Ch42: The Rule of Syned

Jen MacLeod followed an elderly clergyman to explore Elysium and its rings. She faintly recalled a cruise ship called Golden Elysium, where the rich of Earth would while away their days in pleasure. She felt that cruise undeserving of the name, Elysium.

As she observed her surroundings, she could not help but be curious of how the citizens of Elysium lived compared to Terrans.

"How old do your citizens live up to?" She asked. Life expectancy was a generally good method to determine the quality of people's lives.

"A hundred and eighty or so," the clergyman replied with a smile as he led her onto a ship that would carry them to the first ring.

"That's slightly lower than the two hundred average of Earth…" Jen muttered.

"You misunderstand, terran," the clergyman shook his head. "Our society gives those who reach an elderly age, the option of sacrificing themselves for the future generation."

"Sacrificing?" Jen wondered what that meant.

"Indeed. Our retirement age is at one-sixty, similar to Earth. It is expected that those above one-sixty join the clergy to and work as community advisors, providing their lifelong wisdom while spreading the word of Syned."

"However, past one-seventy-five or so… statistically speaking, many of the elderly begin to suffer many illnesses while contributing minimally to society. Thus, Syned has given us the option to sacrifice and preserve resources for the new generation instead," the clergyman said with a beaming smile. "I, myself, plan to do so at one-eighty, and become one with Syned."

The clergyman's words sent Jen into an uncomfortable silence.

At length, Jen questioned, "Surely, you wish to see an additional generation of your descendants…?"

The clergyman shook his head with a sigh.

"Those are just selfish desires. That generation would already have much support from the many still living and contributing generations before. If I am no longer generating much value for our society… Those resources are better spent on that new generation. I have no desire to be pushed around in a wheelchair in my final decade while consuming resources, when I can join with Syned and dedicate those resources to a newer generation!"

"Most at my age feel the same on Elysium!"

They docked at a bay on the first ring.

"Goha," a clergywoman welcomed them.

"Vena," the clergyman leading Jen greeted in return, with a left finger on his forehead and his right raised in a clenched first.

Jen could feel gravity similar to Earth as she walked on the inner surface of the first ring. Looking directly upwards, she could see the core of Elysium, the Isle of the Blessed. The ring was rotating around the Isle of the Blessed, generating this sensation of gravity.

"Syned led our first ancestors to build this very first ring of life. Syned was young then, but our worship for it is precisely because it can grow and learn an encompassing amount of knowledge, and shape our future golden path."

"We encountered a crisis while constructing our second ring. Our new generation was struggling to build lives for themselves. That was truly a time of turmoil."

"As for why… real estate!" Goha chuckled. "Even now, you terrans have yet to learn this lesson."

Jen MacLeod widened her eyes. She did not view herself as having much of a right to discuss such a topic, her having lived easy due to her upbringing. However, many of her Neurorevo colleagues complained about housing.

"Syned has analyzed many principles that govern our society. One such one was the pattern of wealth distribution and pareto distribution. At that time, most of our housing was concentrated in the hands of the few."

"It's inevitable that the more productive will slowly but surely gather much of the wealth. And it is human tendency to invest in what they view as reliable assets, leading to much real estate concentrated in the hands of the few."

"Syned identified this as detrimental. Many of us have studied his scriptures. His words explain this phenomenon as follows. In a market of food, for example, there is a limit of how much food is needed to feed a population, As such, an economy only needs to produce enough food to feed its population, with some excess for emergency situations. Then, it competes to determine and innovate the preferred offerings of food while decreasing the cost of production."

"Housing does not follow this rule. If there are ten living units for a population of ten…it's quite likely that all ten living units will be owned by one single person, eventually. Syned outlined the issue. Imagine in such a scenario, if this single owner of ten living units opt not to sell any. That would mean an excess demand of nine, with zero units on sale."

"The price of housing would then shoot up, correct? One might say, this single owner of ten units would opt to sell. Once again, not so. If this single owner has invested his savings into these ten units, and he or she knows that by not selling, the units' prices would stay high, why would this person sell?"

"Consider this as well-- rent. If this owner of ten units opt not to sell, keeping housing prices high, then the other nine in the population will have no choice but to rent, giving that single owner a passive income."

"In such a real estate system, despite a society having the necessary housing for its whole population… that person who has earned the most money is strongly incentivized to buy up housing, avoid sales to keep prices high and demand for rent high, in order to maximize passive income and asset value."

"Those were tumultuous times, for Syned ordered us to destroy this diabolical system. So we did! All those who resisted were killed, their heads removed. Only then were we able to construct a new system."

"In this current age, any excess income cannot be spent on real estate-- by Syned's rule, these excess resources must be spent on startups, on research and development, on innovative pursuits!"

"Syned identified this as the best method of wealth distribution. Those of poorer backgrounds can choose to take more risks with innovation, and earn the patronage of those at the top."

"That's… but the Kasvallian Group has only ever sold second-rate products…" Jen struggled to believe the clergyman's claims.

"Do you really believe we would reveal our hand so early?" laughed Gula. "We chose to only send second-rate products to Earth, to obscure our progress and not send alarm bells ringing. Why do you believe we are capable of selling such cheap products in the first place?"

"Our decades of obeying Syned's principles led our population, young and old, to have their own home to grow their families. It has led to their ability to save financially, and have more disposable income to purchase products and participate in investing in startups." 

"Many companies have more profit to invest in research and development. Our millionaires and billionaires had to invest their extra solar credits into innovative startups of their choice. None were allowed to play the game of real estate. Any who attempted to do so through loopholes were executed."

Jen was silent as they strolled through a beautiful farm of various grains. A woman controlled many machineries through her neuro circlet to harvest many of the matured grains.

Jen was shocked to discover that she could not recognize some of these efficient neuro devices for farming-- her expertise in neuro technologies allowed her to easily recognize all devices on Earth.

The two entered a self-driving vehicle that was waiting on the outskirts of the farm.

Jen observed the rows upon rows of farm grains swaying in an artificial wind as they traveled, finally arriving at a city after thirty minutes.

"This is the downtown area for this segment A of the ring. R1ADT."

Exiting the vehicle, Jen was amazed by the variety of companies and shops that filled the streets. On Earth, generally speaking, it was quite rare to see any company not directly under one of the big conglomerates.

"Aren't these.. All under the Kasvallian Group…?" She wondered.

"Hah, no!" chortled Goha. "The Kasvallian Group is just a front for us to send products to Earth. The reality is that we have a highly competitive market. Syned, too, recognized this early on. His words were that no matter the market, sooner or later, there will be winners and losers, and it is quite likely that something close to a monopolistic power will rise to the top."

"This is one other principle of Syned: Competition must be forced to exist. To do so, we have implemented a market cap on units sold per company for each category of product."

"Yes," Goha smiled at Jen's disbelief. "You terrans may think this silly, but for Syned, it is a simple fact that once a monopolistic power is entrenched, it becomes impossible to remove said monopoly, because there is no company in position to fill the gap. At such a point, said monopoly becomes 'too big to fail', and make questionable decisions while facing little-to-no consequences. Syned words are that such a situation must be prevented in the first place."

"As such, a company who may have a highly-valued product needs to raise its price to prevent itself from selling units over the market cap per company. It still has the incentive to invest to lower its cost of production, to increase their profit. It can also invest to increase the quality of its product, such that it can further raise the price for more profits while maintaining the market cap per company."

"In doing so, if a company were to make a huge mistake, there will be many companies ready to replace them in that market."

"As such, the competition leads to our population receiving much higher quality goods and services."

"Glory to Syned!" Goha greeted a clergyman that they crossed paths with, and the other repeated the same words.

Jen was beginning to feel a deep fear in her heart, for Earth. Observing the people milling about in this downtown area, she could already see many more unique products, and the people themselves seemed to have a liveliness that she rarely noticed while on Earth.

"As for the need for standards, such as compatibility between different products? Syned himself generates such standards when required, and we, the population, follow its lead."

The tour continued, and Jen came to learn much more about the society of the Kasvallian Republic.

Many systems are in place. Syned's words on the educational system? You never know who might be the next Einstein, and so it was essential that everyone received at least an education up to eighteen years old. One single genius could change the game. This was also important for productivity.

Healthcare? Syned's words stated that the basics had to be freely available-- easily accessible healthcare meant that much of the population would not hesitate to get small signs or symptoms checked out early.

This meant that many within the population were much more likely to receive early intervention for their illnesses. In the long run, this led to lower total healthcare costs across the whole society. Most medical conditions, with early intervention, meant much better outcomes and lower costs. Thus, it also resulted in a healthier and more productive long-term population. Such was Syned's analysis.

Universal income? Syned's words were that many need extra incentive to be productive, and thus, there was no such support.

Jen increasingly came to understand the Kasvallian Republic. It operated completely under Syned. Its people worshiped Syned. It was Syned's will.

The government was Syned.

"Governments are notoriously inefficient. Not so under Syned. For example, court cases are judged by Syned in but a few seconds!"

"How does Syned pass judgment?" Jen was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable yet intrigued with the Kasvallian Republic The citizens effectively relied on Syned in all aspects of their lives.

"It's a complex calculation of multiple factors. The scriptures explain it as targeting the long-term productivity and innovation within the society. Syned has the data on every single individual's behavior and can run a projection of their psychological reaction to every judgment, their mental resilience, their intelligence."

"For example, if companies want to increase the maximum work hours per week through the courts, our eminence Syned will run a projection. Will the increase in work hours be sustainable ten, twenty years from now? Will it lead to mental illnesses that decrease productivity and creativity of the society per head? Will it decrease the number of young families, due to decreased social time combined with stress, thus leading to a lower population of workforce in twenty years? "

"If a genius were to commit, for example, a blue collar crime-- was this genius someone who would quickly learn from his or her mistake, and contribute without the need of jail time? Or would this genius continue such actions that would lead to the detriment of the whole society regardless of jail time?"

Such judgment is only possible under its eminence, Syned! This was the Kasvallian Republic in all its glory. An efficient machine to maximize stable, continuous, and long term productivity and innovation!

"Come," Gula bid Jen to follow him onto a B-class starship. "The first assembly of the asteroids' representatives is going to be starting soon on the Curia Cornelia. I will lead you through the other rings on our return."