SEQUOIA - An audio play
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I have always wanted to explore alternative forms of storytelling. In this audio play, I have experimented with the audio play format to dramatize how the key decisions were made about the fictional city of Sequoia from my solarpunk novel "A New Faith." SPOILER ALERT - Even though this is meant to be a stand-alone piece of writing, it contains some spoilers for those readers who have not yet read the novel, especially, Part 2.
——————————————————————————————————————
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Rachel - Age 30; Deputy US Ambassador to the UN; Texan accent; She is one of the main characters from "A New Faith"
Maya - Age 45; Office of UN Secretary General; Barbadian accent which often slips into generic American; She is one of the secondary characters from "A New Faith"
Carla - Age 50; Senior Partner at a large global Infrastructure firm; Brazilian accent
Zeenat - Age 42; Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund; British accent
Suhas - Age 38; Assistant Professor at a top UK-based university; Indian accent
Rafi - Age 46; Vice-President at an international think-tank on governance; French-Algerian accent
——————————————————————————————————————
ACT 1
INTERIOR OF A SMALL CONFERENCE ROOM ON ONE OF THE HIGHER FLOORS OF THE UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS.
ALL SIX CHARACTERS ARE SEATED AROUND A LARGE OVAL TABLE.
LATE EVENING IN FALL.
FADE IN
Sounds of slogans about human rights waft into the conference room from one of the open windows.
RACHEL
So…?
CARLA
This is insane. YOU are insane. And this is a waste of my precious time!
Suhas guffaws.
MAYA
Zeenat? Rafi?
Suhas guffaws again.
ZEENAT
For fuck’s sake, what do you want me to say? These days I don’t charge by the hour. But still, my time is also quite valuable.
RAFI
Language, Madame! Let us not get into a shouting match about whose time is more important. I am sure, Rachel and Maya are not pulling our legs. Right?
SUHAS
Of course, they are! Although, I confess, I am at a complete loss as to why.
RACHEL
Which part are y’all finding funny? Climate change? The millions who died in last year’s heat wave? Or the Scandinavian offer to take in a few million climate refugees? Which fucking part? Goddamnit!
SUHAS
Look, Rachel. I mean… c’mon! You know we are not talking about that. You claim that you have lined up enough money from governments and wealthy lenders for building a - I don’t even know what to call that thing - a colony? a glorified labor camp? a prison? whatever! - for climate refugees in the middle of nowhere.
MAYA
Hey MAAN, what is the alternative to it?
SUHAS
Pay the reparations to all those countries and let them find ways to survive where they are. Weren’t you the one who used to fight for that?
ZEENAT
That ship sailed a long time ago, Suhas. No one is going to accept responsibility for changing the climate. Nor is anyone going to pony up the cash to help the victims. Just let it go, will you! And if you want to spend more time wringing your hands about that, then I am leaving right now.
SUHAS
But… I…
MAYA
She is right. We are not here to discuss that.
CARLA
It can’t be done. You know it. They know it. Everyone knows it. This is just a sham.
RACHEL
It ain’t. It is the real deal.
ZEENAT
Okay, fine. For a moment, let’s assume that. What is the fucking plan, then?
MAYA
That is why we are here.
SUHAS
That thing about the factory?
RACHEL
Dude, that was just a freakin’ example. It is one way in which millions of young folks from poor countries are able to live in the US today. They live in these ginormous factory compounds, whatever the hell you want to call it. They are housed in dormitories and they have access to stuff like cafes and movie theaters.
They make good money. It ain’t the minimum wage of the US. But it most certainly is way more than they would have ever made in whatever place they came from. Most of them send their earnings back to their homes, anyway. The remittances are a huge part of why those poor countries are surviving. Tell him, Zeenat.
Then, they are legally allowed to be in the US for a specified duration after which they gotta leave. They can, of course, leave at any point during their employment. But that is a one-way ticket.
They ain’t slaves but they ain’t full-fledged citizens either. They have some rights. Not many. But probably better than what they have back in their home countries. Especially, the young women.
Most importantly, we don’t have to follow that freakin’ model. We can come up with our own. The canvas is blank.
CARLA
What’s the timeline?
MAYA
After last year’s catastrophe, I think we can all agree, we are, basically, out of time. We have got to start getting people out of hell and somewhere safe. For the first time in my life, I am seeing an opportunity to do that. If we can make this work, we can scale it up. We can save millions of lives. Maybe, billions.
RACHEL
To be more specific - from the finance perspective, we have a six month window to get a credible plan in place. By credible - I mean - just enough to get the cash flowing. If the lenders and donors are not convinced, the deal is off!
CARLA
Designing a few tall dormitories and warehouses is easy. But what are those factories for? How does the raw material get in? And the finished product get out? If we are not going to do dorms and factories, then what is the function of this… whatever this thing is?
SUHAS
Who gets to live there? You mentioned that those American compounds have only young folks. Surely, you are not suggesting we do that, too. After all the most vulnerable ones are the old folks and the children. Shouldn’t they be the top priority?
ZEENAT
Figuring out the economy of that factory you talked about, is easy. You don’t need me for that. But if it is something different, then I am going to sound like Carla, what is the thing going to be?
RAFI
What about law and order? Are we talking of a permanent UN Peace-keeping Force? Whose laws? Norway’s? Or do we have to come up with new ones for whatever this place is?
Doing a constitution is one thing. But after that, who gets to make new laws and rules? How do those makers get to be the ones to make the laws? Do we open a branch of the International Court in that place?
There is too much to decide here, Maya! Who decides, anyway? The people in this room? We don’t even know who will be living there. Don’t they have a say in the law of their new home?
MAYA
Dunno folks! Let’s figure it all out. You have the freedom to pull together the teams you need. Of course, within the budgets that I shall send over. For the next six months, we shall meet once a week, Friday evenings. Clear your calendars and let’s go change the world!
FADE OUT
——————————————————————————————————————
ACT 2
INTERIOR OF THE SAME CONFERENCE ROOM IN ACT 1.
MAYA AND RACHEL ARE SEATED AROUND A LARGE OVAL TABLE.
LATE EVENING IN SPRING.
FADE IN
Throughout this Act, there is a constant background buzz of a really busy office. There are sounds of doors opening and shutting, excerpts of conversations, printers/copiers humming, etc.
RACHEL
I can’t hold back the donors and lenders any more. They have been incessantly badgering me for the past two weeks. We gotta give them the best plan we have or they are gonna bolt.
MAYA
Do you really think we have A plan?
RACHEL
Gotta break some eggs to make an omelette!
MAYA
You break ‘em, Maan! I will eat the omelette.
RACHEL
We don’t leave tonight until we have a consensus. Agreed?
Maya chuckles.
RACHEL
I ain’t kidding. We gotta get our ducks in a row.
MAYA
The ducks are practically docile compared to our sister and brothers.
RACHEL
Let’s bring them in one at a time. That way, you and I can map out the compromise. Once we have that, we can pull them all in together and get the sign off. Cool?
MAYA
Sure. Why not!
RACHEL
I wanna start with the easy one.
Sound of Rachel’s heels tapping on the floor as she walks to the door. Sound of door opening.
RACHEL
Carla! C’mon.
CARLA
Gimme a minute.
Sound of Rachel’s heels tapping on the floor as she walks back to her seat. A moment later, there is the sound of the door closing.
CARLA
Alright - so what do you want to talk about?
RACHEL
Done with the design?
CARLA
Ummm… some key parts, yes. Others… well, we have some options but no final design.
RACHEL
Let’s hear about the stuff that is ready.
CARLA
We got the energy part figured out. It will be all electric - no oil, gas, or coal. Given the remote location, it is just too expensive to keep shipping all that fuel all the time.
Of course, the electricity itself will be from some combination of solar during summer, wind during winter, and then some combination of wave, batteries, and dams for everything in between. All built in the vicinity.
That is all pretty straightforward. It will work AND it will be reliable.
Heating and cooling will be big problems. Lots of extreme events at that location within the Arctic Circle. But luckily we are building this from scratch. So we use geothermal. Basically, we take advantage of the fact that the temperature a few feet under the surface of the earth is constant and balmy. All we do is use simple fans to pump air through the ground and send it to every building. Cheap and easy.
Water and waste-water is not an issue. There is lots of freshwater in that part of the world. Plus we shall recycle as much as possible in case the Norwegians get too worried. Again - no big deal.
Transportation is the easiest of all. No cars, of course. Too much space and too much money. So we do a simple grid of roads for electric trams that run autonomously on rails. The grid would be about 1 KM by 1 KM. One should be able to get from any point in the city to wherever they want to go within 15-30 minutes. Folks are welcome to use bikes or simply walk.
Mind you, all the infrastructure - power lines, water and waste-water pipelines, geothermal pipes, telecommunications, etc. will be stuffed under those same roads. Makes construction and maintenance super easy.
What else?
Ohh… right… food and waste. For food, we do a combination of vertical farms in glass-houses for crops and precision fermentation for all other things. Don’t ask me for details. I just know that it works and it is cheap. Waste is going to be almost all biodegradable. So we shall have composting and hardly any need for landfill.
RACHEL
Fantastic! This can all be built in a short period of time? Within the budget?
CARLA
Yeah. A lot of robots will be required to work round-the-clock. Anyway, we don’t have any local labor that we can use. Maya - you had promised that some of the east Asian governments have surplus robots that they will lend us.
MAYA
Right. I will get on that. Please send your requirements.
RACHEL
So what’s not done?
CARLA
The biggest piece of infrastructure - housing. And factories if that is what we are doing. I just don’t know what our needs are. I can plonk a five thousand buildings each housing a thousand people like those apartment blocks in eastern Europe or China. No problems doing that. We have those designs ready. But who is going to live in them?Individuals? Families? What’s the size of families? Amenities? What’s the population mix going to be like? I need a final decision on that.
RACHEL
Shit!
Sound of Rachel’s heels tapping on the floor as she walks to the door. Sound of door opening.
RACHEL
We need you, Suhas. Pronto!
SUHAS
Not now.
RACHEL
We are running out of time. Get your ass in here.
SUHAS
Let me finish reading this paper.
RACHEL
ENOUGH!
SUHAS
There are so many aspects to consider. So many wrinkles to iron out.
RACHEL
It is very simple. We submit a plan this week or we lose the opportunity. For good. Take your pick - nothing or something!
SUHAS
Fine. Fine.
Sound of steps followed by the sound of the door being slammed.
RACHEL
What do you have for us? For Carla, specifically? She needs the demographic mix to design housing. That is by far the biggest component of her job.
SUHAS
Well… ummm… so let me step back a bit to give you the context for our conclusions.
MAYA
No time for that. We need the conclusions now! Carla needs to get back to her tasks.
Sound of the door being opened and shut. Zeenat enters the room.
ZEENAT
I went over your numbers, Carla. They look good. I think we have a good cost structure - high on capital and low on O&M. I noticed that they are for a scenario. I don’t understand why they have not been finalized. What’s the uncertainty?
MAYA
Speak in English, please.
ZEENAT
Never mind.
CARLA
We are still waiting on the demographics which will dictate housing design.
ZEENAT
But that is the biggest part of the capital cost. What the hell! Where are the demographics?
SUHAS
Ummm… we are still trying to finalize that. That is what we were about to discuss.
RACHEL
Sit down, Zeenat. Let’s hear him out.
SUHAS
For starters, these folks are all among the most traumatized ones in the world. They are poor and they have faced all kinds of disasters including that heat wave. On top of that they will be uprooted from their homes and plonked down in the middle of nowhere. Any kind of migration is traumatic, period. Our understanding is that the role of family and support networks becomes even more vital in providing emotional stability. So we are thinking that we should move entire villages keeping the familial and social structures as intact as possible. Since, the most vulnerable are the children and the old, we are thinking of selecting villages that are most likely to be affected by climate disasters - flood plains, coastal, drought-prone, etc. Especially, places where access to any kind of aid is non-existent.
CARLA
Demographic distribution?
SUHAS
These are some rough numbers based on the villages that we identified - about 35% would be 60 years and above; 25% would be 18 and below; and the rest would be somewhere between 18 and 60.
Sound of a long sigh from Zeenat.
ZEENAT
We might as well pack it in.
SUHAS
What??
ZEENAT
I can’t believe I wasted six months of my life on this.
RACHEL
Hang on there. What is your problem, Zeenat?
ZEENAT
Look - ohhh fuck… I am too tired to even explain it.
MAYA
Dammit, Zeenat. Why are you being so difficult? We are ALL tired.
ZEENAT
You heard me earlier, right? I told Carla that her cost numbers look good. If this were a charity - which it should be in the first place and god knows all of us have wanted it that way - it would be fine. But this is a goddamned investment. There has to be a RETURN on that fucking investment. Which means there needs to be revenue. This city must generate cash. Not just to run itself but more importantly to pay off the lenders.
RACHEL
We all know that. What the hell is your objection?
ZEENAT
Let me be blunt then. Old people and children don’t generate cash. They consume it. Suhas, here, tells us that 60 percent of the population is going to be a consumer of cash. Even if the rest of the 40 percent are productive, this demographic split is more likely to burn through cash instead of generating it. For all we know, those 40 percent might end up taking care of the kids and the senior citizens and not generate much cash, anyway.
SUHAS
You are so crude… and heartless… and…
ZEENAT
Fuck you, Suhas! You just killed this project even before it got going. The lenders will be gone in the blink of an eye!
SUHAS
Fuck you, too!
MAYA
ENOUGH!! BOTH OF YOU! Cut it out.
RACHEL
If I am understanding you, Zeenat, the highest revenue would require only young people. Like from those factory compounds in the US.
ZEENAT
Yes. But we had decided to come up with something better than that fucking shit-show. I never dreamed that we would swing the pendulum all the way to the other side.
SUHAS
This is THE most moral… and ethical… and just and fair thing to do. A civilized world is one which looks after the most vulnerable. We should have been doing it all along, period. That is what we have all been fighting for all these years. Now you just want to throw that all in the dustbin and once again lick the boots of those goddamned money-lenders? Why are we even here, then? No don’t answer that. FUCK!!!
MAYA
Suhas, just stop this yelling. Please. We are all here for the right reasons. No one, I repeat, no one is here to appease the asshole lenders.
SUHAS
Then what are we supposed to do with this so-called RETURN on investment? Do we just abandon the kids?
RACHEL
Fuck no, Suhas! We have to save every single one of those poor folks. But we also have to make this plan appealing to the lenders. We have to somehow achieve both these objectives.
SUHAS
How the hell do we do that?
ZEENAT
Yeah… for once I am in agreement with him. How the fuck do we do THAT?
RACHEL
Let’s start with the make-or-break constraint - no money, no city, nothing. So whatever we do, we have to find a plan that generates cash.
ZEENAT
So we are back to the factory compound packed with young people?
SUHAS
Without any coherent familial and social structure, those young people will be basket-cases. The opposite of productive. You will have to force them to work. Which means you are advocating for slavery all over again.
RACHEL
Hold on! Hold on! Let me finish my thought here.
SUHAS
I am simply not going to give my approval to anything that even remotely smells of indentured labor. These folks have suffered for millennia. No way in hell am I going to stand by idly to see them getting exploited in yet another way, period.
RACHEL
Dude. Shut the fuck up for a minute, will ya?
There is a sound of a chair being pushed back rashly and someone starting to pace with heavy steps.
MAYA
Should we take a quick break? Maybe go for a walk? Cool down a bit?
RACHEL
No. We ain’t leaving until we figure this out.
ZEENAT
I am listening, Rachel.
RACHEL
Demographically speaking, who are the most productive people?
SUHAS
Young men?
RACHEL
Sure, if the job is to till the land or build the freakin’ railroad. In the modern era, young women are the most productive cohort. Whether it is in factories that assemble electronics or stitching clothes. They are also the tippy-top in service-sector jobs.
ZEENAT
Right! Lots of data supporting that. It is no surprise all the existing factories are crammed with them.
CARLA
Agreed.
RACHEL
Again, demographically speaking, who are the most vulnerable part of the population, especially, in the poorest parts of the world? With or without the added abomination of climate change.
SUHAS
Young women. Teenage girls, in fact. Their lot has it the absolute worst!!
RACHEL
Bulls-eye!
MAYA
Ahaaa…
RACHEL
For this first city, what if we select mostly young women because of those two reasons. The productivity aspect should satisfy the lenders, and the vulnerability aspect should bring you back on board, Suhas.
SUHAS
I am listening.
ZEENAT
Damn… I can’t believe I am agreeing with Suhas for the second time in one day.
CARLA
What do you mean by “first” city?
RACHEL
If this works out, then we shall be able to pay those fucking lenders off for good. Then whatever cash this city keeps generating, we can use it build more similar cities where we can start bringing in the kids and old folks. I am thinking long-term.
MAYA
We have nothing in our hands right now and you wanna talk about more cities?
RACHEL
We don’t tell that to the lenders. Or anyone outside of this room. Got it?
CARLA
Fine. Fine. So what do we have? Dorms and factories like the ones you described earlier? Is that what I am designing?
RACHEL
Fuck no. No factories. I mean, not from the get go. If the people in the city want to start a factory at some point, it is up to them. But we are not going to have them locked into any job.
ZEENAT
I am not sure, I am following. What do they all do? Sit around playing board-games? Did you forget that whole spiel about generating cash?
SUHAS
And what about their psychological well-being? This would also be the most traumatized cohort, period.
RACHEL
Please stop using that word “period”!
Of course, they don’t sit around! They do stuff because they will be told that they have to generate cash if they want to keep their new life. They can start businesses. They can work for each other. Whatever they hell want to do. Open a cafe, a nail salon, a theater, a sports team. WHATEVER! Just like in any normal city including the one we are in right now. Which - in case I need to remind you - makes a shit ton of money in the service sector alone.
ZEENAT
Hmm… okay… I can imagine how the urban economics could play out. More importantly, they have a clearly defined target. That’s all good. But, tell me, why would they care about this new life? So much so that they would be willing to work their ass off. Because that is what it is going to take to generate the kind of cash we are looking at.
CARLA
Because we make it so darn good that they will not want to leave! Ever!
SUHAS
Explain!
CARLA
We give them the best infrastructure that our budget can afford. Something they have never even dreamed of. An apartment of their own. With in-suite bathrooms. Doors that lock and keep them safe from all kinds of predators. Especially, the human kind.
SUHAS
No man telling them what to do and what not. No religion laying down the rules for them. No social norms that make their lives hell. THIS COULD ACTUALLY WORK!
ZEENAT
Hang on a minute. An apartment for each woman with in-suite bathroom? Isn’t that going to blow up the budget?
CARLA
Nope. We have some very good designs to make it work. Mind you, these are gonna be small apartments - about 30-40 square meters each. Quite common in Europe.
SUHAS
May I make a suggestion?
CARLA
Umm… sure…
SUHAS
Single-occupancy apartments are something these folks have never experienced. I fear that it would be isolating and cause all kinds of psychological problems. Could you find a way to make lots of communal spaces where they can mingle?
CARLA
Easy peasy. We shall design these apartment complexes with central courtyards like they have all over Europe. They can become the de facto communal living rooms.
ZEENAT
What about space? This all sounds too good to me.
CARLA
Not a problem, in my opinion. We can go taller as long as it doesn’t add structural costs. Let me work out the numbers with my team. But I am pretty sure, that it will work.
SUHAS
Another suggestion, can you make it all mixed use? It shouldn’t feel like the commercial and residential parts of the city are separate.
CARLA
Of course. The entire ground floor facing the street would be for commercial enterprises. We could even repurpose a couple of additional floors for commercial uses. Heck, we can make the structural design flexible so that walls can be moved around. Easiest thing to do.
SUHAS
I am liking this a lot!
ZEENAT
Me too! Dammit - next thing you know, Suhas and I have become BFFs!
Everyone laughs.
MAYA
So - do we have a deal here?
SUHAS
Hell yes.
ZEENAT
Sure.
CARLA
We got this!
MAYA
Excellent! Now please get back to your teams and figure out the relevant details. We have a couple of days to pull this together for our initial presentation.
Sound of chairs scraping and footsteps walking away. Door opens and closes.
RACHEL
Hot damn!! That felt good. REAL good.
MAYA
I am LOVING this omelette! Ready to break some more eggs?
RACHEL
Hell yes! Let’s bring in Rafi.
MAYA
Before we do that. Are we sure, it is gonna all be young girls in this new city? I mean, I am no anthropologist or a biologist for that matter. But isn’t that gonna be… what’s the word I am looking for… unnatural? What about sex? Of course, without the whole patriarchy and religious crap.
RACHEL
We can bring in Suhas back again. But I am pretty sure, the idea is to not exclude men completely. We can find some reasonable number of men to be a part of this. Initially, that is. This city will evolve. Both naturally - as in folks having kids and all that - and through actual expansion once we have successfully paid off the lenders.
MAYA
What about families? Or people from the same community or village?
RACHEL
That is a good question. We didn’t talk about it. Although, I have this feeling that we probably shouldn’t select more than one person from a family or even a community. It is best if everyone is kinda on their own. Level playing field and all that. It would be college life in the US. Kids comin’ in from all over the world and figurin’ out how to live together. And thrive. Fuck, I miss my college days. I used to feel so… free? Dunno. It felt like we could do anything in the world. Y’know… reach for the stars kinda thing. Anyway, we should pull Suhas in again and sort these two things out. I just don’t wanna deal with him right now. Let’s call him after we are done with Rafi. I am quite worried about the stuff he is working on.
Sound of Rachel’s heels tapping on the floor as she walks to the door. Sound of door opening.
RACHEL
Rafi, you are up next, buddy. C’mon.
RAFI
I walked past the room and I have to say, I felt a little left out when I saw all of you yelling at each other. I would have loved to lend my dulcet tones to that choir.
MAYA
Well… here you are. Let it rip!
Sound of all of them chuckling.
RAFI
Some things seem relatively straightforward and some seem downright impossible.
RACHEL
Start with the first kind.
RAFI
Of course, mademoiselle. Let me start with defining the requirements. We need an independent judiciary and a police force to enforce the law. Then we need a legislature to make new or amend existing laws. Finally, we need institutions to execute those laws. All three must be independent of each other. They also keep a check on each other. Okay so far?
RACHEL
This is all “101” stuff. But go on.
RAFI
At least in the short-term, the judiciary can be supplied by the UN and would be made up of retired judges that we choose. Over time, as people in the city learn about law and get certified, the judiciary will get populated by them. Of course, this will be a jury-based system instead of the judges making decisions. Also, we shall always have a panel of three judges rather than relying on a single one. That is all doable.
MAYA
Okay. We can tap into the International Court for all of that. I will set up a meeting with them.
RAFI
Please do that. Unlike the judiciary, for the police force, we think, that it should be made of the people from the city right from Day 1. They will need to be trained, no doubt. But we don’t think it is a good idea to bring in an outside force for this function. There is just too much baggage of the bad kind with cops everywhere in the world. In our opinion, it would be best to start with a clean slate instead of setting up poor precedents that become well nigh impossible to shake off at a later time.
RACHEL
Will they know what to do with little training. In the initial days, that is. More importantly, will the rest of the people respect their authority?
RAFI
I don’t know the answer to that. This is all new. We are going to have to plan our way through whatever comes up. It would still be the better option compared to an outside force. I might be presumptuous here, but the trust-building between the police force and the citizens could be the cornerstone of the training which could really make a huge difference down the line.
MAYA
Fine. Moving on…
RAFI
Now comes the tricky part. The legislature and the executive. Both are, typically, elected through some kind of mechanism. The core concern is that most election mechanisms are based on popularity. Unfortunately, this notion has not exactly been working out well almost anywhere in the world in the last few years.
RACHEL
I think I know what you are getting at. But still… please elaborate.
RAFI
There are several well-documented and seemingly intractable problems. I will list only a few - voters are too apathetic to vote in the elections; when they do vote, they are ignorant and/or misinformed if not outright manipulated by the candidates; election outcomes are tied too closely to the money spent by the candidates and/or their superficial characteristics; etc.
RACHEL
No shit!
RAFI
But I am really terrified of tribalism. I am assuming that these folks will be part of some family or community when they get to this place. On top of that, they will have absolutely no clue about the people from other communities. That means, they are likely to default into supporting their own community instead of genuinely engaging with the governance issues. The elections will end up becoming the hot mess we see all the time in pretty much every part of the world. The specific tribalism varies - it can be based on anything such as race, religion, profession, income, language, gender, etc. Of course, it may not be as simple as one of those variables, it could end up being a combination of several of them. I just keep having nightmares of that.
RACHEL
Well… well… well. Whaddya know Rafi? We may have solved that problem for you.
RAFI
Ohhh… stop, my beating heart! Pray, do tell.
MAYA
We are going to be selecting mostly young women and some young men for the first cohort in this new city. No families. No two people from the same village or community. Only unattached individuals. Will that make your problem go away?
RAFI
Pardon me. Did I hear that right?
MAYA
Long story. We can get into it later. But that is where we have landed with full agreement from Suhas, Zeenat, and Carla. The Q is, are YOU good with it?
RAFI
Umm… I think… that would help.
RACHEL
You don’t sound so sure.
RAFI
Well, it doesn’t fully address the tribalism issue. We know that they will be physically not able to leave the city. But at the end of the day, they are going to be virtually connected with the rest of the world including whatever tribes they already belong to or decide to join.
RACHEL
I get that. I am simply suggesting that it may temper the issue. A bit? Maybe?
RAFI
I don’t know. I don’t think anyone can know. What if it doesn’t work and tribalism manifests itself anyway?
MAYA
C’mon, Rafi. What is the alternative to elections?
RAFI
There is one possibility. It is quite an outlier. Someone wrote a book about it a few years back. The simple version is - no elections. Instead selection will be via a lottery just like a jury is selected. Of course, it will be for fixed terms and each person can serve only one term after which their name is never included in the lottery. Also, it will be mandatory to serve if one gets selected.
MAYA
Umm… I get the idea in the jury context. There, the job is straightforward. They are expected to apply existing law to make a judgment. I am struggling to understand how these unelected people can actually make laws. Who the hell are they REPRESENTING? And how do they figure out what the people want if there are no elections? You are not making much sense.
RAFI
Oh - I am sorry. I didn’t describe it properly. The people will directly vote on the laws. Direct democracy. The legislature won’t exist. This body of people selected through the lottery is the executive agency which will only implement the laws. Maybe interpret them to a certain extent.
RACHEL
So let me understand this. No actual representatives who make laws?
RAFI
Yes.
RACHEL
And the executive agency - let’s call them the council - is selected via a lottery?
MAYA
This could work? Law-making is not a trivial thing. Who will propose the laws that get voted on by everyone? And what about that whole thing you described about the apathetic and misinformed voters? Not to mention the tribalism. What happens if a law is passed in which one tribe makes life miserable for another tribe?
RAFI
That could happen. But it is unlikely to happen. The judiciary will be required to check whether every proposed law complies with the constitution before it is voted upon.
RACHEL
Idiot voters? Sorry - I didn’t mean that way. Long day.
RAFI
You are not wrong. But, there is a way to deal with that. To a certain extent. It is quite cumbersome. But still, it could make a difference. Basically, each person who plans to vote must undergo a mandatory workshop where they are informed about the law. Then there would be mandatory exam to test the basic understanding of the law. Only those who pass the test would be allowed to vote. Then the voting would be done through a caucus process where the voters are randomly assigned a cohort where there will be multiple rounds of voting alternating with rounds of discussions until the AYEs or the NOs achieve a simple majority.
MAYA
You were not kidding. That IS convoluted.
RACHEL
And I am assuming a law gets proposed by collecting some minimum number of signatures?
RAFI
Exactly.
RACHEL
What about frivolous laws getting proposed?
RAFI
After the judiciary signs off on it, the council must approve with a simple majority, whether the proposed law gets voted on by the people. The details will need to be worked out. This is all broad brush. So… what do you think?
RACHEL
It sounds way better than the conventional approach. In fact, I like this.
MAYA
Me too. I look forward to the details before making any other comments. This place is small enough that an approach like this could actually work. Also, as you described earlier, this might also force these strangers to get to know each other and work with each other to figure out their lives. Not a small thing.
RAFI
Alright - so I will get my team to flesh this alternative out.
RACHEL
What about the economy? How does this place work?
RAFI
You may want to bring in Zeenat for this conversation. We have some strong views about it and I am not sure she is going to like them.
Sound of footsteps and the door being opened.
RACHEL
Zee! Zee?! We need you back in. And bring your sword and shield. Looks like we are gonna have an old-fashioned duel.
Sound of footsteps and the door being closed.
ZEENAT
Oh - it is Rafi. All I need is my withering glance.
Rafi guffaws. Others join in.
ZEENAT
What are we fighting about?
RACHEL
Jeez… I really don’t wanna fight about anything. At all!
MAYA
No good deed goes unpunished, Rachel.
ZEENAT
C’mon… speak now or hold your silence forever and ever.
Everyone chuckles.
RAFI
Property rights.
RACHEL
I am warning you. No gibberish. Plain english, please.
RAFI
Housing, healthcare, utilities, transportation, and education are provided by the city to everyone free of cost. Housing will be leased to each individual. There. I said it. My elbows are up and I am ready to defend myself.
ZEENAT
Fine!
RAFI
Come again?
ZEENAT
I am cool with that!
RAFI
Did we lose our Zeenat? Who is this impostor?
MAYA
Ummm… Zee… you sure you heard him properly? Now I get why he said “property rights.”
ZEENAT
Cut it out. I am not kidding. I see zero potential for revenue from assigning property rights to housing or putting a price on all those essential services. Rather, it would cannibalize whatever revenue this city generates.
RACHEL
That made no sense to me at all.
ZEENAT
Rent-seeking is bad for the economy.
RACHEL
Yada yada yada… blah blah blah…
ZEENAT
Look, it is bad. Just… trust me! And let’s get on with this.
RACHEL
Nope! I need to understand this.
ZEENAT
Ughh… I am so tired! Okay, fine. Let’s define the economy is you and me. I have two houses. I live in one. The other one is empty. You have none. You can’t build a new one. So what will you do? Don’t bother. Let me answer that. You will try to buy the empty house from me or rent it from me. Either way, money goes from your pocket to mine. What happens to the total money in the economy? Again, don’t bother. The answer is - nothing. The only thing that happens is you become poorer and I become richer. I may not do anything with that extra money and just leave it idle. While you may have a great ideas to use that money to make more money. But since you don’t have it, you can’t do anything. No new revenue. Hence, bad for the economy. We want the money to be used to make more money if we are going to pay back our dear asshole lenders. Got it?
RACHEL
See - that was not so bad. And more importantly, I get it now.
ZEENAT
Everyone in this place gets a home. It will be leased. End of story.
MAYA
That was a darn good tutorial, Zee. Very cool. But what about the essential services.
ZEENAT
It is in the name itself, “essential.” Everyone needs them to survive and ideally thrive. Without the people thriving, we don’t have revenue. So make a basic level of those essential services free for all. We shall measure and monitor the usage of those services. In case someone is abusing them, well, Rafi can write some laws to make sure they don’t abuse them. Wouldn’t you, Rafi?
RAFI
Of course. I… I must admit, I am quite pleasantly surprised with this conversation. I thought it would be a hard-sell to get you onboard.
ZEENAT
My focus is solely on how can we drive the costs in this place down to the lowest possible level and create the largest opportunity for maxing out the revenue. People who have a safe and comfortable place that they can call as their home along with basic amenities taken care of, are likely to be the most creative which in turn is most probably going to yield some cool innovations that generate oodles of cash.
RAFI
Exactly! Driving down the overall cost is what we were also aiming for. Housing will be built at scale and seems to be a more or less identical commodity. Same with utilities and transportation. They all are young, as you told me earlier. Hence, in all likelihood the required medical support is going to be minimal. The cost of education has been driven down to zero because of all the material being made available for free by most universities and the fact that there are hundreds of professors lining up as volunteers.
RACHEL
Maybe we can rid of Zee now. I am kinda afraid that we are going to run out of luck and she is gonna start opposing us at some point.
Sound of laughter.
RAFI
Well, my next topic was about income and taxation. And this is probably the most contentious policy issue in the world. We don’t have any consensus on this within our team simply because, we just don’t know what to expect. Tentatively, we are leaning toward a generous universal basic income (or UBI) and a flat tax on any surplus income that the individual generates.
ZEENAT
Why?
RAFI
The generous UBI is because of the reasoning you so eloquently put a few minutes ago. Creating an environment for them to thrive. The flat tax seemed the fairest given that we just don’t know what kind of variation in income we are likely to see.
ZEENAT
Your luck has finally run out!
RACHEL
I knew it! I knew it! Fuck!
ZEENAT
We had talked about collectively pushing the people in this place to work hard in order to pay off the lenders. Right? We are going to make this place so good, that they will have a strong reason to stay put. Rafi - you were not here for that part of the conversation. But trust us - or rather Carla. She knows what she is doing. It is going to be such a fantastic place to live that maybe all of us are gonna start pulling in favors to go live there. Anyway. That is all good. But it is not sufficient!
MAYA
I am afraid to even ask. What DO you have in mind?
ZEENAT
UBI is a good idea. But it should be set low, just enough to cover food, clothes, etc. The most basic stuff - no one should starve or wear torn clothes. But that is really IT! If they want to have a good time, they have to pay from their pocket. Which means they have to work hard and/or draw on whatever talent or skill god has blessed them with.
RAFI
This is going to drive up income inequality very quickly and it will show up in lawmaking as the wealthier class starts using that surplus to subvert the governance for their purposes. I am not sure this is a good idea. We have seen this movie before.
ZEENAT
Instead of a flat tax, we put in a steeply progressive tax to nip that inequality in the bud. The kind that used to exist in the middle of the 20th century when marginal tax rates went as high as 90 percent.
RAFI
Hmmm… that could work, I guess. In any case, all of them are starting from zero. It is not as if they have a stake in this until their incomes actually start rising.
ZEENAT
Exactly! I think, my team can run some models to come up with a solid range of revenue scenarios. That should satisfy the lenders.
Sound of door opening and several excited voices entering the room. The door closes.
MAYA
What do you guys need?
SUHAS
I had a chat with my team and we are in agreement with the rough contours of the plan we discussed earlier.
CARLA
Likewise.
MAYA
Good timing! It seems that Rafi and Zeenat are also aligned. As far as I can tell whatever they have been talking about should sync up with your areas. What do you think Rachel? Zeenat?
RACHEL
Ummm… I need a minute to think.
ZEENAT
It is incredible, but somehow, we seem to have landed in the same spot irrespective of where we had started from.
RACHEL
Fair enough. I agree. The big Q to me now is that will these folks actually live together without turning on each other? Will they thrive? Will they have a good time? Be happy?
MAYA
We don’t know that. We certainly hope so. After all, it is in their greatest interest to make this work - both individually and collectively. Usually, I find that to be a good enough reason for something to work.
SUHAS
We shall not know until we try this. But I will tell you one thing - the way we humans are wired - cooperation is in our DNA. Without cooperation, our species would have gone extinct a long time ago. Rather, we have steadily ratcheted up the complexity and scale of our cooperation over time. No doubt there are many things that are terrifyingly bad in our past and present. But if I were to bet, I would wager everything on these folks finding a way to pull together instead of tearing apart.
RAFI
I am inclined to agree with Suhas. Our individual impulses have tried to undermine the collective ones. The vast number of iterations we have gone through in terms of organizing our societies have mostly been about finding ways to discipline some of those individual impulses. But too much of reigning in those individual impulses has led to stifling of innovation. The trick is to find the right balance in the individual and the collective. The goal is to not treat them as opposing forces but ones that enhance each other. For the first time in human history, we have a chance to start with a completely blank slate where we can use everything we have learned so far to come up with the best possible structure. Not to be self-congratulatory even before this comes into existence, but I do feel that we are making some good calls here.
RACHEL
What should we call this place? A city? A civilization? A refuge? A colony?
CARLA
A city seems to be the best description for now. It doesn’t even exist to be considered a civilization. It most definitely is neither a colony nor a refuge. I haven’t been busting my hump to design THOSE!
RACHEL
Let’s name it.
MAYA
Can we do that? Isn’t it above our pay grade?
RACHEL
Screw that! Call it a placeholder if you want. But I think we should name it.
ZEENAT
Let’s call it Sequoia after those immense trees from California. They have survived for thousands of years and helped sustain entire ecosystems around them.
RAFI
Amen to that!
Sound of high fives and back slaps from around the room.
FADE OUT
——————————————————————————————————————
## THE END ##