Captain Panic,
I thank you for bring up some really great issues. I would like to address them as best I can. An open dialogue is most certainly what we are looking for, and we will have it anywhere you like, here or on our wiki. I will address your points by number as you have posted.
1.As briefly stated in the “Food Production (Engineering)” and "Economics" subject pages in the Wiki, you are of course correct, we would not autonomous from the world economy, and certainly should not be autonomous when it comes to information exchange, the “autonomous” part refers exclusively to the political aspects of this city-state. I see where that might be confusing, it was not clearly stated in the experiment parameters. That will change.
2.Yes, a system designed by knowledge and logic is still a system and therefore is still petty (if that's what your after). Here is the difference; just as in the university system, (usually) only those whom are experts in a discipline have the influence to decide matters relating to that discipline. We propose that science, not politics dictates, for example, the standards for vehicle emissions, or what is taught in high school biology class (highly simplified examples). Of course there comes a point where certain fields overlap, and organizational mechanisms to deal with these occurrences would need to be created (one of the purposes of this experiment).
As far as the everyone thinking alike, this “alike-ness” would only extend so far as necessary to hold together a society committed to the stated goals. This is not a Utopia, that is what is present in every stable nation, otherwise it wouldn't be stable.
As far as how alike the founding members should be, and in what ways; this is another topic that needs to be discussed in our Wiki and is part of the experiment!
For those born into this society, there will be no oppression of ideas, that goes against the discovery of ideas goal. Sure, children would likely be educated in school, which would teach a curriculum perhaps based on what child development experts and subject matter experts agree is correct, and that would likely have a certain formative effect (as does all education), but again; that is a great topic for the wiki!!
3.Converting the rest of the world; I can see this is a point on which our parameters must truly fail to adequately explain the intent of this experiment. Please let me try and clarify. The type of change we are speaking about here, take place through the free distribution of helpful scientific knowledge, such as advancements in clean energy, food production, etc. We are not talking about robot armies walking down the street, that goes completely against the idea of the thing.
This was truly a fantastic example of the dialogue we are trying start on the State of the Species Wiki. Perhaps not always so adversarial, but surly always as honest. Thank you for posting it on our problems page, I can assure you it is exactly what we are looking for and it will not be taken down. I will however move it to its own sub-page which will be linked to the same page in which it was posted (because it is so large).
Captain Panic, I would love to try and persuade you more about the merits of this project because I think you would be a great contributor!
The reason we picked this forum as venue to debut this project is precisely to get reposes like these (which are extremely valuable because they afford us the opportunity to iron-out inconsistencies and mistakes before we more publicly sought membership). Critical minds are those on which this project will depend, so I urge anyone who has strong opinions about this project to go and post on the wiki!
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Consecutive posts mergedSisyphus,
Please see my response to Captain Panic, this project does not seek to force an objectively "right" solution on the world because this solution can not exist. This is why starting an autonomous city-state is an important component; so those that wish to be involved can. We are not seeking to create a solution which all people must follow, we are simply seeking to create a solution which can work for some people, allowing them offer positive solutions for everyone.
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Consecutive posts mergedDr. Syntax,
It was precisely along the lines of what you describe in your post that this experiment was created. To again borrow Sagan's ideas, as we have advanced technologically, we (as a species) have failed to discard the supernatural beliefs that hamper our wise and judicious use of this technology. Further exacerbating the problem is the fact that these irrational elements have a large and crippling influence on the political decision-making process, as seen by the right-wing war on science. Sure, we admit; our project does seek like-minded individuals in that we seek people who believe in what what are trying to do, but that is necessary to accomplish anything collaboratively. The whole purpose of our experiment is to seek knowledge. Please join us.
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Consecutive posts mergedI believe there has been some confusion about the purpose of this experiment. We are not building an evil empire; there is currently no possibility of this hypothetical city-state being built; the State of Species Experiment simply endeavors to create an academic community in which the rational discussion of the stated problem can take place. If you believe in science, and think it would be nice to create a society that reflects this, then the State of the Species experiment simply asks you to share your ideas (positive and/or negative) on how this could be arranged
