Ainu AAR – Part II: Dawn of the Ainu Civilization

Picking up from Part I, I’m writing exposition surrounding the events of my final epic Civ 4 campaign. After this,  I have to reformat my old computer, and might never get to play the game again. Moreover, Civ5 has become vastly more popular, it’s more fun to play, even if the world building aspects are less significant. Also, Paradox titles vastly eclipse Civ4 in terms of believability. So here goes, one last time for old times sake.

From Village to Empire

The Yayoi Period

Local Growth & Obsidian Weaponry

The early years of the Ainu culture in Nara began as simply as it had started, this period of initial growth and development of self sufficiency is known as the Yayoi period. They started as a group of self-sufficient fishing clans and a became a new class of logger-men, forest hunters, and tribal warriors. The prime timber of the Naran peninsula offered an abundant stock of hardwoods for constructing an ever larger boating fleet. Moreover, it would allow f or the construction of deadly siege weapons and sturdy stock for blunt clubs and axes. The discovery of obsidian deposits to the north brought in a greater generosity of available weapon types.

Perhaps the most notable of these early Ainu weapons was the use of the Mezzachoda, a club like mace, with grooved insets of obsidian laced into the frame of the central shaft. This weapon proved quite effective at hacking through the hatched wicker armor which was common in that early era. While little is known about the battle strategies employed by these weapons’ wielders, one certainty is the terror of anyone facing down a raid by a group of bearded Yayoi war chiefs.

Early Trade Engagements

At first, generations of hunters and tribe leaders, used these advances in weapon technologies to either hunt the abundant game of northern Akita, or else to engage in tribe to tribe combat. These anarchistic times with warring between tribes, only lasted for a brief time. For as the inland advances of the Yayoi warriors pushed northward, the fishermen of the Mediterasian seas became avid traders. The nearest and greatest trading port was that of Rome.

The Romans had ownership of many great terraces of grapes for crafting wine. Their shores were filled with salt and marble, which allowed for the construction of marvelous buildings and well preserved fish. What the Romans had, the Ainu coveted. The Ainu had ample land for cultivation, abundance of the forest and the sea. However, once the tastes of Rome had reached Naran elite and nearby tribal chieftains, plans arose to take these lands to be their own.

At first, the Yayoi chiefs spent generations pirating the coastal waters between the two cities, and occasional expeditions to the second Roman harbor of Antium. However, after some time, an infuriated Rome demanded that Nara reign in on its delinquent tribal raiders. During this period, leadership in the Ainu culture had begun to centralize in Nara. A line of tribal leaders became to be seen as more of de facto rulers. This early form of state had a line of matriarchal rules, starting with the Empress Gemmei.

Conquest of Rome & Celtia

The Canoe Siege

What had originated as a trade dispute between the Ainu and the Romans, quickly escalated into a full blown military conflict. Gemmei had her troops rallied behind the leadership of “General” Kusama. Before the declaration of war, there had been no true leadership roles or solid structure within the Ainu army. The formalization of war as a political mechanization changed the way the society would operate for the next several millenia.

Kusama rallied his forces into action, quickly training the men to keep rank while engaging in hand to hand combat. He also oversaw the production process for crafting the units of siege. The log-rams would bring their battering logs across the sea, and once embarked onto the peninsula, would work to quickly craft a protective shell. In such a way, the siege could go with units protected from arrow-fire.

During this early period, the army of Nara was larger than the boating fleet could handle. The only way to cross onto the narrow Roman peninsula was to invade in waves, ferrying more men across. Before any attempt could be made at capturing Rome, the Ainu had to encamp upon the northeaster shores and fortify their position.

After the bulk of the Ainu force had made landfall, the march towards Rome took place. In their wait, the Romans had hastily erected wooden palisade walls, and a stone gate. Their single biggest defense was their tower archers. The only foot soldiers they had at this time were the lightly armored hoplites. Since the process of armor production required more ore than the Romans had access to, their main protection came in the form of shields with spears. This did not last long against the Ainu Mezzachoda swords.

The fall of Rome was estimated to occur around 7300 BC. The streets were filled with Ainu Mezzachoda Men, and the cultural exploits which followed would be exquisite. With trade flowing between Nara and Rome, facilitated by a common leader and single military, the Ainu  finally had something resembling a state.

The Sabuki Settlement Period

The reaches of the Naran peninsula offered excesses of land which needed to be consolidated quickly into the fold of the freshly forged Ainu state. With inter-city trade at an all time high, settlements in nearby lands wanted to have a stronger network with the political power growing in Nara and Rome. From Nara, several expeditions were sent out to formalize communities among the fishing villages along the coasts and the inland hills.

With a surplus of soldiers returning from the siege of Rome, and immigration pressure from the strange Celtic peoples of the north, a permanent standing army was established to forge forward a strong Ainu Empire. The line of Gemmei game to an end. An influx of bureaucrats from the recent roman conquest lead to a new lineage of mixed Ainu-Roman royalty. Ogawa Augustus Sabuki was the first non-Naran ruler to take the seat of the empire. The Roman tradition of patriarchy had at managed to take root in Ainu society. There would be female rulers again in time, but the normalcy became a male dominated line of emporers, and the eventual creation of a male dominated senate.

Ogawa Augustus Sabuki posing for his annual hunt into the north.

The seat of Sabuki pushed for an aggressive expansion policy of the greater Naran peninsula, and for active raids against any Celtic settlers who ventured further east than Bibracte. The seizure of Gergovia along the north Mediterasian coast was the first of many forays of war against the Celtic expanse. However, it is not the military actions alone which determined the size and shape of the Classical Ainu Empire, there was also the founding of many new villages and towns.

First was Biratori along the southern tip along the Roman Gulf. Then, between two rivers on the north of the gulf, an early Celtic province was raised, and the Emporor himself founded Monbetsu in honor of his son of the same name. Monbetsu then continued his father’s policies, founding Hamamasu in the interior, and sending his navy to create a proper fishing port just south of Gergovia, near the Danish Kattegat Bay. This was the city of Ishikari.

In addition to settling, the Augustus emperors built infrastructure in the form of a roads system, and encouraged farms and trade villages to take root between the larger settlements. Proceeding these roads came also the tradition of the savior and the cross. The Christian traditions of the Romans had expanded not only across the Ainu Empire, but also to Denmark, Hispania, even the distant Byzantium. The power and wealth of the church would bring a long lasting prosperity to the Classical Empire. It would also bring tension with the Pagan Celts.

Great Northern Land Grab

The Celtic settlements to the north and west of the Ainu, were firm believers in the Druidic traditions of great Gaia and the nature spirit. The gods of the forest guided their hunts, looked after their crop. Whereas some of the Ainu may have incorporated such beliefs into their world, the difference was excuse enough to make a quick political play against the Celts. The recent settlement of Atsuta, just south of Bibracte, angered the lord Brennus of Celtia. The invaders wouldn’t stop with land enough though, they converted any of the remaining locals to join the side of their monotheistic god.

First was the fall of Bibracte, scholars do not know the exact date of this forfeiture, but the city went down with little fight. By the time the Ainu marched into the central square of town, there was virtually no army to resist the occupation. Vienne was more prepared, as evidence of the struggle could still be found among the ruins. With this, the Celts were forced both westward and southward. The division made it all the easier for the fourth wave of expansion, the western advance.

Annexorably, the small satelite settlements of Tolosa, Camuledunum, and Durotorrotorum, all fell to the hands of the imperial Ainu. The last of this expansion occured in the reign of the Emperor Shakushain III. It was this great expansion that defined the Ainu as a distinct culture of the north, and it is to the lineage of Shakushain to which the nation owed its greater destiny.

Shaping a Cultural Identity

The restless Ainu had taken enough Celtic land to satiate their needs, and to protect against the sizable empires of the west. Armenia, Israel, Assyria, and mother Japan, all represented a potential future threat. As did the eastern powers on the continent of Eros. The Danes seemed to have cities and expanse to rival the Ainu, but merely a small seperation of earth and sea stood between these two colossal powers. Eventually, the Ainu would have to look for conquest in Armenia, to avoid having a dangerous superpower on their doorstep. For now though, the Armenians remained a loose collective of city states, and did not pose any massive threat.

What should be remembered most during the Shibuchari period  (4300 – 3700 BC) is the great expanding of the Ainu culture and arts. A great Asiatic Temple was constructed in Rome, along side the pillars of the church. The mystic traditions of the Celtic Druids lead to the institution of the Oracle to take place in Gergovia, offering God’s advice to travellers of all sorts. In the Imperial Capital itself, a great deluge of free thought took place. The Church repealed some of its dogmatic treatises, and allowed for the open investigation of nature. This lead to a flourishing environment where Archimede’s could build a workshop dedicated to the arcane arts and new forms of metallurgy. This greatly expanded on the design of seige weapons and new materials were invented to fortify the walls of the Ainuian cities.

The military command in Vienne even came up with a cypher system, the Cyrus Cylinder, for encrypted communication between outposts. Years later, the Hanging gardens were also built in Vienne. Rome started a new tradition of bull riding, which prompted the popularity of cattle ranching up and down the fields of the empire, spreading as far as the plains of Tolosa. Explorers of all sorts visited the Northern Ocean, and mapped out the extent of the Akita continent. These travels even lead to contact with the distant nation of Australia.

The culture of the Ainu really took shape. A blend of Japanese ancestry, Roman aesthetics, and Celtic traditions, was taking firm root at the  seat of the empire. As a crossroad of internal culture, this lead to the creation of a great wall system, a method to ensure the hoards of the west could not enter into Ainu lands without repercussions in supply management. Inside it’s safe borders, great coliseums, breweries, and myriad entertainment sprung into existence. The delights of empire kept the people happy and allowed for a steady strengthening of defenses, to prepare the Ainu for all of the challenges ahead.

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AAR: The Rise & Fall of the Ainu Federation – Part I

I haven’t posted any real game posts in some time. However, I’ve had a Caveman2Cosmos game of Civ4 going on casually for the last few months. It actually started to become a real work of world building. Since it’s a long process, I’ll break it into several posts. It’ll be in character mostly, except for a few humorous bits.

Of Mods & Men

For those unfamiliar with Caveman2Cosmos (C2C), it’s an epic mastery of modliness, produced by a content creator known only as “strategyonly.” The roots of this mod however, extend far deeper into the fabric of the Civ4 community. It builds upon a decade of development of various components which have been slowly improved, hybridized, and aggregated into this single experience. The primary components of the mod come from the aggregation work done by Rise of Mankind: A New Dawn, which itself is a “Mod-Mod,” or a continuing evolution of gameplay.

Mods within Mods!

The golden era of Civ4 modding took place around 2007-2009, after the release of the “Beyond the Sword” expansion back. The main developer behind the Rise of Mankind A New Dawn was the legendary “Afforress,” building on RoM “vanilla” made by Zappara. Some claim that his RoM 2.71 was the most well balanced version of the expansive mod. What Civ4 offered in terms of mod-ability with their Python SDK, is miles beyond what Civ 5 mods are capable of. Civ5 mods are almost exclusively content additions or game-balance tweaks.

Civ4 Mods could completely alter the engine in fundamental ways, and modders would QA bundled layers of compatible pieces. The result was a completely new experience, like getting access to a totally brand new game!

What Civ4 offered was a platform for a multitude of free game experiences. The replay-ability and epic sandbox nature is only rivaled by builder games like Minecraft or Kerbal Space Program. Of course, the combat system of Civ5 might have completely eclipses the death-stacks of Civ4, but the mod experience is nowhere near as close. Civ5 mod pieces being modular is great for controlling content, but terrible for cross-compatibility. Civ4 RoM, and by extension, C2C, are not only game mods, they are works of art. Carefully tended by a watchful team of builders, the balance, reliability and experience of Civ4 mods are very difficult to find anywhere new. Plus, with the rise of the DLC model, the power of mods to tweak the engine itself is virtually absent.

So, before Civ4 fades deeper into the annals of gaming history, I’ll give it one last go in the name of fun! I also haven’t transcribed a game into story before, although I’ve had many adventures with this game in years past. The After Action Report (AAR) format, seems to be a more passive way of storytelling than the video based let’s play, but it’s as good a place as any to get started. By the way, sorry for the low-res screen shots. Running this on a really terrible old monitor. You know, for tradition!

 

The Dawn of Time

An Island Culture Begins

The early years of Japanese culture are lost to the sands of time. The Japanese Paleolithic period began at around 50,000 BC and lasted until approximately 14,000 BC. This period saw the migrations of settlers on the western portion of Honshu towards the lush fishing grounds of the eastern Kansai, and towards the Kanto peninsula on the northeastern stretch of the island. The largest settlements in Kansai would eventually come to be known as the city of Osaka, and Kansai would host Tokyo. The Kyoto culture of the west would routinely establish trade influence on their eastern descendants, forming what would eventually become the basis of empire. For now, this loose collective of semi-nomadic settlements would remain merely a cultural identity. Distinct language between these groups did not yet exist, but common similarities between speech patterns would later shape the Japanese language.

 

Early Cultural Exploration

The island culture during these early years was focused on the production of sustainable food sources and a better form of tool making. Hunting tribes roamed the continents between the eastern and western settlements, searching for easy game and trying to protect more threatening wildlife away from their agricultural brethren. Some choice encounters even involved interaction with wandering Neanderthal families. While interbreeding circumstances are not understood, there is some speculation that these hominids would be held captive and made to perform simple labor. Genetic markers have recently revealed that geographically, neanderthal genes originated from the western Kyoto region. In fact, it is estimated that in the early period, most other spare game was traded with the settled tribes of the west.

Also, during the beginning of the Jomon period, early explorers took to the water in search of better fishing grounds. Their explorations took them north, through the tropics and into colder climates, ripe with cod and herring. At first, no significant settlement occured. The distances were extraordinarily far, and any fishermen which traveled that far, seldom brought families to raise new land. Moreover, these fishermen were accustomed to building with the tropical hardwoods of Honshu, and could not work easily with the birch and pine of the greater north.

 Cultural Expansion in the Mediterasian Sea

Following the exploration and extensive hunting of Honshu, the Japanese fishing fleets pushed towards the northeastern shallow seas, what we know today as the Mediterasian. This body of water very delicately splits two massive continents. To the west sits Aikita, to the east is Eruda. As the fishing fleets explored every more north, they encountered a variety of cultures and civilizations. First, they met scouts and other fishing fleets, but soon they had sailed past the humble villages of Rome and Constantinople.

From the bounty of their exploits, some of these fishing fleets came upon coastal treasures. In a select few beaches, these fishing fleets found small tribes of natives who were willing to accept the fishermen as residents in these new lands. The intrepid explorers made quick to partition their fleet and allow some members to form permanent settlements along the shores of the Mediterasian. The first settlement was declared Kagoshima, on the Minoan half of the Roman peninsula, but in close proximity to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Years later, a second settlement is founded to the shores just north of Rome.

Ascent of the Naran Culture

The second settlement, Nara, was much richer in abundant forests for shipbuilding, and prairies for eventual farming. It’s extrusion into the sea sat just north of Rome itself, which was at this time becoming a jewel of the Mediterasian. The people in its streets spoke of a savior, returned from death. The ancestor worship traditionally practiced by the Japanese settlers, blended harmoniously with the ethos of the Romans. Soon the Narans came to covet the freedom of the lifestyle of the Romans, and felt less connected to the world their forefathers had left behind on the island of Honshu. Soon the trade with their fatherland came to a standstill, Nara would govern itself and establish itself as the primary reckoning force of the Mediterasian. Nara wanted what Rome had, they would need to model the beginnings of their culture and their state after the strange men of olives and wine.

Meanwhile, the men of Honshu begin to connect their settlements, and agriculture is starting to become a practiced tradition. Soon paths and roads will connect the island east to west. Trade is picking up, neanderthals are permanently integrated into the human species, and a small ancestor memorial, Tara Hill, is built. The beliefs of the Japanese are coming to be known as Shinto, while the Narans to the north start to identify as Christians. After some time passes, the restless Narans finally decide to cut ties entirely and form a new culture. These fishing men of the north have different habits of culture entirely. Whereas facial hair is no longer kept by the native Japanese, the Ainu carry resemblance to the bearded Romans. A novel new civilization has grown from the synthesis of two precursor cultures.

That’s all for now! Join me next time when I play as the Ainu and fight to win the lands of the north!

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Reflecting on 2-years with iontom.com!

Firstly, April 4th marks the anniversary of the second year I’ve been running this blog. It’s not much of an accomplishment, but it’s fun to look back. Sadly, a few months ago I had to move out of the house in Ballard, and was forced to abandon my awesome garden. Although truthfully, long hours at work, neglectful weekends, a nightshade incursion, and an army of insects got the better of me. And of course my trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Monument to hike… Was exhausting and exhilerating at the same time, it felt like visiting Mars!

Pushing to Create a Simulation Social Platform

Now, if you’ve read any of my previous work, I described back in 2012 my overview of how I would build the “perfect strategy game.” Or at least I described what the game mechanisms might look like. The “how” is actually a much more complex scenario, as I discovered in getting the /r/Simulate projects started. Aaron Santos created the MetaSim web API for use in our Github group, where the “WebHexPlanet” was our most impressive repository hosting the backbone of the API framework. (Inspired by the HexPlanet demo by Vicki Joel) Unfortunately, Heroku started charging $30 monthly to keep our demo running, so I had to pull it down for the time being while I find a cheaper hosting option.

After several months in early 2013 trying to keep up with the MetaSim project, I stopped trying to compensate for lack of webdev skills. I focused instead in characterizing the need to have a holistic simulation architecture. I pushed so deep into this research, that I had to split my post into two segments, the “State of the Simulated Universe” Part I and Part II. I really should refactor those posts into some type of PDF version with images instead of videos.

I really tried to encapsulate all the relevant technologies, which is a huge volume of subjects to try and fit into one post. To compensate for this, I experimented with creating a second website, rSimulate.com, which I might try to revive at a later time. Something about the theme and the format of the posts just doesn’t vibe right. I think if I can redesign it and get a more exciting top level domain for it, I could potentially make something with it. The goal was to make it more of a syndicated new source for all sorts of related projects in the simulation space.  Essentially a hobby/niche geek site like Ars Technica or Gawker Media, but focused on all things simulation.

Efforts Toward a Gaming Experience to Teach Science & History

In the summer of 2013, I spent a few weeks converting my old gaming rig into an Ubuntu server and then managing the development environment for my friends in the rSimulate group. We cloned the Asterank project in the hopes of integrating elements of it to function with WebGL planet viewer we had already started with WebHexPlanet. Of course this would require either migration of the native Python in Asterank into the pure JavaScript of WebHexPlanet.

The goal was to create some type of caveman to space colonization experience, like depicted in the Caveman2Cosmos mod for Civ4, but based on a new distributed web platform. The problem with C2C is mainly that the Civ4 engine isn’t multi-threaded and the turn system forces you to wait for a complete cycle before you can make strategic decisions. Especially in the late game, the slowdown time for turns is such that you might be waiting 3-5 minutes for a turn cycle to resolve. Also, the content overload almost detracts from the believability of the experience, and the engine itself is very poor at modeling cultural organizations prior to the invention of nationalism. Soon I will post a more comprehensive assessment of how to model societies for games in a more Guns, Germs & Steel approach.

However, while working on the Asterank modification, I came up with this concept for smaller title. It would focus merely on the the space colonization and building automated infrastructure with a distributed fuel network. It could utilize orbital planning like that depicted in Kerbal Space Program, but have an easier interface for planning automated trajectories. Rather than requiring expert piloting by the player, the system would instead create chooseable destinations based on a series of calculations involving the required energy, either potential or kinetic. You could then create game phase paradigms as follows:

• Detection Phase: Finding Near Earth Asteroids using the same methods currently in use with sources such as the SDSS. We would replicate this search using simulated images from Arkyd-class space telescopes. Players create detection rules using basic shapes and a small logical UI.
• Near Earth Capture Phase: This would simulate launch from the Earth of craft capable of rendezvous with near earth objects (NEOs) or the moon. Players would either start building lunar launch infrastructure, or else attempt to catch up with NEOs with probes to study or convert into liquid hydrogen fuel if possible.
• Infrastructure Production Phase: This phase would be after establishing a moon base, rerouting NEOs into lunar orbit, and possibly constructing a lunar space elevator. This phase would be the longest of the game, it would revolve around the transition from Earth’s gravity well into that of the sun. Building infrastructure across the solar system, colonizing Mars, Ceres, and creating large habitats in space, as well as a fuel transportation network.
• Victory Conditions: Players would continue to work on building infrastructure.
  • Science Win: Exploration of new places and experiments to detect life would increase science points. Hitting a certain threshold of points wins.
  • Colonization Win: Put as many people as you can into space colonies. First to hit some milestone, 10k or 100k, wins.
  • Interstellar Mission: One approach to win could be to harvest anti-matter from the Van Allen radiation belt or other belts near planets with a magnetic core. Mainly Jupiter. After acquiring enough fuel and building an “Ark” ship, the player embarks to Alpha Centauri or some exoplanet. Victory occurs from either an unmanned ship reaching Alpha Centauri or a colony ship of 1000 people leaves heliopause.

Now, I only spent a few weeks on this last summer before dire financial circumstances forced me to abandon everything. I never published outside of Reddit, I was too vested in figuring out the technology, and hadn’t shared the design concepts which I only had on a sketchpad. My recent employment situation might give me the ability to pursue this project. However, by posting the preliminary concept on here, I’m hoping to hedge the bet that someone might create this project at some time, and at least give a nod to me after the fact. The important thing is that eventually, a game like this exists to teach the orbital mechanics and space science in a creative way. Since the platform would be WebGL, such a project would have the reach of a social-casual game but gameplay more compelling than some desktop titles.

Fighting for a Technical Solution to Structural Poverty

Then, for Labor Day 2013, I wrote a statement called the Nucleus Proposal, which was an extension of the sentiments being debated in /r/Futurology, revolving around the looming specter of technological unemployment and the case for a basic income to supplement the transition to a labor-free society. Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) has been mentioned in that sub-reddit for about a year-to-date. Many people are proponents, some feel that the concept is over-discussed and is non-pertinent to the topic of Futurology. My stance is that if it’s a predictive post it is Futurology, if it merely describes UBI. So an if-then statement is futurology, as is any mention of a future date explicitly.

I of course support the notion, but am potentially biased. I have a desire to create educational simulations, but there is no interest in financially supporting the projects in question because the value in the technology behind them would be open source and not directly monetizable. Our society is focused on commercializing every object and interaction possible, not in promoting free information. Aaron Swartz and Edward Snowden are martyrs instead of heroes.

Being pro-establishment means you support moneyed interest in a fixed finance economy instead, rather than supporting the unpatriotic notion that ideas should be as free as the people that possess them. Cracked humorously declared this path into the future to be known as Forced Artificial Scarcity (FArtS). It’s supposed to be funny, but really it’s just sad. Just like the consensus among congress that climate change isn’t real. I sincerely hope that Neil deGrasse Tyson can evangelize trust in the process of science.

Now if you want to know what Nucleus was supposed to be, you should just read the proposal. The short overview however, is that it would be a mechanism for individuals to quickly find opportunities to contribute to projects, either open source or proprietary. A built in attribution model would allow for a marginal revenue percentage to be gifted to open source coders and artists with the most commits and the highest social karma.

The goal of the project was to envision a digital mechanism to continue technological progress after the labor market dies off from automation, and traditional wage-economics can no longer support public at large. The hope was to build an actor system like Palantir, but self-directed instead of built for mass surveillance. Plus it would be geared towards allowing people to self-employ at a massive scale and integrate new projects into the  broader utility of an iterative self improving simulation.

Of course, the project failed to start at all. I learned the hard way that too broad a scope, and too few volunteers, with no incentive to complete the project… Leads nowhere. The frustration was that we wanted to create something for a post-capital society, but didn’t have the capital or spare time to pursue the project on our own. Like it or not, our society will be a slave to money until the robot army of the bourgeoisie mows us all down with machine gun fire.

The Nucleus idea itself was created in September of 2013, at time during which browser applications were just starting to flourish across the web and responsive designs were just picking up. Now just 7 months later, Nucleus is just another small-minded idea to create a project management mega-app. Plus, now it seems like half the web is using responsive content and a richly authored content tool chain, it’s impossible to keep up. Our backend goal was that if we created common data definitions within a networked of federated API’s, you might have services which communicate to each other without a centralized application server.

You could then launch Nucleus nodes to manage individual projects, but if you choose to publish your work, you could have a visual representation of all the interacting projects that make up the web. I’m not sure how we’d visualize this, maybe a “map of the internet” that constantly updates. It might have functioned as an open source standard for communication business objects, contracted individuals, automated services, and other pre-defined web agents. The concept is what is referred to as the Distributed Autonomous Corporation. You don’t need management, you just need good ideas and willing people to manage the infrastructure and an avenue of automated income to anybody who contributes. It could be code, content, or marketing on social sites, any action with impact would generate a cascade of value distribution… Decentralized distribution based on rules of automata.

The Hidden Promise in Cryptocurrency

What I didn’t see coming until October was the rise and fall of Bitcoin and an explosion of alternate cryptocurrencies. However, I did posit in the Nucleus Proposal that a cryptocurrency, engineered to have the right parameters for determining supply and distribution, could function as a wealth optimization mechanism for increasing wealth based on democratically decided values (like energy efficiency) rather than the cryptic decisions by the board members of the Federal Reserve Bank. However, I’m not an economist, I won’t try to engineer a model that works, I just wanted to break the ice that an open source algorithmic approach might benefit parts of society that are currently overlooked.

Then, in December, something crazy happened. A Developer in Portland, OR and a marketeer from Sydney got together and created Dogecoin, a currency based on a meme. I made the joke, “Welcome to Meme-nomics, the Shibularity is Near!” Which was correct, Dogecoin exploded into the world, its value shot through the roof, long before the block chain reward halving even occurred. Which lead me to consider the idea, that a reputation economy could exist if every person had a cryptocurrency associated to their name.

It’s a very anarcho-capitalist idea, just let everyone have a currency, then convince other people to mine or buy your currency. The socialist-mutualist part is where the person being mined gets half of the reward of every block mined. It’s almost like a share in someone’s reputation, if you think someone has a lucrative career ahead of them, buy early, that person gets financial support in their early career when they need it most, and then later on you can sell that person’s reputation points for more than you initially put in. It’s not a micro-loan, it’s micro-investment for individuals with no stakes for person involved other than create cool things and find an audience to support them.

Anyway, that got shot down by my friend who knows the ins and outs of the SEC. Again though, I was trying to speculate on a way to create a form of labor-agnostic income that would benefit people just working on their own projects with a social support network behind them. However, I see projects springing up like Ethereum, Mastercoin, and Auroracoin, and I am hopeful that either a crypto-currency or a block-chain API stands a chance at patching the holes our congressional representatives are tearing into the fabric of our social support infrastructure.

A Modest Proposal

Now, rather than allowing all of our human capital to just rot away in their parents’ basements, or squander the next 20 years working entry level corporate service jobs without benefits… We could start a human rental service. To qualify, you must be under 40, capable of turning off any cognitive reasoning skills, and performing meaningless tasks bid to you by the angry baby-boomers who managed to acquire enough wealth to purchase a second home or some other large line of credit.

To participate in this venture, young people should report to the nearest medical processing center and forfeit any remaining financial assets to pay for the procedure. The process will be quick and simple. A device, inserted into the back of the skull, will connect to all the essential nerve bundles at the root of the brain stem. Now, rather than to use this tool to create a new universe of socially liberating new art-forms, instead it will allow for an unparalleled commercialization service. Body borrowing! Now, the sagging forms of top level executives will need to sag no longer!

For simple hourly fee, a sexually attractive body may be rented and worn about for the day. The youthful generation wasn’t doing anything important anyway! Now, what should we do with all of the bodies which aren’t currently employed by an approved funding agency or corporate municipality? Well let’s just keep them in a warehouse! We can administer a slow drip feed supply optimized to keep the bodies well nourished, and then have a state of the art exercise and production facility, where idle bodies can be put to work manufacturing merchandise to sell back to the network of the reasonable employed. It will be amazing! Think of the revenue! No one will be unemployed!

Alright, that was my terrible April Fools gamble. Hope it wasn’t too terrible! Thanks for reading!

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