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Authors: Marshall Brain
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I learned about the
daily schedule over the six week period. In orientation we would be
learning about the credit system, housing, the robot culture, picking
products - everything from food to clothing to vacation packages -
interacting with other residents, volunteer opportunities, physical
fitness, careers, the legal system, voting, etc. It would be a very
busy six weeks.
The
first two days acted as a general overview of the Australia project
as a whole, but spent a good bit of time covering three things -- the
history of the Australia project, the economy of the project and the
core principle of "living your life."
Distilling
two days of presentations down into a few sentences, here's what I
learned. As best I could tell, the basic idea behind the Australia
project was to create heaven on earth, or at least the closest
facsimile of heaven possible. Heaven was different for different
people, so your task was to define heaven for yourself and make it
happen. As long as your view of heaven did not unduly impinge on
anyone else's view, or require that you consume massive amounts of
resources at the expense of someone else, you could bring your
version of heaven to reality for yourself. It was stated in the
presentation much more eloquently than that, but that was the gist of
it.
There
was a very good explanation of why we needed the orientation process.
We would be entering a society very different from any society we had
ever experienced before. This society offered a huge array of
options, and those options grew constantly. The society was
well-balanced, with a huge pool of people interacting in very human
and humane ways, and there was no desire to throw off that balance by
letting a bunch of new people in who did not know how to participate.
To live our lives, we would be doing it in the context of this
society, and everyone wanted us making a smooth entry. There were
apparently no penalties for mistakes. If the entry was not smooth, we
would be re-oriented.
One
part of the presentation featured a speaker who absolutely blew me
away. He was the best motivational speaker I had ever heard. He asked
us to think about a set of basic, personal questions. Like: What am I
passionate about? What do I most enjoy doing? What have I always
wanted to try but had never gotten around to? How did I want to spend
my time? In what sort of environment did I enjoy living? What kind of
people did I like having around me? What kinds of hobbies did I
enjoy? How far did I want to take them? Were there any that I would
want to do constantly for a period of time?
For
the first time in my life, in other words, I was told I had nearly
total freedom to do anything I could imagine. All I had to do was
figure out what to imagine. The goal of the orientation process was
to make me aware of all of the possibilities and how to put them
together into my view of heaven.
The
presentation ran through a number of examples. Essentially, everyone
in Australia is living on a gigantic, luxury cruise ship. The trip is
already paid for, for life, and you are free to do whatever you like
with your time. The robots are doing all the work, and you get to
partake freely of their output. In other words, for the first time
ever, everyone is truly equal and everyone is truly free.
Some
people on a cruise ship like this would want to spend their time
lying by the pool tanning and sipping margaritas. They are free to do
that. Some people would want to spend a lot of time raising their
children. They are free to do that. Some would want to be bass
fishing all day. That's OK too.
But
there would be a tremendous number of people who would want to
fulfill life-long dreams -- they would see the unlimited free time of
a life-long cruise as an amazing opportunity. Anyone with creativity
would start creating.
For
example, anyone with an artistic bent would start creating art,
because they now have the time and the freedom to do it. Let's say
that you are, or have always
daily schedule over the six week period. In orientation we would be
learning about the credit system, housing, the robot culture, picking
products - everything from food to clothing to vacation packages -
interacting with other residents, volunteer opportunities, physical
fitness, careers, the legal system, voting, etc. It would be a very
busy six weeks.
The
first two days acted as a general overview of the Australia project
as a whole, but spent a good bit of time covering three things -- the
history of the Australia project, the economy of the project and the
core principle of "living your life."
Distilling
two days of presentations down into a few sentences, here's what I
learned. As best I could tell, the basic idea behind the Australia
project was to create heaven on earth, or at least the closest
facsimile of heaven possible. Heaven was different for different
people, so your task was to define heaven for yourself and make it
happen. As long as your view of heaven did not unduly impinge on
anyone else's view, or require that you consume massive amounts of
resources at the expense of someone else, you could bring your
version of heaven to reality for yourself. It was stated in the
presentation much more eloquently than that, but that was the gist of
it.
There
was a very good explanation of why we needed the orientation process.
We would be entering a society very different from any society we had
ever experienced before. This society offered a huge array of
options, and those options grew constantly. The society was
well-balanced, with a huge pool of people interacting in very human
and humane ways, and there was no desire to throw off that balance by
letting a bunch of new people in who did not know how to participate.
To live our lives, we would be doing it in the context of this
society, and everyone wanted us making a smooth entry. There were
apparently no penalties for mistakes. If the entry was not smooth, we
would be re-oriented.
One
part of the presentation featured a speaker who absolutely blew me
away. He was the best motivational speaker I had ever heard. He asked
us to think about a set of basic, personal questions. Like: What am I
passionate about? What do I most enjoy doing? What have I always
wanted to try but had never gotten around to? How did I want to spend
my time? In what sort of environment did I enjoy living? What kind of
people did I like having around me? What kinds of hobbies did I
enjoy? How far did I want to take them? Were there any that I would
want to do constantly for a period of time?
For
the first time in my life, in other words, I was told I had nearly
total freedom to do anything I could imagine. All I had to do was
figure out what to imagine. The goal of the orientation process was
to make me aware of all of the possibilities and how to put them
together into my view of heaven.
The
presentation ran through a number of examples. Essentially, everyone
in Australia is living on a gigantic, luxury cruise ship. The trip is
already paid for, for life, and you are free to do whatever you like
with your time. The robots are doing all the work, and you get to
partake freely of their output. In other words, for the first time
ever, everyone is truly equal and everyone is truly free.
Some
people on a cruise ship like this would want to spend their time
lying by the pool tanning and sipping margaritas. They are free to do
that. Some people would want to spend a lot of time raising their
children. They are free to do that. Some would want to be bass
fishing all day. That's OK too.
But
there would be a tremendous number of people who would want to
fulfill life-long dreams -- they would see the unlimited free time of
a life-long cruise as an amazing opportunity. Anyone with creativity
would start creating.
For
example, anyone with an artistic bent would start creating art,
because they now have the time and the freedom to do it. Let's say
that you are, or have always
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