Autonomous United: Vision
What is Autonomous United?
Autonomous United is the seed of a new civilization.
We are a group of generous human beings dedicated to building a better world. We are leveraging brilliantly-simple software, quantum-resistant cryptography, and delay-tolerant networking to form a benevolent, prosperous, creative, semi-autonomous, direct-democratic, bright, exciting, and epic intergalactic civilization -- that never dies.
At present, we are effectively a high-IQ technology cult that exists for the betterment of all, open to those with a long track record of living in the public interest.
As of December 2023, our primary collective endeavor is Project Lifeship. We are sending a spaceship to a far-away, habitable planet as soon as possible, and at high speed. This is to help ensure that the human race, human values, and human knowledge live as long as our universe -- even if something catastrophic happens on Earth. More hopefully, we are excited to see humanity truly exploring the stars in our lifetimes!
Day to day we work on Project Lifeship and help each other to reach unprecedented heights of human achievement and positive impact, a la Elon Musk.
AU is also a progressive network state and creed.
To stay in touch with our development or contribute directly, connect with our founder, Steve Phillips, on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Why Apply to Autonomous United?
Those admitted into AU Core enjoy the following benefits:
Naturalistic immortality
- You have the option to be fully genetically sequenced and "respawned" in the future -- with whatever genetic modifications you choose
- This can occur on a specific date of your choosing, or upon some triggering event; AU will do everything in its power to honor your directive
- Two of our citizens have already been sequenced, and digitized copies of their DNA are currently stored in multiple locations
- You will also be able to leave video recordings and written advice or other messages for your future clone
Find like minds
- Join forces with other people who are both great and good
- (Those who are merely interested in selfish profit-maximizing do not need AU, and we don't need them)
- We are soon establishing a physical presence -- likely in Berkeley, CA or Austin, TX -- where our citizens may choose to live
Early access to our technology
- That is, you will be among the first in the world to get to use (i) the technologies created by our other citizens, (ii) the tech we create to achieve the goals of AU, and (iii) the tech we create to run AU itself.
- Much of the technology we create will be either source available or open source for the benefit of the broader world
Core Principles and Beliefs
Ultimately, Autonomous United exists to preserve and maximize the generous and benevolent striving of intelligent, sentient, goal-creating minds
- Goal: 1 trillion intelligent, sentient, striving creatures in our lifetimes
Creating technology that is as simple as possible is necessary for a reliable, comprehensible society
Ignorance and selfishness are the twin roots of all evil
- Careerism -- that is, prioritizing one's own narrow career advancement over all else -- is a form of selfishness when done by the fortunate
Bad actors exist, and must be peacefully opposed in order for the future to be great
- Techno-utopianism is not enough
Technology shall be used as a force for good
We hold ourselves to a high standard: "Every man is worth as much as the things he concerns himself with"
Given the level of wealth in society today, everyone is entitled to a dignified life
- The best way to achieve this is to start with a hyper-productive faction of brilliant Creators building a better world
Life should be joyous!
Thou shalt revolutionize everything
Bootstrapping Methodology / The Plan / Next Steps
October 2023: Begin seeking out more people who are highly (i) capable, (ii) skilled, and (iii) ethical, to form the early foundation of this new civilization
- (Inspect this site carefully to figure out how to apply)
October 2023: Create and develop an online community <== We are here
November 2023 onward: Physically move near one another <== Currently getting started
- This will likely mean a combination of:
- Co-living
- Each citizen moves into the same apartment building
- Each citizen moves onto the same physical block as the others
- Members collectively buy physical space
- A wealthy AU member donates a building to us
- We build a custom housing configuration optimized for our needs
- Preferably one that is flexible, so that if we don't like it we can reconfigure it with relative ease
- Try to move to a physical community without making our online community second-class!
- VR will hopefully help with this
- This will likely mean a combination of:
2023-2029: Grow into a small city
- If powerful forces deem us a threat (as will happen with charter cities; see China's stance toward Hong Kong and Taiwan for a preview of this), most citizens may choose to only participate virtually
2030-2035: Spread to multiple cities
2036-2099: Spread to other planets and celestial bodies (e.g., Mars and/or Earth's sole moon)
2100 until the heat death of the universe: Spread throughout the galaxy, coexisting peacefully with others we find, and creating billions of generous, striving creatures along the way
What is Enlightenment?
Enlightenment is achieved when both of these are true:
You understand every layer of abstraction in your environment; when you look around and understand how every object was built
- Computers, furniture, buildings, plastics, cell towers, clothing -- everything
You possess the creativity to build on top of what exists, or remake anything as you wish
- No limits
- Elon was mass manufacturing masks 2 weeks after COVID hit. That is not intelligence, it isn't knowledge, it's methodology
[A] proud and well-turned out human being who says Yes, who is sure of the future, who guarantees the future. --Friedrich Nietzsche
Cultural Proclivities
Values
Enlightenment values
- Human rights
- Individual liberty
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom of thought
- Science
- Knowledge
- Honesty
- Belief in objective truth
- Meritocracy (provided that "merit" is measured properly)
Cypherpunk values
- Privacy as a human right
- Anti-censorship
- Pro-anonymity
- Pro-pseudonymity
- Pro-cryptography
- "Privacy for the weak, transparency for the powerful"
- Techno-utopians do not sufficiently prioritize the latter
- The internet is one of the greatest inventions in history
- Respecting copyright law is less important than respecting knowledge preservation
- Sci-Hub and LibGen are good for society
Hackerspace-inspired values
- Freedom of information
- Do-ocracy / Swarmwise
- Open Source / Ethical Source / Fair Source
- "Argue to make progress, not to win"
Futurist values
- Material abundance for all
- Longtermism
- Let's optimize for our long-term future, not the short-term
- We must use technology to make the world a better place
- This is a moral imperative
- We should use technology to help make people healthier
- We should use technology to cure diseases
- "Live long and prosper"
B-Corp values (enlightened capitalism)
- Pro-society
- Prosperity for all
- Anti-exploitation
- Align interests via profit sharing/stock options
- Anti-"profit at all costs" to our environment, etc
- You can make money, but you cannot hoard it
- Luxury goods are wasteful by definition
- Pro-proletariat
- Communists mean well, but communism doesn't work
- We are in favor of those who support the poor and working class, which literally makes us pro-pro-proletariat
Metamodernist values
- Don't just criticize
- Don't just tear down what is imperfect
- Be self-reflective and self-critical
- Create better alternatives
- Synthesize the best of the best ideas out there to make even better ideas
Musketeer values
- "All for one, and one for all!"
Politics
- Pro-trans
- Pro-neurodiversity
- Against identity politics
- Not woke
- Trying to be offended on behalf of others helps no one
- Profoundly anti-careerist
- Anti-violence
- Pro-democracy
- Optimistic, but not naive
- Anti-Dark Enlightenment / Neo-reactionary
- Principled pragmatism
- Don't violate your principles
- Be willing to compromise on the details for the sake of the greater good
- We appreciate the libertarians using technology to make the world more exciting, but they do not sufficiently prioritize the needs of the poor
Inspiration
Autonomous United was conceived of by computer programmer, philosopher, cypherpunk, and privacy entrepreneur Steve Phillips in April of 2021. Upon learning about Balaji Srinivasan's concept of The Network State, Phillips immediately began designing a dramatically less selfish, more humane, more ambitious, and more exciting high-tech society -- one that seeks to achieve material abundance and a bright future for all.
How? Through technology, self-improvement, and a laser focus on solving humanity's grand challenges: computer security, climate change, world hunger, world peace, human-aligned AI, opposing The Oligarchs, defending and bolstering liberalism, managing complexity, and inventing better social technologies and innovations to share with the world.
What is a Progressive Network State?
Appending to the original definition of a network state, a progressive network state also has adopts the following clauses:
A deep commitment to creating a world of thriving sentient beings, both inside and outside the network state ("The Sentientism Clause")
A democratic governance structure ("The Democracy Clause")
Citizenship requirements must not be based on race, gender identity, or sexual orientation ("The Non-discrimination Clause")
Taken together:
A progressive network state is a social network, a moral innovation, a sense of national consciousness, a recognized founder, a capacity for collective action, an in-person level of civility, an integrated cryptocurrency, a consensual government limited by a social smart contract, an archipelago of crowdfunded physical territories, a virtual capital, an on-chain census that proves a large enough population, income, and real-estate footprint to attain a measure of diplomatic recognition, a deep commitment to creating a world of thriving sentient beings (both inside and outside the network), a democratic governance structure, and non-discriminatory citizenship requirements.
AU is the first progressive network state, and encourages others to adopt the above clauses to become one.
Required Reading For All Members
These works have positively influenced the thinking behind Autonomous United:
Daemon and Freedom (TM) by Daniel Suarez
- Epically describes much of the vision that AU is striving toward when it comes to personal empowerment via technology: encrypted layers of augmented reality + gesture- and voice-controlled AR glasses + real-time global coordination + cryptographically-enabled democratic self-governance
Great Founder Theory by Samo Burja
- Details what is seemingly the first accurate theory of history; a book with extremely important insights and concepts: live players (as opposed to dead players), social technology, The Succession Problem, great founders, and Empire Theory
The Cook and the Chef: Musk's Secret Sauce by Tim Urban
- How Elon does what he does
- The only major thing missing from this analysis: Elon first becomes a true world expert in the area where he has started a new company, understanding every layer of abstraction within the products he makes so that he can customize every component to create the globally optimal solution
- Elon is the ultimate global maximizer
You and Your Research by Richard Hamming
- How to live
Zero to One by Peter Thiel (LibGen; Internet Archive)
- How to think big
