“In my time, this was a desert. Where did you get the water to irrigate it?”
“I don’t understand your question, ‘where did we get the water.’ Three-quarters of earth’s surface is covered with water.”
“I’m aware of that, but most of that water is salty; therefore, unfit for plants and animals. Do you convert salt water to fresh water, or do you use fresh water from the rivers and lakes?”
“Three hundred years ago, people used water from rivers, but they stopped using it because it was contaminated. Since it had to be purified anyway, they found it easier to purify ocean water, because ocean water was more abundant, and more available.”
“Where did you get enough energy to purify ocean water? We were running out of energy.”
“How could you run out of energy?” Roc-2 asked. “The entire universe is composed of energy.”
“Of course it is,” I replied, “but how do you convert the energy of the universe into a form that you can use to purify water?”
“We use the power of the universe itself,” Roc-2 explained. “The sun has always provided power for the earth. We collect solar energy from locations unfit for other uses, and convert it to electricity.”
“But the sun shines only in the daytime,” I commented. “What power do you use at night? Do you store electricity in batteries?”
Roc-2 smiled and explained, “Until they learned a better way, people stored energy in one form or another, but then they found it was easier to transfer energy from areas where the sun was shining, to areas where it was not. That way, there was no storage problem. We transfer power all over the world. . . . In the time you left, most people overlooked the fact that the sun is shining on half of the earth all the time. It’s high noon somewhere on earth, at every moment of every day.”
I was overlooking that simple fact and feeling a bit foolish. I said, “I see what you mean.”
“Knowledge is accumulative. The more we learn, the more we are capable of learning,” he graciously replied. “People with inquisitive minds accumulate knowledge by being exposed to knowledge.”
* * * * *
Chapter 7
Our keri was moving only a few feet above the surface of the earth. Jan-3 held my hand and pointed to things she thought might interest me. People were doing all the things necessary to create and maintain this magnificent landscape. Some were planting, some were maintaining, and others were harvesting crops. Still others were tending animals. They were all working diligently, but no one seemed to find the work unpleasant.
“What form of government do you have?” I asked.
“We have a democracy,” Jan-3 answered, “but it’s different from the democracies of your time.”
“How is your democracy different?”
“We have a true democracy,” she replied. “It seems to me that one of the founding fathers of your democracy stated it clearly. Democracy is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. History tells us that the democracies of your time were dominated by special interests. Most of those interests were capitalistic. Men of wealth used their money to obtain power, and then used their power to pass laws beneficial only to themselves. Speaking metaphorically, they didn’t produce the crop, but they reaped the harvest. That type of democracy doesn’t represent the working people. It benefits only the wealthy who pass the laws. Our historians tell us that some of the workers in the past knew what was happening, but they couldn’t correct the problem because the ones in control used their influence to appease the religious masses, and the religious masses kept the wealthy in power. You didn’t have a democracy—you had an autocratic theocracy, and that’s the most oppressive form of government. Our history books also tell us that, by the time you realized your government was collapsing, it was too late.”
“Your history books are right,” I admitted, “but how is your democracy better?”
“In our system, everyone benefits relative to what he or she contributes. Everybody contributes something, and for that contribution, they are entitled to the necessities of life, such as food, water, shelter, clothing, education, and health care. If they want more, they must earn more.”
“Can they own property?”
“Of course, and many do. As an example, some residences are more desirable than others, and those who earn more money buy the better homes. We don’t have what you called entrepreneurs, but we have many people who dedicate their lives to developing things that will improve all our lives, and they are rewarded and honored for their contributions. No matter how much wealth a person acquires, they must do something that benefits the people. We don’t allow anyone to acquire wealth, and then hire others to do the basics for them. That would take us right back to the type of democracy that you had, which was oppressive.”
“What if someone refuses to work?” I asked.
“No one is forced to do anything; but if they do nothing, they get nothing.”
“That sounds like what we called Communism in the twentieth century. It was tried and failed miserably.”
“I read of that time. The governments you mention failed, not because the concept was wrong, but because it was administered incorrectly. A few men gained control and administered the system for their own personal advantage. The Communist leaders maintained control by killing millions who resisted their dominance.”
“That is true,” I admitted. “In one of the Communist countries, millions were put to death and millions more were exiled.”
“Another reason Communism failed,” Jan 3 continued, “is that it destroyed initiative. Communism denied people the right to acquire wealth and own property. They couldn’t improve their lives by working hard, so they did only what they were forced to do. We learned from their mistakes—we don’t hold anyone back, and each person is rewarded for his or her achievements.”
“Can people with money hire others to work for them?”
“Yes, many people provide services and receive pay for their work, but the ones doing the hiring must do the basics themselves. Hiring people to do the basics for you would create a master-servant relationship, and that is degrading and divisive.”
“If people use their money to hire workers to manufacture things beneficial to the populace as a whole, is that not making a contribution?” I asked.
“That is what we call capitalistic democracy. In that system, workers—for economic reasons—were unable to build or manufacture things for themselves. Most workers came to realize that that was a form of slavery because they had no say in how much they were paid, and they had to do the work—no matter how meager the wage—because they had no other way to feed their families.”
“In our system,” Jan-3 continued, “there is nothing a corporation could build, manufacture or do, that the people can’t do for themselves. The people provide the material and do the work, then share in what they create. No one makes a profit, but everyone benefits. If they want to make a profit, they must do it in another way. That’s why I call our democracy a true democracy.”
“Who decides what work the people must do?”
“They decide for themselves. Many people improve themselves by acquiring knowledge and developing skills; then they contribute their skills and knowledge to meet their obligations. As an example, we have little need for doctors, but people do medical research to improve our mental and emotional welfare. For those who do not have knowledge and skills, there’s always a list of things that needs doing. They can choose from the list. Only a few hours of work each day are required to meet the basics. If they work longer and do more, they are compensated by accruing more buying power. They can then buy anything they want, except servitude.”
“Then there is no unemployment and no welfare?”
“That’s correct,” Jan-3 said. “Everybody works, and everybody benefits.”
“What happens if someone is unable to work?”
“Why would they be unable to work? We have no illnesses, and we don’t grow
old physically. Some might be disabled temporarily, and while they are disabled, they continue to receive the basics, but they are quickly treated so they are able to return to work. Tools are provided for every task, and if a worker doesn’t know how to do the work, someone will show them. No one is required to do anything beyond his or her ability. There are always others doing the same kind of work—they work together and help one another. People can accumulate points by working longer in order to have time off. I think you called it vacation time.”
Pointing down, Jan-3 said, “Look at the people working below. Do they look uncomfortable or unhappy?”
The people she pointed to were doing agricultural work in verdant fields, and I could tell by their movements and gestures that they were laughing and talking. I had to admit they didn’t look unhappy.
“Are you rewarded for doing good and punished for doing bad?”
“Your reward for doing good, is that you live a long, healthy life, in a beautiful place. No one bothers you. You do whatever you want, whenever you want to do it. We have only one law, and that law is—DO NO HARM. There are times when people inadvertently break the law, but no one would knowingly break the law, and why would they? It wouldn’t benefit them in any way, and they would be denied the basics.”
“How do you define harm?”
“To intentionally deceive for social, political, religious, or economic gain is doing harm. To physically, mentally, or emotionally damage someone, is harmful. To steal something, or to deny someone something that they are entitled to, is doing that person harm. To force your will upon another person is harming that person. Everything that is needed is provided, so there is no reason to do harm.”
“How do you know that the person’s intent was to deceive or do physical damage?”
“We have robots that cannot be deceived.”
“It does seem simple and efficient, but I’ll have to see it in action,” I said, still not convinced.
* * * * *
Chapter 8
We crossed over a low range of green mountains and started out over the ocean. In the distance, beyond the coastal islands, I saw a gleaming structure with rainbows of light radiating from it. Amazed, I asked, “What’s that?”
“That is the first of the two cities I told you we would be passing,” Roc-2 replied.
“It looks like it’s made of glass. Is that why it’s glistening?”
“It is made of glass, and the glass is reflecting the sunlight, but that doesn’t account for the colors radiating from it,” Roc-2 explained. “The rainbow of color is obtained by building prisms into the glass. The prisms separate the light into spectrums, displaying the colors of the rainbow.”
“It’s beautiful. I’d like to talk to the engineer who designed that. He must be brilliant.”
“He is brilliant, and that’s only one of our many engineering innovations. We’ll show you others.”
After getting closer, I saw that the city was a single massive structure, made of glass, floating in the ocean. Wondering how they held the glass together, I asked, “How do you support the structure?”
Not completely understanding my question, Roc-2 replied, “The city floats in the ocean, and it’s anchored in place, so no supports are needed. Glass is an excellent building material, superior in many ways to most other materials. Silica, from which glass is made, is the most abundant naturally occurring element on the earth. Glass is easy to recycle. All we have to do is melt it and reshape it. Glass doesn’t rust, rot, or corrode. We build colors into the glass and the color resists fading. We can make it optical or opaque. Glass is an engineer’s dream. It has some tensile, flexile, and compressive limitations, but we’re making headway on eliminating them.”
“I can see that the city is made from panels, blocks, and beams of glass, but how are they held together?”
“We use dovetailing and interlocking. The interlocking is similar to what you called jigsaw puzzles. We manufacture the pieces precisely, and fit them together perfectly. When the pieces are lubricated with crystallizing silicon and slid together, they are airtight, waterproof, and nearly impossible to take apart.”
“I can’t wait to see that being done. I can see the results, and it’s magnificent. The structure looks enormous. How big is it, and how many people live here?” The warmth of Jan-3’s leg pressing against mine was distracting, and her smile made me think of things other than buildings.
I could tell by the sly look in Roc-2’s eyes that he was aware of my distraction, but he ignored it when he replied, “The city is ten kilometers square and forty floors deep. Each floor is ten meters high. Eight floors extend into the ocean and thirty-two floors extend into the air. This is a complete city in every way; it contains everything that the people need. They live, work, and play here. Many work in the country doing landscape maintenance and agricultural work, but we transport the things they produce to the cities where everyone lives. People travel to the country for work or pleasure, and they travel to other cities to visit friends and family. Only in Africa and a few remote islands do people live on land.”
“How many cities are there, and how many people live in a city this size?”
“There are thousands of cities and this is one of the smaller ones. This city alone contains more people than the twenty-first century cities of New York, London, Paris, and Rome combined, yet it occupies only a fraction of the space of even one of those cities. Those cities wasted a lot of space on roads, highways, parking lots, garages, and there was wasted space between the buildings.”
“We thought we were running out of space,” I replied.
“In your time, less than ten percent of the earth’s surface was populated. Oceans cover approximately seventy-five percent. Polar Regions were uninhabited because they were too cold. Deserts were uninhabited because of lack of water. The coastal areas in temperate zones were populated, but the central parts of most continents were only sparsely inhabited. You didn’t lack space—you lacked imagination,” Roc-2 smiled. “Please forgive me if I seem critical.”
“It does sound a bit harsh when stated flatly, but everything you said is true.” Turning to Jan-3, I asked, “How long did it take those of my time to realize our mistakes?”
“You didn’t realize your mistakes, or if you did, you didn’t act on your knowledge and, because of that, you almost destroyed the planet. After the Great War, the world went into a second Dark Ages, and it took 700 years to clean up the radioactive mess. Our records show that before the Great War, even in the more developed countries, of which yours was one, the inequities were enormous. Ninety-seven percent of your nation’s wealth was in the hands of less than one percent of your people. And that one percent consisted of greedy men with insatiable appetites for wealth and power. Fifteen percent of your people lived below what was called the poverty level. That means they didn’t have even the basic necessities. Billions lived in homes without running water. They couldn’t even take showers or flush their toilets. Billions in the under-developed countries couldn’t even afford adequate health care, and millions died of disease or starvation. The diseases could have been treated and food was plentiful. Your problems were greed and religious fanaticism.”
“Looking at our problems with the benefit of hindsight, what did we do wrong?”
“It seems to me,” Jan-3 said, “that the people of the twenty-first century were violating the basic rules of proper human conduct. Their leaders were men of wealth, motivated by greed, and they used the military to gain more and more wealth until they owned and controlled everything. Then they placed people under what we would consider economic slavery.”
“Do your history books tell you how the people overcame that problem?”
“They overcame the problem the same way people have always overcome problems. When a few own everything, and put everyone else in a position of servitude, the people rebel. The ones who had nothing stripped the economic dominance from those who had everything. It was terrible, a
nd it created the chaos that almost destroyed the planet. Radioactivity from atomic fallout made much of the earth uninhabitable.
“A few reasoning men from many countries who had always in the past tried to ignore the greed of the tyrannical leaders and the ravages of the religious madmen, realized that if humans, as a species, were going to survive, some drastic changes had to be made. People saw no way to regain control of their lives, so they turned to God.”
“Was that a solution?”
“It probably would have been helpful if everyone had worshiped the same God, but they didn’t—they worshiped different Gods.”
“I can see how that might have been troublesome.”
Jan-3 nodded and continued, “After capitalistic theocracy failed, and those who tried to gain control failed, religious fanatics took over, and that brought about what seemed to be an endless war. People had to do something, so they passed a law making it a crime to state anything as a fact that could not be proven. That law prevented religious leaders from making claims that they could not substantiate. For instance, they couldn’t promise people that they would go to heaven, unless the ones promising could prove that heaven existed. As an example, when the people asked the religious leaders about the location of heaven, the leaders pointed up. It was explained to these leaders that up is a very ambiguous place when you are standing on a planet that is round, and the planet is turning at a thousand kilometers per hour, while hurdling through space at more than a million kilometers per hour. Pointing up, is pointing everywhere, or it is pointing nowhere.”
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