Vision
Introduction
In the first chapter, you witnessed a story. There you learned for the first time about the origin and effect of the manifesto. In the manual, you then experienced the manifesto yourself. Our manifesto is like a great hike. First, you planned your hiking route on the map, and now you are on your way in the area. Perhaps you have already taken a brief look at the bigger picture. Maybe you have already seen where the map and also the area appear. Now let's take a step back to look at this bigger picture.
For this purpose, it is advisable to revive the old virtue and first read out loud:
Nothing is true. Everything learns. Question. Verify. Understand. Improve.
Follow your bliss. Feel the power. Use technology.
Create. Share ideas. Own.
Think in generations. Live beyond others' norms. Become your own nation.
Become technology. Overcome yourself. Achieve the impossible.
As you can become aware of a dream, you can become aware of reality. Beyond culture, freedom begins.
You have experienced the effect of individual drops and you have experienced the entire effect. You have noticed smaller or larger changes in your life.
Let's do a brief thought experiment and ask the following question:
What effect would arise if you could act together with others, who also experience the effect?
This thought experiment is the view of the summit and the birth of the great vision.
The great vision is our collective action.
Notes from the Authors
Before we continue to look at the summit and ascend, we'd like to take a brief look back. This retrospective is meant to help you understand our vision more deeply at first glance.
The Manifesto is the condensation of all our experiences and was given to us out of the blue. This azure sky then sent us another gift a while later in the form of the great vision.
We have made many attempts to translate these two gifts into the existing, that is, the old culture. At this point, we would like to express our infinite gratitude to all those who have supported this endeavor as helpers and personal translators during this time.
In this period, we also learned that it is advisable to start unpacking the first gift and only then proceed to the second. It is the reverse here as with Artificial Intelligence, which is particularly good at first at what humans have developed last.
However, the Manifesto has not only occupied us by trying to unpack it for others. The Manifesto has also changed us. These changes have ultimately encouraged us not to keep the Manifesto and its interpretation for ourselves.
The great vision is our dream of creating a global alliance of brave, strong, and free spirits to implement the Manifesto at a higher level together.
The great vision is our dream to see these changes we have observed in ourselves over the past few years with and in others as well.
The great vision is our dream not only to see this movement in ourselves and in others but to see the movement that results also in our society.
The great vision is our dream that humanity will overcome itself.
The Grand Vision
So let us not just cast our gaze upon this grand vision, but let us now enjoy the splendid view from our summit.
The dedication of attention to the manifesto, understanding the manifesto, and translating the manifesto into reality is a movement that has led you to our peak. This movement takes place within you and this movement also touches what surrounds you. This movement creates a new culture.
We call this culture Postculture, meaning the culture that comes after the old culture. A culture that comes after modernity and a culture that comes after postmodernity.
Our Postculture celebrates the new values that the manifesto represents. A culture that understands itself as a process. A culture that constantly changes and constantly gives birth to unforeseen ideas. A culture that sees itself as one with technology and a culture that continuously improves from within.
It took many decades in the 20th century until communism fell literally overnight.
The grand vision is the dream that humanity begins to question national states and with them the artificial borders, to examine, to understand, and to improve them. The grand vision is our dream that all people on all continents are united by a new, common goal, to strive towards a Postnation.
A Postnation is not a new idea. Thinkers have been contemplating it for over a hundred years. John Lennon sang about a Postnation more than 50 years ago in "Imagine":
Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion, too.
The grand vision is a dream that humanity, together with technology, strives to overcome itself, so that all our limitations imposed by being human can be eliminated, and we can become a Posthuman species. It is a dream that we can solve the problem of creativity and also the problem of social intelligence, that we can create together a Meritocratic Algorithmic Protocol in which the best ideas win.
Posthumanism is not a new idea either.
However, Ultanio is not a utopia as John Lennon has sung about. Ultanio is also not a utopia as read in the novels of science fiction authors or as preached by charlatans who call themselves futurists.
Ultanio is a vision with a roadmap based on technologies that exist today. Ultanio is in the best sense an enterprise, a movement, and an adventure beyond culture, created by creators for creators.
Our Post Culture
Our solemn culture is born from the spirit of our strength. Our culture is shaped by a will to strive beyond what is possible. We celebrate the differences between people within a united humanity. We love risks and think far beyond today and tomorrow.
Our post culture is essentially Baroque. As in this era, our images, colors, and sounds are characterized by pompous exuberance that celebrates life.
Our Post-Nation
Introduction
The concept of the nation has already come up once or twice in this book. Before we describe our vision of a post-nation, we want to carefully examine the concept of the nation so we can then understand what we want to leave behind.
It all began in 1618 with a religious war between Protestants and Catholics in Europe. This war would end 30 years later as a territorial war. The peace agreement was also the starting signal for the so-called Westphalian system, which is still the basis of international law today. This system, which was decided back then, is also the basis for our current world order, in which nations have become the main actors.
A nation is now one of those broad concepts, unlike pointed concepts like gold, which is interpreted differently in various disciplines and therefore, unfortunately, fills and gathers dust in many books on many library shelves. One of these meaningless interpretations comes from the historian Otto Dann: "A nation is a society that forms a political community of will, rooted in a common historical experience, and understands itself as a community of solidarity." According to this interpretation, the question arises why then the rabbit breeding club in Buxtehude is not a nation.
The question leads us to the only relevant definition, namely the definition according to international law. According to international law, a nation requires at least three elements: a territory surrounded by borders, a group of people residing there, and a state authority ruling over this territory. This definition also explains why there is so much continuity among the nearly 200 nation-states worldwide.
However, after the Second World War, a process began that we now refer to as globalization. After the war, much had to be rebuilt, creating huge demand and, above all, companies from the United States of America expanded into international markets to match this demand with supply.
Due to this process, states as actors have already lost massive importance. Globally active, non-state actors are now gaining significance. A new system has emerged. In this new system, problems must and can be solved through cooperation between all actors, both state and non-state. The term "Global Governance" has been coined to describe this new mode of action.
In short: A war led to a system that lasted a few centuries in which nations were the sole players. Another war and its aftermath have spawned a new system in which nations play alongside non-nations.
But as we will see, the new system is not yet complete.
DAOs
With internet and blockchain protocols, it has become possible to create organizations that go beyond the legal personality of a corporation. For example, in July 2021, the U.S. state of Wyoming recognized DAOs, or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, as legal entities. These new organizations will, among other things, pursue humanitarian goals in the future, thus possessing characteristics like non-state international legal entities, such as the Red Cross.
We also assume that future legal regulations will take these new technological developments into account. In the past, societal changes were acknowledged at the international law level, as evidenced by the Geneva Conventions.
Global Governance is therefore only a part of the new system. Our idea is to enable meritocratic, algorithmic governance through a new protocol. The best idea should win, and this idea should be evaluated and rewarded algorithmically. In parallel with the development of the protocol, we start as a community of shared values in an initial reference implementation of the protocol, living together according to these values.
One of the economic activities of this community of shared values is the development of real estate projects. The goal of these projects is to negotiate a special economic zone with the host country where the real estate project is being developed.
All economic and social activities of the community of shared values take place within the national and international legal frameworks, of course. We proactively establish relationships with existing nation-states and suitable companies to scout locations for our projects and implement these projects. Due to our protocol, the real estate projects will bring a high degree of innovation for the residents, since the best ideas will win with us. This will in turn bring benefits to our host country as our prosperity will lead to higher tax revenues and additional renown for the host country.
In the future, a large number of such novel organizations will operate globally. We expect that international law will also take this development into account and recognize correspondingly influential organizations as subjects of international law. Our goal is to help shape these legal changes and, on the other hand, to become a pioneer in establishing our own post-nation.
Our Post-Organism
Introduction
We have also encountered the concept of posthumanism and we want to give it careful consideration here before presenting our vision for it.
Posthumanism is a way of thinking that aims to transcend the traditional concept of what it means to be human. Posthumanism describes a time after humanity and also the posthuman human, whose abilities far exceed those of today's human beings through synthetic biology, psychopharmacology, neural interfaces, as well as wearable or implanted computer technology.
However, posthumanism also means understanding that humans are now experiencing a fourth humiliation, after the three humblings that Freud already identified. This fourth humiliation is that humans not only descend from animals but are also much more similar to animals and plants than previously assumed. Furthermore, nature and technology have more in common than previously assumed. To put it more pointedly: the boundaries between humans, animals, plants, and technology are artificial, or to put it positively:
Humans, animals, plants, and technology are equals.
Ultanios
Today, there are a multitude of ideas and first innovations that lift typical human limitations. A smartphone alone provides us with a myriad of new abilities.
Our vision is to create significant innovations in the disciplines of synthetic biology, psychopharmacology, neural interfaces, wearable and implanted technology.
Letter: From High Altitudes
Dear Friend,
We would like to start the following with thanks that you rightfully deserve for your open attention. Our words want to be well read and well understood, because now and here we want to take on the greatest adventure that humanity has ever embarked upon. We want to set a common goal for humanity. The immense significance of this endeavor and the associated responsibility are well understood by us. Therefore, we now want to think, that is to plan, with the utmost care and mindfulness to then stride confidently towards this goal.
We are human beings of knowledge, free and moving high above in the skies. Our view tells us that now is the time. Just as a child sometimes pursues one game and sometimes another interest in quick succession until one specific day it clearly sees the direction it wants its whole life to take, so too has humanity matured today to pursue a common goal for itself.
The engaged reader might now counter that humanity already has a common goal, one that it has dutifully written on its slates and flags and thus would be pursuing. However, one may now want to exercise the necessary care for our undertaking and look closely. We strong, brave, and free spirits, see slates and also flags, but we cannot read the same on all these slates and flags.
The engaged reader may now, after he has revised his lack of care, commendably want to go further and deeper. Why, he asks, is it necessary for humanity to have a common goal?
Here we catch him in his second carelessness and again want to pardon and neatly clean up this carelessness, before we proceed with our words.
It is precisely not a need, that is to say a reaction, that we want to paint on our flag. We want to create, because we can create and therefore we create.
We say it again clearly. We do not want to create out of need. We do not want to create for the sake of benefit either. We certainly do not want to create for others. No. We want to create because we can. We want to create because we have the power.
Enough. We now carefully consider the schematic sketches and rough outlines of our preliminary work with a final scrutinizing glance, in order to then begin our construction.
The goal of humanity, as we teach you, is the one common goal, the one outstanding and over-generations target, shall be the overcoming of humanity. Humanity shall thus grow beyond itself. Man shall thus overcome his culture, his nations, and his body-mind, to create something much higher.
Nature has shown us. We have learned. Where at first only simple atomic formations reigned, the idea was born to unite into cells, to overcome the molecule. Where at first individual cells populated our planet, the idea was born to come together and grow beyond themselves.
Life is growing beyond oneself, so we teach you.
Beyond Culture
From the moment of conception, we were shaped by our culture. Symbols and words were constantly, painfully, and repeatedly branded deep into our delicate skin with sizzling hot iron. This shall be so and that shall be different. Our view of the many scars and the memory of these endless pains have made us follow these symbols. We were too weak to act differently. We were not capable of creating ourselves. But now, my strong, brave, and free spirits, we can create. We can question the culture that surrounds us in all things. We can check it. We can thus understand it.
The next step may now seem large even to your open ears, but here too we may ask you to trust us at first, only to then thoroughly question and check us. The next step is thus not a filigree improvement of our existing culture, like a diligent spider repairing her delicate web. No. Our next step is an epochal new beginning. Our next step is a large, white sheet of paper with a finely sharpened pencil.
Postculture is the core of our goal and the compelling prerequisite for our success. Only if we have done this preparatory work will we be able to tackle the stages described below towards our peak.
At this point at the latest, you may remember our criteria for the readership of these words. Only strong, brave, and free spirits will be capable of constantly, deeply, and with steely hardness questioning their culture, all that has shaped them, all norms and values, checking them, to understand these norms and values and finally to improve them.
As soon as each one of you has written his own constitution, formulated his own laws and also executes them. After each one of you has become his own nation, once this great step has been taken, something will move. As soon as this thunder rumbles in the distance for the first time, it will not be long and we can also take the next step.
Beyond Nations
Deep down at the roots of our culture, like the humus that shapes a plant, the space-time we perceive is anchored. In the early history of humanity, tribes overcame space and united into nations. These, in turn, overcame geographical idiosyncrasies, such as insurmountable mountain ranges - think of the Himalayas - or an unbridgeable sea - think of the Atlantic - and finally left behind these frontiers.
These overcome spatial boundaries were each made possible by an advancement in a new technology, think of fire, language, agriculture, animal husbandry, or nautical skills. The different manifestations of our current nation-states are thus a significant result of the development of technology. The social and political structures of our species are always artifacts of technology. Technology takes the first step, social structures learn and follow.
We wish again to exercise the necessary care at this point.
Technology, derived from ancient Greek, the artful treatment, still shows the Janus nature in its essence. Technology is a unique key innovation, created by an individual, one should think of the patrician Johannes Gutenberg or the chemist Otto Hahn here, and in its wake many innovations that are unlocked by this key.
In recent decades, rare and outstanding individuals have again created keys, think here of the physicist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the mathematician Whitfield Diffie, the mathematician Martin Hellman, or the researcher Marvin Minsky.
The shy institutions of our species are now tentatively reaching out for the first time and beginning to feel out these new territories. From our view from the high altitudes, this movement seems infinitely slow.
But here again, we want to exercise the due care for our undertaking. It is a powerful, steady, flowing movement, like an ocean giant. The shy institutions of our species are still firmly rooted in space, consider here the European idiosyncrasy of an imprint obligation. But with their own movement, they now begin to bend their legal systems to fit this landscape that seems like Terra Incognita to them, also consider here the European idiosyncrasy of a General Data Protection Regulation or the seemingly Chinese antipode of the Social Credit System.
For us of knowledge, this scenario often seems Kafkaesque. Just as this Prague accountant deeply questioned his father, we too have questioned. But now we can already hear the thunder and the first flashes have led to enlightening insights.
Our goal is a post-national species, for we can now overcome space. We want to grow beyond our institutions and just as children outshine their parents.
Beyond Human
Just like the air that constantly surrounds us and thus escapes our attention, so does the belief in utility surround us, which - please allow us this image - seems like the transformation of the American continent from the year 1492 onward.
What follows now may not sound well even to the most open ear, of which we are aware. But we have committed ourselves to care and therefore cannot afford Epicureanism.
It was technology, to stay in the picture, that made the adventure across the Atlantic possible. Do you understand?
It was a crude and all too human naivety - the illusion of an unattained frontier - which we called intelligent, with every new cascade of technological waves unlocked by new keys, just to increase the height of this wave and a bit more: "This is not yet intelligent, because a human would know what to do here." or to stay in the picture, "Let's sell this swampy land to this paleface and indulge in the intoxication of firewater." or to also be fair to the not so great ear, "Chess is just a board game, Go is just a board game, Poker only a card game. That's not intelligent."
We teach you to become technology and thus overcome body-mind. Our goal is a posthuman species.
Supersociety
For one or the other ear, our striving may now seem strange and alienating. It is said that we think in generations and this naivety shall be allowed us, everything familiar was once foreign. But we are not here to argue, nothing could be further from us. Our concern is with the ears to which what has been said seems all too familiar and therefore vulgar.
Yes, we confess! Our descriptions have already been thought. We want to be the catalyst. We want to fuse the atoms into a molecule and jointly create a great thunder. We want all the hands of the strongest, the bravest, and the freest spirits to be active to accomplish the impossible.
We therefore want to build a Supersociety. A Supersociety of the few who together wave a flag on which a common goal stands.