Solution-Multipliers
SolnX

Solution Multipliers

Designing and implementing systems that promote peace, security, prosperity, freedom and abundance for every self aware entity.

This page was largely formed in 1991, and has been little altered since 2005 - it is here largely for the history it represents, look to my current blog for recent developments. The last significant changes other than this paragraph were in 2011, and that was the links at bottom of this page.



What is your vision of the future?

Imagine a future where all people have food, housing, water, education and transport and it is all free - because it is all produced by machines that maintain themselves, are powered by the sun, and the one off cost of making those machines has been paid already.

Imagine a future where most of our energy comes from the sun, at no cost, and with no pollution.

Imagine a future where all our major technologies are eco-friendly, and where pollution is found only in the history books.

Imagine a future where every individual is free to do whatever they responsibly choose, and has the tools and resources to support them.

Imagine a future of peace and security and diversity.


We assert that it is possible, and it cannot happen as a result of "market forces", so what you choose to do does make a difference!

This site is a sketch of one possible "roadmap" of how to do it



This website is founded by Ted Howard on the belief that most people want all of the above, and that the technical, social, political tools to deliver all of the above can be developed and deployed in less than two decades, if we choose to do so.



How do we do all the above; solve the Global Warming problem and many other problems too?

Build a set of machines that are programmed to be able to use sunlight as their energy source, and rock as raw material, to produce a duplicate set of machines, and also to produce houses, water pipes and storage, recycling systems, hydroponic garden (build and operate), cook and clean, communications, education to masters level in any discipline, electric vehicle. A system for individual empowerment and ecological sustainability. If the first machine costs $30Billion, and takes two weeks to make the second, and then those 2 take two weeks to make the next two, and then those 4 take two weeks to make the next 4, then 8, 16, 32, etc; then within two years the unit cost is under $1, and we can afford to deliver one to every person on the planet at no charge.


This will allow us to:

  • Switch to Solar Power: make solar photovoltaics affordable to everyone through replication of manufacturing technology;
  • Make electric powered transport viable for most situations: by using robots to build underground high speed mag-lev rail networks (far faster than air travel);
  • Enhance Security: eliminate absolute poverty, empowering every individual with the tools to feed, house, and educate themselves; and
  • Promote Environmental Responsibility: by providing technologies appropriate to living systems, and by promoting awareness of the interrelatedness of all systems.
  • Individual Empowerment: by giving everyone the tools to follow their own vision.
  • For an explanation of why markets alone cannot create anything like this system see www.tedhowardnz.wordpress.com/money - which also has answers to some initially very skeptical enquiries.


    This project is a modern means of delivering life, liberty and empowerment to every person on the planet.

    This project delivers solutions to many of humanity's most urgent and oldest problems.

    This project is based firmly in proven scientific reality, and is consistent with all major spiritual traditions.

    This is a possibility that will deliver wins to every individual.


    This project will:

  • provide every person with the material goods required for life and freedom, and
  • solve the current global warming problem, and
  • deliver clean and environmentally friendly manufacturing and recycling technology to every individual, and
  • provide an environment where sustained peace is possible, and
  • support extended human lifespans, and
  • provide a new frontier, where those who choose not to live by the rules of earth can go (space).
  • Some of these assertions may not immediately occur as obvious. Each is dealt with in more detail in the following links.
    Wealth can be created rapidly.
    Life of all types can benefit.
    Lifespans can be extended.
    Security can be enhanced.
    Many more possibilities are created by the project, some of which are explored in other links.

    What?

    Consider four questions {and our answers}:

    Is it possible to solve the global warming issue, and all other major ecological threats to our survival in less than one human generation? {Yes, and it will not happen by sticking strictly to the patterns that have served us well up until now.}

    Is it possible for everyone to have access to food, clothing, housing, transport and communication? {Yes, and once again, only if we are prepared to adopt changes to systems that bring benefit to all!}

    How might we enjoy wealth and freedom, while living in harmony with all other life? {By developing a system that delivers to every individual access to the sum of human knowledge and wisdom, and also makes available to them the security (of food, shelter, and personal freedom) to investigate it - all for about the total life-cycle cost of one Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier.}

    What might be necessary to support humanity where average lifespans are over 900 years? {Robots that do only what they are told [No Artificial Intelligence - just stupid computers programmed by very smart people].}


    Why?

    We have lots of reasons - you may have your own answers.

    How?

    We spend about 10 years and about 30 billion dollars building one group of robots, then we tell it to build another one, then them to build two more ... Until we have enough for one each, plus a few spares for major building projects and emergencies. If it takes the first one 2 weeks to make the second, we have enough two years later.

    Is such automation possible?

    In 1990 we called it Vision 2020 - because that seened achievable. It had its beginnings in 1974. In 2011 2020 seems highly improbable - not enough time.

    Within 20 years of funding, every person alive could have the freedom and resources that millionaires have today.


    If you think that it could never work because of human nature, We believe the evidence indicates otherwise.

    One more thing to note, as one of the objectives of this project is social stability, all investors, and all recipients of machines at the end of the project, will be required to make to the following six pledges in order of priority:

  • 1/ I will respect human life, and the life of all self aware entities, and take all reasonable actions to protect the lives of others.
  • 2/ I will respect property, and take reasonable actions to protect the property of others.
  • 3/ I will respect freedom, and take reasonable actions to ensure the freedom of others.
  • 4/ I will respect the environment, and take reasonable actions to protect the life sustaining capacity of the world around us, and the diversity of other life forms.
  • 5/ I will keep my word, or be responsible for cleaning up any messes that result from not doing so, or from other mistakes I have made.
  • 6/ I will listen to others like I do not know what they are going to say (for only in so doing is communication possible).
  • That will, we believe, give us a good start as a just and stable society.

    It is just your word and you are free to do whatever you choose.
    All choices (even the choice of inaction) have consequences.
    Without your word, what are you?





    On 15th March 2003 Milton Friedman described the project outcomes as "Nirvana"!

    Abstract

    Project SolnX (previously Vision2020) was designed to promote a stable peaceful human civilisation.

    The project is to develop a self replicating robotic complex that can also produce a wide range of basic goods and services with minimal instruction, and can also produce almost any good or service with expert human assistance. These machines will be supplied to every individual, and will act as both tutors and personal means of production. The technologies developed will be based on solar power, and will be clean and nonpolluting.

    The project aims to meet all basic human material needs, so that every human has the freedom and resources to grow as individuals. This will not solve all of humanities worries, and it will solve many of the fundamental problems of survival, allowing us to create and focus upon whole new levels of problems and solutions. Like any powerful tool, it is a double-edged sword. The uses it is put too will depend on the choices of the people involved. There are real risks, and the risks of not doing it are even greater. Without something like this, the future for humanity (and the ecosystems that support us) does not look very secure.

    The project has multiple stages, and stage 1 is to produce a self-replicating complex of robots that can use sunlight and rock to make copies of themselves, and a range of basic goods and services required to sustain individual humans in interesting and enjoyable lives. The requirement is for a doubling time of approximately 2 weeks. [Guesstimate is of a group of about 200 mostly rabbit sized machines, variously specialised and generalised, working together as a team to replicate the whole.]

    Stage two is to ship one of these to the moon and start it replicating. After about 2 months start using some of the resources to build a linear accelerator to start throwing moon rock back into earth orbit, where it is used to manufacture more complexes. At the end of stage two we have one machine for each person, ready for overnight delivery earth-side, with residual capacity of over a million tonnes of engineering equipment in orbit, and about a billion tonnes of engineering capacity on the moon.

    Stage three is delivery of a personalised means of production to every human. This will achieve the economic equivalent of super-conduction in the realm of electricity. A basic range of goods and services will be available at zero cost of production. It will also give us the ability to produce all the energy required by humanity from solar cells in orbit, and to ship it to earth (to be sold to clients). Large space stations (tubes 500km x 30km, spinning to provide partial gravity) can act as closed ecologies, to provide us with insurance for food in case of disaster, and many other purposes.

    Stage four is for extended science, as scientists and engineers get access to manufacturing technologies both on earth and in space. Imagine a world where every astronomer has access to a dozen 10m optical telescopes positioned in orbit, or particle physicists with access to linear accelerators thousands of kilometers long, with petawatt power supplies, ecologists & bio-engineers with access to completely closed orbiting habitats in which experiments can be conducted in absolute isolation.

    The project is headquartered in New Zealand and will require international collaboration and cooperation. It covers a wide range of disciplines, and estimates are for a team of about 4,000 scientists and engineers (plus support staff) working for 8 to 12 years to produce the first complete working set of robots.

    To have had any reasonable chance of achieving the 2020 target, finance needed to been organised by 2010. That target has been missed. The project remains possible, and the timeframe has slipped. The further it slips. the more urgent it becomes.

    [1 Jan 2021 - 2020 has now past - the project is neither complete nor dead, but the 2020 date is no longer applicable, the urgency has increased.]

    There are many reasons why this project has been contemplated.

    Justice: Most of the population of the world do not share in the benefits of technology. The reasons for this a many fold, and it is possible to change that state. This project offers the basic benefits of technology to every human. Every day, thousands die from starvation, and millions exist in a state of hopelessness, this need not be the case.

    Self interest: Threats to survival - over 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are extinct. Extinction is a normal part of the evolution of life on earth. Given the current pattern of plant and animal distribution, we can be very confident that there has not been a global trading society on this planet in the last 60 million years. We are the first, but that in itself doesn't guarantee our survival. The threats are very real. This project can mitigate all of the threats posed below, most of which have (and some may have) caused extinctions in the past.

    Threats:

  • War,
  • Volcanism (ash clouds),
  • Pollution,
  • Tsunami,
  • Disease,
  • Loss of Earth's magnetic field,
  • Comets,
  • Meteors,
  • Dark Matter.

  • (see issues on fishnet website.)

    Wealth: This project offers huge increases in wealth for everyone. This project will not produce equality, the spectrum will be even greater, and the lower limit will be orders of magnitude higher than it is today allowing all to live to the standard enjoyed by the top 1% of the western world. (Note many of the products and technologies will be different (less polluting).)

    Ecological: With abundant cheap energy, and engineering capacity, we can clean up all pollution. With robotic assistance, we can undo the worst of the ecological damage we have done (eliminate introduced pests), and restore many ecosystems to a healthy and sustainable state, where they can be managed for the enjoyment and appreciation of all.

    Life extension: This project was conceived as a mechanism of producing social stability in an environment where death is due to accident or intent and where disease and the "aging process" have effectively been stopped. There is a very high probability that that technology will shortly be available - we need to be prepared for it. The original purpose was to give everyone the option of getting involved in democratic government (something that cannot happen today because people must work to keep society together). Enabling true democracy, and true individual freedom, was the only solution that enabled long-term peaceful stability.

    New frontiers: Opening space as a frontier available to all those who wish to do something new, or (for whatever reason) have problems fitting within the constraints of life on earth.

    The technical challenges include:

  • Design of semi-autonomous operating units;
  • Coordination between production units;
  • Communication with humans (human interface) - multi-lingual;
  • Development of programs for drilling, desalination of water, water pipe production, house building, water storage, clothes manufacture, hydroponics building and operation, waste recycling, transportation system production, cooking, cleaning, etc.
  • More background and details at this site.

    Ultimately this project will be achieved if people choose for it to be done, if it appeals to the average person as something that is worthy of great effort. We believe it to be so.

    We believe it is our best hope for a peaceful and diverse future.

    Join us.


    A few thoughts from the ages:

    Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.

    Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many.

    Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.

    Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

    Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

    But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

    Buddha Kalama Sutra : (Anguttara Nikaya Vol. 1, 188-193 P.T.S. Ed.)


    The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is.

    Erasmus


    Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

    Helen Keller


    If we are really to live at all we must put our convictions into action

    Margaret Sanger


    Leave your name and address by emailing Solnx as a supporter.

    As of November 2011 we are still exploring multiple methods of bringing this into exitence. The number of supporters is growing, and not yet fast enough.

    Possibilities being explored include:

    Building a grass roots political movement;

    Building a non-profit organisation to pursue the Peace and Elimination of Poverty aspects;

    Building a multi-national corporation and inviting investors.

    These are not mutually exclusive options.


    Ted Howard, Founder
    1 Maui St, Kaikoura, New Zealand