Here is the archive of 3 answers to the Utopia Questionnaire received to
date:

--------------------------------------------------------
[received 4/23/02]
this is a question which fascinates me and is of course impossible to answer 
but it is thought provoking and just plain fun. it is easy to criticise but 
i am very thankful to live in a country filled with grotesque luxuries and 
the exploitation and ultimatly marketing of all that i believe in. i woke up 
this morning and summarised a good deal of my questions about our society in 
a few pretty simple questions.
what has recieved more us government (not private sector) funding: 
researching curing diseases or creating and manufacturing germ bombs. 
construction of nuclear weapons or researching alternatives to fossil fuels. 
what (if any) is the ultimate goal of out "culture"? the sad thing is we are 
so drugged up on beer and television and pringles to care. dont get me 
started on neo-colonialism... the south has always existed for the luxury of 
the north, slavery never truly ceased it just moved far away to tax free 
export processing zones. globalism has come to mean a dirty word in my mind. 
what i intend to describe breifly here is a different kind of globalism.

1] In your Utopia, how are decisions made? Why?  What arrangements are there 
for change of laws?

the idea of a populus voting on every issue in a true form athenian type 
democracy is a very tempting way to go with this answer but i dont feel it 
is practical. there has to be somebody to lead and make descisions. the 
masses are far to lazy and stupid (myself included) to make each and every 
descision, just look at how many people vote the way it is now, once every 4 
years think if they had to vote every week. there would be a select few who 
would actually show up and they would make all the descisions. a leader must 
be chosen from the people (he could be a computor!) and he must be born into 
poverty (or just not born into the upper class). he must rule with great 
empathy for the poor and starving and must always place people before money 
and corporations. there would be people constantly checking the motives of 
this ruler and people constantly checking the motives of the poeple checking 
the motives. the changing of laws would be initiated by any significant act 
politically motivated civil disobediance not by lobbying politicans and 
throwing money at them. this would allow for a ruler to set precident and 
plan for a bright future as well as empowering commom folk to affect change. 
civil disobediance (peaceful and non-violent) would be promoted as a means 
of free speech.

2] How should law be enforced?

law is not so much enforced as it is celebrated, it is the foundation from 
which all positive social benifits come from. people will live and die 
happily within the lines of the laws which they have affected or the will 
die with only apathy and drugs in their veins.

3] Describe the rights, if any, of animals and the natural world.

they are considered a resource to an extent but like any natural resouce 
they should not be exploited.

4] Describe the mechanism of relations among nations. Please touch on the 
role and constitution of the military.

nations are irrelevant there is only one nation and it takes care off all 
its children as a mother would.

5] What is the role of work? And what about the slackers, the misfits, and 
the unemployable?

work is divided into two sections: the technical advancements, manufacturing 
and research dept; the art and luxuries dept. work is mandatory but 
education is free. the possibility for advancement is limitless. the lazy 
and apathetic have menial jobs which require little skill and are demeaning 
(janitors, garbage men, accountants) this would inspire lazy people to get 
educated and get better jobs. the handicapped and elderly are given the 
requirements needed to live in all cases. in extreme cases of slackers and 
misfits, welfare with forced labour camps are used. possibly welfare is 
allowable without forced labour but this is only for people with 
schizophrenia, depression and various problems.

6] What safeguards can there be so that Utopia once established does not 
collapse?

history will be analyzed to a great extent and it will become apparent that 
the worship of money and materialistic placebos creates more problems than 
it solves. people will be educated on the unfair state of inequality that 
humans lived under for thousands of years and they will not allow their 
gov't to collapse. a doomsday device would be constructed and set up so that 
if anyone ever did try and succeed to overthrow utopia everyone would die. 
(see dr strangelove)

7] What should be the qualifications and living conditions of lawmakers? How 
can the best people for the job be installed?

everyone with ambition is a lawmaker everyone has okay living conditions. 
the qualifications for being an influential person are similar to today: 
good organisation (or disorganisation) skills, ambition and creativity. 
remember, civil disobediance is the means through which the gov't is promted 
to change laws or to quenstion existing ones.

8] What are the rules governing information? Please include in your answer 
at least brief consideration to freedom of speech and its limits, copyright 
, privacy, and institutional secrecy.

information is freely distributed including both left and right wing 
propaganda. information is distributed in a DIY manner cutting out the need 
for money in order to reach people. the internet would be useful in this. 
copyrights are abolished and all progress is accomplished through sharing of 
ideas and intellectual unity.

9] Describe the system of education.

state funded and state run, similar to cuba's famous ballet school. (im 
serious)

10] Even Utopia will not be perfect.How should suffering and crime be dealt 
with best?

violent crimes will be dealt with accordingly the laws will be simple and to 
the point. people will have a day in court with witnesses or other evidence. 
DNA technology will be utalized and teams of investigators be trained to 
find it. everyones dna will be on file.
suffering will be non-existant so long as the gov't can feed and satisfy its 
citizens.

11] Will there be any changes in the use of money? Property?

money can only be used to buy physical things there is no longer any such 
thing as stocks or bonds they are all state owned. money is distributed more 
or less evenly with exceptions for groups and individuals involved in 
philosophical advancement and civil disobediance
etc.

12] How should public costs be funded? How shall taxes work?

taxes are irrelevant all money needed by the government is printed. 
(remember gov't controls all stocks and has limitless resources to provide 
for itself)

13] Are there any changes in the management of science or art?

this is the sole purpse of utopia: the limitless advancement of technology 
and art to the ultimate benifit of the common joe. all money that is not 
spent of feeding and maintaining the populus and other nescessities is spent 
on education and research as well as providing the tools needed to make art 
and the free time to philosophise.

14] How do you know it is utopia?

once people see the great achivements in the fields of technology and art 
they will know. the eventual ends are infinite the possibilities glorious.

15] What relation exists between religious precepts and law?

religion is (literally) history we will teach it to all and analyze it 
(literally) to death. there will be no media exploitation as there is today 
it will be a fair and unbiased analysis.

16] Describe the ethics of the man or woman in the street in your Utopia.

the pursuit of wealth will no longer be the main priority and our fincial 
status will not be a symbol of our status. people will value information, 
art and intellectual unity above all else. the bombardment of our minds will 
cease in a single sense (CONSUME, WAVE THE FLAG, DRINK BEER etc)to be 
replace by a bombardment in any and every sense. the average joe can fully 
explore his mental capacity and will be as open minded as the society he 
lives in.

17] What conditions must be met before utopia can occur?

hmm... how this:
i say we all rush the pentagon, pull out guns an grab the intercom.
my first words will be i believe man made god out of ignorance and fear
if god made man then why the hell did he put us here?
i thought god was supposed to be tha all lovin,
same god lettin hitler puttin jews in tha ovens.
-some rap group

hehe seriously i think the corporate stranglehold over our lives must be 
broken and that is only possible through a revolution of some kind. possibly 
a russian revolution meets beat ideologies with french revolution motivation 
and militant socialist project kids as the medium

18] Feel like taking a stab at the new Constitution or Declaration of 
Independence?

burn em both theyve been messed with and abused too much already

19] List any major specific changes from current law.

too much to list in detail: major changes would include a system of 
distributing resources directly to social programs without having to go 
through budgets and other beaurocratic gov't channels. of course universal 
healthcare and education. surrealism test center would be given grants to 
manufacture propaganda. a lot less laws in certain areas which restrict 
personal choice eg. drug laws, bigomy laws, 4 year minimum  8 yr maximum 
presidential terms. obviously having a more socialist system would also 
eliminate the need for large corporations such as insurance, oil, and drug 
companies.

thanks fer readin this let me know whacha think. this is the first time i 
have put it down on paper but it is something i have thought about quite a 
bit. "artistic communism with an emphasis on free speech"(#<?)
-------------------------------





 [Received 3/02]

Assume that at some point in the future a utopia is not impossible. Please
answer the following questionnaire giving brief specific
answers to the following questions which will help you describe your
prescription for that utopia.

An archive of anonymized responses will be available through the link
following the questionnaire.Please send your answers
[quote the questionnaire questions in your simple text response, please],
to:
npono2@pixi.com
 _________________________________________________________________

  -Before answering the questionnaire, I'd like to point out that utopia
would be seen by life as lived in an individuated environment. It's not
just a question of sociology. You should be able to walk down a street and
every building you pass should be perfected as cathedrals strung along the
Seine.

1] In your Utopia, how are decisions made? Why?  What arrangements are
there for change of laws?

Radical democracy. Government strictly by ongoing binding referendums. ALL
voting on law to be by direct ballot. Any citizen who circulates a petition
he/she can get signed by 5% of the population will have that petition voted
on as a referendum to all eligible voters in the nation after a period of 6
months. Such voting free to all citizens through government-provided voting
mechanisms which are standardized, completely open, and verifiable - the
time for secret voting [and secret money] is over - all voters should be
able to call up and verify the accuracy of their votes permanently and the
Department of Anti-Voter Fraud should provide citizens' groups ongoing and
permanent ability to confirm that vote counts conform to actual votes
cast.  Any software used should be open sourced, all machinery used to
record and tally votes should be as simple as possible with all design in
the public domain and secured but open to public inspection. Results of all
votes are binding within the Nation, except for violations of a bill of
rights as determined by the courts.

[Maybe voting should be mandatory. With an option to vote no opinion of
course]

Congress, rather than enacting laws, is elected to debate and research, to
lead rather than rule, and perhaps as  representives of something like the
old Guilds, perhaps the new Nations, groups of voluntary association, not
by geography but whether of race, religion, region, employ, hobby, or
concern.

Why direct democracy? Let we the people find our own way, be it to heaven
or hell; let us savor the beauty and justice of our hearts and our minds,
or pay for our malice and stupidity, on our own two feet, not as pawns.

2] How should law be enforced?

There must be a professional police and court system, but I don't have to
like it. When one begins from a position of antagonism, as police must -
when one wrestles with too many monsters - when one kills, even for the
best of reasons - I'm afraid the best we can hope for is to try to find out
the truth and try to minimize the damage.

Impeachment of judges by citizen referendum [see #1] to be carried if 2/3
of all eligible voters so vote.

3] Describe the rights, if any, of animals and the natural world.

Hm. It seems clear that as sentient beings animals should have some rights
- should be respected to some extent under law - but practically speaking
unless something can vote its rights will be determined only by us.

Since we're speaking utopia, the perfected realm, I feel sure the populace
votes to sustain the community of species [not to any specific proportions
though] for all our sakes.

4] Describe the mechanism of relations among nations. Please touch on the
role and constitution of the military.

The whole notion of a geographic identity should be abandoned and peoples
should be defined by self-identified interests for purposes of
representation. The Nations should interpenetrate across the world so that
lines of battle cannot be drawn on any map. National militia must be
outlawed not because self-defense is never called for, but because weapons
have become too powerful; we have no choice but to act through a world
government with National police but no armies, or be destroyed by a morbid
team spirit.

5] What is the role of work? And what about the slackers, the misfits, and
the unemployable?

Let work be necessary if one is to have privacy and more than the basics
necessary to life; but provide those basics to 100% of those who need it.
Let all of the following be FREE to all citizens as desired:

Standardized safe, warm, quiet dormitory housing; [cheaply run] free public
land and sea transportation covering the world for persons [not property];
universally available unlimited quantities of potable water, bread, and
rice for personal [not commercial] consumption; basic medical care; library
or public internet terminal access to the internet; and through it to every
book ever written and every piece of music held in the world library; and,
why not, basic writing and art supplies for personal [not commercial] use.

6] What safeguards can there be so that Utopia once established does not
collapse?

Probably the most important is an effective mechanism to make all movements
within the entire world banking system 100% transparent and public.
Privacy's domain must extend through only areas of our personal lives other
than the economic sphere; privacy for corporations, as opposed to persons,
should be outlawed, and all legal speech and responsibility should be
personal.

7] What should be the qualifications and living conditions of lawmakers?
How can the best people for the job be installed?

No qualifications for representatives [not "lawmakers", because all law
here is enacted by direct voting of all voters] other than being voted for.
Public representatives like monks forswear for life all private income and
gifts [not as lifestyle but economically only, as a matter of means of
acquisition remaining insulated from the rewards given by special
interests' money]; and be for life housed, paid, and pensioned from public
funds at the level of affluence of the mean of the population. In this way
representatives would be self-selected for public service rather than
financial reward, and would have a personal interest only in the standard
of living of the whole population.

8] What are the rules governing information? Please include in your answer
at least brief consideration to freedom of speech and
its limits, copyright , privacy, and institutional secrecy.

Free access to electronic library of all world's books and music for
personal use; no copyright or patent or institutional secret to last more
than 25 years; no libel unless knowingly false; privacy of the person and
of the home but not of finances or convicted crime.

9] Describe the system of education.

Free for life. For pedagogical method, objectively study to determine what
works rather than working from theory, fund that, and adjust as needed on
an ongoing basis.

10] Even Utopia will not be perfect. How should suffering and crime be
dealt with best?

Minimize suffering by objective analysis so far as is possible. Reduce
crime by eliminating true need and by providing a just society. Exile
criminals who should not rejoin society rather than jailing them. Guarentee
all prisoners in jails total physical protection from assault

11] Will there be any changes in the use of money? Property?

All ownership and flow of money, as well as all corporation data except
certain trade secrets, must be open and public. All money laundering
illegal. Property of objects like land which outlast persons should be
protected but considered as objectively temporary and the rights of future
users protected.

12] How should public costs be funded? How shall taxes work?

All personal taxes paid should be voluntary, paid for by either a lump sum
tax towards government expenses or targeted by program as desired by the
taxpayer, and completely public. A Department of Public Finance, staffed by
true civil servants, professionals in their fields, should try to provide
the public with objective data on the direct annual costs of programs and
areas of government. On the longest day of the year the most generous
taxpayers [again, all tax information being completely public] would be
feted; on the shortest day of the year those who gave least would be
roasted. Have I mentioned my proposed holiday when all the nation's
misprinted and old money is burned and destroyed in all sorts of marvelous
ways as a public spectacle?

Shortfalls of tax income should be made up through taxation of
corporations.

13] Are there any changes in the management of science or art?

Vastly expanded public funding of research, the results becoming public
property instead of given to private concerns as at present. All
scientiffic studies to publish with clearly identified [not misleading]
sources of funding.

14] How do you know it is utopia?

Hm.

15] What relation exists between religious precepts and law?

Religion is the attempt to express this world and our place in it in
symbolic form, since it's too hard or too large to converse about publicly
in any other way. As such it informs the ethics of utopia's man in the
street.

6] Describe the ethics of the man or woman in the street in your Utopia.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

17] What conditions must be met before utopia can occur?

A change in the Zeitgeist must occur.

A much larger movement of influential activists willing to be martyred by
big money must arise.

18] Feel like taking a stab at the new Constitution or Declaration of
Independence?

No, but the Constitution is a fine core for utopian public law.

19] List any major specific changes from current law.

Most immediately, enactment of a constitutional amendment specifying that
money is not speech.



An exercise in visualizations of a better world may not be enough. But
this site will archive
your concise anonymized response with those of others who answer. [ Sorry -
no answers received yet].



  email your answers



                    Surrealism Test Center home
----------------------------------------------------------------





[received 3/02]
1] In your Utopia, how are decisions made? Why?  What arrangements are
there for change of laws?

2] How should law be enforced?

3] Describe the rights, if any, of animals and the natural world.

4] Describe the mechanism of relations among nations. Please touch on the
role and constitution of the military.

5] What is the role of work? And what about the slackers, the misfits, and
the unemployable?

6] What safeguards can there be so that Utopia once established does not
collapse?

7] What should be the qualifications and living conditions of lawmakers?
How can the best people for the job be installed?

8] What are the rules governing information? Please include in your answer
at least brief consideration to freedom of speech and
its limits, copyright , privacy, and institutional secrecy.

9] Describe the system of education.

10] Even Utopia will not be perfect.How should suffering and crime be dealt
with best?

11] Will there be any changes in the use of money? Property?

12] How should public costs be funded? How shall taxes work?

13] Are there any changes in the management of science or art?

14] How do you know it is utopia?

15] What relation exists between religious precepts and law?

6] Describe the ethics of the man or woman in the street in your Utopia.

17] What conditions must be met before utopia can occur?

18] Feel like taking a stab at the new Constitution or Declaration of
Independence?

19] List any major specific changes from current law.

1.  Decision should be unnecessary.  Desire should proceed directly to
action.  This will cause people to realize the actual results of their
desires, and those with the strongest will will prevail.  The only system
of laws that allows such an arrangement is anarchy.

2.  Law enforcement exists so that those whose will is weak can exact their
need for justice and revenge while only exercising the low amount
of energy their will allows.  Furthermore, since punishment is an attempt
to make fair that which is already done, and therefore irrevocably
unfair, it can never succeed.  The justice system would have a wrongdoing
undone, but this is impossible, so they channel the energy of that
desire into punishment.  Yet even after the punishment, the deed remains,
and nothing has been done to erase it.  In a utopia, I would have
noone trying futilly to change the past in this way, so both law and
punishment should become archaic.

3.  Animals, including humans, and the natural world, of which animals are
an extension, have only the rights which they defend.  No rights
are insured or protected, as this removes their worth.  Rights only become
cherished when it is perpetually necessary that they be defended.
Nothing should be viewed as having intrinsic rights, and should rather be
weighed only in terms of its worth to the individual.

4.  Nations, as they arise from chaos, are merely collections of
like-minded people.  These nations band together initially to reinforce and

strengthen each-other's beliefs and help one another to survive and
prosper.  In a utopia, all individuals should be self-sufficient, including
a
complete and unassailable sense of self worth.  In such a society, there
would be no need to surround oneself with a redundancy of friends to
back up one's beliefs, and the lone-wolf nature of the self-sufficient
utopian would make ties of mutual convenience impossible.  In short,
nations would not exist.  The military would cease to exist, both as an
outgrowth of nations, and as a higher system of law enforcement.

5.  First, corporations would be impossible, given the tenet of
self-sufficience.  This means that each person works for themselves to
aquire
what they need or what they want.  Products such as computers and cars
would be virtually impossible to produce, since they require
massive effort of many people working on many levels.  Given the nature of
the lone-wolf, passing off these efforts to others would feel like a
gross misdirection of desire (remember the direct path from desire to
action)  This prohibits convincing oneself to desire the help of another
in-between the overall desire and the realization.  The utopian would only
aquire a computer through theft or by constructing the entire thing
himself.  The latter requires developing skills and learning knowledge that
would only be possible to aquire given the drive of one with a
terribly deficient sense of self-completeness, and would therefore be
impossible for the utopian.  Theft would be likewise impossible, since it
would require stealing from someone who has actually built the computer,
which we know to be impossible.  Now that the production of such
complex things is really only an abstraction, consider why the utopian
would desire them.  His basic needs are only the maintainence of his
body's equilibrium.  This could include food, shelter, and possibly sex.
Shelter is only necessary when the utopian is living in a climate to
which he is unsuited.  It would be better for him to move to a more
suitable climate or die (unless science can provide a whole-earth climate
that would be suitable for all mankind (at the utopia's creation, before
the inevitable demise of science))  So the remaining necessities are food
and possibly sex.  Ideally, food's only worth would be for the pleasure of
eating.  For the benefit of the utopian, the necessity of food as
sustainance should be eliminated.  As long as it remains, there is a
profound underlying dependancy, and the utopian can never truly feel
totally self-sufficient.  I would call again upon science to provide a
means to end the necessity for food, or at least make it readily available
and never scarce (replicator style, as on Star Trek).  All that remains is
sex, which like food should remain only for pleasure.  Making no
assumptions about the evolutionary and inborn need to procreate (since this
can't yet be proven) sex proceeds from intimacy, which is
necessary only for the feeling of acceptance (again, unless it is solely
for pleasure).  Since the utopian feels completely self-complete, sex
would only entice him in terms of pleasure, and sex for procreation would
be out of the question.  The utopian could only raise a child out of
feelings of sympathy or transfered need to help the weak.  Since he is
incapable of both, the child would most likely be left for dead.
Obviously, this would spell the end of humanity.  I do not suggest that
anything should be done to stop it.  I maintain that all these things
proceed as natural outgrowths of human nature.  In our utopia, we will
simply play out our nature to its neccessary conclusion.

6.  None.  If all adhere to the intial condition of desire proceeding to
action according to strength of will, any who would try to stop the demise
of mankind (the only end to this utopia) will be too weak to accomplish
revolution alone, and will perish as a subspecies due to their
weakness and lack of resolve.  Be careful here.  This is not eugenics.
Nothing needs to be done to eliminate the weak.  In this system, they
will naturally eliminate themselves.

7.  Irrelevant.

8.  Despite the death of communication and the need to communicate meaning
or order, (and the subsequent death of art, literature, music,
&c) there can be and would be no censorship.  The utopian would pay no
attention to art, and would feel no need for censorship.  However,
the rights of speech, like any others, should have to constantly be
defended by the individual.  This means that copyrights and patents
would be impossible.  Secrecy would be entirely permissible, but only so
far as the individual could protect his secret.

9.  None.  Anything worth knowing can be learned for oneself.  Nobody would
feel the desire to teach, and nobody would feel the need to
learn.

10.  Humans decay.  Humans die.  So long as these are constant, suffering
will be natural.  No effort should be wasted to attempt its
cessation.  If anyone suffers the loss of property or a loved one, it is
their own fault for needing to grow attached, and their suffering
proceeds directly from their weakness.  Nothing should be done to stop it.
As for crime, there is no crime without law.  If an individual wishes
to exact vengance, they are welcome to try.  However, vengance proceeds
from weakness, and would be obsolete in a utopia.

11.  Money is established and standardized by the state.  Value is
determined by rarity and desire.  With the death of the state, rarity, and
desire, money will cease to exist.  There would be absolutely no rights to
property, except in so far as the invididual can personally protect his
property.  If he cannot defend it, he cannot posess it.

12.  Irrelevant.

13.  Irrelevant.

14.  Because it proceeds directly from human nature, and because it ensures
the survivors an absolute sense of self-sufficience, -worth, and
-esteem.

15.  No religion.  No law.

16.  I think I already have.  They proceed from the necessity to move
directly from desire to action.

17.  The only unnatural requirements might be those I have requested of
science, namely the elimination of death, the establishment of a
world-climate that is comfortable for all humans, and either the
establishment of a permanent source of food or the end of the need for
nourishment.  It is entirely possible that with the advent of these
changes, the utopia would establish itself.

18.  Ha.

19.  Its end.