A thought exercise: what if we designed humanity from scratch, the way you'd design anything else? Then imagine living inside that design, and write small stories from there.
Don't take it too seriously.
The problem
The problem was never the people. It was the design.
Humanity is an organism that restlessly takes part in its own progress. It just needs a better shape to grow in.
The ground rules
- It's a hobby. Nobody has to take part. Starting, stopping and vanishing are all fine. [HF003]
- Only three things are not okay: harming, deceiving, and blocking others. [HF003]
- Nobody is in charge. Whoever does the work decides the details. Whoever is affected gets a say. [HF004]
- Show, don't command. The Earth-monitor shows what exists, what's needed, and what things really cost. It never tells anyone what to do. [HF002]
- Everything is open. Knowledge, designs, stories and medicine are free to copy, change and share again. [HF006]
- Things last. Nothing breaks on purpose. Repairing beats replacing.
- There's enough. Most scarcity was made by rules and money. Remove those, and there's enough for everyone. [HF005] [HF006]
- Anything can be replaced. Every part of this design is open to question, and gets swapped when something better has been tested.
Structure
A structure that only works when everyone behaves well isn't a structure. It's a hope.
Build one that gets decent results from ordinary people. That's the only thing that has ever worked.
Time
Time is the only truly scarce thing. Materials recycle and sunlight keeps arriving, but nobody gets more hours.
Respect people's time, and nature's too. Neither stays the same forever.