{fiction}
Take us back five thousand years.
Labor is cheap. Power is concentrated. Worship is contained within the sovereign, whose position is circumscribed by the machinations of the priestly class. The Pharaoh is all.
To bury him, they build a pyramid.
John Maynard Keynes once said that, when people are out of work, governments should pay them to dig holes and fill them back up again.
Think of the pyramids in the shadow of Keynesian economics and by the light of the digital technocracy - and think of it all in the face of the great social challenge of illegal immigration.
Consider the boon of plentiful labor from an outsider class, the boiling powerlessness of the masses, and the outsized influence of our high tech priests. See the facts as they are, in the tenor of the age, and the solution begins to make itself clear.
Let's build an elevator to Mars.
The titans of Silicon Valley have shown us what they can accomplish when their imagination is given free reign, just as the high priests of Egypt showed us how much can be achieved by the human mind unfettered by death or taxes.
Tech leaders are well on their way to building a bridge to a future where humans live on Mars. My question is this: What humans? And why not an actual bridge?
A moon elevator is more science than fiction as it stands now. And while the idea of a Mars elevator may seem at first to be building outlandishly on the foundation of a solid (though admittedly wonky) premise, would a pyramid not look the same from a gravestone?
We have the technology. We have the workforce. And now we have somewhere for them to go.
The titans of Silicon Valley have shown us what they can accomplish when their imagination is given free reign, just as the high priests of Egypt showed us how much can be achieved by the human mind unfettered by death or taxes.
Tech leaders are well on their way to building a bridge to a future where humans live on Mars. My question is this: What humans? And why not an actual bridge?
A moon elevator is more science than fiction as it stands now. And while the idea of a Mars elevator may seem at first to be building outlandishly on the foundation of a solid (though admittedly wonky) premise, would a pyramid not look the same from a gravestone?
We have the technology. We have the workforce. And now we have somewhere for them to go.
The city of Modesto, California is George Lucas’s hometown. It’s not hard to draw a line from a yearning for the movies in this sleepy farming community to the beginning of Luke Skywalker’s adventure, as he gazed up at the stars and wondered if he’d ever get to go.
To all the Dreamers out there: we love you, just as our President said before he said he didn't want to keep you. Please try to see this as a master’s reluctance to take on a new pupil in whom he sees great promise - as a test of commitment.
In fact, there is a compassionate solution to all of this, one that can cross the giant aisles of the imperial Senate. The elevator to Mars can be built, and you can build it. And then, as a final token of our compassion, you can be the ones to take this journey to a new world, and a new hope.
From Modesto, to the stars.
The city of Modesto, California is George Lucas’s hometown. It’s not hard to draw a line from a yearning for the movies in this sleepy farming community to the beginning of Luke Skywalker’s adventure, as he gazed up at the stars and wondered if he’d ever get to go.
To all the Dreamers out there: we love you, just as our President said before he said he didn't want to keep you. Please try to see this as a master’s reluctance to take on a new pupil in whom he sees great promise - as a test of commitment.
In fact, there is a compassionate solution to all of this, one that can cross the giant aisles of the imperial Senate. The elevator to Mars can be built, and you can build it. And then, as a final token of our compassion, you can be the ones to take this journey to a new world, and a new hope.
From Modesto, to the stars.
The best way to think of it may well be as an invitation to be artisans - artisans of a Death Star. But this Death Star doesn't destroy planets; it takes you to them. And needless to say, those who would seek to destroy your work will be swiftly dealt with. Security will be at all times paramount. Potentially compromising plans for the structure will be kept safe by the same enterprise-grade security that protects the credit information of all Americans.
As you build the means of your salvation, you’ll be provided for in a way that maximizes your health, well-being, and productivity. Cutting-edge methods in tech-based entrepreneurship will be applied to make sure you’re living your best life, right up to the point where you depart for the storied Red Planet - which, incidentally, does actually contain some water.
Snacks will be free for all contributors to the program as long as they’re on site. Don't worry about having to go home to sleep; nap pods will be available at any time. And there’ll be no need to go to some other place to have fun; foosball machines and pool tables will be sprinkled liberally throughout the complex. You’ll find that the construction installations are more like camp - camp where you work. Where you can really concentrate.
And this program will be open to - indeed, mandatory for - all illegal immigrants presently in the United States. You came here to work for a better life for your families, in a land of ideals that would treat you with lawfulness and dignity. You wanted a shining city on a hill. Well, what city could be shinier than one that glitters redly in the sky, and what hill could be higher than outer space?
This is the real New World - and it’s yours.
The best way to think of it may well be as an invitation to be artisans - artisans of a Death Star. But this Death Star doesn't destroy planets; it takes you to them. And needless to say, those who would seek to destroy your work will be swiftly dealt with. Security will be at all times paramount. Potentially compromising plans for the structure will be kept safe by the same enterprise-grade security that protects the credit information of all Americans.
As you build the means of your salvation, you’ll be provided for in a way that maximizes your health, well-being, and productivity. Cutting-edge methods in tech-based entrepreneurship will be applied to make sure you’re living your best life, right up to the point where you depart for the storied Red Planet - which, incidentally, does actually contain some water.
Snacks will be free for all contributors to the program as long as they’re on site. Don't worry about having to go home to sleep; nap pods will be available at any time. And there’ll be no need to go to some other place to have fun; foosball machines and pool tables will be sprinkled liberally throughout the complex. You’ll find that the construction installations are more like camp - camp where you work. Where you can really concentrate.
And this program will be open to - indeed, mandatory for - all illegal immigrants presently in the United States. You came here to work for a better life for your families, in a land of ideals that would treat you with lawfulness and dignity. You wanted a shining city on a hill. Well, what city could be shinier than one that glitters redly in the sky, and what hill could be higher than outer space?
This is the real New World - and it’s yours.
The repurposing of Modesto will be a great undertaking, but ultimately it will pay for itself. Tens of thousands of workers will be needed to escort the many undocumented spread across the continent to a single town in California’s Central Valley. Fences will need to be installed, patrols garrisoned, and information technology marshalled to the task of keeping the project on target.
More broadly, millions of jobs will be created for citizens to take up once the Mars project begins in earnest and vast stretches of the economy become unworkable. As fruit pickers, janitors, teachers, construction workers, truck drivers, warehouse managers, and virtually all vital sectors of the workforce are stripped bare, the resulting catastrophic shrinkage in the economy will require all hands on deck.
Citizens will be forced to band together to survive the devastating shockwave this will send throughout society, emerging as stronger and more united than ever. And when the day finally comes when Modesto is left vacant - its glittering edifices abandoned by its millions of architects in favor of their new homeworld - we will, as a nation, unite to destroy it, knowing that we resolved the great social issue of our time to the benefit of all.
America: we can dream big enough for all dreamers, as we have always done. We can build a future that’s better for everyone at once - a future built on compassion, innovation, and the hard work of others.
To Mars, from Modesto! To Mars, from America! To Mars, with love! Let our aliens be Martians too.
America: we can dream big enough for all dreamers, as we have always done. We can build a future that’s better for everyone at once - a future built on compassion, innovation, and the hard work of others.
To Mars, from Modesto! To Mars, from America! To Mars, with love! Let our aliens be Martians too.
9/11/2017
