Chapter Four
Lessons
Devan has been obsessing over the term Royal Commonwealth of America. It went over his head the first time he heard it and he has ignored it ever since. It is intriguing but irrelevant compared to other issues. This new reality seems like a nice place, happy and peaceful. The people are productive and successful. In a sense they seem like a super race. In his current state of mind Devan is not so much in the mood to explore as he is to learn, to study the archives and figure out how the Royal Commonwealth of America came to be, more about these policies that govern education and work. Upon returning to Stubb’s Devan sneaks into the arcade where he plans to plant himself for the day streaming data from hyper-memory and searching for information. He’s comfortable here in a familiar environment. Despite coming from a less than ideal reality Devan is a little homesick, but comforted by the thought that this is a vacation, as he says to himself, and this will be reset in a short time.
“Search, Royal Common of America, History, vocalize, brief.”
“The Royal Commonwealth of America was founded in 1776 as part of a treaty between the colonies and the Great Britain to avoid war. More?”
“Yes.”
“Delegates from the colonies: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, drafted the treaty in an attempt to reconcile disagreement between the policies of the British monarchy and the development of new practices driven by local trade and business in the colonies. British rule made local governance difficult and costly. Tensions grew between the colonies and the monarchy over the course of several years. Most of the citizens of the colonies were committed to severing ties from Britain forever driving an agenda that included war if necessary. A declaration of independence was drafted in accordance with popular opinion. In parallel with this a treaty called the Trans-Atlantic Commonwealth Treaty or TACT for short was drafted. In secret a small group of leaders debated over which path would most benefit the people and chose to deliver the treaty over the declaration of independence. Upon receiving the treaty King George opened negotiations with the colonies. More?”
“Yes.”
“The colonies were able to negotiate reduction in taxes and several other items in exchange for continued loyalty to England. Shortly after the treaty was signed America partnered with Canada and the two became collectively known as the Royal Commonwealth. George Washington was appointed the title of Duke by King George. During the next two decades the Royal Common wealth slowly, and secretly, engaged in treaties with Central and South American colonies. Once complete, the unified Americas pressured their European rulers to concede rule over their respective colonies. Together they were able to accomplish this without resorting to war. After the Americas peacefully severed ties with Europe they adopted the name Royal Commonwealth of the Americas and George Washington presided as ruler until his death. Major decisions regarding the development of agriculture and other industries, infrastructure and military development were handled by a committee of the most educated people serving in the original continental congress. Washington appointed Jefferson, Adams and Franklin to head these committees. Washington had no children of his own and did not believe in inherited positions, in contrast with true monarchies. Before his death Washington, with the help of Jefferson, drafted a constitution of bylaws meant to serve as a foundation for the governance of this newly formed system of government. Although Washington led by the title of King he encouraged collective decision making, involving the best and brightest members of society in the process, and basing decisions on facts, analysis and an assessment of what was best for the welfare of the people. The bylaws stipulated that future leaders should be chosen by these committees after a thorough vetting process designed to eliminate the possibility of corruption entering the leadership. Washington modeled this loosely after the idea of a Philosopher King in Plato’s Republic. The second ruler of the Commonwealth was Jose de San Martin. More?”
“Yes. Increase verbosity.”
“The method of selecting a leader from among the educated class was eventually challenged by members of the working class who organized a revolt against the existing government. The people became suspicious of the educated despite having a very healthy economy and good lives. Members of the educated class, realizing that this resentment and paranoia was due to lack of education, sought to implement education standards and make education, up to a minimum level, mandatory for all citizens of the Commonwealth. A free and open education system was established and has been in place ever since. The minimum standard has increased as technology increases. More recently education has become diversified. In addition to elevating the education standards for all citizens the government decreed that all persons shall learn a trade, a skill associated with the working class. This move was an attempt to eliminate all class systems within society. Eventually all professions requiring a high level of education were deemed forms of philanthropy and not considered as paying professions. The citizens voted unanimously to implement this policy. This was the first and only collective vote in the history of the Commonwealth. From that point forward it became the civic duty of all citizens to provide education for the young and professional services such as medical treatments, engineering, and all other such services for free. Money was earned by establishing proficiency in one’s trade. Citizens are free to choose their trade. For example, an architect or civil engineer will perform those services for free to better the Commonwealth but charge for actual construction work. Many architects take up carpentry or other building related trades to complement their education. This homogenization through education led to a society with a deeper sense of empathy and a tendency towards sharing and cooperation rather than petty disputes. Eventually law became unnecessary though the government still maintains a legal system and legal branch. Law is considered extremely important but is now practiced as a purely theoretical discipline. Before making major decisions the legal sector simulates the outcome from the point of view of a society with implemented laws via a series of what if scenarios. Only if they are convinced that the implementation of a policy will evolve without the need for legal intervention will the Commonwealth adopt that policy. Society eventually evolved to a point where all members of society are worthy candidates for the position of leader yet due to their communal way of thinking have no interest in acquiring the position. Now the position of leader is chosen by lottery rather than by a vetting process. No one wants it, no one feels the need for it, but all citizens accept the fact that they may be chosen at random to take the position that George Washington originally held. All chosen leaders accept their fate with eagerness to be of service for the good of the Commonwealth.”
Devan takes a little break and digests this information.
Are you getting all this? You’ve been quiet for a while, or I’ve been ignoring you. Sorry. So there are a lot of the same players in this reality. I’d guess all the same players but different outcomes, different life paths. But it’s amazing that Einstein was still the discoverer of relativity and much of modern physics, modern to those medieval boneheads, Ha! And George Washington became King of an entire hemisphere of the planet. Wow! But it seems that things turned out great. I mean look, naturally we became some a sort of socialistic utopia. That is amazing! And no need for any law? Man you would not want to get in trouble in my version of reality. Our legal system is so corrupt it’s sick. I won’t get into the details, I don’t even know what law is in my world. But I do know this. The government tracks people and their families and projects future generation’s earning potential by the same models the stock market used centuries ago. If someone is caught breaking a law, a big one, they are executed on the spot. Then to recoup expenses the government keeps the family of the deceased in debt until they are satisfied that the government has recovered financially. This is a perfectly legal form of debt in the reality I come from. They say it’s part of your duty as a citizen, they actually call it a birth right. Fuckin’ great rights we have. You have the “right” and “privilege” of supporting your country by being in debt for someone else’s crime. It’s really indentured servitude, slavery. The banks hold onto, actually own the debt and sell it as a commodity, they never stopped that scam. Once it took off it never ended. They just keep changing the type of debt. They tack on an interest rate percentage, like for a loan. Then they keep updating the principle based on “inflation”, but everyone knows it’s at the will of the government. The way the math works out the family is in debt forever. The execution is for justice! Actually it’s for covering their ass big time. No dead person can defend themselves and no one is interested in taking a case to try to reverse a decision. No such luck as it’s all rigged for money. For this reason a lot of people never have kids and many young adults fake being orphans. You can get the paper work through underground channels, a crime that could lead to death depending on your family’s financial status. You know, the real sick thing is that they don’t execute murderers who are poor but they will execute you for jay walking if your family has money. Anyway, I am curious about a lot of things. What do you say we hyper-surf some more?
“Search, Intelligence.”
“…, …, … Unable to find, Intelligence.”
Really, in this place there’s no shortage of geniuses. “Search, IQ.”
“IQ cannot be found.”
This is frustrating. “Why is everyone so smart?”
“Please rephrase the question.”
“How do people learn math?”
“Loading… Math is a subject which seeks to understand the metalanguage and linguistic elements of logic as it pertains to relationships among objects.”
I did not understand that at all. “Search, education.”
“Loading… Education. Education begins at age 16 for all citizens of the Commonwealth and is comprised of four doctorates. Students conduct original research and produce a thesis in two technical disciplines one…”
“Stop.” I’ve heard this but don’t understand it. I want to know how it is that a 7 year old can do algebraic topology without an education in math. “Search, Math Education.”
“Loading… The math curriculum begins with a review of Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorem as a primer to common sense. From there students study Meta mathematics and linguistics. Students are then able to choose an original thesis topic in the area of Formal Structure of Mathematical Languages.”
How the hell do they learn MATH! Oh well, I’ve got other questions.
“Search, genetics… No! Stop!” I have to be clever. I’m curious about race and ethnicity here. Ok, this should be interesting. “Search, Slavery in the Royal Commonwealth. Brief.”
“Loading… In the early days of the commonwealth European colonies brought slave labor from Africa and parts of Asia. Humans were captured then bought, sold and traded as live stock. Slaves were used primarily for manual labor and menial tasks. After the Americas successfully severed ties with their European counterparts George Washington declared slavery in all forms illegal and freed slaves living in the Commonwealth. Though slaves were given all the same rights and privileges and other citizens and compensation in the form of land most if not all opted to return to their homeland or that of their ancestors. This mass exodus was aided by the Commonwealth NAVY.”
“Search, Abraham Lincoln.” What did he ever do if Washington abolished slavery?
“Abraham Lincoln served as chief legal advisor to the Commonwealth from 1842 to 1896. Generally considered to be the greatest legal mind in history, during his tenure Lincoln proposed the abolishing of practiced law in all forms and the establishment of theoretical law.”
That’s interesting. That would imply that America was essentially all white after that. Then why is everything so diverse here. Well, I guess it’s been a million years and ten epochs since that happened. Let me try this. Everyone loves World War II, don’t ask why, some things never change.
“Search, World War II.”
“No data for World War II.”
“Search, War.”
“…, …, Loading… The Great War was fought from 1938 to 1942. This involved the entire globe. All people and countries were involved with the exception of people living in the Arctic Circle. One side consisted of the Royal Commonwealth of America, United Africa and The Pacific Asian Islands. The other side consisted of Europe and Russia, the Middle East and the rest of Asia. Before the Great War the world lived in peace. The events that precipitated the war involved the new technology of space exploration and space travel. People were comfortable with their respective places on earth and remained segregated. Space exploration opened a new frontier, and a new concept of property and property boundaries emerged. As soon as countries began placing objects into space and into orbit around the earth they began to assert their ownership of the space around the earth. The war was almost cataclysmic leading to the death of approximately half the world population. After the war a treaty was signed by the global community, and all countries adopted the political and educational model of the Commonwealth. There has not been a conflict since the Great War.”
Damn, way to go Washington. He really made something great. Since the space program was mentioned, and I am supposed to be an expert in Intergalactic Transportation.
“Search, Space Travel.”
“Space travel began in 1928. United Africa was the world leader in the development of space technology. Soon after, all countries were in a race to develop superior technology and engage in space exploration. Africa began colonizing the moon in 1934. In 1935 China deployed a rocket containing a small robotic vehicle equipped with sensors. While China maintained that the vehicle was deployed to the Moon for scientific research it was intercepted by a missile and destroyed. This was the first event in a long chain that lead to the Great War. By 1950 the earth had developed colonies on Mars, Saturn’s Moons Enceladus and Titan, and Jupiter’s Moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto as well as several space stations. While technology advanced in many other areas these remained the only places where colonies existed until the development of hyper-space dimension foliation. This technological advancement eliminated the need for any type of space vehicle and the earth began exploring and colonizing inhabitable planets and moons in other solar systems and galaxies. Through this process Earth made contact with other intelligent life and began peaceful relations with these beings.”
This just keeps getting more and more interesting. All we ever did was create video games made out of space-time copies then commenced to vegging out all day. But here we have interacted with intelligent, peaceful aliens. This is really exciting. Don’t you think? Eh? I mean what if… Forget it, I can’t let myself think about this. I want to try one last time to get information on why a 7 year old can do math better than me.
“Search, How Children Learn.”
“Loading… Since the discovery of extra dimensions people have learned how to store and access information in hyper-memory using their mind. This led to a new phase of evolution in humans. As pregnant mothers continued to use hyper-memory in their daily lives the developing fetus gained access to the information as well. At first there were only minor changes in the intelligence of average humans and the information accessed by the fetus didn’t make learning easier. In some cases it lead to learning disabilities due to the overload of information. However, after several hundred generations the ability to access hyper-memory became encrypted in the DNA. At this point children began to learn from their mothers in the womb and eventually all humans developed to a point where they were born with the ability to speak and comprehend all mathematical operations. These skills are learned before birth. Muscle coordination still takes time to develop. The body of humans develops slower than the mind.”
Devan is awestruck by his history lesson. He just can’t believe his ears and eyes. This is a perfect world in every way. Every good decision has been made and every good thing that could happen has happened. The only thing not perfect is that it was an accident, it’s not his world. He doesn’t know what to think anymore. He stands by the door of the arcade ready to go to Stubb’s for coffee when it hits him. He needs one more bit of information.
“What year is it?”
“The year is 2729 A.D. by the Christian calendar.”
Devan opens the door and quietly enters Stubb’s, careful not to draw any attention to himself. He closes the door behind him, stands silently for a moment then whispers.
“What year is it?”
“The year is 14,792 twenty first epoch.”