Ataraxian News

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Ataraxian News

Postby TheCollectivist » Mon Oct 23, 2017 6:04 pm

Ataraxian News is the official news organization for the Ataraxian Confederation. It reports on events and opinions related to the Ataraxian Confederation, primary focusing on social, scientific and political topics. The organization is run by volunteers who reside in the various Ataraxian communes in Hutori.
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Technocracy Is a Sign of Progress

Postby TheCollectivist » Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:08 pm

October 4291

Written by: Dr. Vinal Parish, Ambassador of the Ataraxian Confederation

As we continue to replace menial labour with automation, it follows that positions of leadership will become more and more occupied by those with degrees in the STEM disciplines. Those whose prior jobs have been replaced by machines need not worry however. We are still very far away from achieving societies that need humans only for the most complicated of tasks and will still require skilled labourers to maintain the machines that do the more menial labour.

Of course the term "menial" is relative to our level of technological advancement. If we continue our pursuit of science and technology, eventually it may come to even my job (general practitioner) being replaced by an intelligent machine who will perform my job much more effectively and accurately. Before we reach that point, technology will continue to aid in my duties as a doctor, whether that be helping to collect and sort medical research, and or ensuring I am not making errors in diagnoses.

It is important to remember even for the assembly-line worker that technology ultimately assists and advances the worker. With the dawn of the computer age, we now have an entirely new category of workers whose specialty involves programming and maintaining the machines we rely on to process the heaps of information that other machines collect on a regular basis. As science discovers more solutions to what seems to be an endless list of problems, it will create new types of jobs that were either previously unknown or existed only in the realm of science fiction.

I recognize that most of these new jobs often require postsecondary education, but thankfully this is something our communes provide access to for all of our residents. We won't permit an underclass of the unemployed whose jobs have been essentially replaced by technologies to exist. We will assist them to gain the needed education to become useful members of society again. Even for those who lack the intelligence to gain a higher education, by the time we are at the point where virtually all forms of manual labour have been replaced, we will have better education and technology to improve the less mentally gifted members of society.

Personally I'm not convinced that our current manual labourers are not smart enough to be able to gain an undergraduate degree. Our communes have been careful to select only those who already have intellectual potential, even if their current use is in unskilled occupations. While some people might take longer to educate, with the environment and resources our communes can provide, I am absolutely confident that we will be able to upgrade our fellow workers' education if need arises.

Anyway, regardless of my talk of replacement and higher education, the fact stands that in the current present, we need manual workers. Not only do we need these workers, but they are just as important as doctors, scientists and engineers. Yes, it is true that doctors, scientists and engineers require more education than factory workers, but the bottom line is: without either our system will function poorly at best or grind to a halt at worst. We "eggheads" do not view your work as inferior to ours, but on the contrary, as part of a symbiotic relationship. No matter what comes of science and technology in the future, we will always find some use for all of our residents.

So, if you're seeing an increase in scientists occupying leadership positions, know that it isn't part of some conspiracy to rid manual labourers of their rightful agency, but rather a sign that our system is becoming evermore technologically advanced. If we use technology correctly, we will able to reduce our working hours, increasing the time we can spend on educating ourselves and of course, pursuing our own personal hobbies. Science has liberated us from many diseases, it has helped us reduce pain, and it has made us more informed. Surely this path has proven itself worth pursuing.
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We Must Remember Our Purpose

Postby TheCollectivist » Mon Oct 30, 2017 4:43 am

January 4295

Written by: Dr. Vinal Parish, Ambassador of the Ataraxian Confederation

However disappointing this latest election has been, I ask my fellow Ataraxians to remember our purpose: to build and maintain advanced societies. Of course, with electoral support, it makes our purpose easier, but we still mustn't lose ourselves over the result of an election. In a political climate as diverse as ours, we should be thankful to have the support we received, however small in comparison.

Never forget our accomplishments. We have managed to successfully run 64 truly utopian communities for more than a century. These communities have provided a life like no other to thousands of people. We have already proven that with the right people, we can truly make a wondrous society. From our janitors who clean our halls, to our scientists who find new ways to improve our lives, this has all been possible because of every single one of you.
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Cryobiology, Not Cryonics

Postby TheCollectivist » Sat Dec 02, 2017 11:28 pm

November 4311

Written by: Dr. Vinal Parish, Conciliator of the Commune of Lotus

A common tendency of transhumanism is to embrace non-existent, but expected future technology. While we should certainly strive towards the creation of new and better technology, we must acknowledge current limits. Take nanotechnology for example. A common misconception is that complicated mechanical machines will be able to be shrunk to a molecular scale. This unfortunately is not possible due to the physical laws of our reality. What we can do is engineer simple molecular machines, much alike to the ones already present in your own body.

What differentiates transhumanism from humanism is its willingness to use technology to radically transform society. While humanists are most certainly rationalists and supporters of science, they do not necessarily support drastic changes to the human condition, or incorporating emerging technology into society. The "Transhuman Age" is already here and has been developing for quite some time. We may not have immortality or sentient artificial intelligence, but we do have mechanical components interacting with biology. Today we have cochlear implants, bringing sound to the deaf, neural prosthetics, enabling those with limb loss to control mechanical limbs with their own brain. Vaccines, the pinnacle of modern medicine has extended our lives, drastically raising life expectancies across the world. We are in a brave new world of science and technology. The question remains, how far are we willing to go? As far as science can take us and that the laws of our physical universe will allow us to go.

Cryonics, the practice of freezing people, usually the clinically dead, with the expectation that science will find an answer in the future to recover them or cure whatever aliments they had before. This is of course is all theoretical, none of it has been backed up by any scientific evidence. We don't even know if frozen brain matter, or at least, the method in which it is frozen, will enable future recovery. Do not get me wrong, I like the idea of being able to just "freeze time" so to say when a disease or condition such as aging has brought medicine to its limits, but cryonics is not a science. For this reason, I implore my fellow Ataraxians to pursue cryobiology and regard cryonics as pseudoscience. There is no evidence any frozen human can be successfully recovered, therefore practicing or offering anyone this "service" is false hope.

With that being said, we should most definitely continue scientific research into cryobiology. Maybe one day we will be able to recover people from cryo-preservation, but until then freezing people on the promise or hope that they can be recovered is not scientifically sound. Let us devote our resources to scientific study, not false hope.
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Ataraxian Colonialism?

Postby TheCollectivist » Sun Dec 03, 2017 11:37 pm

May 4312

Written by: Lyn Kopp, Ambassador of the Ataraxian Confederation

As some of you may have heard and are probably just as surprised as I am, apparently a wealthy aristocrat from Dorvik has invited us to set up a commune in their area. Herman Faust-Essen ("HFE"), the individual in question, seems to have a great admiration for our way of life and understandably would like it to be exported to his homeland - along with some others he knows of who share his sentiments.

Some people in his nation also have ill-feelings towards us, believing us to be "socialist nutters", "hippies" and "dangerous left-wing cultists". Of course we fit the definition of neither of these, apart from maybe "socialist nutters" if one considers council communism, or using workers' councils to manage the economy to be a "nutty" idea. Well, considering our GDP per capita is 86,934 HLR, our economics are hardly nutty, but they are also hardly left-wing either. While it is true we practice council communism, we do not permit deficit spending nor do we permit vacations, retirement or any significant departure from labour (except in cases of illness). Instead, all our able members are required to work 4-6 hours daily, 365 days a year. This system of work has proven to us to greatly improve worker productivity and with the added fact that the workers have a direct say in how their workplace is run, makes them feel - and rightfully so - that they are not only "cogs in the machine", but also the conductors. Some libertarians would be pleased of our gold reserves, which we invest in and maintain for reasons pertaining to steady state economics - we refuse to live outside our means.

The best way of describing our system on the political spectrum is to call it syncretic. We combine elements from the far-left, the far-right, whatever we feel is both morally just and feasible in practice. Do "hippies" support the death penalty? How about the total and complete banning of recreational drugs? What about an all-pervasive surveillance system that monitors virtually all facets of society, especially the people watching? Where would compulsory sterilization fit in left-right politics? Is our system cult-like? I don't think so. True, we are fairly isolated from the rest of society, at least physically, but our confederation hides very little secrets, if any. Some may even question whether or not our society fits into the communal definition. All our members have their own bathrooms, bedrooms, we very much value the ability for an individual to have solitude.

As a syncretic ideology, Ataraxianism fits under the same category of many fascist ideologies, which is an unfortunate side effect of the broad category that syncretic politics is. Are we fascists? No, we lack autocratic positions of power. We do very much restrict the power of the "state", which many Ataraxians believe to be merely a bureaucratic government that operates separately from its subjects, something we lack. I guess we're just weird, but in a world such as this, a world of such great suffering and misunderstanding, being weird is not necessarily a bad thing. Anyway, people have a right to see us as whatever they wish, we respect that. Our whole ideology is based around the principle of respecting the self-determination of other societies. We also respect the freedom of thought of our own members, without the ability to think freely, the creativity, the very part of the individual that makes them functionally unique is lost. We don't value individuality in the form of wearing different clothes and having wacky hair, but rather fostering critical thinking and analysis.

Back on the topic of self-determination, will we build communes in other nations? No. The legal, political and economic challenges would be far too great. While we are flattered by this Herman Faust-Essen's invitation, our homeland is Hutori and of course the Ataraxian Confederation, which Hutori has respected as an autonomous enclave. We have no interest in building "colonies", our range of communal development is here and here alone. That said, we encourage Herman Faust-Essen and others to form their own intentional communities, built ideally upon the embrace of science and of course workplace democracy. It is our intention to be a model for future communities.
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Cryonics Banned, Science Prevails

Postby TheCollectivist » Sun Dec 17, 2017 2:32 am

December 4318

Written by: Dr. Vinal Parish, Conciliator of the Commune of Lotus

Cryonics, the pseudoscientific process of freezing clinically dead humans for "preservation" under the unproved notion that they somehow will be revived in the future, has been banned throughout the confederation. The Commune of Marattiales was the last of the communes to finally ban this pseudoscience and thus ensure all of the Ataraxian Confederation remains united in its support of the scientific method. I am not aware of any other traces of antiscience from the agrarian ways of the "Proletarian days" (Hutorian Proletarian Party), which was noted for not only supporting cryonics, but also for rejecting genetic modification. As construction for the Commune of Ataraxia is underway, it is vital that we are all ready for the future. Mind you, I was not doubtful that cryonics would be banned, I am just glad we have managed to all come to agreement before Project Ataraxia is completed.

For outsiders, the Ataraxian Confederation is a voluntary association of autonomous communes throughout Adelia, officially an enclave of the Kingdom of Hutori. We're also a political party that supports increasing the autonomy of Hutorian localities. While we have the Council of the Ataraxian Confederation, which acts as our official "legislature", it does not manage the internal affairs of the individual communes, that is up to each commune alone. However, every commune uses the same political system of unanimous consensus. This system, as its name implies, requires the absence of disagreement in order for change to occur. Since originally the communes were constructed with cryonics unbanned, banning cryonics would involve a change of policy and thus required unanimous consensus. As you can imagine, coming to a point of unanimity can take quite some time. Fortunately, we have amended ourselves to prevent much of the pseudoscience that is rampant throughout the world. Unfortunately, we have not managed to research every aspect of society, thus, sometimes, pseudoscience can "slip through the cracks" undetected. As we become evermore orientated around the scientific method, this hopefully will be less likely in the future.

Either way, we now are assured that we will never waste resources making human popsicles under the faith of some future miracle restoring them back to life. Regardless of each commune's autonomy, we are still meant to be united under the prevailing ideology of Ataraxianism, which holds science to be one of its primary precepts. Maybe someday we will be able to live forever, but we will not reach immortality by relying on pseudoscientific notions of life preservation. I remind any fellow Ataraxians with a splinter of skepticism concerning banning cryonics that under our current understanding of biology, it is impossible to revive clinically dead frozen human beings. It is irrational to invest resources that otherwise could go to proven technologies, into preserving for a manner of speaking: frozen dead people. The freezing process itself causes immense damage to cells and all available evidence discredits the possibility of reversing this damage. I recognize a corpse is more preserved frozen than decayed, but the person is still dead either way. I understand some people wanting to pursue every plausible method of self-preservation, but using unproven methods is only going to provide you false hope. I have heard proponents of cryonics tell me to disprove that it cannot work, but I am yet to see them prove that it can work. Instead of obsessing over human popsicles, lets put that energy into researching cryobiology, which is an actual accredited science.
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Ataraxian Calendar Approved

Postby TheCollectivist » Wed Dec 20, 2017 12:39 am

June 4320

The Ataraxian calendar has been approved by the Council of the Ataraxian Confederation (Ataraxian Council) and will be used as the official civil calendar in conjunction with the standard solar calendar (January - December). Line Flemming, the Conciliator of the Commune of Evimeria and an accountant, created the Ataraxian calendar back in April 4317. The calendar utilizes 5-day weeks as opposed to the 7-day weeks found in the standard solar calendar. Years last exactly 365 days, 73 5-day weeks and 19 months. Each month, apart from the last (the 19th), contains 4 5-day weeks and 20 days. The last month of the year, the 19th or officially called "Securitas" (Selucian (OOC: Latin) for "security") only has 1 5-day week.

Reasoning behind the calendar includes greater consistency in the number of days in a month and a lack of need for "weekends" since Ataraxians work all 365 days of the year (albeit with shorter daily working hours). Furthermore since Ataraxian communes are underground in predominantly artificial environments, the natural day-night cycle and seasons of the world above has little impact on Ataraxian life. Instead of getting UV exposure from natural sunlight, Ataraxians use artificial sources and may sometimes resort to vitamin supplementation for vitamin D. In the future with Project Ataraxia, underground gardens will utilize a simulated day-night cycle in hope to provide a better circadian rhythm, along with a fresher air supply. Lastly, each month in the calendar contains a particular moral theme, such as peace during "Pax", justice during "Justitia", sobriety during "Sobrietas", kindness during "Misericordia", etc.

The Ataraxian calendar will begin on the opening of the Commune of Ataraxia, which is expected to finish construction in 4328. The Ataraxian communes have yet to unanimously adopt the calender, with currently 48 of the 64 communes adopting its use internally. Flemming suspects that the calendar will be adopted unanimously by the time Project Ataraxia is completed due to the warm reception it received among the conciliators in the Ataraxian Council.
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Chancellor Lyn Kopp Gives Temelkido World Peace Award

Postby TheCollectivist » Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:39 pm

September 4330

Incumbent Chancellor Lyn Kopp has awarded Chief Minister Zlatan Temelkido of Zardugal the World Peace Award of Ataraxia for his work towards disarming his country of nuclear weapons. Temelkido is the first recipient of the award created by the Ataraxians in effort to promote and acknowledge contributions to world peace. Hutori also legislated the disarmament of their nuclear weapons in June 4329, an action initiated and led by Chancellor Kopp.
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Timmons and Rogers Given Reason and Science Award

Postby TheCollectivist » Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:08 pm

September 4334

Colonel Oscar Timmons and Lieutenant Colonel Veronica Rogers have been awarded the Reason and Science Award of Ataraxia for their achievement in space pioneering. Timmons and Rogers are the first Hutorians to have entered space and were involved in Project Lunar Arrow. The mission was conducted by the Hutorian Space Exploration & Research Agency's (SERA) Space Exploration Program and saw the launch of the Artemis Space Shuttle (designed by the Horizon Technology Corporation).

Timmons and Rogers are the first recipients of the Reason and Science Award of Ataraxia, which was created to promote and acknowledge scientific achievements throughout Terra.
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