How to make a futuristic society

Visions
41

Just in case you haven’t seen it, I first realized that “life is a game” after watching this video from vSauce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5jDspIC4hY

As he ponders at the end, other games are often appealing because they are simplified versions of life. They are simulacra of life (using Beaudrillard’s terminology), and with their simplified set of rules, we can feel succesful, at least momentarily.

The problem with gamefying life, in the sense of reducing its complexity to a simpler set of rules, is that in doing so you often actually have to restrict yourself. On the other hand, we probably need this, we need some laws/moral code that make the game of life actually playable by introducing rules.

So yeah, in some sense, laws already are kind of game rules. I think, however, that by thinking of them as game rules, we can have new perspectives that law makers haven’t had yet (as usual, innovation comes from mixing two previously unmixed areas, law and and game dev in this case :slight_smile: ).

So we want something like Locality: http://locality.ufm.edu/about-locality/ :

“Think of Locality as an open source coder’s library. Instead of code for computer programs, Locality allows reformers and entrepreneurs to see how other jurisdictions have created the autonomy that communities need to pursue Startup Cities reform.”

I haven’t read your reputation economy, or some other ideas of giving measures that help you play well yet, but I agree with the idea (also proposed within TZM) of at least having more measures than just money.

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42

As a biology student, I agree. One can see this manifested in animals like cats, whose cubs play to learn body movements, essential for their daily life.

Understanding and optimizing allow us to avoid mistakes. Freedom to make mistakes, while aware of them, often ends in avoiding the error altogether. Rules are often not understood by the majority of people, but supposedly they do have reasons to exists. Now, corruption changes this, but ultimately we could develop a way of synthesizing and gamifying laws for ease of understanding, thus, allowing us to change what we know it doesn’t work. And knowing how something doesn’t work, is key.

The basis of TZM and The Venus Project are in something called “Technocracy”. One may debunk one or two things they got bad, but its worth to see what they are up to.

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I’ve seen some ZTM materials and they are appealing and do make sense (although admitting that seems to be a faux pas in certain circles), but they have some aspects that may need some more thinking through… :wink:

Now, gamefying simplifies life. But rules of life, the law, the civilisation, they are currently vastly overcomplicated. No technological progress or transhumanism requires things to get more complicated for the sake of it, the opposite - necessary but complicated, especially repeatable, should be done by robots. So the idea of gamelife (is there a word for this already, by any chance? Short, beautiful, preferably of Japanese origin? :slight_smile: by simplifying things may actually go in the right direction… :slight_smile:

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The conversation on fractal communities leads me to believe that it would be plausible to organize a mass migration of futurists, transhumanists, post humans, singularitarians, and extropians. If we succeed in doing so in a peaceful way we could further our desires, yet also potentially damage communities that frankly need us.

Especially if it involves a migration to mars. Though it does sound delightful.

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Mars is a terribly hostile environment. I wonder why people want to move there. It’s not like we hadn’t vast deserted areas on this planet. Take deserts, oceans, or antarctica for example – few people would protest if transhumanists tried to colonize them. And they could be colonized much more easily than Mars.

And how do you think a mass migration of a few transhumanists into totally undeveloped regions could help anyone? It’s not like transhumanists are those types of persons whose greatest aspiration it is to merely survive in a very harsh environment. Transhumanists want to unlock the potential of advanced technology.

I suggest you show me who of those groups you mentioned would be even willing to translocate into an intentional community in some rather idyllic country like Denmark. In Denmark the American Dream is very alive ( https://www.google.de/search?q=Denmark+american+dream ) . Let’s move there and do some serious stuff. :wink:

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Agreed. Physical society could very much do with further mirroring of the internet frontier.

There are a couple of very interesting names in this group who I know of, I hope they end up working together closely:

Marcin Jakubowsky: Founder of opensource ecology, an effort to build a “civilization starter pack” made up open source tools that are engineered to be built cheaply yet well and so they aren’t subject to ‘planned obsolescence’. Basically the idea is with these tools any group of people, rich or poor, who are determined enough to pool resources and work together, can create and/or provide for the basic needs of a community.

http://opensourceecology.org/ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S63Cy64p2lQ - I found his TED talk very inspiring when I first saw it.

Pia Mancini: Co founder and executive director of the ‘Net Party’, I believe in Buenos Aires and collaborator on the ‘DemocracyOS’ tool. DemocracyOS is an online direct democracy platform and the net party is a party simply dedicated to doing whatever it is the members of their DemocracyOS contingent decide

http://democracyos.org/ - Again her ted talk was inspiring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXfYNdapq3Q

Joe Quirk: I know less about this person. But I have heard a few things here and there about the Seasteading Institute, an effort to bring attention the idea of forming off shore communities. “Start up nations that attract citizens like a company attracts customers.” It’s an interesting idea, frontierism/societal escapism combined with fractalism, devolution of state power + micro-states/poleis with ideologies and ‘desired ways of life’ as their foundation.

http://www.seasteading.org/ -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJvX__asWTg#t=17 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50qXvXMn1Y4 -
Having just watched these two video’s I went from thinking ‘this person smells like a slick marketer type’ to being successfully marketed to as far as the idea is concerned. (Possibly like Homer and his clown billboard.) Though I wouldn’t go as far as he does about island nations and prosperity as most island nations aren’t like Hong Kong + co. But I agree that devolution and becoming more like, not just nations/semi-autonomous territories like Hong Kong but Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia or the Netherlands, is often healthy.

‘Hypergrowth’ is something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently albeit in a different context, I think it is possible to initiate hypergrowth not only in small less developed ‘tiger’ nations or supposed ‘rising giants’ like the BRIC’s but in Europe and the US as well through the hyper-aggressive implementation of technology. For example combining things like: asteroid mining, automation, distributed manufacturing, additive manufacturing, vertical farming, closing the ‘last mile’ of fiber for hyperband internet, better-than-well healthcare, space/deep ocean access, virtual worlds + economies, hyper velocity vacuum tube transport networks and orbital elevators we could create a world where the average person lives with the freedom of a millionaire, yet better as not even millionaire today has these kinds of technology enabled freedoms. If the world is still capitalistic such a world would be capable of creating the worlds first trillionairs, which wouldn’t bother me at all provided societies woes are genuinely being seen to and the world is improving faster than it is now.

As an example: imagine the benefits of replacing the current trade system with an ‘internet of solid objects’ where rather than intermittently sending goods, resources and people around in big slow chunks, there is a constant two way stream of cargo and people being routed around, on demand, automatically that is much faster than today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Pyke#Men_in_pipes - With modern technology something like MIP’s is possible in a format on steroids. If people can get to or send/receive goods they sold/bought to any place on the planet in less than an hour or two inexpensively or even for ‘Google Free’ that in itself would create more freedom and opportunities for billions of people than any one person, no matter how powerful, has ever had.

Actually, I think life could be pretty livable for in an underground community or some such, if the group doing it started with enough resources to build a nuclear power plant or a solar farm, say like they have in a SSBN or a carrier, enough vertical farms, climate control, water condensers or desalination plants etc. Expensive, but not so much for a group of Governments and corporate sponsors who could start it off as a ‘living in an inhospitable environment, almost like in space colony’ or a ‘sustainable community in an inhospitable world’ kind of experiment to test if it would work and how people would react to it psychologically.

I don’t know about other people but MY humble dream is to live somewhere where time is no longer measured by and everyone’s daily lives are no longer ran according to, what way we’re pointing at in relation to the damn Sun. So I’ve got my bit spaceship/bunker thing, I wake up whenever and just work on whatever with whoever in my circles happens to be ‘plugged in’ on the universal quantum internet at that time or do my own thing, probably for 16 to 20 hours, until I crash out again for 10-12 hours until the time comes we no longer need sleep. Aside from living to see a world that’s more or less all good and ‘sorted’ and visiting ‘natural’ places every now and then when its sunny and the occasional megalopolis when I can be bothered with civilization, that’s my bit ‘dream life’ on a day to day, week to week basis.

How to get there, though, is an odyssey and a half I’m still trying to work out.

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I’m more thinking about here and now not running away, no matter how appealing that is. Here and now is what we have, so we need to work with that. Build something to take us towards our vision.

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I agree, is there any proposal on how to apply gamification in any field? Anyone?

Is the story of the humankind. Is important to know how to manage this and what to expect in the next years. It will also be a good idea to know how to facilitate the good part of migrations without the bad parts (discussing which are which is entirely another discussion).

For now, is probable than technology changes this.

As an anarchist, to escape from any limiting system, but at the same time, to have the resources from a planet to raise technology, seems pretty attractive. Life on space is therefore a promise, not a reality I fear.

How can we make that happen? Remember that the original idea of this post was to propose working ideas, and I already stated my interest on having a version of the economy over the internet. I am very interested on having that happen.

Ohhhhhhhhhh…the feels!

Indeed. Because there is an important reason, and that is that this society will try to reach us no matter what, so its influence would be even if we try to escape. As an example of what I say, the US government is currently planning a permanent settlement to the moon, and it gave the project to the company mostly in charge of building Las Vegas. Reality as a punch in the face right there.

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Mirroring the economy on the internet is something I am deeply interested in, especially when taking into electronic currency and selling access to IP and 3D printers, but isn’t what I mean by ‘internet of solid objects’ or cargo. What I mean is a system that routs capsules of people or cargo in a similar automated and on demand fashion to how the a router routs packets of data, though naturally not as quickly.

Were I a powerful enough human being or had one at hand, I’d achieve this via the implementation of MagVac tube lines, of a kind similar to ET3 set to slightly higher speeds, 8000km/h internationally and 1000km/h top speeds within a mid sized territory, like the UK and France with ‘last mile’ transport elements initially handled by existing local roads and say if it is a matter of small package delivery: small tilt rotor Drones. Nations have already built road networks and oil pipe lines, this endeavor shouldn’t be too much more difficult than what has been achieved in the past making use of more primitive technology than exists now. Payment for access via a subscription fee model and making use of ID cards with chips and face recognition, would make the experience as seamless as possible you just walk in and walk to a tube, if you don’t have a card or the system doesn’t recognize you no doors open. Moving beyond capitalism we wouldn’t have to worry about that crap, but operating within the system for projects of this scale currently seems unavoidable, things being as they are.


– Intro.


– Greater depth.

As for cross ocean transportation, tunnels and tubes and what-have-you in the sea with their own MagVac lines within them are the ultimate goal and will eventually become feasible, however are not considered to be yet. So in the meantime things can be sped up, if not truly made into an ‘internet of cargo’, possibly by making use of large ground effect aircraft and in the case of traversing the arctic and speeding up Atlantic/Pacific trade, submarines, this can be began now. The possibility also exists of developing watercraft that make use of supercavitation technology which will take time. I’d also, were I a government, attempt to bring about the construction of, approximately, 18 - 20 (still trying to rough the details out) ocean cities that will be optimally placed in locations between the major existing coastal trade hubs. These will initially act as focal points for world trade, having as much of a ‘straight line’ between them and as many major coastal cites as possible and eventually, thinking long term, are meant act as anchors for orbital elevators and focal points for under sea MagVac links.

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50

I have moved this thread, which has originally been placed in the “Society” category into the newly created “Visions” category. This thread has been one of the most popular in the Fractal Future Forum and deserves to be drawn more attention to, especially since it’s visionary nature fits perfectly to the new forum slogan “Envisioning and creating a better future”.

Feel free to reply to the original post, or any subsequent reply within this thread! :smile:

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When I was a teenager our D&D went through a few changes from pencil and paper to some ‘live action’ ‘Vampire the Masquerade’. Later, I blended several of the game worlds and comic book universes into one and set the time and place to here and now. Our characters were based on ourselves with some game elements to make it interesting. The political and economic situation started the same as it is in real life but then had to account for these new changes.

People seem to think that online life is different or separate from ‘real life’. To me it is the same. I think the connection between these two aspects of our lives will become stronger and blurrier in the near future.

I see life as the biggest RPG. This is our game, our world. You have initiative, what is your move?

I consider myself a ‘Technomage’ level 0. A bit of a joke but not far from the truth. More importantly for this conversation is my ability as ‘Muliverse Navigator’. I think we all have this. There are a set of possible futures we can reach from this point. Every decision we make takes us down a branch of the tree called the multiverse. Now, how to use this practically?

Here we are with our different skills, perspectives and goals searching through probability space. This alone increases the chance or realizing the potential outcomes. To strengthen the chance simply use traditional planning tools. I think the Transhumanist constitution is a good starting point. It provides the vision and framework for people to unite around. Next is a plan and project management. We need financial tools and organization. The Seasteding Institute already has some designs, cost and geopolitical considerations. For $197 million they could provide a place to enact the ambitions discussed in these pages. This is good but I am wary of a monolithic project.

I am gathering information for 3D printed boats. They will provide waste management, electricity, biogas, food, fresh water and communication in addition to housing and transportation. I envision communities of these boats floating together in international water and providing for their own basic necessities. The things they can not make themselves like computers can be bought with money earned by telecommuting on the internet or traded for goods made on the ship such as surplus seafood. This would provide a way for communities to gather and operate under conditions that they agree on.

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52

There is a site called Roll20. https://roll20.net/
I think it could be useful as a platform for some of the suggestions here. It is basically a virtual tabletop with video chat. It also works with Google Hangouts.

I propose we use a world map as the game map. I bet someone could figure out how to integrate Google Maps. So then we need a campaign. The story is what we have now. A rag-tag group of loosely affiliated Technophiles set in a world of turmoil. We have skills and equipment.

This could provide a basis to get to know each other better in a fun way and work on real world plans. So there is my character Technologiclee working on an AI startup and 3D printed boats while travelling around the world (all true). I have been looking for fellow adventures (even after taking an ‘arrow to the knee’).

One of our code slinging friends could scale this up to MMORPG proportions and have more of the community involved.

The role of the GM would be different for our purposes as there is no need to invent the story. It would be more like a dispatcher or coordinator.

So, I am searching for the unmade city of Technopolis that exists only in possibly space and helping the muggles as I can even with the emperors’ storm trolls trying to slow me down. Who is with me? Also does anyone have a spare portable supercomputer, my old one was abducted by a ninja.

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53

Wow, that’s quite a fancy idea. Do you suggest we use a real role playing system for that? How would the gameplay work? Are there mission that we project outwards from our current missions and peek into the next months and years?

It would certainly add something special to our fledgling community. But then, Zero State tried to do this ARG, but it doesn’t seem like it became very popular. There’s the danger that this adds more overhead than we can actually handle with our sparse resources. Now, if we simply use it experimentally to slightly “upgrade” our Google Hangouts, it may be worth a try in any case.

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I don’t know. I think not using a game system, life provides the dice rolls and consequences here. It is more about a mindset. When you see things as a game, suddenly even the mundane can be fun and it seems like you can do anything with limitless possibilities. People are so trapped in thinking that they have to live in these narrow confines of life that they end up limiting themselves.
Give it a try. Make your character sheet. Be honest about what you have and what you want. The Google+ profile and a few others ask ‘what is your super power’. In my game world there was a group or faction called ‘Technologists’ I think. They had no super powers but were more like gadgeteers. What made them a significant force is that they banded together to represent common interests in a world that was rapidly changing and polarizing.
I have been through long periods of time studying or doing work or meditation where the story would say ‘5 years later…’ and I have often forgotten the game perspective, but I was also flying solo through some challenging scenes. Although I never really lost sight of my mission or plan or goal, even in the times I could have died. I knew those hours of study would prepare me for the next steps as a young wizard pouring over dusty tomes of arcana. I knew that wrestling with the command line would yield a bit of Linux-Fu. I have walked through the world of muggles with the spark burning within me and tried to show them a vision of a brighter tomorrow only to be met with scorn and cynicism.
But now the time of the Great Upgrade draws near! Harken to my words, transcend this earthly shell and enter the digital world of information!
I am in character. I am a character. 'Life is but a stage and all of us actors…'
After having escaped the American Empire and attempted to reboot my research projects in the 2nd and 3rd world wastelands I have ended up in Albania. I never thought I would be in Albania. What is a washed-up, never-was Control Systems Engineer with the Vision to do after being blacklisted by the west on the cusp of the Singularity?
The paladin nature drives me to fashion primitive technologies into something more useful through synergy and keen business acumen. So I set my sights on Africa. With the recent downing of a Russian fighter jet in Turkey and a bomb in an Istanbul metro station, moving east and going through Egypt does not seem like a good idea. Also there is the mess in Syria.
Yes I realize that Africa is problematic as well and I could stay in Albania for a year with my American passport. I never really know what to do, but I always know what not to do.
If only I could get one of my hair-brained start-ups off the ground and a million dollars in investment funding. It would be nice to be able to eat three times a day again and have a more comfortable lifestyle. I could then leverage myself to more success. Argh! I should have spent more time learning to program! What was I doing the last 10 years? Oh ya…
technologiclee: casts Web Based Group Psychosis
Psychosis as a service??
https://books.google.al/books?id=RyVr6RMWrioC&pg=PA29&dq=ray+bradbury+manifest&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiX_5XJ38jJAhXIuRoKHSAtD8QQ6AEILDAD#v=onepage&q=ray%20bradbury%20manifest&f=false

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Ok, how do you maintain connection between reality and the game? The Game is, at least in my humble view, just a looking glass with different colouring. Granted. How do you remember that colouring isn’t the world? How do you protect your avatar from drifting away from common reality? Mind you, nothing wrong with that per se, but unless you set your goals completely in The Game realm drifting away from reality makes your goals impossible to attain in that reality.
I’m toying with the idea of gamification. It definitely taps some energy source that exists inside, and psychology probably got it already explained (not being psychologist I don’t know the explanation, I can only have some idea how it works), but we do not want to just play a game. We want to play the game of thr… worlds. Because winter is coming. And because it’s the only game worth playing. What rules, what guidelines bind reality and the game together? Our perception would need to be able to maintain awareness of both at all times, no? Because there is only one objective reality. There are interpretations, one can say, and The Game is an interpretation, but interpretation used as a map for acting is… in danger of spiralling out of synch with what it represents, and that will inevitably makes acting simply weird and useless, not to mention danger of being sent to the funny farm for being… weird :smile: Although one can wear a funny hat and call it religion, then quite a few things will be forgiven.

Is it possible to masquerade The Game as some sort of “self-improvement transhumanist programme”? Of course. Will it help? Probably. And I’m quite serious here, although it may appear as if being only semi-serious. Which does not matter much in the end :smile: After all, myths and legends are so…

“Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

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56

For me there is no difference. The game world is the real world. I do not have a back story, I lived my ‘back story’. I climbed one step of the Ivory Tower and studied the gageteering tomes at my apartment. Yes it is only a lens to see the world and it does make life more fun. I do not know quite why. For me I do not think there is any problem with ‘drifting away’ into fantasy. This real world does not budge easily. If anything it only moves too slowly. My goals are much different than most peoples’ but all within the realm of possibility. There are many programmers chasing that billion dollar unicorn startup. It’s what today’s dreams are made of. I have plans for today, this month, five and ten years and beyond. None of them include ‘promotion’ or ‘mortgage’. When I get to that point in time, these things will be meaningless.

One primary difference between people like me and other H+ers compared to uninformed people is that they do not know of the possibilities. As a small example, I just told one of the other people in the hostel about free university in Germany. This may change their future. Suddenly whole new time lines opened for them. When we pass around articles about bionic eye implants, life extension, 3D printed replacement organs, basic income and all the rest we open up peoples’ minds and expand their options. When I tell someone with gum or tooth problems about the new technique to regrow teeth they may stop thinking that they will spend the rest of their life in that condition. Me and you and the people that go to places like this all share this physical world with others, but I think we live in a very different world. I have no intention of staying on a base level Earth. My goal is to bring my vision to reality. Maybe the same could be said of any inventor or idealist. ‘I have a dream…’ of a world where every child has access to wikipedia, online courses and clean water. I will not rest until it is met. My skills grow slowly, but I measure my experience in the change I make in the world.

How to make this playable for more people? I am not sure. I could use some ideas here. Mostly just play along! We could use some organization. The game Ingress has people going about in the real world while playing in the game world. Augmented reality will be here soon. But I do not need to fight virtual trolls. We have a whole real world. Could we gamify with likes and shares? Signatures on petitions? Passed legislation? Lives saved through peace and nutrition? Is completion of a Coursera class a level up? I think we know what success is on an individual level. But we could use some glue to hold this together. What about quests or campaigns? My solo adventure has had some interesting parts and I think things are about to pick up in pace.

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