This is the first in a series of articles giving you news on developments within the Zero State (ZS).

 

A Work In Progress

We just concluded the weekly Cloud Nine meeting on the ZS Discord server, in which we decided to collectively work on a book – a novel – spanning all four Core Sessions of ZS and the next hundred years of (post-)human civilization. That book has the working title of “The Tetrad”, meaning a group of four, because it will be comprised of four parts, one per each ZS Core Session. The first wave of writing will happen under the auspices of NaNoWriMo 2018, with editing and online publication to follow shortly after.

I’m going to lay out a few preliminary ideas below, that we discussed earlier, in the hope that some people reading this will want to get involved with writing, editing, and/or marketing of the book. The idea is to use this exercise to create the mythos-basis of our future activity, a kind of shared, Principled narrative which draws together our games, arts events, technological projects, experiments, and activism, while spreading our ideas to new audiences. This is happening regardless of whether you’re involved or not, but we would like your voice to be part of the chorus.

Join in, and have your views expressed as part of our vision of the future!

THE TETRAD

Part 1 : Foundation Metahouse

Working title “Domine Deus Foundation”, covering period 12015-12035.

Themes covered in this part include the convergence of various global risks and trends, a dystopic period in which humanity must face its demons and overcome them by any means necessary. The Foundation is introduced as a new, Transhumanist civilizational paradigm which emerges to make the transition to a much better world possible.

Part 2 : Cloud Nine

Working title TBA, covering period 12035-12055.

The second part of the book enters a more positive, late-Transhumanist phase, characterised by space travel and early colonization of the solar system. As the new civilization expands into our solar system, humanity itself is in the process of rapidly transforming and evolving through technology, moving beyond The Foundation itself into creation of the great structure to be built upon it…

Part 3 : Section Six

Working title TBA, covering period 12055-12075.

As posthuman civilization evolves and colonizes the solar system, it is committed to the exploration of inner and outer worlds, which is to say both an increasingly vast array of virtual worlds, the development of a kind of meta-organism encompassing all of society, and physical manipulation of all matter to serve civilization’s highest ends. In this phase, society’s underlying principles are extremely important, being the only consistent measure of whether these dramatic initiatives are right or wrong.

Part 4 : Section Five

Working title TBA, from 12075+

Finally, we come to the late 21st Century, by which time (post-)humanity has achieved remarkable mastery over the physical matter of the solar system, and is poised on the brink of extra-solar exploration. At this pivotal time, just as civilization is mastering the technologies of inner and outer worlds, it first uncovers the secret to manipulating and/or simulating the past. Whether the past is actually being visited by time travellers, or simulated, or alternate worlds are in some way involved, the lesson for civilization is the same: To ensure your existence in the present and future, you must ensure the existence of your precursors in the past.

We welcome all those who would participate in this project, which unites all the different parts of ZS and the Social Futurist worldview, while at the same time creating a basis for our future activity.