Building a Society of Starfarers
From SolSeed
This is Chapter Two of the SolSeed book.
Contents |
The vision
Imagine a near-future community of starfarers on Earth. At first glance it would appear no different from a typical eco-village: eco-friendly buildings, solar panels, organic food gardens, and a population concerned with helping Earth's ecosystems thrive.
But there is another driving concern that weaves itself into the fabric of life in this community. Under a garden-covered roof is a large workshop where some of the community members are working on small-scale satellite designs, while others are developing miniature closed ecosystem models in glass boxes, prototypes for habitats in space that could ultimately support humans. Outside, a poster announces an upcoming space-industry conference to be held in the community, with the keynotes to be delivered in a gathering space that looks like a huge rocket nose-cone emerging from the ground, made of glass and covered with climbing vines. That structure currently holds a congregation attending a quasi-religious service with the theme "How to stay motivated to work toward the Destiny when we won't reach the stars in our lifetimes?" Unperturbed by such questions, children race among the apple trees outside, playing with model spaceships that they built themselves for a school project, using everything from pieces of used bottles and cans to pebbles, twigs, and woven grass.
This is SolSeed's vision of an ideal community, and we want to work toward making it a reality. But how do we get there from here?
Growing the movement
In order to find people who share our practice and values, we're developing a presence at conferences that attract potential "Starfarers," such as science fiction conventions like NorWesCon and space conferences such as the 100 Year Starship Symposium. New Starfarers are invited to make a pledge of time and/or other resources. As an Open Source philososphy/movement, we believe in being shaped by all of the participants and the creative potential they bring.
The growth of this movement is modeled on living organisms and ecosystems. There is a general plan, with a "DNA" consisting of a few strong core principles such as "Life is Precious." This core "DNA" adapts its behavior to new environmental inputs, including the ideas and experiences of new members and friends of the SolSeed movement.
Forming SolSeed communities
One key pillar of SolSeed practice is the formation and sustenance of SolSeed communities. These communities are intended to include, to some degree, every aspect of human life just as societies do. Though some of them may occupy only a city block or two, these communities are not just places to live, but to work, to play, and to participate in Spiritual Practice. These communities help to keep Starfarers, who have chosen to hasten the fulfillment of "The Destiny," doing work and play that is "on purpose," though without trying to limit people's creative expressions in other directions.
One of the most obvious truisms in organizing is that "you spend time on what you spend time on." Basically you get more of what you have. We find that if we engage in a regular conference call every week, for example, we start to make commitments and things start to happen. If you spend time on SolSeed, then you spend time on SolSeed.
So if you live in a SolSeed community where many of your activities are devoted to SolSeed, surrounded by like-minded people who are doing likewise, then chances are that many of your activities will be devoted to SolSeed. This is perfect for someone who wants to have many of their activities pointed toward hastening the fulfillment of "The Destiny." And it is perfect for someone who wants to be in touch with the possibilities that are represented by being a Starfarer. And because of our open-source philosophy, this is also perfect for someone who has his/her own ideas to contribute to what SolSeed is about and what it means to devote part of one's life to this organization and this Destiny.
Spiritual Practices
While the SolSeed Movement is not a religion, we do seek to create meaning and community. We strengthen and explore our shared values by celebrating the solstices and equinoxes and by holding regular services for our members and friends. Some members of SolSeed keep Sabbath as part of their praxis; others practice by intentionally living lightly on the earth; still others bring life by advocating for political change. We honor these value-based actions by naming them SolSeed Practices. By living our values, we strengthen our awareness of our identity as SolSeed, The Body of All Life.
We also strive to "be the change we want to see in the world" through the everyday practice of a community based on respect for all life, with all the other values that derive from that, as discussed in the last chapter: openness to difference and diversity, belief in possibility, presence and mindfulness, among others. We strive to work with members of other communities, societies, and species rather than against them, even though most do not share our goal of bringing life to other worlds. If implemented in the right spirit, these alliances will not only grow our influence and help spread our ideas, but exemplify in themselves a way to build a better society that has a net positive impact on the natural world.
Gatherings of Kindred
We try to encourage other people and communities to express and live their own values, even though the norm in American society is to avoid even talking about such things in public, for fear of offending someone or just seeming naively idealistic. One way to do this is to create a space where this kind of sincerity is encouraged, and where people can find other people, communities, and organizations that share some of their values.
We envision this space as a sort of festival, with a large outdoor area dotted with tables where people from different co-convening communities and organizations (perhaps referred to as "tribes" for the sake of brevity and historical metaphor) will stand ready to describe and promote their groups and what they stand for. The only requirement for a group to participate is a commitment to respect all life, which we see as the core value of a vast worldwide movement that is only beginning to recognize its own existence (for example, through books like Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken). Some people who come to the festival, particularly young people, may be searching for a place to live and contribute within that vast "movement of movements," and many of them will find one.
See also Getting Involved.
SolSeed businesses
To realize these ambitious visions of community, of course, we will need financial resources. And if we want to contribute directly to the project of sending life to other worlds, the framework that will likely fit that ambition best is that of a for-profit company. So what would such a SolSeed business look like?
First, we need to emphasize that while the primary goal of any for-profit company is to make a profit, we refuse to sacrifice our core values to achieve that end. Any SolSeed business plan must include a section where an honest effort is made to demonstrate that the business will provide a net benefit to life. For example, rocket exhaust contains harmful air pollutants, so if we wanted to found a SolSeed business that builds rockets, we would have to show that our rockets are cleaner than what our customers previously used--or that some other benefit would outweigh the pollution cost. For example, maybe the rockets would be used to give human passengers a view of Earth from space, a profound experience that has been proven time and time again to motivate people to care more about protecting our fragile planet--particularly the thin skin of atmosphere that becomes so clearly visible as such when you rise above it.
As for the structure of a SolSeed business, it would derive from the principle of giving all participants the power to help shape the project they're working on. We'll want to give every employee a stake in the company's success and a voice in determining its direction. This may lead us to found the business on the employee-owned co-op model, and to adopt some of the organizational principles of open-source software projects. All major decisions affecting the company's future would be framed as proposals to all of the worker-owners, who could reject a proposal or make revisions until everyone is satisfied.
SolSeed education
So let's jump forward to a time when we've founded a successful business or two, raised the money, and built our first SolSeed community. At first, the children in that community would probably catch a yellow school bus every weekday morning to go off to an ordinary school, just like in any other neighborhood. But such schools usually don’t do nearly as much as they could to promote a sense of awe and wonder toward the world, which is why most children view school attendance as an unfortunate obligation rather than a joy. The SolSeed Movement, which is founded in that very sense of wonder, wants to find out if we can do better.
A SolSeed school would focus intensely on both science and art, both of which provide their own ways to see the beauty and grandeur of the world around us. Science teachers will strive to begin each lesson with some amazing, attention-grabbing fact, like "your body is made of trillions of microscopic cells" or "if you dropped a boulder and a feather off a cliff on the Moon, they would hit the bottom at the same time." Art teachers will show examples of existing art that evoke the same kind of amazement, before inviting their students to create their own.
Our schools would not be exclusive to SolSeed community members; the last thing we want to do is isolate our children from contact with the wider world. We'll also avoid too much emphasis on space travel in our curriculum; we want to let students make up their own minds about whether the SolSeed Destiny will be an important factor in their life paths.
The broader movement
We see ourselves a part of a broader movement that shares our values of bringing life to ourselves, our communities, and the planet as a whole. We aim to support and partner with other kindred organizations that are bringing life. For example, we are closely aligned with the Awakening Science Foundation, a nonprofit founded in collaboration with John Boswell's Symphony of Science project, which will support charities and advocacy groups that advance the scientific worldview.
But more broadly, we're looking for allies whose missions are somehow life-enhancing, or at least aimed at preventing harm to life. The SolSeed Movement prefers to keep a positive focus, so of course we'll be particularly interested in forming relationships with groups that do things like building eco-villages and restoring ecosystems. But we won't shun the company of a far more common type of nonprofit, which works to mitigate the damage from phenomena like homelessness, hunger, disease, pollution, sweatshops, political oppression, war, and the destruction of whole species.
