Radical Abundance and Security is a vision of what is possible for humanity.
Another view of this vision is avilable on www.solnx.org.
This vision shows that wealth and freedom can be made available to all, with relatively little investment. The introduction page gives an outline.
As a bonus we get global security against comet and meteor strike, and volcanic fallout.The mechanism is to make a set of robots that can produce water pipes, hydroponic gardens, vehicles and all the basic goods and services required for a reasonable lifestyle in today's world (and a copy of itself). All of this to be made using sunlight and rock. The key to making it work is compound growth from self replicating robotics - which are capable of returning 100% every 2 weeks.
Contrary to what many would have you believe, such growth and wealth can be made available to all, and empowers us to better care for our environment. (the $30 per week proposed for carbon credits in New Zealand, would pay for this development.)
This vision has grown from the concept that all rights have responsibilities, and the fact that only individuals can exercise choice. Individual choice and responsibility is at the heart of everything you will read here. Societies and cultures are a product of the habits (histories) and choices of the individuals that have made and do make them up.
Each of us as individuals benefits from the efforts of those who have worked to produce the society in which we live. That will be even more true for those who live after the completion of this project.
Some of the ideas contained in this may be outside what you normally
accept. Be critical, be skeptical, and do some testing yourself. If you
can fault any of the facts or logic used, please let me know. Some of these
ideas may appear outlandish, yet they are firmly based in reality.
Reality, as always, is stranger than fiction.
This project is a continuation of the evolution towards lower production costs for goods and services, and, like super-conductivity in the realm of electricity, achieves what conventional wisdom says is impossible (zero cost of production) for many goods and services.
The project has many other goals:
Various time-frames have been suggested. Stage one (up to energy beyond imagine) could be completed in 9 years (12 is more probable). Life extension could be commonly available 15 years after that.
This is not some panacea, to solve all of man's problems. Where-ever there are people, there will be problems to solve.
This is a bold adventure into creating an entirely new environment.
An environment in which people gain new freedom in choosing which of
life's problems they are going to take on, and have a lot of fun while
doing so.
Our plan has technical and social/political elements to it, and is an
evolution from our existing social structures.
The technical plans include micro-technology and space travel.
The social plans involve enrolling others into the possibilities this vision provides.
Your participation is invited (needed).
Part 1 - Enroll people in this project.
Part 2 - Produce a self-replicating factory capable of producing any programmed good or service. This facility to use micro (rather than nano) technology. This facility to be under 5 ton in weight - with a doubling time using sunlight and rock of 2-5 weeks.
First loop (one option):
Place one of these factories in Lunar orbit.
Land a mass driver on the moon to throw rocks back into space.
Build more complexes in space and land more mass drivers on the moon.
Repeat this cycle until we have a large population of production facilities, and a large supply of mass in orbit.
Next throw some moon rock back into earth orbit. Collect that rock and manufacture it into large habitats, and a global satellite communications network.
Use some more of the rock to manufacture one of these production facilities for each person, and soft-land these back on earth.
Fossil fuels replaced with direct or indirect solar energy - the major indirect means of using solar energy will probably be using hydrogen fuel cells from electrolytic splitting of water. Clean and non-polluting.
Vast amounts of cheap energy will allow us to clean up all sources of pollution, as the cost will be reasonable (the technologies all exist, it's just the cost of energy which makes them prohibitive).
Thin film solar cells.
Thinner film mirrors.
Filters giving Monochromatic light.
We may miss the deadlines, and take too long to put this project together.
We may not enroll enough support to fund the project to completion within the time-frame available.
Governments may not allow us to proceed. The military will be very wary of anyone doing anything overhead - it's so easy to do a lot of damage if you are away above someone with a lot of mass at your disposal to throw down. Economists may be too short sighted to envisage economic life after the end of the industrial age. Egotistical "control freaks" may simply see us as a threat. We need the cooperation of all major governments, and the United Nations for this project to succeed.
The conceptual system here may be too much for many people to grasp. Most people wont believe just how easy it is to transform the possibilities of life on this planet, and beyond.
Yes. All of the engineering technology exists in some form or another. It is "simply" a matter of collecting them together in one coherent entity. (Simply, is a relative term - as a software developer, I know the complexities which can arise in far simpler projects. This is a "big one", and the pay-off justifies a lot of risk.)
If you are a resident of this planet, and are planning to remain alive for the next 40+ years, or if you have children, then yes.
Many issues might interest you.
Fossil fuels are a worry to me. Reserves are relatively large based upon historical consumption patterns, but are those patterns giving us a useful prediction ?
Technological expectations of third world inhabitants are rising. These two factors, combined with the pollution caused by burning of these fuels are the most immediate threat to the peaceful development of humanity that exists. Sure we have several possible replacement technologies, but the change of underlying infrastructure requires a long lead time.
Unless we start major investment in a new and cheap energy source, soon, it will be too late; and episodes like the "Gulf War" will become more frequent, and involve more nations.
Solar energy is abundant and present.
Every second, the sun converts 600 million tons of hydrogen to helium, with mind boggling amounts of energy released.
The sun is so big it takes thousands of years for that energy to filter out to the surface where most of it is released as light. The Earth receives only about 270 Kgs (equivalent) per second for the whole planet. This is a huge amount of energy in practice, quite enough for humanity's current needs, but insignificant compared to what is available in space, even in near earth orbits. Our current total energy usage (fossil, nuclear, wind, hydro, etc) amounts to only a couple of Kgs per minute, but we'll need a lot more to bring all people up to the base level enjoyed by today's millionaires (and that's OK, because it's there, and easily available, particularly if we move most of the manufacturing off planet).
Abundant energy means abundant wealth. With basic needs met on earth, and a new frontier in space, there is a chance that the earth will become a peaceful place. Unless these needs are met, war will be common, and if we remain reliant on fossil fuels, those wars will very soon affect everyone.
Looking at the history of humanity, many other reasons support this approach.
For my 40th birthday party (in '95) I organised a possibility party. About 20 of us spent the day brainstorming threats to humanity, and possible responses.
When brainstorming the threats, we split into two groups, each of which worked independently, and both ranked their own work afterwards.
Each group - independently chose the same word as the major threat to humanity.
I spent some time in the two years following (1995-7) thinking about that.
Man's inhumanity to man - our willingness to judge and condemn. We see the results daily, in many incidents - from international wars, to civil war, to court battles, to street violence.
Our unwillingness to tolerate and accept difference is the greatest single threat to our survival.
One approach to lessening that threat is to lessen some of the differences.
The approach taken in the project "Radical Abundance and Security" is to lessen the differences in "choices available" between people, and to provide the tools to encourage the "breakdown of social intolerance" (understanding).
Another approach is to teach people an alternative to viewing things in terms of "right/wrong", and instead teach them to recognise and value diversity, and to trust their own judgement in all things.
More recently I have found another very powerful forumulation of that in Vision Force. Here Michael Skye shows how the mind resolves inner conflict by compromising our highest values to get rid of feelings of guilt. He teaches powerful ways of staying present to our highest values by looking to the feelings of honour we have when we think about the heroism that exists all around us, when we look at what people stand for and stand in the face of feeling.
What investment ?
Budget estimates are lowering all the time. As technology gets cheaper and cheaper, new alternatives are offering themselves.
Our original Billion Dollar a month estimate has now reduced dramatically. Options have been proposed which will work from as little as $80 Million a month (just 8 million people at US$10 per month investment).
Still not a trivial project, but now much more affordable.
Your suggestions are invited and welcome.
Aging is (ultimately) a genetically controlled process, and with the technology of self replicating machinery, added to the knowledge gained from a matured "genome project", it becomes possible to build machines that can determine what is causing aging on an individual by individual basis, and to take appropriate steps to arrest or reverse any incapacitating effects: that is to live a very long time in a very young looking and healthy body.
Production of large habitats in space (tubes 300km by 100km, spinning, with people living on the inner surface), means freedom for those who don't or wont conform to the requirements of life on a heavily populated Earth.
Similar sized vessels, of different design, could travel to anywhere in under 5 years ship time, though it may be thousands of years Earth time.
Travel within the solar system will be interesting enough for most for the next few hundred years.
Here on Earth, large rafts could be built, anchored to the sea floor, and bordered by a couple of kilometers of wave suppressing power generators. 10% of the worlds oceans covered in this way would provide 1 acre per person of surface for 8 Billion people, and access to a lot of water.
The possibilities are endless
(This project started with some thoughts in 1974, and first made it to print in 1991.)
Give us your support.
Put your name on our email list of people who support this project Mail to: ted@fishnet.co.nz.
Are you prepared to talk to your friends, work-mates, politicians - about this possibility ?
If so, please do.
There are any number of reasons both for and against a venture such as this.
I say let's have a go, just because we can.
Should be a lot of fun along the way.
Contribute your constructive thoughts - Mail to: ted@fishnet.co.nz invited.