out to be a good way to go about it.
JEN: Yup. Things happened, they might have sucked, but it was nobody’s fault. We learn what we need to learn and want to learn, and we pay attention to what makes us do stupid things and shuffle those to the bottom. Maybe I’d have had issues back then, they say it was a lot rougher, I cry when somebody is sad, that’s why I’m so good at what I do.
THE DOCTOR: [Grinning] Oh! I LIKE that!
KAYLEE: Yeah, she’d have been a wreck back in Colbert’s day. Only a few of us are really obsessive historians, and they make sure we’ve got a good sense of perspective before we make it a role.
CLARA: What, so you’re all part of one. . . cooperation? Is everyone like you?.
GRIFF: [smirking] If you mean peaceful and fun, yes.. There’s pretty much every reasonable dream we could come up with out there, somewhere. . and some unreasonable ones we thought were particularly fun! The Cooperation doesn’t own us, we own it. Each person is equal, though people who are in holdfasts and universities get less influence points while they’re finding their way, unless they’re earning them by doing jobs nobody else wants . . .and of course the badlanders do their own thing. That’s just a nickname for ‘people who decide not to join’, we still give them resources and medical supplies and such, and they can always join later, and anybody can leave whenever they want.
CLARA: But what about food and everything? Surely everything can’t be free?
[The Earthlings look a bit perplexed]
KAYLEE: [with childlike excitement] OH! OH! I know this one! [To Griff and Jen] WAY back, they used to have this system where everybody had to go to one of thousands of corporations to get ‘money,’ and they’d use that money to buy food and rent places to live and get doctors and stuff. But the system kind of depended on an artificial value system, so a side effect was there was always a subset of the population that was left hungry or homeless or something. And that’s part of why they had wars and things.
[Griff and Jen look horrified]
CLARA: So how did you solve it?
KAYLEE: We used the Cooperation to help us organize and overproduce nonperishables. It only took a few more people per thousand working at those tasks to give us a really nice buffer. That and we handle limited resources in a few different ways, generally some sort of award, perk, or access system though. They’re usually variants on a theme.
KAYLEE: [considers] Yeah, pretty much. Turns out that a bit of extra work in certain directions, and not being super-wasteful in others, was a small sacrifice in exchange for never having to worry about poverty, war, or hunger again, right? My dad always said he was embarrassed it took us so long to figure it out.
THE DOCTOR: AH! And once it was there. . .
KAYLEE: Well, it was a bit more complicated than that. Back then, everybody was desperate to have a job but hardly anyone was doing anything really useful. So when the Cooperation formed and offered people a job and turned it into a sort of citizenship, and made it our job to not hurt each other, be generally principled and kind, have a whole lot of fun, and take our lives back. . . they hired about a third of the planet in a matter of months.
THE DOCTOR: BRILLIANT! That’s brilliant! Don’t you see Clara? They turned their disease into their cure! They grabbed the tiger by the tail and ate it!
THE DOCTOR: Right, bad metaphor thingy, very sorry! Was metaphor right? Was that a simile? Well, if it wasn’t a metaphor let’s just pretend it was, shall we?
[The skiff stops and the crew walks out, with The Doctor leading they begin making their way through the forest to the TARDIS]
CLARA: But what about all the rulers? Kings and presidents and CEOs? Didn’t they fight?
KAYLEE: Fight what? There wasn’t anything to fight, and since it was all about protecting innocent people a lot of those who had a lot to lose also had a lot to gain. There were some arguments, mostly because we made it a rule to teach our children to be smarter, wiser, and less brainwashed than us.
THE DOCTOR: So it was about the children?
KAYLEE: It was about lots of things, I heard but that was a big one. But who else do we trust the future of the world with? They’re the ones who have to clean up our messes and get to play with our toys. There were a few ideologies and some people who adamantly resisted joining, but we were nice to them too. . . and eventually they all died.
GRIFF: Not in a bad way! We all die eventually, it’s been almost two hundred years, nobody’s left from back then.
JEN: Maybe they knew they were broken toys and this was their way give us a fresh start? That’s kind of awesome.
CLARA: That doesn’t sound quite right.
KAYLEE: It’s not. Sure, they had a big purpose and all that, but they had a WHOLE lot of fun along the way.
GRIFF: It’s just a mind hack. We used to look at things from a ‘win-lose’ or ‘win-win’ standpoint, and that’s really limiting. People aren’t just about one idea or one issue, we’re complex. Awesome Cubed is just our term for breaking past ‘win-win’ and looking at solutions more creatively, even adding more people and resources to the mix if needed.
JEN: Yeah, there are lots of us who’d happily offer help or ideas or anything if it helps people avoid conflict.
THE DOCTOR: And here she is! The TARDIS! Are you ready for a surprise?
GRIFF: I’m already surprised — you put a little blue box in our forest.
THE DOCTOR: Oh! But that’s not the surprise! Shall we? [Opens door to TARDIS]
[The three Earthlings huddle and do an unusually complicated rock-paper-scissors thing]
KAYLEE: Spock wins again! [unhesitatingly walks into TARDIS]
[the group hears an excited, girly scream]
KAYLEE: [Popping back out] Wiz! [Excitedly circles the TARDIS, then hops back in, vanishes for a few seconds, then runs back out] This is . . . real??? How?
THE DOCTOR: See? This time I told you the truth and you didn’t believe me. Sometimes I wonder why I talk at all. No, no, I don’t. Never mind.
[JEN and GRIFF follow suit, stepping in the TARDIS briefly and exploring around it, they occasionally point in other directions and GRIFF sets up a few tripods from the Science Package around the TARDIS and places a couple inside as well]
KAYLEE: This is. . . wow, what do we do?
JEN: I just got an update from a couple of the science teams, once we’re done with some measurements it’s up to us. . . oh, wait. [she closes one eye again and seems to be listening to something] . . . they want one more thing.
[she has her bears line up single file holding hands and they walk in a line into the TARDIS until only they all disappear inside, then a few seconds later, they re-emerge and circle the TARDIS, still holding hands. JEN finds a two meter long branch on the ground and sticks it in the TARDIS so it’s obvious that there’s something improbable going on]
JEN: Heh, yeah, we’ve blown a whole bunch of minds. This is kind of fun, the MC Hawking team is having a field day. They want to know if they can borrow it for a while. They’ve got some great ideas for lyrics, and they want to test a whole bunch of things. They’re kind of having a happygasm over there.
THE DOCTOR: Nope, sorry. She’s mine, and I’m hers. We’re kind of a team, you know.
JEN: [after a pause] They’re a little sad and envious. You’re invited to visit!
THE DOCTOR: Well, I just might! Tell them thanks!
GRIFF: Heh, I just got a call from the Feynman-Leary Cooperative. They want to know if you’d like them to send a trip guide.
CLARA: How could they send a trip guide if they don’t know where we’re going?
[JEN, KAYLEE, and GRIFF share a mutual smirk]
JEN: [Hugging Clara enthusiastically] I LOVE you! You’re amazing!
GRIFF: [Recovering] Not THAT sort of trip guide. Altered States people, mind hackers, that sort of thing. They’re good at altering themselves to think around weird issues and have pretty much mastered guiding people through crazy situations. They’re a bit crazy, but brilliant and fun.
THE DOCTOR: Let them all know I’m petty sure I will be or am going to have been returning, and we’ll doing a tour here next time! That’ll be delightful! Or will be going to have been? [Notices CLARA staring at him, defensively] What? You try getting all those rules right with a new mouth!
KAYLEE: [Looking at the TARDIS] So… now what. What does it do?
THE DOCTOR: As you already said, it travels through time! Would you like to go on a trip with me? I have somewhen to show Clara! The magic point in time where you started all these magical things!
KAYLEE: You’re a very peculiar man. If we. . . go for a ‘ride’ with you in your. . . TARDIS. . . will you bring us back safely, and when we wish?
JEN: [Grinning widely] Let’s go! I don’t care if it’s the most improbable thing in the world, I’m willing to give it a shot!
THE DOCTOR: No sooner said than done! Well, a little sooner said, because it’s usually easier to say things than do things, isn’t it?
GRIFF: Hold it. Okay, Jen. We need to prepare for multiple eventualities, you want to call it?
KAYLEE: If you want to bring the herd we’ll have to do something about your wagon, they didn’t have ones that looked like that back then and it might stand out. They did have teddy bears though, just so they keep still. [To The Doctor] Do you have anything in there we can use? [Still slightly disbelieving]
THE DOCTOR: Oh, I’m sure we can figure something out. She’s full of interesting things.
JEN: And they won’t have the net, so we’ll have to download, right? How about each of us does a full wiki, and . . . Kaylee loads up on history and culture since you used to watch shows from then when you were a kid, right? And I’ll load up some different packages for the herd, at least two heavy med, two explorer, yeah, I’ve got a plan. I’ll use a slothpack as a self-augment. . . [closes one eye] . . summoned. [Something very like a quadrotor lifts off and moves into the tres, Clara watches it fly up to a creature hanging in a tree, which grabs onto a hoop hanging below and begins flying it down to Jen.] Griff? Missing anything?
GRIFF: [pondering] I’ll stay natural, that gives us a different view, and that way I won’t have to shift gears.
CLARA: [as the creature lands on Jen’s back and the quadrotor lands and reattaches to the Science Package.] Is that. . . a real sloth? Is it intelligent?
JEN: Oh no! He’s a robot too, we seed them and the bears everywhere, they’re terribly useful!
CLARA: [leaning over] It’s . . . adorable! Can I pet it?
JEN: Sure! Why don’t you name it for me, too!
CLARA: Right! [scratches sloth on head] I dub thee… Cuddles!
THE DOCTOR: Well, what are we waiting for? Adventure awaits! Next stop, 2013!
GRIFF: [To Clara] Isn’t time travel. . . impossible?
CLARA: [Shrugs] So am I! Yet here we are.
JEN: [Excitedly, from inside] This is the best . . .container . .ever!
[London, 2013: The TARDIS materializes outside an alley. The door opens and The Doctor exits, followed by Clara and the Earthlings. Jen has her herd piled into what looks like an old Red Ryder wagon that’s had big baby carriage wheels attached to it.]
THE DOCTOR: [smelling the air] Ahhhh, yes! Here we go, 2013, and I’ve got a couple of friends to introduce.
GRIFF: So, where are we really?
CLARA: London, I got that part.
GRIFF: Yeah, but. . . it can’t really be 2013. That’s just, unbelievable. What if we change something? What if somebody prevents their grandparents from being born? Wait, what am I talking about? Those are all fictional scenarios because . . . time travel?
THE DOCTOR: No worries! You’re supposed to be here! Otherwise you wouldn’t be.
KAYLEE: [Sardonically] Well, that explains everything.
JEN: [Looking up] Oh. . . my. . .
JEN: The STARS! Run a nav program!
[All three stare at the moon in wonder]
CLARA raises an eyebrow at THE DOCTOR, who grins broadly.
THE DOCTOR: I have ONE more unbelievable thing to show you. Well, not just one, many more than one, but this particular one also may be hard to believe. You haven’t made contact with any aliens, yet, have you?
GRIFF: [most directly in The Doctor’s line of sight] Me? Aliens?
THE DOCTOR: Any of you, humans! No, no, I can tell you haven’t. Good. In that case, let me introduce a good friend. [knocks on door.]
[The Door opens, and a short, sturdy almost definitely non-human person appears]
STRAX: Ah! An enemy! Let me get my weapons!
THE DOCTOR: Strax! It’s me! The Doctor!
STRAX: Doctor! It’s always good to see you! You look different, have you changed your head?
CLARA: [To the others] He sometimes has a hard time telling us apart.
STRAX: It’s hardly my fault you all look strange. So, Have you brought foes for me to crush the life out of? Are these them?
[KAYLEE, JEN, and GRIFF are staring wide-eyed]
THE DOCTOR: No, no! Strax, these are my new friends. May I introduce Kaylee, Griff, and Jen. They’re Earthlings from 2207. And you’ve met Clara. [to the rest] and may I introduce Strax, Sontaran hero, and nurse, and loyal friend.
JEN: [closing an eye again and tapping her fingers on her thigh] Not modded. . . not in costume. . . that’s what he looks like. . .?
STRAX: Of course it is! My form was selected over countless generations as the ultimate warrior form, I have however been enhanced so that I may perform. . . other duties.
THE DOCTOR: Is Madame Vastra here? And Jenny?
STRAX: No, they’ve gone to do something they call ‘clubbing’. I wanted to go along, but they insisted I wouldn’t enjoy it. [He sighs melodramatically] You’d think they’d know I love clubbing people by now, but when I pointed it out they just became more insistent.
THE DOCTOR: So, in that case, would you like to come with us on a little trip?
STRAX: [Grins broadly] Delightful! Then let us be off! Come friends, to glorious battle!
THE DOCTOR: He’s a bit enthusiastic sometimes… no, no battles. But don’t you want to see how they solved war?
STRAX: [Sneering suspiciously] Not particularly.
THE DOCTOR: Of course you do! Come along! To the TARDIS! Next stop. . . America!
GRIFF: Which? North? Central? South?
[The TARDIS materializes inside what appears to be an office building of some sort, it’s quite fancy]
THE DOCTOR: [Popping out of the TARDIS] Here we are, the United Nations! The epitome of international cooperation, peace, and goodwill at this point in time! Shall we look around?
[The group exits, and as they round the corner two security guards appear. The Doctor reaches out with his psychic paper.]
GUARD NUMBER ONE: [Brandishing weapon] Hold it right . . .
[Faster than anybody can react, two of Jen’s bears suddenly fly at each of the guards, one targeting the guards’ weapons and the other around their heads, knocking them to the ground.]
JEN: [nearly hyperventilating] Those were real guns! They had real guns! In a building!
CLARA: Well, it is their building.
JEN: [clearly horrified] THEY POINTED WEAPONS AT PEOPLE!!!!
KAYLEE [with some realization, to JEN]: There, there dear. He DID tell us we were heading to 2013, and that’s what they did back then. It doesn’t mean the same thing.
JEN: I don’t know who they are! I didn’t consent to this!
GRIFF: Jen. . . we’re not home anymore. . . the rules can be different.
STRAX: My, that is an interesting. . . weapon? Are they. . . ?
GRIFF: Asleep, they’ve been able to do that since the fourth generation or so. [to Jen] Stand down, dear, relax. Think of it as a game, a sim. A very, very weird sim.
JEN: [Slowly recovering] Goodness. . . and yes, they’re okay. The bears can monitor the… their vitals and give them a customized cocktail to help them relax. Teddy bears don’t hurt anyone, they just protect people and keep things from escalating.
CLARA: If you don’t mind me asking. . . did they. . . jump? I didn’t see what happened?
JEN: [Laughing] Oh no! I mean, they can, but they’re not terribly strong by design so they can’t jump that fast, and you can’t always expect them to get leverage. The other guys threw them.
STRAX: If you don’t mind me asking, why invent such a weapon? Why not finish the job?
[Jen is without words, so The Doctor steps in.]
THE DOCTOR: They [cocks head towards the Earthlings] don’t kill each other anymore.
THE DOCTOR: No, you don’t. How old are you again, Strax?
STRAX: You know I am twelve years old.
THE DOCTOR: And among your people that is considered. . .
THE DOCTOR: So who are your heroes? They’re the ones with experience, the ones who’ve faced death over and over and each victory gives them one more trick in their toolbox, right?
STRAX: Of course! Without scars one is just a freshly hatched pup! A true warrior has faced death many times and defeated many enemies!
THE DOCTOR: And you train too, right? You do that for a reason, I suspect! With realistic simulations?
STRAX: Indeed! We train incessantly, weapons drills, simulations almost as good as real battle, for the glory of the Sontaran Empire!
THE DOCTOR: So how good would a Sontaran warrior be if he fought every day of his life, always against the best . . . and defeated thousands, yet still lived? Would you like to see what he could do?
STRAX: That warrior would be exceptional, he would have turned battle into an art form, a thing of beauty! I’d be honored to be slain by such a foe, if only to witness and experience such glory first hand!
THE DOCTOR: Exactly! So what happens if you take two great warriors, and have them do battle?
STRAX: Most likely it would be a glorious battle, the victor would be honored to crush the life out of his foe!
THE DOCTOR: And what if he didn’t?
THE DOCTOR: What if they fought right up to the end, and then stopped. And then the next day they fought again, but again the victor spared the loser. And they fought every day, over and over again.
STRAX: They would not do that.
THE DOCTOR: But how good could they BE? Don’t you see? You’re killing yourselves off before you’re any good at anything!
STRAX: [Flustered] That is NOT so! We have many excellent warriors, despite not getting to keep fighting after… losing.
THE DOCTOR: And it never occurred to you that I, who you yourself say is the greatest foe your people have ever faced, may be succeeding because I’m over a thousand years old and have learned all your little tricks and more. . . without even paying much attention?
STRAX: [Flustered] It’s not our way!
THE DOCTOR: [Bluntly] And that’s why you keep losing. Now, those other two Sontarans, the ones who keep practicing and learning… for dozens of years, they might pose a bit of a challenge.
GRIFF: Don’t you see? When you find a challenging foe, one that brings out the best in you and makes you better, you should want to SAVE them! Why kill an amazing artist?
JEN: Yeah, exactly! We’ve got people who fight like they’re going to die every time, but they keep getting better and better. They’re amazing, almost supernatural! I can watch 3Ds of them for hours sometimes, they keep coming up with these amazing tricks!
STRAX: [Skeptically] That. . . I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this.
JEN: Okay, how about this, mister! Let’s say you collect a hundred of your people, and you do it our way. You have them fight each other every day in creative ways for YEARS. Tens of years? How long can you guys live if somebody doesn’t blow you up anyway?
STRAX: I. . . I actually don’t know.
JEN: So if you and your hundred warriors train for decades and I set a hundred average but . . . naughty? . . enemy Sontarans on you, what’s going to happen?
STRAX: They obviously would not stand a chance! I myself am more than a match for your average Sontaran, I’ve lived through. . .
JEN: [interrupting] They wouldn’t just not stand a chance, chummer. They’d hardly be worth fighting. Pretty soon the only people who will be a challenge to you is each other. You can laugh everybody else off and . . . oh, I don’t know. [she seems to be looking for words]
GRIFF: Wu Wei, it’s an old traditional thing, I’d heard it in. . . at least two of my visits. One of the groups were sculptors, and they described it like when they’re so good at what they’re doing and so in the moment that everything becomes effortless and just flows. It’s not so much that they’re forcing the material to bend to their whims as they’re . . . cooperating with it. You’d have to see them in action to appreciate it. It was like magic.
GRIFF: The others, you’d like them I bet! They were martial artists, they fought each other, but never really hurt each other except for a few bruises. They were so. . . fast isn’t the right word? Efficient maybe? I tried practicing sparring with them a few times. It was. . . well. . . they humored me a little, I think. They say it takes years to get that good, and I believe them.
JEN: Seriously? This NEVER occurred to you before? You just stupidly killed people for no reason? Before they had a chance to get good at anything? Nobody said anything?
KAYLEE: Jen. [points to the sleeping guards] Before you finish that thought, remember where.. I mean, when we are. We used to do the same thing, not that long ago, really.
GRIFF: Guys, I hate to interrupt, but is this really the best place to be hanging around? I’d really rather be somewhere where we’re wanted if it’s all right with everyone else. I know things are different . . now. . but I’m just not comfortable with this.
JEN: Yeah, can we go somewhere. . . actually peaceful? Do you have peaceful places?
THE DOCTOR: Yes, what were you thinking Clara? Why didn’t you remind me we had a mission? We have somebody very important to visit . . . and I suppose maybe his parents too. . . come on then, no lollygagging, plenty to do elsewhere!
JEN: [To Strax] By the way, I’m not a boy.
STRAX: [Sighing Melodramatically] Right, you’re anther one of those ‘girls’ aren’t you?
CLARA: It’s not his fault, his people only have one gender. Grumpy.
[The group speedily enters the TARDIS and again the TARDIS fades away]
[The TARDIS materializes on a familiar residential street]
THE DOCTOR: [popping out of the TARDIS with group in tow] Come on! Isn’t this exciting [Looking at KAYLEE] You’re going to be delighted! I promise you!
[JEN has a little difficulty getting the wagon up the stairs but they quickly reach the door, with The Doctor knocking rapidly. The door opens.]
CRAIG: Alfie? Well, yes. . . but. . .
THE DOCTOR: Lovely! Mind if we all come in for a few? We need somewhere peaceful to chat about important things!
CLARA: It’s the Doctor! He’s just got a new body now!
[The Doctor takes Craig’s hesitation as a yes and strides in, followed by the rest, Craig looks nervously at Strax, but the others seem normal enough and seem to settle him somewhat]
CRAIG: [To himself] Sophie’s not going to like this when she gets home.
THE DOCTOR: There he is! Our guest of the hour! Kaylee, may I introduce you to Alfie Owens!
KAYLEE: [looks at baby] Err, hi!
CRAIG: At least he’s finally calling himself Alfie now.
THE DOCTOR: [leans over, confidentially] But he prefers to be known as Stormageddon! Dark Lord of All!
THE DOCTOR: No! No! He’s a couple more great’s removed, but he is who your grandfather was named after! Stormageddon stayed in the family, it never really became a popular name, did it?
KAYLEE: [Laughs] No! But he was my favorite. I’ll be considering it if I ever decide to have a child. [Sounds a bit odd coming from a woman who looks to be in her late fifities, but nobody comments.]
[Clara, Craig, Jen, and Griff hear a shocked exclamation from Griff and dash into the other room]
CRAIG: What, my television? You haven’t seen one before?
GRIFF: Not the television, the VID on it!
[The group turns to the television, where the News is on]
CRAIG: The news? That’s about the only thing on television that’s real. Well, mostly real.
GRIFF: [horrified] I didn’t. . . know. I thought it was some kind of . . . awful, fake entertainment or something. This is . . . news?
CRAIG: Err, yes. Why? What’s wrong with it?
GRIFF: What’s WRONG with it? What isn’t? Where did you people get the idea it was okay to impose your will on a stranger? To broadcast embarrassing, hurtful pictures of people over and over again? To dehumanize somebody just because they’re different? To give people power over others? To tell everybody who they’re supposed to love, or marry?
CRAIG: Well, not everybody. . .
GRIFF: It’s been what. . . a couple of MINUTES? And they just served up all those bite-sized bits of horror from all over the world without a single good bit? That’s POISON!!! No wonder you guys screwed so many things up!
JEN: Griff. . . my turn! We’re in their world now, remember? Their context.
GRIFF: [To Jen, a brief smile crossing his pained expression] You’ve been waiting for this since the guards, haven’t you?
GRIFF: [Relaxing slightly] Right. . . can we turn that off please? I feel. . . a little ill.
[They move into the living room]
THE DOCTOR: Well then, are we ready?
CLARA, CRAIG, and KAYLEE: For what?
THE DOCTOR: To save the world from itself, of course! Why do you think we’re here? Craig has a job to do!
THE DOCTOR: Yes! To learn, and teach! All will become apparent. I love this part.
CLARA: Can’t you just. . . you know. . . just tell us?
THE DOCTOR: Have I EVER done that?
THE DOCTOR: [Ponders briefly] No, no, I’m pretty sure I’d remember if I had, and that doesn’t sound like me at all.
STRAX: No, it doesn’t. I concur.
THE DOCTOR: Okay then! Enough distracting me, don’t you want to know how you’re going to have done it?
THE DOCTOR: Good! Because you’re going to be very important! Ready, go!
[The group looks around at each other uncertainly]
THE DOCTOR: Right! I’ll get things started! Griff! You said some things. Craig, ask Griff what he meant about giving people power.
CRAIG: Ummm. . . Griff. . . could you tell me what you meant about people with. . . wait, so. . . [hesitantly] I’m assuming you’re from the future — how do you do elections and the like without giving people . . . power?
GRIFF: What, governance? And getting big things done and such? We choose that too, of course.
JEN: We use stories and a proxy system, it’s one of the most popular.
GRIFF: Yeah, like. . . err. Okay, so, who is there that you respect, who’s in some sort of field you care about?
CRAIG: [Thinks a moment] Well, Alfie really likes nature shows, and Sir David Attenborough is I guess somebody I’d like to be … president of nature? Is that what you do?
GRIFF: Ha! No, but if he was somebody who was comfortable with the responsibility, then he could accept your proxy. That doesn’t mean anything on its own without influence though.
CLARA: Like you said the people in . . . school… having less?
GRIFF: Universities and Holdfasts, yup, anybody who’s finding their way… they still get some though. We also have a lottery of sorts, so occasionally people get a whole bunch. So anyway, let’s say it’s the end of the quarter, and it’s time to pick your stories.
GRIFF: Of course! What else do you vote on? So, one of the stories is a general one about saving an ecosystem, and another is about people working together to discover fantastic critters and get cool vids and stories about them for everyone. And you like those stories because Alfie here will have more fun things to play with when he grows up, right?
THE DOCTOR: Ah! He really does prefer Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All. He also agrees, more critters!
GRIFF: [grinning] Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All [Bows extravagantly to Alfie]. So you put some of your points in one, some in the other, and you proxy David Attenborough as someone you believe can help make those stories come true. So you put the two together and that’s how we decide what to do.
KAYLEE: But the really important part is that it’s only temporary. If you find somebody better, or your initial proxy has some kind of change or illness and starts making bad decisions, then you can pull your proxy and hand it off to someone else, or hand it to a group you like or something. It’s all about the perception — if you don’t think you have power over people, you don’t get stupid.
GRIFF: And since you trust him, if he decides to defer to [He pauses briefly] . . . Michael Quinion on entomology in general, you’d be cool with that even if you had no clue who they were, because Mr. Attenborough knows his stuff.
CRAIG: But what about really big issues, like . . . well, like that gay marriage vote that was just on.
GRIFF: [Angrily] We don’t DO that! Whatever gave you people the idea that it was okay to impose your will on strangers like that? Nobody writes stories like that, and if somebody did nobody’d vote on them. That’s just . . . MEAN.
KAYLEE: And even if they did, they wouldn’t become options. We’ve got people who hold themselves to a very high standard who filter and combine them. The process is transparent and people can chime in, but there are very few complaints. . . mostly suggestions.
CLARA: Oh! Okay, I can almost see that. . . and I could see how that would work . . . but how high a standard are we talking about? I’d have to have to give up someting I liked for my whole life or something.
GRIFF: There’s no such thing as a permanent person. We all change over time, if you decide to lower the bar for yourself then you can. . . just so whatever bar you set doesn’t violate whatever community standards you agreed to. Heck, some people go to the badlands for a while and come back.
CLARA: What about criminals? People who hurt people? And child molesters? You don’t just let people run around willy-nilly, I expect. How do you protect them?
JEN: [Waving] Me! But that sort of thing doesn’t happen much. We don’t call them criminals — they’re just . . . better in some situations than others?
GRIFF: Yeah, so if somebody’s got some broken part that makes struggle to be around people without hurting them, we try to find ways to make that useful . . . they become martial artists or fight robot battles on the moon, or just to keep them so busy and entertained that it never occurs to them.
THE DOCTOR: Exactly! How often have you seen somebody go ‘I’m having a LOVELY time, and life is peaceful and I have few worries . . . time to torment and maybe murder some fellow on the street!’? That’s not how you humans work! You’re really easily distracted, you just needed to start taking advantage of your flaws, too!
KAYLEE and GRIFF: Hunt down your flaws and exploit them!
CRAIG: [Suddenly excited] OH! OH! I think I understand! So. . . Americans love guns, right? And I saw this Mythbusters episode where Keri cut down a dead tree with a machine gun! I said it looked fun, and Sophie thought it was stupid. I said I’d plant a dozens of trees for the chance to do that once!
STRAX: Excellent! I like to blow things up, too! I knew you had it in you. [Pats Craig on back, a bit too roughly.]
CRAIG: [Recovering] . . .and if we gave the Americans a chance to do that. . . they’d plant entire forests! We could invite them to the Sahara!
THE DOCTOR: That’s BRILLIANT! [To the others] I TOLD you he was important! Looks can be deceiving!
CLARA: But what happens to all the dead trees? Isn’t that. . . wasteful?
KAYLEE: [pulling a notepad out of her pocket and holding it out] I. . . we’ve done this.
THE DOCTOR: [leaning over] “Made of 100% free range tree, slain with honor.”
KAYLEE: What can I say, I’m a nature geek.
CRAIG: [slightly disappointed] And I thought I had a good original idea there.
THE DOCTOR: Craig! Craiggy-poo, you silly, silly man, don’t you see? They’re from your future, not only did you have an amazing, clever idea, but it got big! They loved it!
CRAIG: [Brightening] I. . . wow.
[Strax pats Craig on the back again, enthusiastically]
KAYLEE: It’s not just planting trees now though, we accidentally nearly overdid it, trees don’t belong everywhere, even if they are the right ones for the local environment. So, sometimes it’s… allowing people to indulge their desire to run away from large, hooved animals in order to reverse desertification… all kinds of things like that. Just so you create more than you destroy.
CLARA: So. . . who’s in charge?
[GRIFF, JEN, and KAYLEE look perplexed]
THE DOCTOR: Nobody is! That’s why it works!
CRAIG: That . . . can’t work, right? Don’t we need CEOs and managers and leaders and presidents and such?
STRAX: [Pondering] Is that working?
THE DOCTOR: [To Strax] Exactly! [To Craig] See? People don’t work well with that sort of power, that’s just a whole bunch of stupid waiting to happen, or rather waiting to stop happening, that’s what you’re for! You’ve already proven you don’t need them, there are lots of examples. Like. . . Stopcock! Wait, that’s not right. Err… Valve! Craig’s Earth has a company called Valve, but they don’t make faucets, they make video games!
CLARA: Well then that’s a silly name, isn’t it?
JEN: Stopcock! [Joins KAYLEE and GRIFF giggling]
THE DOCTOR: Yes, yes it is! But anyway, there’s a whole bunch like them, but they don’t have leaders or management really. People just pick their own teams, squads of people to work with, and they pick their own projects too. They’re kind of an accidental prototype for what you’re going to do!
CRAIG: Oh! The Steam guys! I just saw something about them the other day too, they have a. . . virtual economist . . . yeah, that was it. For all the video game economies. I thought it sounded like a boring job in a fun world, really.
THE DOCTOR: But they’re effective, aren’t they? And they do it in one of the most standards-dependent environments in the world, programming! If only they were a little more ambitious they’d have started all this already instead of waiting on you.
CRAIG: [Nervously] Why do you keep saying that?
THE DOCTOR: And you also have all these worker cooperatives, like that big one just past the French! Moon Dragon, Moon Drag-On… Mondragon! Whole villages worth of people working collectively, and both of them are also fighting money!
CLARA: Fighting money? Wait, that’s a fun image! Rawr! [makes little claws with her hands. Kaylee giggles]
THE DOCTOR: They limit their salaries, so nobody gets too much more than anybody else, because that was silly. After all, despite having all the money and power, a CEO isn’t worth more to society than a nurse, right?
CRAIG: [Looking at the now-off TV briefly] No, in fact I’d argue that most of them are worth much less, sometimes they don’t seem like. . . people.
THE DOCTOR: [To Stormageddon] Now now, it’s not his fault. [To Craig] WRONG! So delightfully, wonderfully wrong, you know why it’s wonderful that you’re wrong?
THE DOCTOR: Because you get to learn! And when you learn, you get better!
[JEN, GRIFF, and KAYLEE in unison] “Embrace your mistakes and hunt down your flaws!”
CLARA: [To Strax and Craig] They do that occasionally.
THE DOCTOR: Exactly! That’s how you get better at things. You humans have been raised to be embarrassed by mistakes, to avoid admitting them. That’s one of the many really big causes to all your problems. A little change in attitude can do wonders, can’t it?
CRAIG: But. . . you haven’t explained what I did wrong yet.
KAYLEE: Don’t you see? You described roles as people, and this place is a broken, mad world right now. Maybe one of your… ‘C.D.O.’s?[Everyone shakes head no] …sounding people … Could be a great artist, or inventor, or maybe the best nurse of ALL if only they weren’t stuck being an. . . acronym person.
CRAIG: So. . . someone like a CEO isn’t bad, just. . .
THE DOCTOR: Exactly! Hitler was an adorable baby and in different circumstances may have been a great painter or entertainer! Osama bin Laden died hiding away with his family, people he probably loved and who probably loved him and just saw him as a PERSON. Most of the people you malign as ‘evil’ twisted themselves that way thinking they’re doing it to support or take care of other people. Almost NONE of you are completely broken!
GRIFF: Nobody is! There’s a place for everyone, maybe not around other people all the time or even at all. When I find somebody who isn’t fitting in, I consider it a bit of a collective failure, like we haven’t invented what they’re amazing at yet.
THE DOCTOR: See, attitude! It’s all in your perspective.
CRAIG: Okay. . . I think I’m seeing this. So we make a corporation that’s about people? And we let it be their home too? So they can get away from bad nations and such?
THE DOCTOR: You’re getting it! You’ve got to do much more than that of course! You need to be humble, to realize that some ideas may not work, some experiments may fail, so you need to put together some kind of method, a scientific one, that you can put on top, so that you are offsetting your worst tendencies with it, stand back and be reasonable and the like.
CRAIG: We’ve got one of those, this isn’t going to be all cold or boring, is it? Because I’m not sure that’ll be popular.
JEN: [Snorts.] The whole POINT is to not be boring! To give people lots of options, packages, ways to live their lives! You can choose from so MANY! And we can go wherever we’re welcome. If it just so happens someone doesn’t like their options and wants to create another, we help them so that others can share. There really aren’t many restrictions.
THE DOCTOR: So you’ve got a corporation run by people, it’s the opposite of boring, and it lets them escape from all the madness in the world, and it’s designed humbly, to take advantage of what really motivates you and what’s really true, rather than what you hope. . . with me so far?
KAYLEE: And it’s SUSTAINABLE! That’s important!
THE DOCTOR: Getting to that! So what happens when somebody offers you a job like that, and you have to be nice and not hurt anybody, but you’ll be well fed, taken care of, and expected to have a lot of fun, do enjoyable work, and not be wasteful? A place filled with people like these lovely folks? [gestures to the future Earthlings]
CRAIG: I could go for that, but not everybody would. What about the Americans, they love guns and I don’t like the idea of people leaving them lying around where a kid can accidentally get hold of it? And what about religious zealots and that sort of thing? Won’t they fight it?
CLARA: They bring guns to work???
CRAIG: Well, no, or… I don’t think so… but this is more than just work, isn’t it? I can kind of see . . . but.
KAYLEE So THAT’S what the Competitive Buds were about! I think I get it now! Those were for people who liked the idea, but didn’t really want to change themselves or were just too set in their ways. They set up experiments too but didn’t influence the ‘ring of groovy’ well, sometimes they did, but only when the had really good ideas. The only big rule was that the kids had the option of choosing from wherever they were invited when they grew up. And they were invited to all the Open Universities.
THE DOCTOR: There are so MANY of you, and you all learn differently and have so much to add to the world if it’s not beaten down before you become adults. You have billions of wonderful minds on this planet with so many great ideas, just wait until you start getting to hear all of them!
GRIFF: Yeah, a lot of our best inventors are under twenty. When we’re younger, we’re better at breaking context, and most of the best seeming ideas are lateral hops.
CRAIG: So. . . what about people who don’t like the whole idea? Powerful people?
THE DOCTOR: Two things! [counting off] One, you’re living inside what starts off as a multinational corporation, a construct that has so many powers piled on top of it that you get to win most of those battles without even trying. Two, powerful people are just people, the only power they have is when other people listen to them. Three, how dangerous are they when you’ve hired away all their servants, guards, soldiers, and the rest?
THE DOCTOR: Four. . you’re not attached to a chunk of dirt unless you want to be, you can go where you want, it’s as peaceful a revolution as you’re ever going to have . . .
KAYLEE: And FIVE! The moment you can invite people to live sustainably and stop ruining all of the ecosystems, you have a MORAL OBLIGATION to offer that up to EVERY HUMAN on the planet! Everyone, even the people you fear or worry about.
CLARA: Wait, aren’t there. . . laws about hiring too many people?
[Stormageddon gurgles enthusiastically]
THE DOCTOR: [sharing a private laugh with Stormageddon] Ha! Good one! [To Craig] Craig! What country could screw this whole thing up?
THE DOCTOR: And they have a democracy, right? Except most of them don’t vote, partly because it’s kind of difficult and partly because they usually don’t have anything good to vote for, and because most jobs don’t want them to because working people vote for all the wrong things. And they just had a big legal ruling about corporations and voting if I got my timelines right, true? [looks at Craig expectantly]
STRAX: You mean Citizens United, don’t you? They’re still complaining about that, I like watching them argue and get all excited.
KAYLEE: Oh! Now that bit makes sense! America was our mothership, that’s how they did it!
THE DOCTOR: Right! Once people could SEE it happening, even the first glimmers of people being able to take back their lives. . . well, that sort of thing creates an energy all its own.
CRAIG: OH! And they have to vote who to vote for, and almost nobody votes in . . . primaries? Is that what they are there?
THE DOCTOR: And imagine a corporation with a delightfully wonderful plan!
CRAIG: But they can only get so big, right?
THE DOCTOR: Let’s look at that scenario, shall we? You’ve got an extremely popular corporation that appeals to a whole bunch of people, but it’s not allowed to hire them because of some law that was put in place for a totally different reason. And this corporation is cheerfully announcing the candidates they’re supporting, and pointing out their big goal is to create a law to let them hire you, too. What’s going to happen?
CRAIG: You’re going to. . . break America?
KAYLEE: Oh no! That’s not how we did it. We won the election, gave ourselves a big ‘Except for us, we can do what we want, and America will protect us instead of getting in the way’ law, let the people who didn’t want to join vote on a few quick changes. . . I think they made it illegal for politicians to lie or something like that, too. . . and we just took Colbert and the rest and did our own thing and paid for them to have a new election. We also helped them cut their health care costs way down and a few other things, favors for favors and all that.
THE DOCTOR: And Craig, you know that every child on the planet is born with pretty much the same potential, right? It doesn’t matter if they’re born in Sweden, Saudi Arabia, China, or Sierra Leone, right?
THE DOCTOR: And that’s how you save the world! Once this is good enough for the West. . . well, this idea is made to be powered by third world orphans! They’ve got the least to unlearn, after all. If you guys hadn’t thought of it first they’d have completely left you in the dust. It’s fairly inevitable.
STRAX: I bet all of those humans named Ted would help!
STRAX: Ted! There are a lot of them, Madame Vastra had me watch some. It’s apparently a common name, though a strange way to organize all those talks and presentations. Do they get their names later?
STRAX: Right! Ted, that’s who talks.
CRAIG: They’re not. . . well, never mind. That’s actually really smart, the TED website is FULL of great ideas. I was watching a couple videos with Sophie the other day. She said that even though they’re brilliant and make sense, they’d never happen in the ‘real world’ . . . but this . .
STRAX: [To the Doctor] See? [Taps head] Not the potato one!
KAYLEE: Is that where the Venus Project came from? I heard something similar about them, well, until the Cooperation happened, then they got huge.
THE DOCTOR: Nope! DIfferent groups, but that’s okay, don’t you see? A whole BUNCH of people have parts of this idea, and their ideas overlap. All you need to do is connect the dots and then get it out there for people to see. You’re going to crowdsource a revolution!
THE DOCTOR: You’re going to have, yes!
THE DOCTOR: You’ve got a different job, remember what we were talking about earlier?
STRAX: Why of course! Fighting!
THE DOCTOR: I want you to collect a whole bunch of humans who really want to fight and want to protect people.
STRAX: Oh! I get to lead your Army! About time!
THE DOCTOR: Ahh, but there’s a catch! Your job is to defend the Earth, but [pointing to JEN] HER way.
STRAX: With little furry, stuffed . . . baby humans? That’s what you call things like that [motioning to Stormageddon], right? Babies?
CLARA: Well, yes, this is a baby. But those aren’t babies. [points to the teddy bears.]
THE DOCTOR: I want you to create training simulations. Make them so real they might as well be, and make you and your humans so good that any invading force would be almost laughable by comparison. And I want you never to kill them, only defuse and capture them.
STRAX: Humans have fuses?! Why didn’t anyone tell me?
THE DOCTOR: No, no, no, not defuse. [tick-tick-ticks his tongue while thinking.] Pacify! Err, restrain!
STRAX: [Slightly uncomfortably] Why would we do that?
THE DOCTOR: Because some of them might want to join you! And they’ll have new ideas and tactics, so you can keep doing the same thing and getting better and better. I want you to be martial artists the like of which the universe has never seen!
JEN: I never fight to kill, want to try me? [Her bears suddenly hop up and pair off. Craig looks shocked, Stormageddon giggles and claps]
JEN: [Whispering to STRAX] I’d destroy you! [She then sticks out her tongue, grins broadly, and saunters off]
STRAX: [Grinning] No Sontaran backs down from a challenge like this! [To The Doctor] Okay, I’m your man, sir. This sounds right up my alley!
THE DOCTOR: Until you decide you want to try something else! That’s my other new rule, I stole it from them. [points to the future Earthlings]
CRAIG: I still have some questions, but. . . okay, I get this. This is really important and. . . wow.
THE DOCTOR: At this point, you’ll find there are more solutions than problems, they’re just waiting out there to be assembled. But I have ONE more thing for you, something new! This isn’t how you did it, but it’s a chance to do things even faster!
THE DOCTOR: Of course, don’t you see? Every child should have the entire scope of human experience open to them, right? And every law, rule, regulation, or anything else is just some construct that people made up, often a long time ago.
THE DOCTOR: It’s hard to break inertia, but now that you know there’s a better way, you might be able to skip a few steps!
THE DOCTOR: With people! What happens if you guys devise some symbols to wear?
KAYLEE: Like your blue box! Did we do that? I think we did that!
THE DOCTOR: Whatever you want, it doesn’t have to be the same thing in all the different places. So you wear these symbols to identify each other. You walk around with them on your lapels or wherever you like, big or small, so people can know you want THIS to happen! And you could have a little cheer! Every day at ten o’clock, AM and PM. Everybody who wants this to happen, cheers. Loudly, if they want. [clears throat] HURRAH!
[Stormageddon squeals enthusiastically and Strax makes a strange rasping sound, the others join in the cheer]
THE DOCTOR: Quite right! See! That was mostly excellent!
CLARA: [Grinning broadly] I get it, so people aren’t scared to be alone anymore… instead, they get to proudly be part of something bigger.
THE DOCTOR: And when most of them decide THIS is the way the world works. . .
CLARA: Then they can look the last few people in the eye and say ‘What?! No, you don’t get to tell people what to do anymore, silly! Our way’s better, and you don’t have authority, because we’re not giving it to you any longer.’
KAYLEE: No . . . this is a big dream, you can do better than that. It’s a huge world, just move away. Make cities somewhere else. Find other nations to host you if one won’t do, and make sure that everybody ends up enriched whenever you interact, if that’s sincerely your goal then you win no matter how things go. No reason to fight. There never was a revolution.
JEN: Weaponized inconvenience for the win!
CLARA: . . . not a real thing.
[STRAX slumps his shoulders, clearly disappointed.
CRAIG: OH! So since you guys said we’re all kind of screwed up, that means we all deserve a fresh start. People who’ve made mistakes, they can [finger quotes] ‘take the black’! I mean, not with capes and swords or anything. . . no need to be naive about it. . . . but at least better options for them too. Like a justice system more like Finland has, and just. . you know, not making people who don’t get along deal with each other all the time.
CLARA: I don’t quite follow the bit about the black swords.
STRAX: It’s from a television show! It’s very violent, I like it. [To Griff, Kaylee, and Jen] You still have those, right? Your performers aren’t all. . . teddy humans?
GRIFF: Ha! Oh yes, we’ve still got our entertainment, we just know the difference between reality and fantasy. We’re still human beings and we do have our odd flaws. But being aware of them and not living in denial lets us address them, and there’s a lot of us, so there are some pretty creative solutions and amazing new advancements now.
KAYLEE: You should see Jen play in some of those sims. She’s a homicidal kleptomaniac!
GRIFF: Or pla. .fight with her! You’ll get a killer workout just trying to keep up!
JEN: [Shrugging] I generally wasn’t picked first for sports I wanted to play, so I’ve had some making up to do.
STRAX: [Puffing up somewhat] Good. Okay, I’m set then, let’s go!
THE DOCTOR: I think I’ve given you enough! But if not . . .
[Steps towards the camera and appears to cross past the boundary of the room]
THE DOCTOR: Well, you know things aren’t exactly great here right now, are they? Almost everyone agrees there’s something mad going on, lots of complaining and protesting and fighting . . . but why not play to the strengths of the best of you rather than the worst?
[The Doctor turns and faces the camera directly]
THE DOCTOR: [To You, specifically. Grinning and rubbing his hands together.] So, how about we stop all this madness, shall we? How about we write some stories?!
THE DOCTOR, joined by JEN, GRIFF, KAYLEE: And then make them come true!
If you’re thinking ‘Wait, you expect everybody to just agree and change everything with a cheer? That’s a silly plan!’ then I don’t disagree with you.
The plan is going back to the ‘Utilize the legal shell of a corporation to allow us to take our entire lives back’ idea. The bit about changing the world all at once is just to put a bit of emphasis on the very real fact that we’re being unfairly trapped by a lot of cultural inertia. Every child deserves the whole scope of human experience ahead of them, and every human deserves not to be trapped in some limited ‘one size fits all’ solution that sucks for most of us and is more of a birth lottery than anything.
But I don’t want to complain, I want to DO.
Being not entirely oblivious to how we human beings actually work, we’re going to have to make it something people want to do, something they can easily be part of, and something that completely supports them. Otherwise nothing’s going to happen, is it?
That in mind, we’re going to make this very satisfying and a great deal of fun, too. This isn’t just about a great future for our children, this is about a great present for US. We’ve been through a lot and we’ve been forced to watch some horrible things happen over the years, we deserve this. It shouldn’t have to be a whole lot of work.
By joining this . . . thing. This combination corporation/nation/home/haven/university/vacation/earth 2.0 entity. . . you don’t just get a job, you get a purpose. You actually have a reason for existing that you can basically change whenever you discover new dreams. Heck, you might have several. Unlike now, you get at least one, and you actually get to make things happen, too.
So first step, we’re going to define a set of principles that most of us can agree are common to the sort of person we can trust because they’re inherently worthy of that trust. . . people who we can hand the big issues off to. I’m not talking a bunch of elitist boring sorts, either, I’m talking the sort of person that can warm your heart with their childlike excitement one moment and reshape your world the next with some bit of wisdom that cuts right under your reality.
Think Wash and Kaylee from Firefly, [add others, incorporate more variety], who wouldn’t want as many people like this as possible? [insert in a few basic traits, serving the greater good selflessly, not caring about credit, not hurting anyone else, etc. Poss incorporate that for them it’s not a struggle, that they’re this way despite the fact that it makes it a struggle]
But yeah, no matter what not everybody’s going to agree on the There are some, admittedly, and the moment you pick a set of principles you inherently make the idea only good for some people rather than all of them, but I think we’ve got something that’ll appeal to most of us until something better comes along to compete with it, and for those who don’t like our dream they don’t have to contribute, we’re not forcing anybody to join and will make it easy for them to leave if they want.
So first . . . those pesky principles. I’ll begin this by stating that this is just me taking a stab at it and setting a baseline, they could probably be done better. The intent with them is to help us all raise the bar collectively in a way that helps us be productive without being boring or terribly difficult for most people.
I’m trying to get it down to fundamentals, and I think I have it down to . . .
- Treat everybody with respect. [Possible merger of ‘Don’t screw with anyone else’ and ‘The only power is given with consent and exists only up until the moment one party wants it to stop’]
- With more influence comes more responsibility. [Possible merger of ‘Think responsibly’ and ‘Standards of evidence apply when influencing others’ and ‘With big issues, try to get the decision making into good hands’]
- Leave the world a bit shinier than it was when you arrived.[In a nice, broad way, from helping the environment to spreading joy to helping people move from violence to peace, also incorporates ‘contribute to the greater good’ I think]
- Do amazing things, become more amazing, share the awesome. [We don’t want to get stagnant, and this IS a job after all. We still want people to get breaks when they need them but not to rest on their laurels forever or never try to contribute]
- Have fun. Lots of fun.
That’s really it, I think. In combination I think those traits give us a person that is a good person who’ll work well with each other and make good decisions collectively. It’s not just ‘every good person’, there are lots of awesome people who aren’t terribly careful thinkers or who would happily live a life so simple they don’t add anything positive to the world. These principles are actually a bit of work to implement, and the further along one is in applying them the more I think we can trust them to in whatever field they represent because they will be worthy of that trust.
Somebody may say ‘Wait a second, are you saying that you want these people making decisions for everybody? I’d rather be able to make important decisions about people I don’t particularly care about without actually thinking terribly hard about it!’
YES. That is excactly what I’m saying. This isn’t elitist, this is ‘not being deliberately stupid and stubborn’ with a little ‘willing to serve the greater good and keep on growing and helping as long as you get a generally awesome life’. Even then, we’re asking these people to be thoughtful and creative and we know they’re the type who’ll do it, too. When we do get an issue that needs everybody’s input the group that finalizes how those questions are phrased to make them honest and makes sure the real impacts are properly communicated and so on.
It’s basically the opposite of what we’ve got, right?
The principles are pretty vague, yes . . . but it’s not hard to reason things out for a human of above say . . . third grade. The point is not to be overly legalistic when we can avoid it, because overly legalistic systems are open to abuse by unethical people and the really good ones don’t need them.
In combination with the four groups I hit on earlier you could probably look at it as a bit of an analog scale. Some people are closer to one end of the spectrum and are gravitating in a certain direction. Nothing’s fixed, so if somebody wants to be comfy somewhere else they can change, that’s fine. It’s really all about finding a comfort zone. It’s not even particularly static from person to person, we change a lot over time, and should be able to adjust.
You see, I’m not thinking anybody’s better than anybody else. Heck, my favorite character on ‘Game of Thrones’ is The Hound. I love the guy. . . but I really don’t want him making any of our important decisions, do you? Nor do I want Littlefinger, as charasmatic he is, nor Varys no matter how clever. These are people who excel in broken worlds.
So, fleshing things out. . . maybe we can visualize it a bit better?
Imagine a backwards corporation, a nonevil empire. Imagine that you’re offered a job, and you’re given the same basic set of principles (with some detail) and a similar explanation. You’re told that you can pick anywhere you can fit in and find people you get along with (or agree to avoid if you’re amazingly introvered). Your job is to get us to that crazy future (or BETTER) as fast as possible. Every year you get to move to a new group if you want, but the more you infuence the world with your decisions the higher the standard you and those around you are held to (we don’t do double standards).
You’re expected to always be trying to do something useful unless you’re on vacation (or ill, disabled, retired, etc.), and you’re encouraged to take two. One just a ‘have a lot of fun’ vacation, and another something like that ‘intern vacation’ that Griff mentioned or just to learn something new and different. You’re guaranteed food, shelter, and healthcare regardless of what group you fall into. There are a few universal standards (nobody gets to hurt anybody else in a nonconsentual way, for example), but you kind of figured that because this is still civilization and all, and you ARE getting a lot for it. Similarly, if you want to work very little or want and extended vacation feel free, but you’d wouldn’t have quite as many options to work with.
As for WHAT life you live. . . that is completely open. We hit on a couple in the story, but if we look for ones that are pretty contemporary we could have things like.
- A group very much like Valve where you can choose between living in one of several areas connected to it via a transportation hub (the refurbished silo is especially popular) that creates games and software for free for all within and for profit without
- A team of eco-cleanup experts that easily underbid the competition and perform far better work that travels from site to site in a refurbished tanker modified to provide all their needs as well as several very large gaming rooms, as they love playing games like Magic: the Gathering and Cars against Humanity together.
- A group of scientists working on a final Grand Unified Theory living in tandem with a group of neurological researchers, psychologists, botanists, and chemists experimenting in responsible conditions with chemicals and conditions that help us get where we’d probably have been if Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, and Timothy Leary all got to drop acid together
- An aspiring fleet of collaborative writers and artists turning a role playing game into a living graphic novel that changes perspectives when a different character is selected that lives in an earthship, they use a kickstarter type system to get resources from the outside (far more than they needed, it turns out, apparently people will shell out cash just to add their favorite magic item to a fantasy world that’s richer and more sophisticated than mots of our current favorites combined
- A group of doctors and nurses working together with a recently acquired pharma corporation to start creating medicines that are motivated to help people rather than to make a profit. These medicines would of course have to be free for all, but by replacing wasteful spending they reduce everyone else’s overall cost.
[More to be added, it’s only been a few days]
[this part was initially connected two paragraphs below the four broad groups, should be moved to it’s own document with more details]
Maybe you want to be part of a group that 3-D prints custom prosthetics for amputees (and makes them awesome!), mabe you want to be part of a group that produces better-than-hollywood free entertainment for everybody, maybe you want to be a group of researchers into creative uses of graphene, think about something that you really have a passion for that people want done.
Do the same thing when it comes to how you like being rewarded. Maybe you like having more time to yourself, maybe you want random gifts from strangers, maybe you want to get to spend a few weeks living some crazy fantasy, maybe you want LOTS of rewards in exchange for doing something not enough people want to do but needs to get done, like janitorial work (I’m assuming).
And while you’re at it, do the same with a general set of principles you’d like for those you live around . . . the sort of things that you value in associates, friends, and loves. Also do it for the sort of living arrangement you’d like, whether hobbit homes or treehouses or huge towers of technological niftiness. What do you like doing for free time? Frisbee Golf? Fantasy Football? Video Games? Drag Racing? Magic: The Gathering? Do it for that too.
I’m not saying that it’s a sure thing you’ll find a perfect fit, but with a potential employee/citizen base of billions the odds are pretty good actually, and the really popular ideas will either expand or form more similar and interconnected groups … whatever suits the people involved.
Think of it as match.com, but for your whole life. You can change at least once a year if you want, so don’t worry about taking a risk or two.
[Also point out that lots of them aren’t mutually exclusive and there’s even room to want a balance of sorts of people]
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