My previous article for Tnet outlined the Zero State’s trajectory into the future, its plans for growth and development. This article will now further explore plans for the first ZS geo-community, in Stuttgart, and the “Ajati Virus”.

1. ZS-Gemeinschaft Stuttgart

In order to have any chance of reaching our higher goals, we must establish the first Social Futurist geo-community by late 12019, consisting of 800+ people inside a certain geographical area, and 8,000+ active, committed Social Futurist supporters of that community online. That first community will be based in Stuttgart, Germany, because I will be there to lead the effort personally.

My intention is not to encourage anyone to move to Stuttgart who doesn’t already live there, or even to seek to attract local people to Social Futurism in the first instance. Such things await us in the future, but for now the goal is simply to bring like-minded people together, as and where we find them. Any other approach would be unrealistic at this time.

When starting a new ZS community network, we must ask ourselves: Who do we know who already lives in or near the area, already exists in a natural network of some sort, and who is already sympathetic to our worldview?

Obviously the answer to that question will be different for every ZS seed-community, depending on where that community is, and who is leading the effort to develop it. In this first instance, we will begin with the local dark electronic music scene – a very popular thing in Germany – and branch out from there to the friends and family of scene-members, and other arts subcultures (also very prominent in Stuttgart). Plans for and news of this first ZS community’s development will be posted here, at Transhumanity.net, so stay tuned!

2. The Ajati Virus

As was also mentioned in my previous article, I will soon be running Sessions every week via the Discord online platform, here: https://discord.gg/R4t7V8U. These Sessions fulfill many functions of a ZS ‘staff meeting’ or activist gathering, but are actually held in the format of an online voice-and-text-chat game (ARG) session.

All self-identifying ZSers are invited to these Sessions, and they may sign up to attend sessions as they are announced on the server. Session themes and logistics deliberately mirror ZS’ organizational structure (or perhaps vice versa), which will be explained in further Transhumanity.net articles over the coming weeks. We will be starting out with only one session per week, and branching out with more sessions and other online events once a certain momentum has been achieved.

Like Role-Playing Game (RPG) sessions, ZS Sessions are essentially flexible narratives, events (or objects) in which affect the Mythos shared across the entire ZS network. As a part and result of that narrative, each and every ZSer is expected to find new recruits, at least once per six month period from now until 12023, and annually after that. The mythos and mechanism of that outreach are both known as the Ajati Virus.

Why the name? “Ajati” refers to a Trans- or Posthuman people who have come into existence by working toward a collective goal or ideal, rather than being defined by historical commonalities or differences. In short, they are those who have chosen to grow together, to become a single community, and who have used technology to that end. The word “Ajati” itself comes from ancient Sanskrit and means not-born, which we take to mean self-created rather than born. The “Virus” part refers to a memetic or media virus; the ability to ‘go viral’. To spread the Ajati idea far and wide, where it might take root in others’ minds, encouraging them to join our community and journey.

And how do we do that, exactly? Well, for a start it would be more accurate to refer to an Ajati Metavirus, because the core logic is that ZSers work/play to achieve status based on their ability to extend and develop ZS networks. ZSers are encouraged to do that by any means that is compatible with our Principles, which means that (among other things) they are encouraged to create media viruses of their own to spread the word. Thus the Ajati Virus is an entire class of outreach activity, with each ZSer free to find the modes of expression which work best for them (as long as those modes are in accord with Principle; a critical point for Social Futurists).

If you’d like to know more, there are three things you can do right now: