TC's Shape

Polar Governance

By John Taylor; 2007 July 15

"Through war, through the taxing and never-ending accumulation of armament, through the want which any state, even in peacetime, must suffer internally, Nature forces them to make at first inadequate and tentative attempts; finally, after devastations, revolutions, and even complete exhaustion, she brings them to that which reason could have told them at the beginning and with far less sad experience, to wit, to step from the lawless condition of savages into a league of nations." (Immanuel Kant, Cosmopolitan History, Seventh Thesis, p. 256)

Let us imagine that Kant's prediction plays out and that a world government has been set up at the South Pole by a human race with no time for pomp, ritual or ceremony, with a sense of urgency and of deep disappointment with its "sad experience" with nationalism, war and the systematic rape of our fair planet. This feeling is reflected in the design and architecture of Terra City (TC).

Under the central geodesic dome of TC, around its outside edge live and work continental delegates and other staff, most of whom rotate in, are rapidly trained, consult upon specific goals for a few months, and then return to consummate their service on the continental level. High turnover is designed into the genes of this institution not just to reduce inertia but mostly to spread the spirit of polar governance to as many statespersons, civil servants, educators and specialists from as many walks of life as possible. They come, get their work done and return home to implement what they came here to initiate. Unlike past parliaments, this is a degree granting institution. If they succeed in their goals for coming here, they are automatically awarded a special accreditation, as world citizen, as world-class civil servant, or some other form of specialist diploma.

The first task at TC in these early years is to build data central for the planet earth, to orchestrate a plan to combat its many human, environmental and climate crises. Especially at first, our world government concentrates on planning and lets each continental union implement the plan according to local conditions. Relieved of the burden of performing executive functions, TC concentrates on establishing standards for whatever is world-class in every specialty and walk of life, starting with the character and lifestyle of the average world citizen. This, it is agreed, is the only realistic way to reduce our collective environmental footprint enough to survive as a species.

For now, rules and laws are not prime concerns; these are made on the continental, national and local levels. Terra City specializes in standardizing and coordinating lawmaking, not on legislation itself. It has a direct interface with the Primus Cities on each continent where it sets the agenda for officially run forums and conferences dealing with every general problem, crisis and issue facing the human race. Like veins and arteries pumping blood in both directions through a heart, these conferences, held locally, nationally and continentally, feed information, experience and wisdom back and forth, both to and from the world capitol. TC circulates blood, it does not use muscle.

Residential and recreational units around the edge of the main dome surround several large conference rooms resembling ancient Greek theatres; on stage is a large screen that acts as a two-way link to a media center and computer room backstage. This overhead screen is mediated by the most technologically sophisticated conferencing software in the world.

In the conference rooms many conversations are always going on at once, but only those directly concerned see them. Each delegate has a computer screen at her desk; a larger screen connects her with about a dozen neighbors, who are coworkers specially chosen for the occasion. Then on a large screen overhead is a screen displaying information needed by all present. On each display a delegate sees a unique split-screen display customized to his or her purpose for being there. When a conclusion from a given group's deliberations is arrived at, this goes to the whole room, where broader decisions are discussed and voted upon. All final results go directly to a data processing farm backstage called Media Central.

Media Central is both a sound and video production studio and a software laboratory. The scene here behind the main screen resembles the mission control room of a space mission. Here the fruits of the on-going conference are turned expeditiously into finished presentations distributed immediately to continental capitals and the media at large.