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William Gale and Samuel Liebowitz There are a number of key ideas gathered from many FMF members that have been woven into the plans for SEE. This chapter sets out these central ideas briefly. They are elaborated on in the chapters on why SEE is planned and what is planned for SEE; then further details are presented in the appendices.
The first central idea behind forming a land-based colony is to gain experience and raise capital that will be needed to help make Aquarius a reality. Aquarius will require not just a tremendous amount of money to create, but a change in how we live our lives on a day-to-day basis. Life on Aquarius will be very different from how it is today, and we need to prepare ourselves for those differences.
By establishing a land-based colony now and having a small group of dedicated FMF members live and work in close physical proximity, we hope to create an environment that will stimulate and foster the development of new ideas and new ways of getting things related to the FMF done. Since the members of the SEE community will all be FMF members, FMF becomes the central thread by which the community maintains its cohesiveness and its purpose. In turn, SEE will provide a center for FMF activity and publicity in the near term. One of the most important lessons we will learn from SEE is how to live together in a small community. Learning to live in a close-knit community is not possible without being physically close. With 100,000 people living on Aquarius-a relatively high number of people for such a small island-we must learn how to prepare ourselves for this cultural shock. We also hope that by having a physical location, we will be able to facilitate a great many things for the rest of the FMF membership who are not in a similar environment. It is possible that SEE could become the "Mecca" for FMF members and be the central hub through which communications to the general membership are established. Once it has been established as a viable community, it could be the host site for future annual conclaves, and be able to host the large numbers of people who attend the conclave.
Aquarius and space colonies need to be nearly closed systems. It will be necessary to recycle almost everything. SEE can begin to work on closing systems. The water cycle will be an early focus. By developing effective water recycling methods, we can make more effective use of land which gets minimal rainfall. This will allow us to create value where there is little value now, an important FMF theme. Not only will we be attempting to live in an ecologically balanced way by using our resources more efficiently, but we will be building our housing in an ecologically conscious manner as well. By learning about the implications of what paint and building materials we choose and what inside furnishing are available and how they effect the living environment, we hope to create housing that is not only more affordable than the common house, but healthier as well.
Aquarius and space colonies will certainly be remote. This will make the settlers dependent on themselves for survival and will probably lead to their being close-knit communities. We need to learn how to live in this kind of environment. This is an example of something that actually requires very little money, but depends on people being present to explore it. SEE will only be semi-rural, not seriously remote, but it is a step towards remote, mutually dependent living. Another important lesson we will be able to derive from SEE is how well we will live together in a semi-remote location away from large cities and their usual distractions. Since Aquarius will be in the middle of an ocean "desert," we need to learn how to live without the usual amenities that city dwellers often take for granted. No 24-hour deli, no ten-plex movie theaters, no quaint coffee shops nearby. How will we all fare in such an environment? SEE will help to answer that question.
The dream of "building towards Aquarius" has many aspects. Some of these require large amounts of capital; some require very little capital. In fact, as we have seen, some require no money per se, but do require the active involvement of many people. Some of the ways that SEE will build towards Aquarius have already been discussed. To support those and other ways, we plan that SEE develop capital and expertise through fostering many new businesses. One of the ways in which we will generate income is through the investment in many small businesses that will be started by the community members. The businesses will be a broad range of both technical and non-technical start-ups. For example, ideas such as running an ISP or a summer camp have been proposed. One thing is certain: Aquarius will need is a lot of money. While we do not have the money now, there are many ways of making money, and not all of them require huge amounts of money to start. The plans for SEE include several means of helping groups of people start small businesses. We would like for a lot of small businesses to be started at SEE. When people succeed in starting a business, they accomplish much more than just bringing in money. They get detailed experience in the area of the business. As relatively self-contained colonies, Aquarius and, later, space colonies will need people with experience in many areas of business, not just in mariculture, the prototype business of Aquarius, but in such areas as hydroponics, electronics, robotics, agriculture, etc. A successful business may also be able to be moved to a more remote location, which would greatly extend the area in which FMF could build colonies. We need to learn how to start and grow real businesses. If we can do that, we can reinvest the capital to generate more capital and build towards the great amounts of capital needed for Aquarius.
But what can FMF members do now? We must work with the limited capital or credit that FMF members now have. The largest use that people usually make of capital and credit is in buying a house. If you become a settler at SEE, it will be your home. In fact, SEE is designed to be financed primarily by capital and credit that people would put into a home. And like Aquarius, SEE is designed to be owned by the people who live there. The settlers of SEE, as with most home buyers, are not expected to have all of the capital required to buy their homes. Rather, as with most home buyers, the settlers will need to have the credit to borrow the capital required. We want to use two sources of capital: One of these is personal loans from FMF members to settlers, the other is conventional mortgages on real estate property.
Rather few of us are in a position to move, but more (perhaps you) will be in a position to make a loan to a settler. This is an important role in establishing SEE, since the ability to move tends be associated with few commitments while having capital and credit tends to be associated with commitments which preclude moving. As a diverse organization, FMF has people who fall into both categories. While neither settlers nor investors alone could build SEE, by working together, the job can be done. Thus a central notion in building SEE is to actively seek people who could make a loan to a settler. In seeking these people, we expect to make a financially sound offer with security and an above-market interest rate.
By relying on the capital and credit that people would put into an individual home and by calling on other FMF members for loans, we can develop the capital resources needed for founding SEE. This is not much money, however, and the businesses we want to start will also take money. To make SEE feasible for us now, it also needs to have a low cost. Three major means of reducing the cost of SEE are worth mention here as central ideas. First, SEE is a land-based colony. In general, inland acreage is much cheaper than land with access to the ocean. Second, we are designing housing (which settlers can choose to use or not) which is less than half of the standard cost of housing. Third, we expect settlers to share some items, such as a library, a community center, a video theater, and a gym. Generally the items shared are expected to be those which are not used too much by any one person.
By reducing the cost of living through lower-cost housing and sharing of larger investments, we expect that the cost of living can be reduced by considerably more than ten percent. We then return to the original notion of a venture capital corporation in which people would invest some of the savings. We expect that settlers will invest ten percent of their after-tax incomes in the venture-capital corporation. This is a formal means of developing funds for starting small businesses. The venture-capital corporation is designed to serve the entire FMF, not just residents of SEE. However, state security laws make it expensive for people who are not residents of the state in which SEE is located to invest in the venture-capital corporation. They can do so when they visit SEE; or, if there is sufficient demand, it will be possible to make investments in the venture-capital corporation while attending a conclave.
SEE is just part of the larger plan of the FMF. In particular, Aquarius Rising (AR), is another initial thrust of the FMF. SEE is designed to be complementary to AR. It differs in several ways. First, it is land-based rather than shore-based. This implies that non-oceanic research can be done at SEE while oceanic-based research (particularly regard ing OTEC, mariculture, and sea-crete) are done at AR. SEE is planned to start by gathering people at one location and then developing businesses, while AR is planned to start with resort businesses and then to gather people. SEE will require a small investment of capital (a few thousand dollars per person), while AR will require tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. SEE is planned to be open to any member of FMF, while AR is to be oriented towards research. SEE would provide many experiences with small businesses, while AR would provide one large business experience.
SEE is also envisioned as just the first of many land-based colonies. SEE will provide a focus for publicity for the FMF which is likely to spur the growth of FMF. This in turn is necessary for SEE to grow, since it is neither possible nor desirable for everyone to move to a colony. We need contacts, chapters, and recruiting spread through the country.
We expect the land-based colonies to grow in number by splitting. The initial land being purchased for SEE should support up to 100 members on a permanent basis. As we prepare to split, more than this number would move in on a temporary basis, and then those who were prepared to move elsewhere would do so with active help from the first colony.
SEE is essentially an entry way into a system of land-based colonies, and it may continue in this role. In more remote colonies, people will need to be able to have their own businesses since regular jobs will be scarce or non-existent. Additional colonies can be functionally remote from jobs while being fairly near SEE, or they can be in an entirely different part of the country. Small communities (Points of Departure) can be formed in cities to help people who would like to move into the land-based colonies, but cannot do so immediately.
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