Stefan Molyneux
  • last year
https://freedomain.com/freedomain_books/the-future/

Centuries in the future, an old man awakes from cryogenic sleep to face the judgement of a utopian society that barely survived his past abuses of power. In the vein of 'Atlas Shrugged, philosophy, philosopher Stefan Molyneux has created a compelling and powerful work of imagination. He vividly describes the wonderful future that mankind can achieve - and the barriers to getting there - and all that we need to leave behind to finally live in peace...

Transcript
00:00 The Future by Stephen Molyneux, chapter 16. A few days after their bargain was
00:08 struck, David went to pick up Roman in the wilderness. In a concession to the
00:15 older man's preferences, they rode horses to the outskirts of the civ. David knew
00:20 that this uncomfortable but cramping travel was a form of dominance play from
00:25 the older man, but since it reduced the need for violence, he figured that he
00:29 could suffer through it. For the first hour or so, they rode in silence, and
00:37 David could feel the love that the older man had for the wilderness. It only seemed
00:43 like wilderness from the city. Out here, among the circling birds, pine-scented
00:52 air and slow scuffling tread of the horses, the quiet and peace and serenity
01:00 of nature was soothing.
01:04 Eventually, Roman grunted. "I can smell your sentimentality from here," he said.
01:13 "Excuse me?" "It's so pretty. Nature is so nice. I should build a cabin in the
01:19 woods away from the city. It's common, and it's total crap." He swung a hand
01:26 through the breeze. "This air is full of bugs that would kill you if they could.
01:29 There are snakes under the leaves, all the knee-high grasses, ticks that would
01:34 burrow under your skin and poison your blood. Nature is a total bitch, a
01:39 cold-blooded murderess who wipes out a billion lives a day. Men have always been
01:44 destroyed by pretty women, because they think that the prettiness goes all the
01:48 way through to the soul. This bitch is not pretty. She'll only let you live as
01:53 long as you remember that." David nodded. "But enough about your wife." Roman paused,
02:01 then threw back his head and laughed deeply. "You married?" David nodded. "And
02:11 you're in charge of one of these DROs?" "Yes." "She pretty?" David smiled and nodded
02:18 again. "Yeah, but that's only because you're in charge. Leaders get the pretty
02:22 ones, way of the world. We have that in common at least." "I can't imagine kissing
02:27 a woman who had never used a toothbrush," thought David, but declined to speak out
02:33 loud. Roman glanced at him. "Well, now that we've broken the ice, let's kill some
02:40 time in conversation. Tell me about these DROs." David took a deep breath.
02:47 "Okay, everyone has disagreements. That's a constant fact of life, no matter what
02:54 kind of society you have. The most basic question is, how are you going to resolve
03:00 those disputes? When you don't have philosophy, you have to have a central
03:05 authority, a king, chief, or state, which is why central authorities always oppose
03:10 philosophy. If people can't reason with each other, they have to take their
03:15 disputes to a central authority, which rules in favor of one or the other and
03:19 enforces that ruling with violence. But that doesn't solve the problem, it only
03:22 makes it worse. If people can't disagree about how disagreements are resolved,
03:27 there's no quality or efficiency or virtue involved in dispute resolution."
03:31 Roman scowled and swatted a fly. "This is the worst explanation I've ever heard in
03:37 my life. What the hell are you talking about?" David shrugged. "Fair enough. Let's
03:44 say I promise to pay you 500 satoshis for a tree, I don't know, and you give me
03:49 the tree." Roman laughed harshly. "I'm not some total country fool. You don't have
03:57 to try and put everything in my eyes, particularly if you think I would buy a
04:01 tree for 500 satoshis." "Okay, there's an old term, widgets. I agree to sell you a
04:09 widget for 500 satoshis. You send me the satoshis, but I don't send you the widget."
04:15 The older man grunted. "That's why we don't bother with currency. We're talking
04:19 about DROs, not rooting in the woods like a badger." "How do you resolve this
04:25 dispute?" "Well, the two parties try to resolve their disagreement with each
04:29 other, but failing that, well, that's the question of social organization,
04:34 civilization, really. But we can't get any further without UPB, universally
04:40 preferable behavior." David turned his head to Roman, but the older man stared
04:47 ahead down the green dappled path and would not ask the obvious question. UPB
04:55 is really the foundation of everything. UPB demands that all proposed moral
05:00 solutions be universal and based on behavior, not thought. If we say that we
05:07 need a central authority to resolve disputes between citizens, a state judge
05:11 for most of history, then that state judge... David took a deep breath, surprised
05:20 at his mental fog. "It is horribly difficult to explain new concepts to
05:24 people without any frame of reference." Roman grunted in amusement. "I assume you
05:29 are better at your job than explaining it." "I hope so," said David fervently. UPB
05:37 says that you cannot propose a solution that is outside the solution. If you have
05:44 a problem, how to resolve disputes. You can't have a solution that exacerbates
05:47 makes the problem worse. If you have a headache, your solution can't be
05:52 decapitation. Roman shrugged. "Wow, no more headache." David patted the damp brown
05:58 neck of his horse. If I make an argument that language is meaningless, I would
06:05 have to exclude that argument from the general principle that language is
06:09 meaningless. If language is meaningless, I would never be able to make that
06:13 argument with any clarity. If language is not meaningless, I can make the argument,
06:20 but the argument cannot then be that language is meaningless. You see what I
06:24 mean? If the form of the argument contradicts the content of the argument,
06:28 it's invalid. Roman considered this for a long moment.
06:35 "Like, if I say that violence never solves anything, then just kill the guy who
06:41 disagrees with me." David paused. "Yes, that works."
06:48 There was a moment of silence as they passed a bare tree with five enormous
06:53 black birds sitting on the skinny dead branches. Another bird pecked at
06:58 something in the tall grass. Roman smiled. "Look at him, sharing nicely." David could
07:07 could not tell whether the older man was being sarcastic. He continued. "So we have
07:14 a problem, which is that people sometimes cannot resolve disputes. The solution
07:19 can't be a judge that has been imposed on them that people cannot choose. If we
07:26 are forced to use a particular judge or a particular system, same thing, then we
07:31 have a bigger problem than our disagreement. The non-aggression
07:36 principle demands that we not initiate the use of force against each other.
07:42 Self-defense is fine, though not at that dawn clearing a couple days ago. And if
07:49 we are forced to use a dispute resolution organization, again a state
07:54 judge for most of history, then we are trying to resolve a contract dispute
07:58 using the initiation of force, which means that our solution is a bigger
08:03 problem than the problem itself. It's like if I ask a girl out and she agrees
08:10 to go and then backs out, and then I drag her to a state judge who forces her to
08:14 marry me, we have a solution worse than the problem itself. Plus we are saying
08:19 that human beings can be irrational, greedy, narcissistic, selfish, horrible in
08:24 general. But then we create this opposite category of human beings called state
08:29 judges that are magically immune from all of these categorizations. That's UPP.
08:36 Every definition of humanity must include all humanity. It's kind of an
08:41 obvious thing but really powerful. Like every definition of mammals must include
08:45 all mammals. You get the idea of course. If we say that human beings are selfish
08:52 and corruptible, then giving them a violent monopoly state power to enforce
08:58 their decisions does not solve the problem of selfishness and corruption. In
09:02 fact, it just makes them infinitely worse. That was the main problem throughout
09:12 history. Philosophy was too primitive or not well understood, or rational
09:19 philosophy was banished by state power, because in the absence of rational
09:23 philosophy, state power grows. But everyone said, "Oh people are so bad and
09:28 corruptible that we need to give a small group of people violent monopoly power
09:31 over everyone else."
09:34 David sighed. Of course, if the definition of humanity includes bad and
09:43 corruptible, then it also includes all of the judges and rulers and kings and
09:48 politicians and you name it. UPP clearly states that you can't divide
09:56 humanity into two opposing categories. The devils who need to be controlled and
10:01 managed and adjudicated, and the angels who can be given violent power over
10:06 millions without that power corrupting them to the core. Romans scowled. Okay,
10:14 thanks for the history lesson, but what the hell are DROs? Okay, DROs are dispute
10:22 resolution organizations. You and I get into a dispute. Wait, let's go back before
10:30 that. You know in your tribe who the honest and honorable people are, right?
10:35 Roman nodded. David continued, "You have intimate knowledge of their dealings and
10:43 reputations, but your knowledge is limited to the size of your tribe." And
10:47 the simple fact is that we can't keep millions of people's reputations in our
10:50 heads. When society gets larger, like in a city or what used to be called a
10:56 country, people need to know how honest everyone else is. That knowledge rewards
11:02 honesty and punishes dishonesty. So we have in the sieve something called a
11:07 contract rating, which is how well you keep your contracts, your word. If you're
11:13 raised well and your scans are good and your parents have good contract ratings,
11:17 it's pretty cheap to get started. Even cheaper if your parents are willing to
11:21 pay for any disputes you lose. It's about one-tenth of a percent of the price of
11:27 the contract on average. One satoshi out of every thousand. For that price you
11:32 both agree on a third party that you will use to resolve any disputes. That
11:36 third party is called the DRO. We all compete with each other which keeps
11:41 corruption and costs low. Roman scowled, "Yeah, yeah, that's all very nice, but the
11:46 old problem is what if you have some dispute, you go to this DRO and then you
11:50 ignore the judgment?" David's eyes widened, "Oh gosh, you know for the past
11:56 hundred years we have never thought of that problem." "All right, all right, go on."
12:02 David shielded his eyes from the sudden reflection from a blinding pond to his
12:06 right. Let's go with it. You and I get into a contract. We can both choose a DRO
12:14 to resolve any disputes. Let's say we do and we have a dispute and can't resolve
12:19 it ourselves and go to the DRO for judgment and you win. Let's say I have to
12:24 pay you a thousand satoshis and I don't. Well, the DRO pays you instead. That's
12:29 partly why they charge. So why the hell wouldn't I just keep breaking my
12:33 contracts knowing the DRO is gonna pay my penalties? Well, if the DRO has to pay
12:38 your penalties then the DRO won't want to do business with you anymore and will
12:42 cancel your contract and so I just go to another DRO. How willing will that DRO be
12:49 to take you on knowing that you just cheated the last DRO? "Trust me, there'll
12:54 always be some scavenger willing to take me on." Maybe, but they will have to charge
12:59 you more because they know that they will probably have to pay your penalties
13:03 and each DRO also has its own contract rating based on the quality of its
13:08 customers. If a DRO ends up full of cheats and promise breakers, other DROs
13:13 will charge more to do business with them if they're willing to do business
13:16 with them at all. Roman considered all this for a moment.
13:22 "I'm like a child at the moment because when I hear a rule, the first thing I
13:27 want to do is find an exception." David smiled, surprised at the older man's hint
13:33 of rudimentary self-knowledge. "That's it, exactly. That is the exact problem that
13:38 DROs are designed to solve, or have evolved to solve, to be more accurate.
13:42 People will always try to find ways around established rules, which is why
13:48 historical state judges tended to become corrupt over time and laws became so
13:52 ridiculously complex and impossible to follow. People will always try to find a
13:59 way around established rules. That includes state judges and everyone who
14:03 tried to influence their judgments. So you can either have a system where
14:09 people profit from the objective enforcement of simple rules, because no
14:14 one wants to sign up to a DRO that is arbitrary or too complex, or you can have
14:19 a system where people profit from corruption because people don't have a
14:22 choice on how their disputes get resolved. The historical judges." Roman
14:30 cocked his head. "What if I disagree with the decision of a DRO?" "Well, baked into
14:36 the contracts are backup DROs. If I think our mutually agreed on DRO has ruled
14:42 unjustly, I can appeal to another DRO to review that decision. Some contracts have
14:47 three layers, most contracts have two just for efficiency. If I go through three
14:52 DRO reviews and each one agrees, I just have to submit or take the consequences.
14:59 Of course, it's possible that three DROs could all be corrupt in some manner that
15:04 none of their customers have ever detected, but you don't solve that
15:08 problem with historical judges. Three voluntarily agreed-upon dispute
15:14 resolution organizations are infinitely better than one coercive, central,
15:18 unchosen historical judge. Three dates might bring you happiness, one rape will
15:25 not." "Arsh!" "I get the point," grunted Roman. "All right, let's play it out.
15:31 What if you simply refuse to pay, disagree with every decision? What then?"
15:34 "Well, eventually you will have a contract rating of zero, which means that you
15:39 don't have any dispute resolution organization that is willing to guarantee
15:42 your contracts. You've gone rogue, as we say in the Civ." "And?" David lowered his
15:49 hand. The pond had passed. In civilization, just about everything you do involves
15:56 some kind of contract. If you want to buy a house, contract. If you want to rent an
16:01 apartment, contract. Borrow money, contract. Buy food, contract. Buy fuel, have
16:05 electricity, get on a plane, rent a jetpack, become a doctor, have any kind of
16:09 messaging service. Roman gestured at the horizon. "Oh, crap, you don't need out here!"
16:14 David nodded soberly. "Yes, right, exactly. And that's what happens if you are
16:22 without contracts. No one will do business with you, because it's expensive
16:27 and unknown and a real problem. And we really do treasure our escape from what
16:33 used to be called paperwork. In the old days, people had to slave for months a
16:39 year, filling out various forms, paying experts and making calls, all under
16:43 threat of violence." David shuddered. "It's a miserable, terrifying existence. My
16:50 DRO has a five-minute review every year, and we resolve most conflicts within 24
16:55 hours or less. Every time one of our customers successfully completes a
17:00 contract without conflict, we reduce his or her rates. By the time most people
17:05 have spent 15 to 20 years in our system, we guarantee their contracts for free if
17:09 they've never had a significant unresolved dispute. We're not alone in
17:13 that, but I think we're the best. That's how it works for our customers. Be
17:19 honorable. Resolve your disputes privately, or don't have disputes at all,
17:23 we don't care. And for the rest of your life, you don't pay a single satoshi for
17:28 our services." In the bad old days, historical judges, the entire system, made
17:36 more money when there were lengthy and complicated disputes, so it tried to make
17:40 them as lengthy and complicated as possible, which is where a lot of the
17:43 bureaucracy came from. In the voluntary free market DRO system, we make money by
17:50 preventing conflicts, or resolving them as quickly and fairly as humanly
17:54 possible. We lose money when there are a lot of conflicts or a lot of appeals.
17:59 Plus, if someone launches a formal dispute and they end up being wrong, they
18:03 have to pay the costs of the resolution. Every incentive aligns towards peaceful,
18:09 rapid, efficient dispute resolution. If a DRO gets a reputation for being slow or
18:15 unjust or non-responsive, we target their customers and offer them incentives to
18:19 join our DRO. We're constantly nipping at each other's heels, it's a lot of fun
18:24 really, by offering better and faster and cheaper solutions to the problem of
18:29 conflict resolution. That's just a free market thing. There is no such thing as
18:34 quality without voluntarism.
18:38 Roman considered all of this for a long moment. "So you have solutions for
18:48 problems which don't even exist for me, for my people. What about war and borders
18:52 and national defense and the military and roads and health care and the
18:56 education of children, all that the state dealt with in the past?" "Did it though?"
19:01 Moment David. "I'm better at showing than telling." He opened his phone and checked
19:09 a notification. "If you promise to be absolutely silent, we are on a war
19:15 footing at the moment and I can let you in on the negotiations." Roman blinked,
19:20 startled, and David allowed himself to enjoy the older man's obvious surprise.
19:27 "You're on a what? War footing?" "Yes, it just came in yesterday, a threat from
19:33 one of the few remaining rogue nations." "No offense, but you don't strike me as a
19:40 war leader." David laughed. "No, I get that. No offense either, but that's because you
19:48 do not understand war."
20:02 Chapter 17. Roman was deeply shocked by the city. As they rode, the wilderness
20:13 slowly gave way to occasional farms and cottages. Some of the farms were
20:17 old-fashioned, tilled by hand with simple implements. Larger ones had robots in the
20:22 field. Roman was surprised to see strawberry bushes being packed out by
20:27 roving chickens. He said, "Why would you make a farm just to feed chickens?" David
20:32 smiled, "Wait and see, someone is coming." In the distance, a man walked up, grabbed
20:39 a chicken, opened its belly, and ate some strawberries. A lot of farmers prefer to
20:47 disguise their robots as animals. These come from a company called Picken
20:50 Chicken, which specializes in artificial chickens that can pick fruits and
20:53 vegetables. A client of ours, great people. Roman nodded, "These cottages are pretty
20:59 plain." "What did you expect?" The older man shrugged, "I don't know, giant slender
21:06 spires, impossible architecture." Consuming too much arises from trauma,
21:11 childhood trauma. Roman scoffed, "You think we mistreat our children? We live on
21:17 a little." "You have little. That is the end result of how you treat your children,"
21:23 said David, a little cryptically. "It's the age-old question, how much is enough?"
21:31 If you're traumatized as a child, then you feel broken, inadequate, not good
21:37 enough. Most people, in the past anyway, tried to cover up that with extremes of
21:43 appearance, wealth, beauty, consumption. People are happy here. They don't need to
21:50 prove anything or show off. Virtue tends towards the middle. It's trauma that
21:55 feeds the extremes. They rode on in silence. More dwellings
22:03 appeared around them. Couples waved, children played. Roman said, "I don't see
22:09 any schools. I approve." David smiled. Children love to learn, love to master
22:15 things. If they just hang around with their parents, they absorb most of what
22:19 they need to know. Plus, technology changes so fast that education on
22:23 specifics becomes pretty useless within a year or two. "Why do you need cities at
22:28 all?" David shrugged. "It's no central planning, no central authority, no state.
22:34 People come and go as they please. It's not about some overall need. Some people
22:40 like to live closer to others. Some people like their space." Roman scowled.
22:44 "Who owns things? Whoever builds something or trades for something owns it. Nothing
22:51 is owned in common?" "What do you mean?" Roman gestured behind him. "We make a kill
22:57 is shared. Unless someone is screwed up, they go hungry. It's a lesson." "You can do
23:03 that here. Some people set up communities without enforcing individual property
23:07 rights. They don't tend to last, but it happens. One of my DRO's slogans is, 'You
23:12 are what you negotiate.'" Roman laughed. "Oh, dape." "It is actually," said David,
23:21 unoffended by the older man's sarcasm.
23:25 The city slowly grew up around them. There were narrow avenues for walking and
23:32 a wild variety of houses and dwellings, from rustic shacks to larger mansions
23:36 and everything in between. "Kinda chaotic," said Roman. "Freedom can be untidy, but at
23:44 least it is sustainable." People came out into their front yards to watch them
23:50 pass. The news of the attack on Alice and Emily had gone everywhere, and the chance
23:54 to see a genuine nomad from outside the sieve was irresistible. People asked to
24:00 take pictures. Roman always refused. He murmured, "From outside everything to right
24:07 at the center." Overhead, sky taxis flew by, some following them closely. Flushed
24:15 faces leaned over the edge of the pews, shouting phrases of welcome to Roman. He
24:20 scowled back and waved grudgingly. "I thought I was a villain," he grumbled. "Did
24:26 you choose where you were born? Did you choose your parents or how you were
24:29 raised?" asked David. "You might know that old phrase of humility there, but for the
24:35 grace of God, go I." "We were lucky, as we see it, and you were unlucky. You don't
24:43 blame a man for bad fortune. You only hold him responsible when he has a
24:47 choice. Yours is only starting now." "And yours," muttered Roman. It was such a
24:56 transparent form of leveling that neither man commented further.
25:02 When they arrived at the command center, the Hololink was already set up. Roman
25:11 could not help but be impressed by the technology, which seemed as real as being
25:15 there. "We can even shake hands, believe it or not," said David, seating himself at
25:21 the conference table. "Don't worry, they are muted at the moment. So are we."
25:25 Roman leaned in and looked at the swarthy men sitting at the other end of
25:29 the table. Sure enough, their lips were sealed with what looked like a zipper,
25:33 and they wore large earmuffs. Roman rapped his knuckle on the table. "This is
25:39 not real." "This is real, but their end is not. They can see us in a room that is
25:44 comfortable to their cultural environment, and we can see them in this
25:47 room, which we are comfortable with. At least me, probably not you, since there
25:50 are no vines, mushrooms, or tumbleweeds." Roman could not help but chuckle. "This
25:57 seems to rest on a foundation of cliches." David smiled slightly. "That's
26:02 actually more true than you know. Sorry to be annoying." Roman leaned forward and
26:08 examined the table. "Where does it end? What is the unreality?" David said. "If you
26:16 put the side of your head on the table and look at it against the window light,
26:18 you can see a slight seam like it was a really well-fitted divided table." Roman
26:24 squatted down and stared at the shiny surface. He squinted. David said, "We can
26:30 fix aging eyes here." "Yeah, and you can make me live longer.
26:34 Unnaturally long." He ran his fingertips along the seam. "Foiling does not
26:39 diminish with age. I can feel a little gap here." "I sincerely doubt that," thought
26:45 David, but kept his skepticism to himself. So the technology is a bit obscure to me,
26:50 but my understanding is that incredibly tiny nanobots blow air to simulate touch.
26:55 They can do just about anything from cotton candy to water to clouds to hard
27:00 surfaces to flesh. I tried a demo a couple of years ago where it felt
27:05 weirdly like I was being slowly lowered into a kind of gelatin, even under my
27:08 clothes. It was fairly creepy. I try to keep that stuff to a minimum. It messed
27:15 us with your head a little bit." "It all does."
27:17 murmured Roman, sliding his fingertips between the real and simulated tabletop.
27:22 "You must have an entire movement here saying that everything is fake." David
27:27 shrugged. "It happens from time to time, but it's pretty easy to dispel that myth."
27:31 "We'll have to get into that another time, though. The meeting is about to start."
27:35 "How do you handle a language barrier?" "The translation is done on the fly, of
27:39 course, and the movements of their lips are changed to match the words in our
27:42 language. Otherwise it looks like a weird old subtitled movie."
27:46 Introductions were made. A hot mint tea was exchanged. The heavily bearded
27:54 foreign leader was named Attica, and he was belligerent from the get-go. "This is
27:58 an outrage! Accusing us of taking your property, threatening to deny us access
28:03 to markets, descending even into pointed threats against my own person! This is
28:07 not how civilized people behave!" David compressed his lips slightly. "I represent
28:14 a group of fishermen who have brought fishing rights to about 10,000 square
28:18 kilometers contiguous to our shore. They have secured the right to fish within
28:22 that area and have been working very hard to make sure that their fishing
28:25 stocks are not depleted. They have entire onshore farms devoted to breeding and
28:30 hatching fish, which they then release onto their property. You have been
28:35 accused of spreading bait outside their property with the goal of bringing their
28:39 fish into your nets, thus stealing their labor. They have provided extensive
28:45 documented evidence of your actions, or at least the actions that you as a state
28:49 leader have undertaken on behalf of your fishermen." Attica scowled scornfully.
28:54 "We reject your so-called evidence!" David shrugged. "That is irrelevant. We, our
29:02 Association of DROs, have reviewed the evidence extensively and in great detail
29:06 and have submitted it to an international consortium due to the
29:09 severity of the complaints. You have been invited to provide feedback, but you have
29:14 refused to do so. Thus you are guilty of the theft of multiple bitcoins worth of
29:18 seafood, primarily cod and tuna, and so you must stop your poaching and provide
29:23 recompense. And we reject your authority in this matter, and once more register
29:28 our outrage that we are being wantonly accused in such a despicable and vile
29:32 manner." David said evenly, "Your outrage has no bearing on the facts of the matter.
29:39 You being upset might work with your children. It does not work with us. You
29:47 parked your vessels just outside our customers' property, then drew their fish
29:51 into your nets" -- in the middle of the night I might add, as if we can't see
29:55 anything then -- "and then sold their property, the property you had stolen,
29:59 into their markets, thus driving down the price of their products, costing them
30:03 enormous sums, as detailed in our report." Attica leaned back and folded his arms
30:09 across his broad chest, his lips white with contempt. "We don't care about what
30:15 you think you saw, what you think you have proven," he smiled insultingly,
30:19 spreading his hands. "It seems to us that our fishermen are just better than yours.
30:24 Are we supposed to pay recompense for our ability? We were careful to stay
30:29 outside your boundaries. We cast our nets, we got some fish, and your society is
30:33 entirely based on property rights, so why should we lose our property when we have
30:36 done nothing to interfere with yours?" David nodded. "We are aware of your
30:41 position. These negotiations have been going on for over three months now, and
30:45 you've not changed your approach at all, which is your prerogative, of course. I
30:48 would never interfere with your free will to make bad decisions, but we have
30:54 now reached the end of the road. Your words and gestures and insults don't
30:59 mean anything here. Perhaps in your culture they do, but not here, because we
31:03 are not raised that way. We know that you have a culture that thrives on cheating
31:09 and dominating others. You think it is your right for your collectivist
31:13 beliefs. For you to get our clients fish is a great triumph and makes you feel
31:17 superior, so I understand why you were doing it. You were addicted to cheating
31:21 because... well, this is in therapy. There's no need to analyze motives. As you know,
31:29 we don't recognize the moral legitimacy of governments. We don't enforce any
31:33 state contracts, and we have already stopped enforcing any personal contracts
31:36 you have as individuals, but clearly that has not been sufficient." David took a
31:42 deep breath. "Here's what's going to happen. I'm just informing you. You will
31:48 pay the bitcoins you owe my clients, and you will stay away from their boundaries,
31:53 and you will do nothing to sabotage their interests in any way, and you will
31:58 be brought to heel in a civilized manner."
32:02 There was a pregnant pause, and then the foreign leaders turned to each other and
32:07 laughed uproariously. Attica leaned forward. "Yes, and I will grow wings and
32:15 learn to fly." The laughter escalated, then subsided. "You say that my words mean
32:22 nothing to you, and your words mean nothing to me. You make noises that speak
32:28 nothing to me, command nothing to me, and my fishermen will continue to do their
32:33 great work, and if your fishermen have problems, well, they should just learn how
32:36 to fish better and stop running to you to make meaningless commands to us." David
32:42 nodded slowly. "You think that I am bound by the non-aggression principle to merely
32:48 make meaningless threats? You want to use my virtues against me because I respect
32:53 property and human life, while you are a tribal thief?" Roman leaned forward,
33:01 fascinated. Attica stared back, a slight smirk on his face. He said, "Nothing." David
33:11 pursed his lips. "Yours is a tribal society with a history of war. You
33:17 yourself declared war against one of your minority populations late last
33:20 year, and it went well for you, I think. War is the health of the state, so the
33:25 saying goes, and the state is the health of war, because without the state, war is
33:32 impossible." Attica narrowed his eyes. "Yes, and you, without a state, have neither
33:40 protection nor offense." David paused for a moment. "I would argue the complete
33:47 opposite. It is you who has neither protection nor offense, because you are
33:53 the head of a government." Attica laughed harshly, gesturing at his
33:59 sniggering companions. "Are you mad? I command an army of almost limitless
34:05 power!" "You do, you certainly do. We keep our own weapons development secret,
34:12 because there's no point parading power around, it just encourages people to find
34:16 countermeasures. And I know that you will think I am bluffing, but we have
34:22 poured all our military spending into defense against the kinds of attacks you
34:27 have been bragging about." David gestured at the air. "It's a strange kind of vanity.
34:33 You have showy parades and brag about your offensive capacities, your orbital
34:38 lasers and hypersonic burrowing weapons and all sorts of wild stuff, and all we
34:42 have to do is watch what you do and pour all our efforts into countermeasures."
34:49 Attica considered this. "You are bluffing. Your society is weak and pacifist and
34:57 puts life above property? This means that you will not attack us over a mere
35:01 property dispute." David blinked. "Who told you that we value life over property?"
35:07 Attica gestured airily. "This is well known." It was David's turn to laugh.
35:14 "It always amazes me how people just refuse to do even the most basic research."
35:21 He leaned forward, his voice suddenly steely. "We do not value life above
35:28 property because there is no life without property. These are two sides of
35:33 the same coin. We all need to eat" -- very nice tea, by the way -- "and drink and find
35:39 shelter. We need food and liquid and houses. These are all property. You own
35:45 yourself. I own myself. We both own the effects of our actions, which will be
35:51 revealed in a moment. You are property. I am property. And we both require property
35:58 to live. Human life and property cannot be separated. If a man rapes your daughter,
36:04 he's violating her property. Her body belongs to her and he is using it
36:07 without her consent. Your life is your property and if I kill you, I am taking
36:12 your property." David put down his teacup. "People and cultures use this artificial
36:23 division between life and property to justify taxation and redistribution. They
36:29 say that a starving man is permitted to steal bread, therefore you can tax and
36:32 redistribute wealth because life is more important than property. And you end up
36:36 with neither. Slavery is wrong, even if you won't admit that. And if you steal a
36:44 man's property, you are enslaving him for the amount of time it takes for him to
36:48 replace that property. If you kidnap a man and force him to work for you for a
36:53 week or a month, you are enslaving him. It doesn't matter whether you kidnap him
36:58 directly or indirectly by stealing his property and enslaving his labor to
37:02 replace it. We would be justified in using force, even according to you, if you
37:09 are physically kidnapping our fishermen and enslaving them to work for you. Well,
37:12 you are kidnapping them. Stealing is enslavement and you are slave owners and
37:17 we will not hesitate to use force against you on those grounds." Attica
37:25 sneered. "And what kind of force are you going to use on us? You are too afraid
37:31 even to meet us face to face, so we have to use this voodoo coward technology. You
37:38 are delicate and unreal." Here it could be understood that the translation
37:43 mechanism was having some difficulty with the insults. "You forget your women
37:48 and run into the dreams of the machines. You are addicted to universalism and so
37:53 are no match for us. It is like we are playing a game on a field and you pass
37:58 to us all the time, but we only pass to ourselves. You will lose, sooner or later.
38:04 Your words break upon our resolution like a tiny wave on a mighty pier. We
38:09 have given you the courtesy of listening to one of your famous lectures. We, now,
38:13 go about our business." He reached forward to disconnect the meeting. Roman laughed
38:20 harshly. David raised a small black box with a red button. "If I press this, you
38:29 die." There was a pause. Attica smiled broadly. "Oh no, a button!" David said. "It
38:41 might be worth asking what it does." "Does it end this interminable conversation?"
38:47 "No, but it does end your family line." Attica paused. He muttered a phrase which
38:55 the translation declined to render. "My family line?" His eyes narrowed. "Even if
39:03 you were to punish children for the actions of their fathers?" David pursed
39:09 his lips. "We've really tried to narrow it down. It would be great to get it down
39:15 to a single individual's DNA, but we haven't been able to get it to be that
39:19 accurate, at least as yet." "You will now explain yourself!" David stood up, smoothing
39:27 his trousers. War has always been a funny business. Until recently, and in my
39:36 neighborhood, so to speak, men and women who started wars gained power, made money,
39:40 and featured prominently in historical works. Assuming they had no compassion
39:45 for the millions of soldiers and civilians they sent to their deaths, war
39:49 was a pretty damn good business for them. If they faced any kind of division or
39:54 insurrection at home, they could start a war and provoke immediate loyalty. If
39:58 they borrowed money from another country, couldn't repay their debts, as was
40:02 inevitably the case every time in history, they could just start a war and
40:06 erase everything they owed. If free speech was becoming too much of a bother,
40:12 they could start a crisis and clamp down on what they so laughably called
40:16 "misinformation." It's so easy to frighten people into compliance, and it's even
40:25 easier to turn their fear into rage against anyone the rulers point at. Don't
40:31 imagine that we don't know exactly why you are provoking this conflict. We know
40:38 that your rule is threatened at home, largely because of us. You can't really
40:42 stop the flow of communication in the world these days, and your population
40:46 sees how free we are, how secure we are, how happy we are.
40:53 David's voice lowered to a dangerous tone. "The parents in your land don't want to
41:00 know or implement the reason why we are free, which is peaceful parenting, which I
41:06 understand of course is not how you were raised. We put you in a scan, you'd
41:11 probably blow the whole thing up." He smiled grimly. "Everyone wants to be free
41:19 and wealthy and happy and powerful like us, but no one wants the path to get
41:24 here, which is raising children peacefully. So you have a lot of unrest
41:30 in your land. Our example is undermining your power, the power that you have over
41:35 your people as you call them." It's a vile phrase like a zookeeper talking about
41:40 his animals, but accurate I suppose. David took a deep breath and exhaled.
41:52 "We know that you need to provoke an external conflict to clamp down on your
41:57 people and draw them closer in allegiance to you. It's all so
42:02 predictable, so boring, and we don't care. We care about reasonable people who
42:08 treat their children well. You are just a kind of historical monster, a predatory
42:13 beast of the old world, and you expect to profit from war, in money, in loyalty, in
42:19 power, in control, in doing what politicians always do, which is to punish
42:24 your enemies and reward your friends."
42:27 David raised his little black box. The resolution in his voice seemed to force
42:35 Attica's eyes to stare at it. "Attica, get everyone out of your room." Attica paused,
42:45 then gestured, and his companions fled. David said, "Thank you. You expect to
42:55 profit from war. This is all contingent on you staying alive, or even if you
43:02 don't care that much about your own life, on your bloodline staying alive. If I
43:08 push this button, which I have been fully authorized to do by everyone who matters
43:13 in our world, then a very special and specific virus is released into the
43:19 world. You won't know where, but it's close, and this virus is programmed to
43:25 leave everyone alone except you, and sadly the people who are genetically
43:30 very close to you. It will infect you and kill you very quickly, and then it dies
43:37 itself." "I've made this particular speech to..." David scrunched his eyes together,
43:44 "six leaders in my time here as head of this DRO. I've sworn them all to secrecy,
43:51 as I am now swearing you to secrecy, because if word gets out about our
43:55 weaponry, we lose some leverage, at least for a while. The fact that you don't know
44:00 anything about what I'm telling you is why they and their families are still
44:07 alive. You are going to withdraw your vessels and pay what you owe." Atticus
44:21 cheeks were fiery red. He laughed harshly. "This is still a bluff, my friend. The
44:28 button is connected to nothing." "Only five..." murmured David. "What? What?" David
44:37 cleared his throat. "Only five of the leaders I talked to decided to do the
44:43 right thing." Atticus squinted, his mind racing. "Are you talking about... no, that
44:49 that was a jet crash." David pursed his lips. "We released the virus when his
44:56 brother was flying the jet. The bodies were obviously too destroyed to detect
45:00 it, and then we had the same conversation with his successor." Atticus' lips were
45:06 white. "You... you destroyed his entire family?" David nodded. "Well, his parents
45:14 raised him to be a monster, and he was raising his children to be monstrous, so
45:19 there really wasn't any potential for rehabilitation. His wives chose to marry
45:23 him, which perfectly revealed their own characters, and he shared power and
45:26 profits with his brother, which revealed his. Here's the basic question. The money
45:34 you have stolen from our hard-working fishermen, it's a lot of value. If you and
45:40 your family were struck with some random illness, whatever, and you for some reason
45:45 decided to come to our fishermen and demand a large number of whole bitcoins
45:48 to save your lives, would they pay it?" Atticus started to speak, but David
45:55 gestured, and his mouth was replaced with a zipper. "One moment. I know it's
45:59 provocative. Give me a second. Let's turn it around. If one of my fishermen's family
46:03 was sick, would you pay what you have stolen in order to save his life and the
46:06 lives of his family members? Of course not. You'd probably laugh and do some
46:11 kind of strange dance in your chambers. It's the same for us. For them. For me."
46:18 "Would I pay an enormous amount of money to keep your scurvy bloodline alive?"
46:24 David shook his head. "Of course not. In fact, if I found out that you had all
46:29 died in some horrible accident, I think my day would lighten a little. There
46:33 would be a spring in my step and a song in my heart." David leaned forward towards
46:39 the apoplectic man. "But this is all nonsense and meaningless. We won't be a
46:46 foreign pawn in the suppression of your own people. We won't be a part of the
46:52 destruction of the few remaining liberties in your land. We know you can
46:57 easily afford to pay back what you have stolen. We know that you care about your
47:02 bloodline and the continuation of your power. You also know that five of the six
47:08 people I last told about this all made the right decision, because they are
47:13 still alive, and our disputes with them ended abruptly, while the other took
47:19 longer to solve, and an entire family died. One man rolled the dice, played the
47:29 ancient game of Russian roulette, if that means anything to you, and he is now
47:34 helping the world in his absence by serving as an example of our power and
47:39 resolution. You have everything you need to make the right decision. Withdraw your
47:45 ships, pay us back, go in peace."
47:51 David unzipped Attica's mouth. Attica looked utterly bewildered. A cunning look
48:00 came into his dark eyes. "But you, but your entire society is founded on the caring
48:07 and protection of children." David smiled. "That is true. Tell me, do you care more
48:15 about your own children or mine?" "Mine, of course." "Agreed. One of the great tragedies
48:21 throughout history has been the holding of children as a kind of hostage. I'm
48:26 sure you know about this in the old world under the program of what was
48:29 called welfare. Women either had children with bad men who left, or with good men,
48:34 and drove those fathers away. Either way, the women were responsible for becoming
48:38 single mothers, which in both our cultures is a great sin. Anyway, the
48:45 mothers ran to the politicians and demanded money and health care and
48:49 shelter and food and resources for their children. In other words, in the old world
48:54 you could basically give birth to an economic hostage. During and after the
49:00 cataclysms, this ancient female trick was tried again. However, with
49:03 advancements in moral philosophy, the only advancements that really matter in
49:07 this world, the question was asked. "Why should I care for your children more
49:15 than you do?" David pretended to gasp, his hands covering his mouth. He imitated the
49:21 long dead women. "Oh, but my children need money." "Yes, and your children needed a
49:25 father. Did you make sure they got one?" "He ran away. It wasn't my fault." If you
49:30 can't judge a person's character, you've no business being a parent. You can't
49:33 keep your children. You can't instruct them on how to be good people if you
49:36 can't even recognize obviously evil people. "How dare you suggest taking my
49:40 children from me?" We refuse to care for your children more than you do. Otherwise,
49:45 all we do is reward women who give birth to hostages. David chuckled. It all seems
49:53 so quaint and funny now, but at the time it was all quite manic and hysterical.
49:58 His face grew serious. "Look, I don't care about you, and you don't care about me. I
50:06 get that. I do vaguely care about the people who live under your rule, which is
50:11 why I won't do anything to give you more power over them. We live and serve as an
50:18 example to the world of what a truly civilized society looks like, and that is
50:25 a problem for you. It's not my problem. My problem is protecting the property
50:29 rights of my customers. You pay or you die."
50:35 Atticus's face looked like it was caving in, but he roused himself for one last
50:39 opposition. "You would assign the death penalty for an entire bloodline over
50:46 some fish?" "You talk about fish. I am discussing principles. If you lived in
50:54 our society, we could ostracize you, bring you to heel that way, but you are in
50:57 another land in a primitive form of social organization, and your heart and
51:01 soul have been hollowed out by the exercise of political power, so I don't
51:05 view you as an equal. I view you as a kind of predator, one who becomes more
51:11 dangerous over the course of a civilized discussion. In the past, good people were
51:17 sentimental, which is why virtue was always destroyed." David's face grew even
51:24 more serious. "Come on, man, just think about it. Your entire bloodline has been
51:30 struggling forward from the primordial soup for over four billion years. Think
51:35 of all the sacrifice of the billions of organisms that had to win and reproduce
51:40 and avoid predators in order to give you this incredible gift of life. You can
51:46 muddle forward in your way. You can keep your power and prestige and own people
51:51 like farm animals. All you have to do is give up the fish and a few bitcoins. Do
51:59 you honor your ancestors? Do you honor their sacrifice? Do you care for your
52:05 children? Then do the right thing. Even if it's compelled, it counts." Attica scowled,
52:16 glancing to his left and right. "I believe nothing. I will give you your answer in
52:23 an hour." David smiled. "Your terms are acceptable." He pressed the button and
52:32 disconnected the meeting. The far end of the room shimmered out of existence,
52:37 replaced by bland carpet and white paint.
52:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]