road to k3

Road to K3 A conversation starter on why and how we should

build a 1 million member interstellar volunteer community

K4: Cosmic

K3: Galactic

K2: Solar

K1: Planetary

African

Possible development path of human civilization inspired by Kardashev scale of technological advancement of extraterrestrial civilizations.

Intent Target audience:

100 YSS and the global interstellar community.

Goal:

We would like to find a way to amplify and fund the collective efforts of the global interstellar community. This is an open

draft. Everything in this presentation is up for discussion. In fact, we’ve put this

presentation together specifically to enable a discussion.

Inside

Predicament Solution

Next steps

Predicament

Starflight capability by 2112.

We all want to make it so.

There are (at least) two ways to think about this goal:

2112

Technological capability

We can think in narrow terms and focus our efforts on a single goal: to see a star-bound ship

launched at the start of the 22nd century.

Road to K3

We can think in broad terms and focus our efforts on building out a cultural

infrastructure for K3 civilization, where technological capability is but one of the prerequisites.

One approach is “easy” but dangerous.

The other is “safe” but hard. Extremely hard.

Easy but dangerous


Narrow, single-minded focus produces results. We can be almost certain we will be able to tick the box on technological capability. Voyager 1 does not have enough fuel to get to another star. But we could probably send our first star-bound craft using beamed sails in the next 5-10 years. It may take a few thousand years to get to Alpha Centauri but it will be possible. Unfortunately, technological capability comes with no guarantee that it will be put to good use. Case in point: What have we done with our moon-landing capability over the last half a century? Narrow focus may be “easy” but it is also very dangerous. All of us reading these words right now may work very hard to get to star flight capability by 2112 but die with that nagging doubt—will they or will they not take it further?

Road to K3

Hard but safe Broad, multi-track focus is hard. Especially, when it needs to be sustained across people with completely different interests (e.g., breakthrough propulsion vs. global policy agenda) and across generations. It’s messy because humans are messy. It comes with a high collective action and coordination tax. Without effective organization, it may slow us down. Way down. But if we don’t just create technological capability but embed the interstellar dream deep in our collective psyche, in our civilizational goals—then we have a shot at something much more valuable. We could make interstellar civilization inevitable. All of us reading these words right now would work very hard to lay down a solid foundation for K3 civilization and die with some degree of confidence—it may take time, but human civilization will expand beyond our solar system.

Work load Illustrative


Find destination. Solve propulsion problem. Design starship. Design life-support

systems in space and for destination planet. Engage the

public. Get funding. Build starship. Recruit astronauts.

Launch.

Road to K3

All that, plus: Create a steady stream of identity-

expanding, interstellar-dream-advancing content (books, movies, TV series, games, op-eds). Put interstellar on global public

policy and entrepreneurial agenda. Catalyze industrialization of space, starting with our solar system. Catalyze solutions to a host of terrestrial problems, etc. etc.

etc.

So it’s really more like this:

So the choice is between “easy” but dangerous and “safe” but extremely hard.

We should play it safe.

After all, it’s the future of our civilization

we are talking about.

So how do we make interstellar civilization inevitable?

Who will do all this work?

Solution

Government. Business. Academia. Billionaire philanthropists.

All of them will need to play a role.

But having any of them in the driver’s seat

will increase the risk of the mission.

After all, governments can get side-tracked on other priorities

(and apparently even get shut down). Businesses can confuse the mission (serving a

civilizational need) with the means (generating profit). Billionaire philanthropists can change their minds.

The driver’s seat needs to be filled with a force that won’t change course in the

face of adversity.

We need volunteers united by a common dream. Volunteers who see the success of the

mission as their primary goal.

We need… lots of them.

1 million.

Are we smoking something?

Well, let’s do a macro-sanity check.

Availability

Source: Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age, Clay Shirky 2010

With the advent of online tools that allow new forms of collaboration, as a civilization we are now learning how to use more constructively the free time afforded to us since the 1940s for creative acts rather than

consumptive ones. The cognitive surplus—the buildup of free time among the world’s educated population—is now in the

order of magnitude of a trillion hours a year.

We are in the middle of Great Spare-Time Revolution. There is a massive reservoir of volunteer time that we can tap.

Will

Source: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink (2010)

Five decades of behavioural research shows that most enduring motivations are not external but internal—the joy of doing something for its own sake. We do things because they’re

interesting, because they’re engaging, because they’re the right things to do, because they contribute to the world.

For people looking to contribute to the world, to be part of

something bigger, we can create an unprecedented opportunity—contribute to the most ambitious mission

in the history of human civilization.

Precedents

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedians

Wikipedia: Almost 20 million people are registered as contributors with Wikipedia (even though only a minority of them are regular

contributors.) All the articles, edits, and arguments about articles and edits represent around 100 million hours of human labor.

Americans watch about 200 billion hours of TV every year.

Linux: More than 100,000 people have contributed

to development of open-source software.

So let’s assume there is availability, will and precedents we can learn from.

What would this 1 million Starfleet look like?

Opportunity to contribute Design around opportunity to contribute. Membership benefits,

privileged access, etc. etc. are all secondary.

Elaborate game Structure Starfleet into discrete units with clear mandates—everybody joins a specific unit. Break down each mandate into discrete missions

with different volunteering opportunities earning members star points, leading to a higher rank.

Digital & physical

Maximize use of digital collaboration platforms but create ample opportunities for physical meetups as well.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

STRUCTURE

COMMAND ENGINEERING SCIENCE

CULTURE POLICY SPACE ECONOMY EDUCATION

HEALTH BAY

Mandate: Overall vision,

direction, coordination &

funding.

Mandate: Advancing all relevant basic

research.

Mandate: Propulsion, starship and

habitat design.

Mandate: Human and life-support system

(re)design.

Mandate: Constant stream

of relevant content.

Mandate: Industrialization of solar system.

Mandate: Pipeline of interstellar ensigns.

Mandate: Putting

interstellar aspiration on global policy

agenda.

Ms. Edward Lu Starfleet #00079

ENSIGN ACTIVITY REPORT

General miles

Culture miles

Paid membership fee Recruited 5 new ensigns

1,000 5,000

Wrote a blog on sailcraft Gave a TEDx talk on black sky thinking Created business plan for Interstellar Art Academy

500 1,000 2,500

TOTAL STARFLEET MILES EARNED SO FAR 10,000

Starfleet miles remaining to reach Lieutenant rank 90,000

Membership fees Flat membership fee of $5-10 per month would be more compatible with the volunteer ethos than multi-tiered schemes that promise higher benefits in exchange for higher contribution.

FUNDING OPEX

Annual sponsorships Create sponsorship opportunities for no more than 2-3 entities each year (creates scarcity). Offer temporary brand association and opportunities for story-telling

Content We should seriously consider creating our own franchise based around the interstellar quest, a version of future history that’s 50-100 years ahead of reality.

Crowd-funding is now a viable way to fund specific space-related projects. However, successful campaigns don’t just happen. They are heavily produced. For crowd-funding to become a serious source of funding, we need to develop in-house skills.

FUNDING PROJECTS

The volunteer organization could be launched and run by a Federation of interstellar organizations (100

YSS, Icarus Interstellar, Tau Zero, etc.). They can nominate the admirals running different units.

Volunteer contributions carried out for any Federation organization would earn ensigns star miles and count

towards rank. Opex cost can be distributed to different organizations based on strategic priorities

decided by Command.

FOUNDING FEDERATION

2014

RECRUITING ENSIGNS

2016 2019 2023

1,000 10,000 100,000 1 million

How: Tap existing combined

networks of interstellar

organizations

How: Tap broader space and science fiction

community

How: Use our science fiction content

franchise to create the pull in the general public

How: Use our science fiction content

franchise to create the pull in the general public

Building 1 million member volunteer organization is not obvious

but it is possible.

Starfleet

Stars: the next frontier. These are the adventures of Starfleet. Its hundred-year mission: to make the transition of human civilization to K3 inevitable, to catalyze the necessary scientific, technological and cultural breakthroughs—so that

one glorious day at the start of the 22nd century we can boldly go where no human has gone before.

Next Steps

Before we get carried away, let’s think about this together first.

We look forward to discuss these and other ideas to advance the interstellar mission!

Tyler Emerson Advancing long-term thinking

What if we cared about the long-range future of human civilization as much as we care about our own? What if these two concerns became one? For Tyler, these are not rhetorical

questions. He rolls up his sleeves and builds organizations and communities that pursue long-range visions: he kick-started

Singularity Summits and MIRI (Machine Intelligence Research Institute), produced New Organ prizes for the Methuselah Foundation. Tyler believes that embedding our interstellar aspiration in an ambitious volunteer organization has the

potential to become a powerful transformational moment for our culture—dramatically expanding our collective time

horizon.

Erika Ilves Instigating hyper-visionary ventures

Will human civilization have an unbounded future beyond Earth? Erika does not like wasting time on speculations.

Instead, she spends her life doing everything she can to make it so. She has co-authored a multi-media book “The Human

Project” where she put forward a long-ranging agenda for the human species. Through her advisory work and public

speaking, she instigates hyper-visionary ventures—multi-generational ventures designed to advance human civilization.

She’s helped construct several 100 year business plans and serves on advisory boards of several tech startups. In Erika’s mind, the interstellar vision is a powerful organizing goal, a

fantastic springboard for hyper-visionary ventures across every domain of human civilization.

About Us

road to k3

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