The Factasia Utopia

http://www.rbjones.com/rbjpub/rbj008.htm The

Utopia

Utopia:

Factasia looks forward to the kind of world we might hope for in the future.

politics Global institutions eliminate war, democracy evolves a service ethos and more problems are solved by market mechanisms.	economics In the 20th century capitalism routed communism. In the 21st century market dynamics will take us beyond capitalism.	business Close scrutiny by consumer groups forces businesses to be more aware of how their business purposes and methods are perceived by consumers.
science Scientists develop models rather than divining truth, they provide services to engineering rather than a priesthood, and they clarify and formalise they models they build.	technology The dominant hard technologies of the 21st century are Intelligent Logic, Genetic Engineering, Evolutionary Design, and NanoTechnology.	engineering Intelligent Logic will design engineering solutions exploiting new science and technology using an understanding based on formal mathematical models.
Magic Fantasy	The Factasia Bridge an architectural view of factasia	The Future Theme Park
religion Consensus is the Magic which builds our utopia. Religion is an effective way of building communities with solid shared values. Approach with caution.	values To chose between possible futures we must decide which of the alternatives we value most. This means thinking about values; the result is a value system.	work,learn,play When earning a living, achieving an ambition, learning, developing, relaxing and enjoying all mingle so close you can't tell them apart, then you have fulfillment.

:	Global institutions eliminate war, democracy evolves a service ethos and more problems are solved by market mechanisms.

Global Institutional Evolution The greatest impediment to well-being on our planet is the pervasiveness of military conflict. We should be seeking to evolve global institutions to force the replacement of military by economic competition.

Service, not Authority We should be seeking political institutions at all levels whose purpose and culture is one of service to the community rather than authority over it. Democratically elected representatives should consider themselves mandated to consult and enable, rather than to implement their political programs.

Market Nurturing A primary purpose of political institutions should be to nurture and develop market mechanisms which provide superior alternatives to centralised bureaucratic mechanisms in all walks of life.

:	In the 20th century capitalism routed communism. In the 21st century market dynamics will take us beyond capitalism.

Quality of Life Markets will continue to evolve as consumers become more aware of what affects their quality of life and of how economic influences impact upon them. Consumers learn how to use their purchase decisions to secure environmental, social and other effects.

Value Net Driven by the need to market themselves and their products to increasingly sophisticated and demanding consumers, companies invert their priorities, identifying themselves with non-financial objectives to which financial goals are subordinate. Increasingly, purchase decisions consciously reflect the desire to secure side effects rather than direct benefits (e.g. chosing a supplier with better environmental credentials).

Information Wars The tendency to monopoly in information industries, exemplified first by "Big Blue" IBM and then by Microsoft causes major difficulties in defining let alone securing "free" markets. Radical changes to the regulation of markets and the definition of "fair trading" prove necessary.

:	Increasingly close scrutiny by proliferating consumer groups forces businesses to be much more aware of how their business purposes and methods are perceived by consumers.

Diverse Purposes Companies, increasingly judged by their customers on the basis of the values they promote and the purposes they pursue, become embarrassed by their constitutional obligations to deliver profits to shareholders. The economic significance of non-profit corporations increases.

Employment Contracts The employer/employee relationships evolve rapidly and become more diverse and in many cases more like the inter-company relationships. A larger proportion of individuals prefer to operate their own virtual corporations.

Payback Marketing Consumers, increasingly aware of the proportion of purchase price which is accounted for by marketing and distribution costs, increasingly judge products by the social and other side effects of the marketing spend. Sponsorship becomes more significant, but must be judge not in terms of the exposure it generates but in terms of its contribution to a companies purposes.

:	Scientists develop models rather than divining truth, they provide services to engineering rather than a priesthood, and they clarify and formalise they models they build.

model not truth Science becomes concerned primarily with constructing and experimentally evaluating mathematical models of aspects of the real world, rather than with discovering "the truth". Models are evaluated in relation to engineering applications, there can be many alternatives for different purposes, and the value of scientific research is related to the engineering utility of the models which it develops.

servant not priest Science is a service to engineering, providing the necessary models of physical systems for use in engineering design. It ceases to be regarded as having a higher status than engineering, and it is expected that its results are intelligible to numerate non-scientists and intelligent computers.

clarify and formalise The major focus of scientific research shifts from discovering fundentally new scientific laws to organising and presenting existing scientific knowledge in better ways. In particular, scientific laws are translated into well structured formally defined mathematical models, suitable for use by logic based artificial intelligence, both in analysing the performance of designs whose behaviour is predictable using the models and in automating an increasing proportion of the design process.

Technology:

The dominant hard technologies of the 21st century are Intelligent Logic, Genetic Engineering, Evolutionary Design, and NanoTechnology.

Intelligent Logic Intelligent Logic, at the heart of The Global SuperBrain, provides the intellectual workhorse powering the design revolutions which transform the world many times over the next century. This technology also supports the social political and economic processes by providing technical infrastructure for electronic markets. Genetic Engineering Genetic Engineering will transform the way we feed ourselves, the way we maintain our own bodies, and much else. It will provide new organisms, and new proteins which may themselves contribute to the development of nanotechnology. Intelligent logic will contribute to managing the complexity of the engineering choices which genetic techniques provide, and will allow us to evaluate the consequences of engineering choices by intelligent modelling.

Evolutionary Design The most important application of evolutionary design will be in the development of Intelligent Logic in the Global SuperBrain. This process will involve a great deal of human intelligence during the next century contributing both to generating the variation and to the selection of "the fittest". Once this intelligence is in place evolution in abstract models will gradually supplant physical evolution and will combine with genetic engineering yielding effects that we can scarcely imagine. NanoTechnology Philosophical analysis and intelligent logic will help to give us a better grip on the potential of nanotechnology. Intelligent logic will permit the design (through logical evolution) of arbitrarily complex molecular mechanisms, permitting machines to exceed the capabilities of living organisms without the burden of self reproductive capability.

:	Intelligent Logic will design engineering solutions exploiting new science and technology using an understanding based on formal mathematical models.

Computer Aided Design The use of computers to assist in the engineering design process will gradually become pervasive. Initially simulation is often accomplished by algorithmic techniques, where the required behaviour is simply programmed into a simulator.

Mathematical Modelling The Mechanisation of Mathematics (through Intelligent Logic) will pave the way for Mathematical modelling in which declarative descriptions supplant algorithmic descriptions. These declarative descriptions are easier to produce and permit not only simulation but other more advance logical analysis. Such descriptions will be application independent and will permit better computer support for the design process. They also permit formal specifications to be provided prior to design and automation of

Automated Design Gradually human designer will focus more on providing specifications and evaluating designs produced to an increasing extent by the Intelligent Logic of The Global SuperBrain from formal requirements specifications. Intelligent interfaces will eliminate much of the difficulty in preparing these specifications, evaluating and fine tuning design proposals.

The BRIDGE an architectural view of factasia realising ultimate values using core technologies through a post-capitalist electronic marketplace

The meaning and purpose of life in Factasia are found through the Factasia value system, a framework for individualistic, responsible and caring personal philosophy. Cyber-Faith, the first object-oriented virtual religion, provides an optional spiritual dimension to the Factasia Value System.	The Factasia value network enables diverse ends to be realised through a fine-grained many-valued self-regulating electronic marketplace. The functions performed by today's social and political institutions are realised in Factasia through these sophisticated market mechanisms.	Pure intelligence at the core of: A pragmatic evolving implementation of the FAn oracle.

Religion:

Consensus is the Magic power which will help us to build the Factasian Utopia. Religion is the most effective way yet found of building communities with strongly held shared values.

The religious side of Factasia is both flexible and (as in most societies) discretionary. We expect to see even more religious diversity than there is today, and a substantial number of people who make their valuable contribution to our society while preferring to avoid or condemn religious movements.
Religious Innovation We advocate religious innovation. If you don't like the look of the religions on offer, you don't have to make do without. Feel free to design your own. Non-Authoritarian Religions are often institutionalised as heirarchies whose supreme authority is super-natural. We seek a consensual religion which is non-authoritarian, non-heirarchic, of plainly human origin and which does not depend upon (or exclude) belief in the super-natural.	Progressive Religions are overwhelmingly inflexible and conservative in character. We seek a religion sympathetic to the information age, which is not only a radical departure from the present, but also a living force helping us to build and develop our social vision into the future. Personal Philosophy A religion should help each individual to build his own personal philosophy guiding his course through life. It should recognise the individual's personal authority in this inner sphere.	Shared Altruistic Ethic The essential character of a religion is determined by the fundamental ethical values which are shared by its adherents. The most important feature of the religion we advocate is its altruistic ethic. The Social Frame A key feature of ethical values is that we feel it necessary to press them upon others. A religion must encompass a view of how such pressure can be brought to bear which is itself subject to and consistent with the ethical norms.

:	To chose between possible futures we must decide which of the alternatives we value most. This means thinking about values; the result is a value system.

Valuing Values The only way to make a better world is to know what would be better and to strive for it. Know what you value, and let others know what you value. Self-Worth The first thing we must all value is ourselves. A sense of self-worth is the foundation from which we can build a better world.

Valuing Others The next most important thing to value is other people. First those closest to us, but ultimately all of humanity. Social Control If you value others you must also value some measure of social control, to constrain less enlightened minorities from seriously damaging the welfare of our loved ones.

Social Cohesion To move decisively forward we need broad consensus and effective cohesion. Valuing Knowledge To get where we want to be we must know where we are and how our day to day decisions influence the future. Society is a distributed negative feedback control system, the effectiveness of which depends upon the quality of the information on which our decisions are based.

When earning a living, achieving an ambition, learning, developing, relaxing and enjoying all mingle so close you can't tell them apart, then you have fulfillment.

work For most people today work is the struggle for survival. In utopia basic needs are easily satisfied, work is what each of us elects to contribute to the common weal. earn-as-you-achieve A minority today do just what they want to do and are able to make a living from it. In utopia this is the norm rather than the exception. The distinction between play and work dissolves.

learn Not just what you do at school, but what you do whenever you come across something novel or confront a new challenge. Life in utopia is full of this stuff. continuous learning In the past many have learnt a trade in their youth and then worked it for the rest of their lives. In the future things change too fast, and we have to learn and develop throughout our lives. The distinction between working and learning dissolves.

play This is what makes us feel good, and what we do when, for a while we relax and put aside ambition. edu-tainment Play has always been partly about relaxation and enjoyment, and partly about learning in an environment where mistakes don't matter (so much!). We learn better while we play, and often enjoy play better if we are learning. The distinction between learning and playing dissolves.