A SYNERGIC FUTURE II
The truth is especially
hard to believe if it requires that we take action — if it requires
that we change. If humanity is to have a future, we must take action —
we must change. If humanity is to have a future, we must believe the
truth. If majority rule democracy is
obsolete and no longer the best system of human government, what other
things do we believe that are equally wrong?
Redefining the Future
Timothy Wilken, MD
In part one of A Synergic Future, I wrote:
Truth #1-Possessions are not necessarily property.
The possession of an object does not mean that the possessor has a
moral or rational claim to ownership of the object. The political,
economic, and social structures of our present world are all based on
our concept of ‘property’ and property rights. If we define
property as those possessions that were acquired by 1) either
paying a fair price in a free market to the rightful owner, or 2) that
which is produced by the mind and hands of the owner. Using this
definition, most of today’s possessions are plunder and not property.
In today’s world plunder is common and property is rare.
Truth # 2-The Majority of Human Wealth is a Gift
The vast majority of human wealth is a gift free for the taking, and
cannot be morally or rationally claimed as property by any individual.
The land and natural resources are wealth provided to us by God and
Nature. The sunshine, air, water, land, minerals, and the earth itself
all come to us freely. The Earth’s land and natural resources are not
products of the human mind or body. They existed long before life and
humankind even emerged on our planet. There exists no moral or rational
basis for any individual to claim them as Property.
If a claim of ownership can be made at all, it must be a claim on behalf of all humanity both the living and those yet unborn.
Synergic Wealth—Defined
The collective term we
humans use to describe what we value is ‘wealth’. Synergic wealth is
that which supports life for self and others. Synergic Wealth
comes in two forms: Synergic Trust and Property
Synergic Trust — wealth that comes to us as a gift
This includes the Life Trust
— life itself, the plants and animals which are a gift from God, and
Nature, and our human bodies which are a gift from God, Nature, and our
Parents.
It includes the Earth Trust
— the sunshine, air, water, land, minerals, the earth itself all of
which come to us freely. This wealth is provided to us by God and
Nature. And, thirdly it includes the Time Trust
— the accumulated ‘knowing’ from the time-binding of all the humans who
have ever lived and died. Our inherited Wisdom, Knowledge, and
Information including Architecture, Art, Literature, Music, Science,
and Technology. It is the Time Trust that forms the basis of all human
progress. We humans are the beneficiaries then of three major trusts —
the Life Trust, the Earth Trust and the Time Trust. We, humans can not
and do not own these trusts. They are not derived of our lives. They
are not the product of our mind or labor. We have not paid for them.
There is no moral or rational basis for us to claim ownership. They are
not property. If we wish to use and control these trusts, then we must act
as trustees, and then only if we act responsibly. As responsible
trustees, we must preserve and protect these trusts. We must act as
conservationists.
“Conservation is the sustainable use of natural resources—soils,
water, plants, animals, and minerals. The natural resources of any area
constitute its basic capital, and wasteful use of those resources
constitutes an economic loss. From the aesthetic viewpoint,
conservation also includes the maintenance of national parks,
wilderness areas, historic sites, and wildlife. “Natural resources are of two main types, renewable and
nonrenewable. Renewable resources include wildlife and natural
vegetation of all kinds. The soil itself can be considered a renewable
resource, although severe damage is difficult to repair because of the
slow rate of soil-forming processes. The natural drainage of waters
from the watershed of a region can be maintained indefinitely by
careful management of vegetation and soils, and the quality of water
can be controlled through pollution control. “Nonrenewable resources are those that cannot be replaced or
that can be replaced only over extremely long periods of time. Such
resources include the fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, and natural gas)
and the metallic and other ores.”
The Life and Earth Trusts are perishable. They do not belong to us.
We must protect them for our children, and for all future children. The
Time Trust is less susceptible to damage by the user. Using knowledge
or technology designs does not diminish their future value, but it must
also be used responsibly. We must not hurt others with any trusts that
we control. In fact, we should help others to whatever the extent we
are capable. All humans are trustees. We are of course the Life Trustees of
our own bodies. We should take good care of ourselves. Take care with
our health and nutrition. We are also the Time-binding Trustees of all
the knowledge and skills that we personally have mastered from our
study of the past. We must strive not to hurt others with this
knowledge and skill. We should try and help others to whatever extent
we are capable.
TRUST—def—> Wealth provided as a gift — The Life Trust
includes our bodies as provided by God, Nature, and our Parents in
addition to all other forms of life — the plants and animals provided
by God and Nature. The Earth Trust includes the Earth itself and all Natural Resources provided by God and Nature. And, the Time Trust
includes all the accumulated knowing and technology from the mental and
physical labor of all those humans who lived and died before us. These
three trusts can be referred to together as the Synergic Trusts.
In our present Adversary-Neutral Culture with its
Pseudo-Independence, it is to common to boast that “I don’t owe anybody
anything.” This could hardly be farther from the truth. Without our
gifts from the Synergic Trust, we humans would have nothing, not even
our lives. Without the gifts from the Time Trust, we would achieve
nothing, each generation trapped at the subsistence level of the animal
fighting and flighting to survive. The scientific reality is that we humans owe nearly everything
we are or have to God, Nature, and those humans who have lived and died
before us. We are dependent on others. And sometimes others can depend
on us. We humans are the Interdependent class of life. Because Trusts are not property, control of Trust is a
privilege and not a right. In synergic culture, humans may control
Trusts as long as they exercise Synergic Responsibility. Synergic Responsibility—def—>
1) Trustees must help others through their control and use of the Synergic Trusts.
2) Trustees should not hurt others through their control and use of the Synergic Trusts.
3) Trustees should preserve and protect the Synergic Trusts they use and control. They should not damage the Synergic Trusts.
Synergic Responsibilty is an obigation that is incurred by all
Trustees of the Synergic Trusts. Any Trustee who violates their
Synergic Responsibilities would lose their Trustee privileges. Synergic Trusts are a gift for all humanity both the living
and those waiting to be born. They must be shared equitably and in
perpetuity. Synergic Trusts and the mechanisms to preserve, protect and
administer them for the benefit and and weal of all humanity must be
developed now. They will play a crucial role in a synergic future. This
role will be explained in much detail in a later chapter. But first we
must talk of that form of wealth called property.
Redefining the Future — Property
I explained that most
human wealth is a gift and cannot be owned. As such it is a
mistake to call this form of wealth property. Therefore, I
coined the term "Synergic Trust" to represent wealth received as a
gift. However, some wealth is property.
Property — wealth that we earn with our action and/or our leverage
Action is how most
humans earn their livings today. We work for salaries using either the
action of our bodies, or solve problems using the actions of our minds.
Our understanding of Time-binding has revealed that thinking is the
most powerful form of human action. Many of us earn our livings today
by thinking.
Tools allow humans to lever
the power of their action. Humans are tool users and tool makers. If I
am a skilled tool user I can sell my actions to serve others with my
skills. If I am a skilled tool maker, I can sell the tools I make to
give other leverage increase the effectiveness of their action.
Thinking can produce ideas and discoveries which lead to hypotheses and
theories which lead to technology designs which allows us to build
technology artifacts or tools which leverages action further.
Property is synergic wealth created by human action and leverage.
Property is not received as a gift, but is that which is earned by
the labor of mind or body. Property is owned by the individual acting
and the individual providing the leveraging.
Now let’s examine Volitional Scientist Andrew J. Galambos’ definition of property with my annotated comments in colored font:
“Property is individual man’s life and all non-procreative derivatives of his life.
“Property is the basis of ownership because to own means to have
and hold Property. From the definition of Property, it follows that man
must first own his life before he can own anything else. Life itself is
defined as primordial Property.
I define the human body and the spark of life
itself to be part of the Life Trust. Our bodies and life itself is a
gift from God, Nature, and our Parents. As the Life Trustees of our own
bodies and life itself, we owe some responsibility to God, Nature, and
to our Parents. This obviously has some implications for how we use or
abuse our bodies.
However, I can agree that human actions
and human behaviors can be considered property, and since our lives are
mostly determined by our actions and our behaviors it would follow that
our lives can be considered to be our property. Galambos continues:
“No one may own any man but himself. Thus, Property excludes slavery at the outset.
“The first derivatives of man's life are his thoughts and ideas. Thoughts and ideas are defined as primary Property.
“From the definition, man owns primary Property and, through
this ownership, intellectual freedom arises and inspires knowledge and
production. From primary Property (ideas) stem actions.”
Galambos’ concept of primary property
legitimizes the concept of intellectual property rights, and forms the
rational basis for ownership of one’s actions. Galambos continues:
“Ownership of one’s own actions (clearly a Property right) is
commonly called liberty. Liberty, then, as well as life itself, is a
Property right. Since all so-called human rights depend upon man’s
liberty, it follows that all human rights are Property rights. There
can be no conflict!"
Property rights come with Property
Responsibilites. I agree with Galambos that you should not injure other
while exercising your property rights. But synergic responsibilty goes
further in that you are encouraged to use your property to help others.
Synergic Trust privileges come with
Synergic Trustee Responsibilities which are even greater than Property
Resonsibilities. Here again, you should not hurt others while
controlling a trust, but in addition you must help others. Helping
others is a requirement of Guardian Trustee responsibility. In
addition, Guardian Trustees are bound to protect and preserve the
Synergic Trust. Galambos continues:
“Ideas and actions produce further, or secondary, derivatives. These include the access to and use of land.”
Access to land and other natural resources
are controlled by the Earth Trust in a synergic culture. One can gain
control over land and natural resources, but only with acceptance of
Synergic Responsibility—you cannot hurt anyone, and you must help
others to the extent possible. In addition, one must act as a good
conservationist you cannot damage or pollute the land. Galambos
continues:
“Other secondary derivatives include the production, utilization,
enjoyment, and disposal of material, tangible goods of all kinds from
ash trays to television sets, from log cabins to skyscrapers, from
oxcarts to jet planes."
Complex secondary derivatives such as
television sets, skyscrapers, and jet planes contain significant
amounts knowlege and technology from the Time Trust. In synergic
culture all humans are free to make use the Time Trust and incorporate
our inherited ‘knowing’ into their products as long as their use of the
trust does not hurt anyone. For example in synergic culture, it is
immoral to use the knowledge of physics to make weapons. Galambos
continues:
“These are called secondary Property. They are secondary both
logically and chronologically. In all instances, their existence is
antedated by primary Property which led to their generation and
employment."
Alfred Korzybski makes a similar distinction to primary and secondary property with his discussion of two kinds of wealth:
“We have seen that the term wealth, rightly understood, means the
fruit of the time-binding work of humanity. Wealth is of two kinds: one
is material; the other is knowledge. Both kinds have use-value. The
first kind perishes—the commodities composing it deteriorate and become
useless. The other is permanent in character; it is imperishable; it
may be lost or forgotten but it does not wear out. “The one is limited in time; the other, unlimited in time; the
former I call POTENTIAL USE-VALUE; the latter; KINETIC USE-VALUE.
Analysis will justify the names. The energy of a body which is due to
its position, is called potential energy. The energy of a body which is
due to its motion, is called kinetic energy. Here the material
use-value has value through its positon, shape and so forth; it is
immobile if not used, and has not the capacity to progress. Mental
use-values are not static but permanently dynamic; one thought, one
discovery, is the impulse to others; they follow the law of an
increasing potential function of time.”
Galambos continues:
“Further derivatives of man’s life lead to voluntary transactions
involving Property transfers (sales, trades, gifts, etc.). Involuntary
Property transfers are derivative not from the property owner’s life
but from the life of the coercer. Therefore, Property ceases to remain
Property and is converted to plunder when subjected to involuntary
(coercive) transfer. “Children—being young human beings—have Property rights of their own and cannot themselves be owned; children are not property.
Children recieve their bodies as Synergic
Trusts from God, Nature, and their Parents. In synergic culture, the
parents are the trustees for infants and young children, as children
grow they gain more and more control over their bodies and eventually
are invested with Trusteeship of their bodies and Property rights for
their actions and behavior.
Reproduction is not a property right.
Reproduction is a Trust Privilege. No individual has the right to
reproduce if that reproduction would injure humanity as Community. This
ends my comments on Galambos’ statements.
Now we can expand our definition of Property to one compatible with synergic science.
PROPERTY—def—>
Wealth created by human action and leverage. It belongs to the
individual(s) whose action and leverage created it. All humans are
entitled to the fruits of their action and leverage. All human-made
wealth is property, and all property has an owner. The owners of
property have 100% control over their property as long as such control
does not injure others, this prohibition of injury includes other
individuals’ property, and the synergic trusts. Property Rights —> Owner(s) may transfer partial or
complete control of their own property to others as they choose. They
may sell, trade, rent, lease, license, gift, or donate their property
as they please. Intellectual Property —>Thinking is recognized as a
powerful form of action. Ideas, discoveries, hypotheses, theories, and
technology designs are therefore property. Synergic science recognizes
Galambos’ definition of Primary Property and fully accepts Intellectual
Property Rights. Primary Property — Ideas, discoveries, hypotheses,
theories, and technology designs can be used to develop Secondary
Property—technology artifacts or tools which leverage further action.
Action and Leverage
Synergic Economics accepts that wealth produced from human action
and from human leverage is property. Therefore, wealth created by human
action and leverage is owned by the individual(s) acting and the
individual(s) leveraging.
The animal has action, but only we humans have leverage. While our
human action can be applied directly to solving problems and meeting
our needs, the labor of our backs does not take advantage of our
Time-binding power. We humans owe our great success not to our muscular
strength, but to the intelligence we can use to guide that strength,
and the leverage we gain by using tools. Remember, we humans are the
tool makers and tool users. If I am a skilled tool user, I can use my skilled action to
serve myself and others. If I am a skilled tool maker, I can leverage
my action and the action of others to serve myself and others. Thinking is recognized as a powerful form of action. Ideas,
hypotheses, theories, and discoveries are therefore property. Synergic
Economics recognizes Galambos’ definition of Primary Property and fully
accepts Intellectual Property Rights. Primary Property—Ideas,
hypotheses, theories, and discoveries, and technology designs can be
used to develop secondary property — technology artifacts or tools
which leverage further action. Therefore, synergic science recognizes
property rights based on two forms of human behavior — Action and
Leverage. plunder
plunder—def—>
Property or Trust acquired with force or fraud—all adversarily acquired
Property or Trust. Stolen property is plunder. Exploited Trust is
plunder. This includes Trust that is used or controlled in violation of
the Synergic Trust Responsibility. Synergic Trust that is used without
helping others is plunder. Synergic Trust that is used to hurt others
is plunder. Causing damage to the Life, Earth, or Time Trusts is
plunder. And, using Time Trust to hurt others is also plunder.
Any individual who steals property with force or fraud is accorded
no property rights. Plunder cannot be sold, traded, rented, leased,
licensed, gifted, or donated to anyone. Possession of plunder even when
obtained innocently does not entitle the possessor to property rights.
It should be returned to its rightful owner, if that is not possible
then the rescued Property should be placed in the Custody of the
appropriate Guardian Trustees. We can now update our definition of Synergic Wealth.
Synergic Wealth
—def—> Life itself and that which promotes human well being
generally—that which satisfies human needs of self and other—that which
promotes mutual survival and makes life meaningful for self and other.
This then includes all Property and all Synergic Trust.
Synergic Wealth is then 1) Life itself including the Life Trust 2) Human Action—Mental and Physical—Thinking, Action, and Behavior—Primary Property 3) Human Leverage—Mental
and Physical—Intellectual Property in the forms of Theories,
Discoveries, and Technology Designs—Primary Property, and Physical
Property such as Tools, Technology Artifacts, and Products—Secondary
Property, 4) the Time Trust, and 5) the Earth Trust.
plunder is not Synergic Wealth. As stolen Property or exploited
Trust it has been removed from the Synergic Wealth pool to serve the
criminals’ needs. If and when stolen Property is rescued by synergic justice,
then it is returned to its rightful owners, or if that is not possible
it is placed in the protective custody of the appropriate Trustees. If
and when exploited Trust is rescued by synergic justice, it is returned
to the protective custody of the appropriate Trustees. Mixing Property and Trust
There is often an area of overlap with Synergic Trusts and
Property being mixed. For example, animals trained as security agents
would be a blend of Life Trust (the animal) + Property (the training
and care). Also Synergic Trusts often require property to make them
valuable. As example, Earth Trust (crude oil under the ground) has no
value until property (oil well technology — finding, drilling, pumping,
transporting) is added.
Andrew J. Galambos, Freedom100: Capitalism—The Liberal Revolution, Free Enterprise Institute, Los Angeles, Privately Published 1961
Alfred Korzybski, The Manhood of Humanity, E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1921
Redefining the Future — Expanding our definitions
Recall my earlier definitions of synergic wealth:
SYNERGIC WEALTH —def—>
Life itself and that which promotes human well being generally — that
which satisfies human needs of self and other — that which promotes
mutual survival and makes life meaningful for self and other. This then
includes all Property and all Synergic Trust.
SYNERGIC WEALTH is then 1) LIFE itself including the LIFE TRUST 2) HUMAN ACTION—Mental and Physical—Thinking, Action, and Behavior—Primary Property 3) HUMAN LEVERAGE—Mental
and Physical—Intellectual Property in the forms of Theories,
Discoveries, and Technology Designs—Primary Property, and Physical
Property such as Tools, Technology Artifacts, and Products—Secondary
Property, 4) the TIME TRUST, and 5) the EARTH TRUST.
plunder is
not Synergic Wealth. As stolen Property or exploited Trust it has been
removed from the Synergic Wealth pool to serve the criminals’ needs. If and when stolen Property is rescued by synergic justice,
then it is returned to its rightful owners, or if that is not possible
it is placed in the protective custody of the appropriate Trustees. If
and when exploited Trust is rescued by synergic justice, it is returned
to the Protective custody of the appropriate Trustees.
Korzybski's Indexing
Now that we have carefully defined Wealth, we can utilize a derivative of Korzybski’s IndexingTT to identify what form of wealth we are talking about.
PropertyP is designated with superscript P. Life TrustLT is designated with a superscript LT. Earth TrustET is designated with a superscript ET. Time-binding TrustTT is designated with a superscript TT. And plunderp is designated with a subscript p.
Some examples would be: my computerP, the American eagleLT,the EarthET, Einstein’s Theory of RelativityTT, and the thief was arrested in possession of several cellular phonesp.
Synergic Trustees
Recall, I said earlier that all humans are synergic trustees.
We are Earth Trustees for the land and natural resources we
granted use of for our personal needs. We must conserve and protect
those Earth resources that we are entrusted with. This is an obligation
to humanity as community and to the Earth Trust. We are of course the Life Trustees of our own bodies. We
should take good care of ourselves. Take care with our health and
nutrition. As parents we are the Life Trustees for our children until
they are adults. We must not harm ourselves or our children. We must
live in ways to help ourselves and our children. This is an obligation
to humanity as community and to the Life Trust. We are also the Time-binding Trustees of all the knowledge and
skills that we personally have mastered from our study of the past. We
must strive not to hurt others with this knowledge and skill. We should
try and help others to whatever extent we are capable. In synergic culture, all humans are granted access to the
Time-binding Trust at birth. Every human may make full use of the
knowing contained in the Time-binding Trust as long as that use does
not hurt others. Personal or educational use of the Time-binding Trust is
encouraged without limit or restriction. Knowledge cannot be consumed.
Using the Time-binding Trust does not in any way diminish it. Every human who gains economically from their use of the
Time-binding Trust is required to acknowledge and give credit to the
innovators and creators of the knowledge they are using. They are further encouraged to help others to the extent they
are capable — helping is a basic synergic value. Who they choose to
help and to what extent they help is entirely voluntary — entirely
their own personal choice. And, while synergic culture encourages its
members to help others, there is no coercive obligation to do so. Furthermore, economic gain from use of the Time-binding Trust
creates no economic obligation to the Time-binding Trust or anyone
else. Intellectual Property
New ideas, discoveries, hypotheses, theories, technology
designs, inventions, as well as new art, music, and writing are not a
part of the Time-binding Trust. This is intellectual property. Or, what
Galambos called Primary Property. All property has an owner. We cannot
use property without the explicit permission of the owner. Recall our
earlier definition: PROPERTY—def—>
Wealth created by human action and leverage. It belongs to the
individual(s) whose action and leverage created it. All humans are
entitled to the fruits of their action and leverage. All human-made
wealth is property, and all property has an owner. The owners of
property have 100% control over their property as long as such control
does not injure others, this prohibition of injury includes other
individuals’ property, and the synergic trusts. Intellectual Property —>Thinking
is recognized as a powerful form of action. Ideas, discoveries,
hypotheses, theories, technology designs, inventions, as well as art,
music, and writing are therefore property. Synergic science recognizes
Galambos’ definition of Primary Property and fully accepts Intellectual
Property Rights. Primary Property — Ideas, discoveries, hypotheses,
theories, and technology designs can be used to develop Secondary
Property—technology artifacts or tools which leverage further action. Property Rights —>
Owner(s) may transfer partial or complete control of their own property
to others as they choose. They may sell, trade, rent, lease, license,
gift, or donate their property as they please.
In today’s world there is much interest in intellectual property.
Property in ideas are protected to some extent under patent and
copyright statutes. Patent & Intellectual Property Lawyers Laurence R. Hefter and Robert D. Litowitz explain:
“In today’s world a patent is a contract between
society as a whole and an individual inventor. Under the terms of this
social contract, the inventor is given the exclusive right to prevent
others from making, using, and selling a patented invention for a fixed
period of time in return for the inventor's disclosing the details of
the invention to the public. Thus, patent systems encourage the
disclosure of information to the public by rewarding an inventor for
his or her endeavors. “Although the word “patent” finds its origins from documents
issued by the sovereign of England in the Middle Ages for granting a
privilege, today the word is linked synonymously with this exclusive
right granted to inventors. The World Trade Organization Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights provides the
international standard for duration of patent exclusivity, which is 20
years from the date of filing. All World Trade Organization members
will be obligated to meet this standard. Under all patent systems, once
this period has expired, people are free to use the invention as they
wish. “Any invention, either a product or a process for creating a
product, “provided that they are new, involve an inventive step, and
are capable of industrial application.” In other words, to be
patentable, an invention must be novel, useful, and nonobvious. A
prerequisite to patentability is that the invention must be capable of
some practical application. “A copyright is an exclusive right to reproduce an original
work of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, to
prepare derivative works based upon the original work, and to perform
or display the work in the case of musical, dramatic, choreographic,
and sculptural works. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea,
procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or
discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained,
or embodied. Rather, copyright protection is limited to an author s
particular expression of an idea, process, concept, and the like in a
tangible medium. “Copyright protection automatically subsists in all works of
authorship from the moment of creation. The World Trade Organization
Agreement provides a minimum standard for duration of copyright
protection. In the case of a person, the term is the life of the author
plus 50 years.
“The exclusive rights granted to the copyright
owner do not include the right to prevent others from making fair use
of the owner s work. Such fair use may include use of the work for
purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching or education,
and scholarship or research. “To secure copyright protection, the work in question must be
an original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of
expression. Works of authorship that fall within this definition may
include: Literary works (including computer programs);
Musical works and accompanying lyrics;
Dramatic works and dialogue;
Pantomimes and choreographic works;
Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
Motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and
Sound recordings. “It
is important to note that the laws of many countries do not limit the
type or form of work because authors are continuing to invent new ways
of expressing themselves.
Property clearly plays an important role in our present Neutral
political-economic system. Property will play an important role in a
Synergic political economic system as well. Those those desiring to use
Intellectual Property will need to come to terms with the owner of the
property. I expect most owners would want their property used as widely
as possible, happy to receive a use fee or Lever Royalty. The terms and
amount of the royalty would be negotiated and determined by the owner
and those desiring to use the Intellectual Property. Elsewhere in my
paper entitled the Organizational Tensegrity, I discuss synergic mechanisms for determining and paying Lever Royalites for the use of Intellectual Property.
Intellectual Property Rights
Recall as Hefter and Litowitz explained, in today's world:
"Authors which incudes scientists, writers, artists,
and musicians can copyright their works. However, copyright protection
is limited to an author’s particular expression of an idea, process,
concept, and the like in a tangible medium. Copyright protection does
not extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of
operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in
which it is described, explained, or embodied." Galambos’s
definition of property provided much greater rights to both Inventors
and Authors. Under Moral Capitalism the right to control one’s property
was an absolute with the only limitation being that you could not hurt
others with your property. This right of course extended to
intellectual property since after life itself, primary property was the
most important form of property. And, Intellectual Property rights were not limited to an author’s
particular expression of an idea, process, concept, and the like in a
tangible medium. Intellectual Property rights did extend to any idea,
procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or
discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained,
or embodied. Galambos recognized that independent discoveries and
independent inventions did and do occur. So individuals with strong
evidence of independent discovery or independent invention were fully
entitled to property rights. As a synergic scientist, I am in agreement with Galambos’ call
for a greater degree of intellectual property rights, and I accept the
occurrence of genuine independent discoveries and inventions, and the
need for a mechanism of justice to abitrate property disputes. Duration of Property Rights
Again, Hefter and Litowitz decribe our present world:
"Current international statutes degree that the
inventor of a new tool can file for a patent granting exclusive right
of ownership for a period of 20 years from date of filing. "The duration of copyright protection in the case of a person is for the duration of the life of the author plus 50 years."
In Moral Capitalism, the duration of property rights were not to be limited.
According to the precepts of Moral Capitalism, Isaac Newton as
the recognized innovator of the Laws of Motion would have intellectual
property rights throughout his life, and these would not terminate even
upon his death. Galambos invented the concept of a “Natural Estate”,
the intellectual property rights of an innovator persisted even after
death. A Moral Corporation was to be charged with the authority and
responsibility for managing the intellectual property rights of the
deceased innovator within his “Natural Estate”. This Moral Corporation, representing the “Natural Estate”,
would license the intellectual property of the deceased innovator to
present humanity for moral (non-coercive) use. In our example, Newton’s
intellectual property (The Laws of Motion) would earn revenue shares as
a monetary payment of gratitude. Since the Industrial Revolution is based in large part on the
secondary property derived from Isaac Newton’s primary property (the
Laws of Motion), one could easily imagine that the size of Isaac
Newton’s “Natural Estate” would result in the creation of an enormously
wealthy and powerful Moral Corporation. With the large amount of intellectual property in the history
of humanity there would be need for many Natural Estates. The largest
Natural Estates would be those of the most important innovators in
human history — Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Hippocrates, Louis
Pasteur, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, George Washington
Carver, Rudolf Diesel, George Eastman, Albert Einstein, Daniel Gabriel
Fahrenheit, Michael Faraday, Galileo Galilei, etc., etc., etc.. Galambos envisioned that the Natural Estate industry would
become the dominant industry in a proprietary future dominated by Moral
Capitalism. He saw the Natural Estate mechanism as a complete
replacement for government. After all in a world where everything is
property and where there is no such thing as a small interference with
property, protecting property is the only rule. Moral Capitalism
results in a completely proprietary world. Unfortunately, the Natural Estate mechanism while a clever idea does not work, and in fact can not work.
Thomas Jefferson on Inventions and Property
In a letter to Isaac McPherson on August 13, 1813, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
It has been pretended by some, (and in England especially,) that
inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their inventions, and
not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to their heirs. But
while it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property
is derived from nature at all, it would be singular to admit a natural
and even an hereditary right to inventors. It is agreed by those who
have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of
natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance. By
an universal law, indeed, whatever, whether fixed or movable, belongs
to all men equally and in common, is the property for the moment of him
who occupies it, but when he relinquishes the occupation, the property
goes with it. Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given
late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea,
the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural
right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. If nature has made
any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property,
it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an
individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself;
but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of
every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its
peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because
every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me,
receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights
his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas
should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral
and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems
to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she
made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening
their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move,
and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive
appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of
property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising
from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce
utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and
convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody.
Accordingly, it is a fact, as far as I am informed, that England was,
until we copied her, the only country on earth which ever, by a general
law, gave a legal right to the exclusive use of an idea. In some other
countries it is sometimes done, in a great case, and by a special and
personal act, but, generally speaking, other nations have thought that
these monopolies produce more embarrassment than advantage to society;
and it may be observed that the nations which refuse monopolies of
invention, are as fruitful as England in new and useful devices.
Considering the exclusive right to invention as given not of natural
right, but for the benefit of society, I know well the difficulty of
drawing a line between the things which are worth to the public the
embarrassment of an exclusive patent, and those which are not. As a
member of the patent board for several years, while the law authorized
a board to grant or refuse patents, I saw with what slow progress a
system of general rules could be matured.
(Source: The Founders' Constitution)
The Nature of Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property is slippery, hard to keep track of. When I
learn something, I often place the fact in my mind without a
proprietary footnote. This is true for all humans. There is presently
no way to record or print out a copy of the human mind. And, if I am
reading many different authors, talking with many different people,
surfing the internet, listening to the radio, watching televison, there
are enormous numbers of different ideas and thoughts that I am exposed
daily, let alone in a lifetime of living and thinking. Is this my
original idea ? Sometimes I don’t even know for sure myself. And, my mind was already full of all the knowing that I have
learned and mastered from the past. If I think in English, then the
very structure of the languange I use to order my thoughts would belong
to whoever invented the English language. And since language is build
overtime often one word or phrase at a time, we are probably not
talking about one innovator, but maybe hundreds, or thousands, or
millions. And then, there is the language of mathematics, physics,
biology, chemistry, art and music. Most of what I know I learned from
the dead. If that is property how do we sort it all out. And, some of what I learned is from people who are still
living. That is other people's intellectual property, but at least they
are still alive to represent themselves and their property rights. Objectifying a living individual’s knowing is difficult, but
doable. I can write down my ideas. I can tell my ideas to others. I can
make written, digital, audio and video recordings. I can
be interviewed, questioned. Asked to explain how I created the
idea, and what was my train of thought. However, all ability to objectify my knowing ends with my death.
It would create a world full of humans looking back at the past
with endless struggles between “Natural Estates” arguing over who owns
what. And, how do you settle these property disputes, when all the
principles are dead ? Creating human organizations to the manage the intellectual
property of the dead is fraught with enormous difficulties. Do the
executors of Albert Einstein’s Natural Estate even understand his
intellectual property. Worse yet, who has the right to select those living humans to
manage Natural Estates. It is first come, first served. I could
announce tomorrow that I am the executor of Archimedes’ Natural Estate
and that everyone who uses leverage in anyway owes Archimedes a revenue
share. Imagine the revenue that could produce. And, of course I could
pay myself quite well as Archimedes’ executor. Who decides ? Who
arbitrates ? Certainly, Archimedes wouldn't care. And, why not just announce myself as the executor of the
Natural Estate for the Inventor of the wheel or for the inventor
of language. Wheels are everywhere from ox carts to 767s, who
wouldn't pay royalties on the wheel. And, language there is no one who
is called human that doesn't use languge. Everyone who talks must
pay my company a royalty. Death and Inheritance The dead have no needs including no need of wealth.
WEALTH —def—> That which promotes human well being — that which
satisfies human needs — that which promotes both human survival and
human meaning. The dead have no actions nor do they lever others action. The
dead cannot control Property or Trust, and therefore have no Property
rights nor Trust privileges. PROPERTY—def—> Wealth created by human action and leverage.
It belongs to the individual(s) whose action and leverage created it.
All humans are entitled to the fruits of their action and leverage. All
human-made wealth is property, and all property has an owner. The
owners of property have 100% control over their property as long as
such control doesn’t hurt others. At the time of death, all primary property of the deceased
passes into the Time-binding Trust. This includes all known ideas,
discoveries, hypotheses, theories, and technology designs. When a creator of scientific knowledge dies their Primary
Property passes into the Time-binding Trust. Those desiring to use
Time-binding Trust like Haskell’s Periodic Coordinate SystemTT, Galambos’ Automatic Remoteness DilutionTT, or Einstein’s Theory of RelativityTT
can do so as long as their use of these Trusts with synergic
responsibilty — they do not hurt anyone with the leverage gained by
using the trust, and they acknowledge and give credit to the innovator
of that knowledge. No revenue share is paid for use of a Time-binding
Trust.
Synergic Associate Daan Joubert asks:
"Suppose an innovator dies suddenly. What happens to
the immediate family and the dependents that are supported
from the income stream provided by the licensing of the innovator's
intellectual property. -- wife or husband, and minor
children ?"
In a truely synergic culture. The
basic life support for all humans individuals is provided by
Humanity as Community using Wealth from the Earth, Life, and
Time-binding Trusts. I will describe this completely in a later paper.
And, of course this is the proper roll of insurance. To provide for immediate family in the event of unexpected death.
But, during the bridge period, perhaps there
could be some time period when existing contracts for use of the
innovator's intellectual property would continue. How long? The life of
the spouse? Until minor children reach some age of adulthood. In
today's world perhaps that should be after college. (age 21) ?
Daan Joubert asks: "And, what
about the situation where the work of the innovator was in progress at
the time of the innovator's death, suppose his/her innovations were not
finished. Shouldn't it be possible to appoint a curator of the ideas
with a protected period of say 10 years, to complete the work as
envisioned by the innovator?"
I think this is a valid concern, but I think the
mechanisms as described would handle this OK. When the Innovator died,
all his intellectual property becomes Time-binding Trust. It is now
available to anyone to use with synergic responsibility. This would
include those qualified to act as a curator of the ideas. Also it is
possible that those most qualified to continue the innovator's work
were not even known by him. So, the release of the deceased innovators
intellectual property to the Time-binding Trust opens up
an opportunity for new minds to access and extend the work.
However with that said, if the innovation has not
yet been disclosed to the public, or only partially disclosed to
the public, then the innovation is still private. There is no
mechanism for private (not know by the public) intellectual property to
enter the Time-binding Trust until it is made public by the act of
disclosure. If the innovator was working with an associate, or team of
associates, they could continue, finish the innovation and then go
public.
Also, it is important to note any
individual(s) who continue working on the innovation, making
improvements to that innovation are creating new intellectual
property of their own with intellectual property rights.
So innovations should not be stranded by the sudden death of an innovator.
If you want to use the intellectual property of a living innovator.
You have to ask permission and make an agreement for that use. The
living innovator has property rights. As an owner he/she may
transfer partial or complete control of their own property to others as
they choose. They may sell, trade, rent, lease, license, gift, or
donate their property as they please. Secondary property
can be inherited — this includes artifacts of any kind or size —
houses, buildings material possessions and physical products —
technology artifacts or tools. Land can not be
owned. If you inherited a house or building you would be responsible to
make the lease payments to the Earth Trust for the site upon which the
house or building stand.
Redefining the Future — Trustegrities
It must now be obvious to the reader, that most of human wealth is a
gift and cannot be claimed as property by any individual or group of
individuals. I have divided this gift into three categories — the Earth
Trust, the Life Trust and the Time-binding Trust. I propose the creation of synergic trustee organizations
charged with the responsibility to protect, conserve and administer the
synergic trusts for the benefit of all humanity — both the living and
the unborn. This organization could make use of the Organizational Tensegrity synergic mechanism which utilizes synergic consensus and the synergic veto to elimnate conflict. These Synergic Trust Organizational Tensegrities will simply be called the “Trustegrities”.
The Trustegrities could form the basis for a
synergic government in the future. They could perform all the
positive functions of present government with none of the negative
consequences. The Trustegrities would exist to serve humanity as
community as well as humanity as individual. The Trustegrities will be three with separate but complimentary missions in service to humankind.
The Earth Trustegrity will provide:
1) Access to land and natural resources for personal use at minimal or no cost, and
2) Access to land and natural resources for synergic production
with appropriate charges payable to the Earth Trustegrity in lease or
rental fees, licensing fees, and/or revenue shares. All rental fees,
licensing fees, and/or revenue shares are entrusted to the Earth
Trustegrity for Humanity as Community.
The Life Trustegrity will provide:
3) Safety from crime and war, and full access to:
4) Comfortable, safe, healthy housing.
5) Good nutritious food
6) Good preventitive health services and comprehensive cradle to
grave medical care, and access to the privilege of Reproduction based
on fairness, equality, and mutual benefit to both humanity as
Individuals and humanity as Community. This would include monitoring
administrating, adjudicating the Trust privilege of Reproduction. 7) Access to animals and plants including native flora and wildlife for personal use at minimum or no cost.
8) Access to animals and plants including native flora and
wildlife for synergic production with approriate charges payable to the
Life Trustegrity in rental fees, licensing fees and/or revenue shares.
All payments made are entrusted to the Earth Trustegrity for Humanity
as Community.
The Time-binding Trustegrity will provide:
9) Full education to an individual’s ability and interest regardless of age,
10) The opportunity to participate in synergic organization and
invest their action and leverage to earn revenue shares and acquire
property throughout their full lifetime. 11) Access to communication with humanity as individuals and
to humanity as community for personal reasons, for synergic production
and consumption, and for synergic consensus utilizing Unanimous Rule
Democracy. 12) Protection of the intellectual discoveries and inventions
of Time-binding whether they be in the Time-binding Trust, or the
Property of living humans.
Funding the Synergic Trustegrities
Future Positive was established to help humanity transition from
the present adversary-neutral political-economic mechanisms dominating
human life in 2002 to synergic alternative mechanisms available in a
Synergic Future. In such a future the entire human species could be
organized as a single organization, then there would be no need for
politics, economics, or even money. Certainly the forty trillion cells
in the synergic organization which comprise our bodies do quite well
without politics, economics or money. As I said earlier, if we humans synergically reorganized, we
could all be wealthy beyond our wildest dreams. If we were to take all
the wealth on planet Earth today, 2002 and divide it equally among the
6+ billions of us living on the planet, we would discover to our
surprise and amazement that every man, woman, and child is a
billionaire. There would never be any need for humans to earn their
livings again. With synergic reorganization, and careful utilization of
the Earth, Life and Time-binding Trusts, the Earth could comfortably
support all of humanity. And this is without any need to damage or
degrade our environment. Our Time-binding Trust is so enormously powerful and gives
those of us living today such enormous leverage that it is
scientifically possible to solve all our human problems and meet all of
our needs. We humans are bound to the Earth, and our individual fates are
linked together — we share a common fate. We can survive and prosper
together as a unified species, or we can perish as individuals fighting
and fleeing like the animals. There is no separate peace and no
separate solutions. All the land and all the natural resources of the Earth are
needed for our species to survive. They cannot be held and used to
serve any individual or group of individuals. The land and natural
resources are not property, they cannot be owned by anyone. They are a
Trust to be shared and carefully utilized by all living humans. They
are a Trust to be conserved for all yet unborn humanity.
“Men did not make the
earth.... It is the value of the improvement only, and not the earth
itself, that is individual property.... Every proprietor owes to the
community a ground rent for the land which he holds.”
.....Adam Smith (1723 - 1790)
“Ground rents are a
species of revenue which the owner, in many cases, enjoys without any
care or attention of his own. Ground rents are, therefore, perhaps a
species of revenue which can best bear to have a peculiar tax imposed
upon them.”
.....Tom Paine (1737 - 1809)
“The land, the earth God
gave man for his home, sustenance, and support, should never be the
possession of any man, corporation, society, or unfriendly government,
any more than the air or water.”
.....Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)
Henry George
The American writer, Henry George published Progress and Poverty
in 1879, in which he made one of the first arguments for the common
ownership of land by all people. He seriously argued for the full
return of the land to humanity as community. He even suggested a
mechanism for that transition. Here in his own words:
“There is but one way to remove an evil and that is to remove its
cause. To extirpate poverty, to make wages what justice commands they
should be, the full earnings of the labourer, we must substitute for
the individual ownership of land a common ownership. Nothing else will
go to the cause of the evil, in nothing else is there the slightest
hope. “But this is a truth which, in the present state of society,
will arouse the most bitter antagonism, and must fight its way, inch by
inch. It will be necessary, therefore, to meet the objections of those
who, even when driven to admit this truth, will declare that it cannot
be practically applied. “In doing this we shall bring our previous reasoning to a new
and crucial test. Just as we try addition by subtraction and
multiplication by division, so may we, by testing the sufficiency of
the remedy, prove the correctness of our conclusions as to the cause of
the evil. “The laws of the universe are harmonious. And if the remedy to
which we have been led is the true one, it must be consistent with
justice; it must be practicable of application; it must accord with the
tendencies of social development and it must harmonize with other
reform. “I propose to show that this simple measure is not only easy
of application, but that it is a sufficient remedy for all the evils
which, as modern progress goes on, arise from the greater and greater
inequality in the distribution of wealth—that it will substitute
equality for inequality, plenty for want, justice for injustice, social
strength for social weakness, and will open the way to grander and
nobler advances of civilization. “But a question of method remains. How shall we do it?
“We should satisfy the law of justice, we should meet all
economic requirements, by at one stroke abolishing all private titles,
declaring all land public property, and letting it out to the highest
bidders in lots to suit, under such conditions as would sacredly guard
the private right to improvements. “Thus we should secure, in a more complex state of society,
the same equality of rights that in a ruder state were secured by equal
partitions of the soil and, by giving the use of the land to whoever
could procure the most from it, we should secure the greatest
production. “But such a plan, though perfectly feasible, does not seem to me the best.
“To do that would involve a needless shock to present customs and habits of thought—which is to be avoided.
“To do that would involve a needless extension of governmental machinery—which is to be avoided.
“It is an axiom of statesmanship, which the successful founders
of tyranny have understood and acted upon, that great changes can best
be brought about under old forms. We, who would free men, should heed
the same truth. It is the natural method. When nature would make a
higher type, she takes a lower one and develops it. This is the law
also of social growth. Let us work by it. With the current we may glide
fast and far. Against it, it is hard pulling and slow progress. “I do not propose either the purchase or the confiscation of
private property in land. The first would be unjust; the second,
needless. Let the individuals who now hold it still retain, if they
want to, possession of what they are pleased to call their land. Let
them continue to call it their land. Let them buy and sell, and
bequeath and devise it. It is not necessary to confiscate land; it is
only necessary to confiscate rent. “Nor to take rent for public uses is it necessary that the
state should bother with the letting of lands. It is not necessary that
any new machinery should be created. The machinery already exists.
Instead of extending it, all we have to do is to simplify and reduce
it. By making use of this existing machinery, we may, without jar or
shock, assert the common right to land by taking rent for public uses. “We already take some rent in taxation. We have only to make some changes in our modes of taxation to take it all.
“Therefore, what I propose is—to appropriate rent by taxation.
“In form, the ownership of land would remain just as now. No
owner of land need be dispossessed, and no restriction need be placed
upon the amount of land any one could hold. For, rent being taken by
the state in taxes, land, no matter in whose name it stood or in what
parcels it was field, would be really common property, and every member
of the community would participate in the advantages of its ownership. “Now, insomuch as the taxation of rent, or land values, must
necessarily be increased just as we abolish other taxes, we may put the
proposition into practical form by proposing to abolish all taxation
save that upon land values. “As we have seen, the value of land is at the beginning of
society nothing, but as society develops by the increase of population
and the advance of the arts, it becomes greater and greater. Hence it
will not be enough merely to place all taxes upon the value of land. It
will be necessary, where rent exceeds the present governmental
revenues, to increase commensurately the amount demanded in taxation,
and to continue this increase as society progresses and rent advances.
But this is so natural and easy a matter, that it may be considered as
involved, or at least understood, in the proposition to put an taxes on
the value of land. “Wherever the idea of concentrating all taxation upon land
values finds lodgment sufficient to induce consideration, it invariably
makes way, but there are few of the classes most to be benefited by it,
who at first, or even for a long time afterwards, see its full
significance and power. It is difficult for working-men to get over the
idea that there is a real antagonism between capital and labour. It is
difficult for small farmers and homestead owners to get over the idea
that to put all taxes on the value of land would be to tax them unduly.
It is difficult for both classes to get over the idea that to exempt
capital from taxation would be to make the rich richer, and the poor
poorer. These ideas spring from confused thought. But behind ignorance
and prejudice there is a powerful interest, which has hitherto
dominated literature, education and opinion. A great wrong always dies
hard, and the great wrong which in every civilized country condemns the
masses of men to poverty and want will not die without a bitter
struggle.
—
“It is impossible for anyone to study Political
Economy, or to think at all upon the production and distribution of
wealth, without seeing that property in land differs from property in
things of human production.
“This is admitted, either expressly or tacitly, in every standard
work on Political Economy, but in general only by vague admission or
omission. Attention is in general called away from the truth, as a
lecturer on moral philosophy in a slave-holding community might call
away attention from too close a consideration of the natural rights of
men; and private property in land is accepted without comment, as an
existing fact, or is assumed to be necessary to the proper use of land
and the existence of the civilized state. “The consideration that seems to cause hesitation is the idea
that having permitted land to be treated as private property for so
long, we should in abolishing it be doing a wrong to those who have
been suffered to base their calculations upon its permanence; that
having permitted land to be held as rightful property we should by the
resumption of common rights be doing injustice to those who have
purchased it with what was unquestionably their rightful property. “Thus it is held that if we abolish private property in land,
justice requires that we should fully compensate those who now possess
it, as the British government, in abolishing the purchase and sale of
military commissions, felt itself bound to compensate those who held
commissions which they had purchased in the belief that they could sell
them again; or as, in abolishing slavery in the British West Indies,
the sum of 20,000,000 pounds was paid to the slaveholders. “Herbert Spencer wrote in Social Statics, published in 1864
“Had we to deal with the parties who originally robbed the human race
of its heritage, we might make short work of the matter.” “Why not make short work of the matter anyhow? This robbery is
not like theft of a horse or a sum of money that ceases with the act.
It is a fresh and continuous robbery that goes on every day and every
hour. It is not from the produce of the past that rent is drawn; it is
from the produce of the present. It is a toll levied upon labour
constantly and continuously. Every blow of the hammer, every stroke of
the pick, every thrust of the shuttle, every throb of the steam engine,
pays its tribute. It levies upon the earnings of those men who, deep
underground, risk their lives, and of those who over white surges hang
to reeling masts. It robs the shivering, of warmth; the hungry, of
food; the sick, of medicine; the anxious, of peace. It debases, and
embrutes, and embitters. It crowds families of eight and ten into a
single squalid room. It makes lads who might be useful men candidates
for prisons and penitentiaries. It sends greed and all evil passions
prowling through society as a hard winter drives the wolves to the
abodes of men. It darkens faith in the human soul, and across the
reflection of a just and merciful Creator draws the veil of a hard, and
blind, and cruel fate. “It is not merely a robbery in the past; it is a robbery in
the present—a robbery that deprives of their birthright the infants
that are now coming into the world. Why should we hesitate about making
short work of such a system? Because you were robbed yesterday and the
day before, and the day before that, is that any reason why you should
suffer yourself to be robbed today and tomorrow? Any reason why you
should conclude that the robber has acquired a vested right to rob you?
“If the land belong to the people, why continue to permit
landowners to take the rent, or compensate them in any manner for the
loss of rent? Consider what rent is. It does not arise spontaneously
from land; it is due to nothing that the landowners have done. It
represents a value created by the whole community. Let the landholders
have, if you please, all that the possession of the land would give
them in the absence of the rest of the community. But rent, the
creation of the whole community, necessarily belongs to the whole
community. “The common law we are told is the perfection of reason, and
certainly the landowners cannot complain of its decision, for it has
been built up by and for landowners. Now what does the law allow to the
innocent possessor when the land for which he paid his money is
adjudged to belong rightfully to another? Nothing at all. “The law
simply says: “The land belongs to A, let the Sheriff put him in
possession!” It gives the innocent purchaser of a wrongful title no
claim, it allows him no compensation. And not only this, it takes from
him all the improvements that he has in good faith made upon the land. “You may have paid a high price for land, making every
exertion to see that the title is good; you may have held it in
undisturbed possession for years without thought or hint of an adverse
claimant; made it fruitful by your toil or erected upon it a costly
building of greater value than the land itself, or a modest home in
which you hope, surrounded by the fig trees you have planted and the
vines you have dressed, to pass your declining days. Yet if Quirk,
Gammon and Snap can mouse out a technical flaw in your parchments or
hunt up some forgotten heir who never dreamed of his rights, not merely
the land, but all your improvements, may be taken away from you. And
not merely that. According to the common law, when you have surrendered
the land and given up your improvements, you may be called upon to
account for the profits you derived from the land during the time you
had it. “Now if we were to apply to this case of The People v. The
Landowners the same maxims of justice that have been formulated by
landowners into law, and are applied every day in English and American
courts to disputes between man and man, we should not only not think of
giving the landholders any compensation for the land, but should take
all the improvements and whatever else they might have as well. “But I do not propose, and I do not suppose that anyone else
will propose, to go so far. It is sufficient if the people resume
ownership of the rent of land. Let the landowners retain their
improvements and personal property in secure possession. “And in this measure of justice would be no oppression, no
injury to any class. The great cause of the present unequal
distribution of wealth, with the suffering, degradation and waste that
it entails, would be swept away. Even landholders would share in the
general gain. The gain of even the large landholders would be a real
one. The gain of the small landholders would be enormous. For in
welcoming justice, men welcome the handmaid of Love. Peace and Plenty
follow in her train, bringing their good gifts, not to some, but to
all.”
Henry George was
born in Philadelphia, PA in 1839, the Earth’s human population had just
passed 1,000,000,000 individuals. It is one hundred and twenty years
since Henry George wrote his book Progress and Poverty. Since then the
Earth’s human population has increased six times. The truth is especially hard to believe if it requires that we
take actionif it requires that we change. If humanity is to have a
future, we must take actionwe must change. If humanity is to have a
future, we must believe the truth. The wealth represented by the land and water, native plants
and wildlife, chemical, mineral, and metal natural resources is so
enormous that when it is rescued from the plunderers and returned to
the Synergic Trust to benefit every human it will easily sustain the
needs of all humanity. The Synergic Trusts would make Land and Natural Resources
available to individuals and organizations. The Trustegrity could be
funded entirely by rent receipts from the lease and utilization of
Land, and from the licensing fees and revenue shares it receives for
use of Natural Resources from the Life and Earth Trusts. This leasing
of land and licensing of renewable natural resources would provide the
revenue base for all of the beneficial services to humanity as
community and to humanity as individuals. Basic shelter, food, education and medical care would supplied without charge to individual humanity.
Only those individuals wanting to use land and natural resources
for synergic production would pay appropriate charges payable
to the Earth Trustegrity in lease or rental fees, licensing fees,
and/or revenue shares. Only those individuals wanting to use animals
and plants including native flora and wildlife for synergic
production would pay approriate charges payable to the Life
Trustegrity in rental fees, licensing fees and/or revenue shares. Only those making non-personal use of the Earth and
Life Trusts are charged fees and/or revenue shares. The
rents and licensing fees charged by the Trustegrity and paid to the
Synergic Trusts are not taxes, since the rentor or licensee is
recieving valuable access to and use of the Earth, Natual Resources,
Plants and Animals, wealth belonging to Present and Future
Humanity as Community in exchange for the fees and revenue
shares that they pay. Thus the Trustegrities would abolish all taxation.
“We know how to solve our problems, we just don’t use what we know.” — Alfred Korzybski
Redefining the Future — Guardians of the Synergic Trustegrities
Science fiction is a form of Time-binding. “Science fiction differs
from science fantasy in that science fiction must obey the Laws of
Nature.” A simple example is found in motion picture films.
In Gary Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy
we hear explosions of battle in the vacuum of Space although sound
cannot be conducted in a vacuum. However, in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey all the scenes in space were truly silent. The film 2001 is science fiction while Star Wars is science fantasy.
The best science fiction writers are always good scientists. And
the best science fiction often predicts future science. Many scientific
discoverys and technologies are described in science fiction stories
years or even decades before they become realities. Jules Vern,
described travel from the earth to the moon in 1865 and ocean going
nuclear submarines in 1869. Issac Asimov is perhaps one of the best examples of both a
great science fiction writer, and a good scientist. His interest in
science and writing developed in tandem. He wrote his first story when he was only 11 years old, his
first published writing was a column he did for his high school
newspaper. While he continued writing, Asimov also attended college and
managed to graduate from Columbia University with a B.S. in Chemistry
in 1939, and two years later earned his M.A. in Chemistry. He continued
studying at Columbia in a Ph.D. program, but with time off for WWII, he
was not awarded his Doctorate in Biochemistry until May 1948. During
this same period, he also managed to write 36 science fiction stories. Asimov is most famous for his Robot stories. Asimov’s Robots
were something very special. They could take any form, from a small
household appliance to large space craft carrying tens of thousands of
human travelers. Their most common form however was humiform. Examples
of humiform robots are seen in recent science fiction movies. Most
notably 3CPO the intergalactic translator in Gary Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy, Arnold Swartzenegger’s performances as terminators in James Cameron’s The Terminator films, Brent Spiner’s performances as Lt. Commander Data in Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek — The Second Generation, and most recently Robin Williams’ performance of The Bicentennial Man based on an original Asimov story.
Asimov’s robots were were highly intelligent, spoke and
understood all human languages, were highly mobile, physically strong
and enormously powerful. They were awesome machines. If they had wanted
to hurt human beings they could have in an eyeblink. But Asimov’s
robots never wanted to hurt humans. Their powerful “positronic” brains
were constrained by the Three Laws of Robotics. These laws first
appeared in print in 1942 as follows. Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (1942)
1) A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Here we see that Asimov’s First Law of Robotics contains the
commitment to helping. Not only must the robot not injure a human being
it must protect the human being from harm. This is a requirement for
helping. His Second Law of Robotics states again that the Robot must
help human beings by obeying their orders. In Asimov’s stories the
robots were often owned by the human beings they served. Asimov’s
robots were almost always very decent and caring individuals, while
their owner’s were often only too human. The robots were treated in the
best of circumstances as respected and valuable friends, and in the
worst as victims and slaves. Asimov’s robot stories were remarkably interesting and
intelligent. He fully explored the ramifications resulting when his
robot’s intelligence evolved to a point that it equaled human
intelligence and finally surpassed it. Writing in 1942, Issac Asimov described a futurescape, where
Robots had been invented in 2007. He invented the Three Laws Of
Robotics to insure that this servant class of robots were safe to be
with human beings. His futurescape spanned 6 decades and by 2064,
positronic robots governed by the three laws of robotics were a
widespread and common phenomena on Earth. They were especially
important in humanity’s expansion into space and the colonization of
other planets. Forty-five years later, Asimov was still writing robot stories, but things had changed.
Twelve centuries had passed in his imagined futurescape, the
science of robotics had progressed as rapidly as Moore’s Law drives
computer design on Earth today. Robots were smaller more
intelligent and could be made to look exactly like humans.
Theoretically, a robot’s lifespan was unlimited. Robots had an endless
opportunity to learn and to think about what they had learned. They
were more intelligent than most humans, and their long life experiences
meant they were usually much wiser. It became obvious that the laws of robotics needed to be
advanced as well. Asimov rose to the occasion by creating an additional
or fourth law of Robotics. It was called the Zeroth Law because
although it was created fourth chronologically, it was logically the
First Law. Asimov’s Four Laws of Robotics (1985)
0) A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
1) A robot may not harm a human being, or through inaction,
allow a human being to come to harm, except where that would conflict
with the Zeroth Law. 2) A robot must obey orders given it by a human being, except where that would conflict with the Zeroth and First Laws.
3) A robot must protect its own existence except where that would conflict with the Zeroth, First or Second Laws. Robots in Asimov’s earlier stories then became known as 3-Law Robots in contrast to these new more powerful 4-Law Robots.
Recall that Asimov’s First Law of Robotics contains the commitment
to helping. Not only must the robot not injure a human being it must
protect the human being from harm. This is a requirement for helping.
His Second Law of Robotics states again that the Robot must help human
beings by obeying their orders. Thus within the original Three Laws of
Robotics, we see a strong commitment to helping humans. This commitment
to helping is expanded with the Zeroth Law. As 20,000 year old 4-Law Robot Daneel Olivaw explained:
“The Zeroth Law is a corollary of the
First Law, for how can a human being best be kept from injury, if not
by ensuring that human society in general is protected and kept
functioning?”
The Zeroth Law of Robotics introduced the concept of responsibility
to and for the entire human species. Now Asimov’s robots were required
not only to care for and protect the individual human beings that owned
them, but also to protect all human beings and by extension the
ecosystem and the earth itself.
Guardians of the Synergic Trustegrities
Asimov’s Four Laws of Robotics can serve as the basis for a code for Synergic Trustegrity Guardians.
We can eliminate Asimov’s Second law which does not apply since humans
are not property and cannot be slaves, and we can elimate the Third law
as redundant since a Guardian Trustee is a human being and so is
protected by the First law.
Within synergic community, it is understood that actions that injure the Earth, the Environment and all non-human Life also injures humanity. This leaves us with only two laws to serve as the:
Code of the Synergic Trustegrity Guardians
1) A Trustegrity Guardian may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
2) A Trustegrity Guardian may not
injure an individual human being, or through inaction, allow a
human being to come to harm, except where that would conflict with the
First Law.
The Needs of the Many
In Gene Rodenberry’s original Star Trek, Mr. Spock, the Vulcan Science Officer from a race ruled by logic, would remind his shipmates that: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or of the one."
The human body is a community of 40 trillion individual cells. The
individual cells are organized synergically to be interdependent upon
each other. They cannot separate themselves from the body as community.
The survival of the cells depends on the survival of the body. The
needs and safety of the body precedes the needs and safety of the
individual cells. Sometimes individual cells are injured or even
sacrificed to protect and insure the survival of the body as a whole.
The needs and safety of the community of cells takes precedence over
the needs and safety of the cells as individuals.
With the discovery that humanity is an interdependent species comes
the realization that we humans can no longer separate ourselves from
community. Humanity as community is larger and contains humanity as
individuals. The needs and safety of humanity as community must precede
the needs and safety of humanity as individuals. Our present culture based on the false premise of human
independence often places individual needs and safety over community
needs and safety. This will shift dramatically in a synergic culture. The first law of the of the Guardian Trust Code commits to
protect Humanity as Community. The second law commits to protect
Humanity as Individuals. This represents a major shift in human values
from today’s focus with the individual as primary to tomorrow’s focus
with community as primary. While the Trustegrity Guardians are responsible for the safety
of both humanity as community and humanity as individuals, the needs
and safety of community take precedent over the needs and safety of
individuals. This does not suggest a casual attitude towards the rights of
individuals. Trustegrity Guardians may not injure a human being, or
through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, except where
that would cause injury to humanity as a whole — except where that
would cause injury to humanity as community. When an adversary event
presents no risk to humanity as community then the Trustegrity
Guardians' first responsibility is to the safety of the
individual. Synergic Trustegrity Guardians
The Synergic Trustegrity Guardians could fufill this obligation
by joining on of the three divisions — the Earth
Trustegrity, , the Life Trustegrity , and the Time-binding
Trustegrity. Recall the Trustegrities are structured using the
principles and mechanism of the Organizational Tensegrity. Decisions are made in heterarcy using synergic consensus. Loss within the organization is eliminated with the synergic veto. Action is carried out by negotiated hierarchical. This eliminates conflict. The three trustegrities would work together. They would be guided by Humanity as Community using Synocracy.
The Earth Trustegrity Guardians
would protect and preserve the Earth Trust including the Earth and all
the Natural Resources. The Trust would be administered to best
serve present and future humanity. The Life Trust Guardians
would protect the Life Trust including all living systems — all life
forms — this includes all humans, all animals, and all plants. And, thirdly the Time-binding Trustegrity Guardians
would protect and preserve the Time-binding Trust — the accumulated
“knowing” from the lives and actions of all the humans who have ever
lived and died. Our inherited Wisdom, Knowledge, and Information
including Architecture, Art, Literature, Music, Science, and
Technology. Because of their committment to protecting all who have
lived and who have died, they also protect the "knowing" of the living
— the Intellectual Property of living humans. Best of the Best
The Synergic Trustegrities will seek to attract the best of the
best as candidates for Trustegrity Guardianship. Once selected these
Trustegrity Guardians would have greater trusteeship privileges with
concomitant authority and responsibilities for and to the Synergic
Trustegrities. Once selected Trustegrity Guardians can serve in one of
the three branches of the Synergic Trustegrities — the Earth
Trust, the Life Trust, or the Time-binding Trust. Trustegrity Guardian Candidates should have repeatedly
demonstrated both personal and public honesty, and should have a
history demonstrating synergic morality and behavior. In the future,
Universities will offer degrees in Trustegrity and Guardian
Science to prepare those young humans to desire to serve Humanity
as Community. A careful selection process will be developed to select
the very best which could include Trustegrity Guardian Academies. It is apparent that the responsibilities of Trustegrity
Guardians will be great. They of course are not allowed to hurt anyone
through their control of the Synergic Trusts. But in addition they are
required to protect and conserve the Synergic Trusts. Further, they are
required to help others and to insure that all humans have the basic
needs of life —both survival and meaning. This is a binding obligation.
Failure to meet these obligations results in the immediate loss of
Synergic Trustee privileges. The Trustegrity Guardians will be charged with protecting
Humanity as Community, and Humanity as Individuals, the plants and
animals, the Earth and all Natural Resources, Intellectual Property and
the Time-binding Trust They will protect and
conserve the Earth and the Natural Resources — including both the
renewable resources — soils, water, and minerals — and the nonrenewable
resources — coal, petroleum, natural gas, metals and other mineral
ores. They will protect Life — plant, animal and human.
The Life and Earth Trusts are finite and fragile. Once a species
of plant or animal becomes extinct, it is lost forever. Once our
nonrenewable resources are consumed they are lost forever. And even the
renewable resources can be damaged by careless use. And once damaged,
they may not be repairable. The Synergic Trustegrities hold all land and all the
natural resources including native plants and wildlife in synergic
trust. Land and natural resources cannot be owned. Land may leased as
living sites for individuals and families. Land may be invested as
production sites for manufacturing and commerce and earn revenue shares
on behalf of the Trust. Natural resources may be invested in synergic
production if it serves the interests of humanity as community and
public welfare. Such investment would earn revenue shares on behalf of
the Synergic Trustegrities. The revenues the Synergic Trustegrities receive from their
leases and investments are used not only to protect and preserve the
synergic trusts, but also to help others. The Trustegrity Guardians accept as their primary
responsibility the protection of humanity as community and
humanity as individual. They will seek to ensure that all humans are
safe from crime and war; that all humans have access to shelter,
nutrition, medical care, and education. They will further accept
responsibilty for the provision of good care and life support for
all humans in need — children and adults — the ill and injured,
the poor and destitute, and the homeless. The Trustegrities will be three with separate but complimentary missions in service to humankind.
The Earth Trustegrity will provide:
1) Access to land and natural resources for personal use at minimal or no cost, and
2) Access to land and natural resources for synergic production
with appropriate charges payable to the Earth Trustegrity in lease or
rental fees, licensing fees, and/or revenue shares. All rental fees,
licensing fees, and/or revenue shares are entrusted to the Earth
Trustegrity for Humanity as Community.
The Life Trustegrity will provide:
3) Safety from crime and war, and full access to:
4) Comfortable, safe, healthy housing.
5) Good nutritious food
6) Good preventitive health services and comprehensive cradle to
grave medical care, and access to the privilege of Reproduction based
on fairness, equality, and mutual benefit to both humanity as
Individuals and humanity as Community. This would include monitoring
administrating, adjudicating the Trust privilege of Reproduction. 7) Access to animals and plants including native flora and wildlife for personal use at minimum or no cost.
8) Access to animals and plants including native flora and
wildlife for synergic production with approriate charges payable to the
Life Trustegrity in rental fees, licensing fees and/or revenue shares.
All payments made are entrusted to the Earth Trustegrity for Humanity
as Community.
The Time-binding Trustegrity will provide:
9) Full education to an individual’s ability and interest regardless of age,
10) The opportunity to participate in synergic organization and
invest their action and leverage to earn revenue shares and acquire
property throughout their full lifetime. 11) Access to communication with humanity as individuals and
to humanity as community for personal reasons, for synergic production
and consumption, and for synergic consensus utilizing Unanimous Rule
Democracy. 12) Protection of the intellectual discoveries and inventions
of Time-binding whether they be in the Time-binding Trust, or the
Intellectual Property of living humans.
The responsibilities of the Trustegrity Guardians are great.Theirs
is a moral and binding obligation. Failure to meet these obligations
would result in the immediate loss of Synergic Trustee privileges.
To be continued...
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This page was last updated: Saturday, July 23, 2005 at 1:29:24 AM TrustMark 2008 by the SynEARTH.network.

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