by D G Hervey
Jon asked, “Nzos, do you believe you can get a metallurgist, perhaps one with quality control experience to join your company either as a partner or as an employee?”
She replied, “I’ve thought our rate of doing rework was high, but none of the bosses complained so I’ve just let it go. I’ll be glad to address that issue. I know just who I’ll approach to see if my firm cannot do better than has been acceptable so far.”
“I hope that works out,” Jon remarked. “I think getting such help will result in your having a better company. I hope you succeed in accomplishing that.”
So Nzos was urged to modify her proposal, at least to get a metallurgist committed to her team before Jon and Marie gave her proposal further consideration.
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A Chinese chef, Djang, as was previously specified, had her bots prepare lunch for the people of the pod despite the fact that she lived in Subtle. She had been one of the two chefs in charge of the cafeteria-style food service there. To determine what foods to include in her luncheon for the pod’s residents, she checked what was popular with four of the pod’s women when they ate in the cafeteria. For Haley, Jon, and Marie, the three who were all newly arrived on Calypso, she hoped the choices of the four others were varied enough to suffice.
Jon experienced the lunch with his usual internal conflict. He really liked Chinese food, but when he ate out back on Earth, everything had too much sodium in it for his taste. On Earth it had either too much monosodium glutamate, when it was Chinese, or too much salt almost anywhere else. He knew that, after eating the proffered lunch, his weight would be up two to three pounds for two to three days. What was worse, they were to ‘eat out’ for four lunches in a row. But he did not voice his annoyance. He wanted the food to be prepared to the taste of the younger people upon whom the success of the businesses would depended.
The group was beginning to get seated at the large table in their common room. From the entry into Tami’s quarters came an aluminum ‘paper’ airplane that sailed all the way to the table and settled on Jon’s plate.
“I see that the slow loris airline has corrected their design errors and is now poised to go into business,” responded Jon. “No crash landing here. It was a perfect touchdown on my plate.”
“I viewed a recording of the competition you had the other day after some of my pod-mates were remarking about it,” commented Djang. “Pseudo-paper airplane manufacture will no doubt extend to other pods. I believe you have started a fad. Women are conjuring up all sorts of other materials to use.”
Djang was nice, likable, and the range of offerings was great.
Jon ate heartily. He complimented, “I liked everything I tried. I especially enjoy some good wonton soup. I believe you used prawns as well as pork. They were well seasoned. I liked the variety of vegetables you included.”
“It was my mother’s wonton soup recipe,” responded Djang. “She always got compliments on her seasonings.”
After the meal Marie commented,” I don’t think that you should need financial support for your business, Djang. You seem bound to succeed.”
Djang responded, “I believe the involvement of you and Jon will increase the traffic in my establishment, and, besides, putting forth this proposal constitutes good advertising. With cameras in all of the corners of your common room, I feel sure this lunch will be widely viewed by other Subtle residents.”
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After lunch Weinfur, of Hidden, submitter of the machinist proposal, gave a presentation. Jon was fascinated by the means used to accomplish this. Obviously, there was simultaneous projection from computers in their common room and Weinfur’s location in Hidden. Clearly, Weinfur looked at her screen in Hidden, but it was not shown in Subtle’s holographic projection of Weinfur and her surroundings. From her looking at her screen, Jon concluded that it was in a slightly different relative direction from the one in their pod’s common room. He had to work at not being too distracted by the peculiarity.
Weinfur intended to have her company do rolling, forming, piercing, extruding, annealing, heat treating, and welding of any non-ferrous metal. She needed much less space and many fewer bots than Nzos for her company to accomplish her relatively modest anticipated work load. The shops she wanted for her business almost exclusively dealt with metals other than iron or steel. Metals she’d deal in included hafnium and zircalloy for the thorium breeder reactors. Additionally she’d be responsible for titanium, aluminum, and any structural metals other than steel.
One of Weinfur’s specialties was working with titanium alloys. Her proposal included quality control of titanium alloys constituents, and forming, extruding, and welding titanium products.
“Titanium products are important,” she indicated, “because Subtle’s Toroidal Ocean is encased in an unusual titanium alloy that does not corrode in the presence of seawater. Titanium’s surface immediately oxidizes when exposed to air, but it has a firmly adhering oxide. This special alloy is used in many places. The numerous large valves in place to accomplish the isolation of Subtle’s Toroidal Ocean and Hidden’s Donut Ocean are made of it. The conduits for the fresh water streams from the upper decks, those above Deck 3 of Subtle and Hidden, to their oceans use components made of this alloy.”
The shops she proposed taking over currently machine other major items. They make a wide variety of components for many different sorts of bots. Her proposed operations also include electron beam welding of hafnium, zircalloy, and other structural metals. She expects to make wire and cable of copper and other non-ferrous metals. Her shop will meet a real specialty need. It will not be in significant competition with Nzos’ company. Weinfur assured them that she can work with any of Calypso’s smelting operations as the primary suppliers of her raw materials.
What Weinfur blithely said, gave Jon pause. Where were the business women who would have companies doing smelting? Jon realized that several companies that would be needed had no proposers yet. They had no proposals for smelting operations and there needed to be many other businesses. How about retailing, drug manufacturing, electricians, plumbers, HVAC servicing, and a raft of others? He needed to talk with President Elect Agnieszka to see if she intended for the government to conduct the activities that ML’s company had been managing, or if she expected to convince some other women to take the plunge and take on the responsibility for the un-proposed activities. The group of young women on Calypso clearly were smart, and adventurous. Jon wondered, But, were they willing to take on business responsibility? They would be responsible, not just to themselves and their employees, but to the entire community, and that is a tall order.
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After Jon and Marie were finished with Weinfur, Jon asked the pod’s bot to lead him to the President Elect, whether in her offices or in her pod. She was found in her offices. It was after working hours on Jon’s time. He did not know the schedule that President Elect Agnieszka kept. He knew for some jobs there had to be three eight-hour shifts. With no actual day, anyone could be on any one of the three schedules and be working from their group’s 8 AM until their group’s 4 PM. Or perhaps the entire of Calypso kept to a single time and just Jon’s and Marie’s pod was out of sync with others. He did not know how time was managed on Calypso.
At the door into the President’s offices, the bot stopped. Jon continued into the offices.
Jon saw a young woman receptionist behind a desk and spoke to her, “Hello, I’m Jon. I would like to speak with President Elect Agnieszka when it is convenient for her.”
“Hello Jon. I’m Bettina,” she replied. “Of course I know who you are. I was at the meeting and reception that ML held for you and Marie, but I did not go through the receiving line, so you had no chance of knowing who I am. Agni is expecting you. Please go right in.”
Jon entered, talking, “It is hard to get accustomed to you young women expecting me when I have just barely made up my mind that I need to see you. Anyway, are we public or private?”
President Elect
Agni asked, “Do you ask because of what you want to discuss or because the bot that led the way here stopped at the door?”
“I do not expect privacy aboard Calypso,” Jon answered, “at least not yet, not now. But the bot stopping did seem a bit odd.”
President Elect Agni replied, “We have been private, but I will now let it be public. I feel sure that whatever has brought you here will be of interest to our citizens, but they need not be concerned with policies that have not been defined yet and may never be implemented, if that is what you are about. There is much on my mind and I look forward to the opportunity of being frank about things with you. Marie believes you to be eminently fair minded.”
“I’ve come to talk with you about what I believe must be done to maintain and grow Calypso,” stated Jon. “As you must be aware, Marie and I have been examining proposals. There are many business possibilities for which no company proposal has been made. You offered to give us a list of potential entrepreneurs for businesses to be created. You must know who has proposed and the results of the meetings and presentations so far. Are you going to shake the tree or have me do so, to see if we can get some other potential entrepreneurs to take responsibility for more of the necessary activities?”
President Elect Agnieszka responded, “I can easily give you a list. But no doubt, the comments you just made will have adequately shaken the tree, as you put it. Nevertheless, there are a variety of reasons that some business sectors are presently going wanting. The women are used to getting a salary from ML’s company. Most of them have saved almost all of it. They could and occasionally did request special goods from the other of ML’s C Developments, Earth, Mars, or the moon. They have had such an opportunity every time before ML’s Spaceship 1 was due to depart for Calypso. But ML provided quite adequately for most of our wants and needs. She wanted us to be happy here. So the first reason women haven’t proposed to form other private businesses is that venturing out from a salaried circumstance is a big step for most people. If there is any way that they may expect the government to continue what they have been doing and paying them for that, it would provide a sense of security. And you know, that’s what Marie tells you that women desire.”
“Yes,” Jon mused. “I have heard that line before.”
Agni continued, “A second reason that some are not making proposals is because they understand that there will be no way for them to continue doing what ML brought them here to do and derive sufficient income from it to be making a living at it yet. For example, we have a large number of doctors aboard and a lot of healthy young women with little need for a doctor. So instead of the doctors serving sick and ailing patients, they are generally deeply involved in various research projects that have been and will continue to be paid for by the government. Yes, we have obstetricians and gynecologists who number four, and are presently getting some business, but nothing like what one on Earth gets, where a doctor sees thousands of patients in a year. The average patient load for them on Calypso is about one hundred eighty. These doctors do artificial insemination of the women, tend to them during their pregnancies, and will deliver our daughters. Most of our surgeons, when not doing research, spend time watching operations that have been performed on Earth, and they may use a holographic projection of the patient to see what is happening. There is an old saying among doctors that when you begin practice on your own; that is, after residency, you are already five years behind where the schools are. Our doctors, wanting not to get stale in their specialties, are doing the only things available to them so they can be ready when their skills are needed.”
“That all makes good sense,” acknowledged Jon.
“We also have scientists doing research and trying to keep us up to date in their fields of specialty,” continued Agni. “If we are not to fall prey to some aggressor from Earth, we must keep up to date. For example, chip manufacturing technology and our computation capabilities will lag and our defenses won’t be adequate if we don’t keep up. At some point in time, our feed of Earth’s advances will be broken. ML will die, or her company will be taken over, or some repeater that we leave in space will malfunction. The loss will occur sometime along the way. So we need our own experts working to develop new technology to keep apace, if not ahead, of Earth’s technological advances. This is the case on many fronts, but especially with regards to computation and defense. That is a tall order for such a small population as ours. No wonder that ML brought only the brightest to Calypso.”
Jon listened attentively. “Okay,” he responded. “I understand that the government must support a lot of research and development. But businesses are needed as well.”
“A third reason for the lack of proposals is that other women hope or expect that some of their trade will be retained by the government,” Agni explained. “They hope to keep the same salary, now that they are about to have to pay for food, clothing, baby furniture, and any luxuries they desire that Calypso is equipped to provide. And there is great uncertainty regarding payment for electricity, water, sewage treatment, and sales or value added taxes. About the only thing that they have been paying for is for viewing others at their whim, using the ubiquitous cameras. Payment for that gets automatically transferred into the account of the one, or ones, being viewed, so that the payment itself is entirely painless, virtually unnoticed.”
Jon nodded his head. “Yes,” he understood. “I’ve become aware of the lack of privacy aboard.”
Wound up, Agni went on, unabated, “So tell me Jon, how do you think the transition from ML’s company running everything to private business should be made? Of what businesses, infrastructure, and services should the government divest itself? Where do we replace direct control by ML and her executives with regulatory control of a newly formed government? “
Jon asked, “For example?”
“For example,” Agni replied, “does the government just hire the artisans, architects, and craftsmen to build on to the existing structure of Subtle and Hidden to provide for the population explosion we expect? Or do we allow private developers to make a profit doing the job? In the first instance the designs would all come under the supervision of a government employee. With private developers responsible for the designs, they will have to be responsive to the pressures of the market place. Then the government will be responsible for ensuring the designs conform to whatever laws are passed but it will not be responsible for creating the designs.”
“I believe Calypso will be best served by private developers,” Jon replied. “The government structures I’ve observed are either overly majestic to inflate some politician’s ego or they tend to be dull and boring. I dislike both results.”
Agni asked, “For our growing population, should there just be added decks filling up the interior of our cylinders where there will be less than one G, or should development pursue an additional pair of counter rotating cylinders perhaps in some of the space now occupied by the large asteroid that we are purposefully slowly mining for many uses? Where do the funds come from to pay for the power that runs the walkways and, eventually, for educating our children? How does the government establish what one of the up-and-running breeder reactors should cost?”
Jon philosophized, “I personally favor sales taxes or value added taxes. I dislike property taxes as they imply that the government really owns the property, and the possessor must pay the government an annual rental to keep possession. I object to that idea. In my view, back on Earth the deer in the wild are not the king’s deer. Still, I agree with the need for governmental oversight to ensure preservation of the species.”
“The government owns over three bots for every woman citizen,” Agni stated. “What price do we charge for them when we choose to sell some? We have many types and configurations of bots to perform different jobs. What bot designs will be desired for future commercial businesses? Does the government make more and more bots to satisfy an increasing demand? I think so, but who prioritizes which type of bot gets made, so
that they are upgraded and available when needed? Does the government make only what some bureaucrat anticipates might be needed or do private manufacturers design and sell whatever bots they believe will make them a profit?”
“I believe that your decision to make our discussion public was wise,” acknowledged Jon.
“I agree,” assented Agni.
“When the government of the USA was evolving,” Jon remarked, “George Washington wanted there to be no political parties. He wanted those governing to individually evaluate what would be best for the nation as a whole. Since everyone on Calypso is now aware of the unsettled state of virtually everything, they will understand the need to be unified for the good of the whole. Thus, they can strive not to fragment into factions serving only their own self-interest.”
“That is a nice goal,” responded Agni.
“Of course, in the constitution that has passed,” Jon stated, “I have allowed for division of the citizens. But that is more to ensure some moderation in the ‘tyranny of the majority,’ to mitigate the oppression of minorities. An inherent weakness of direct democracy and majority rule, where everyone votes on everything, is that the majority can place its interests above and at the expense of a minority. Then an un-favored group of any sort, be it political, social, business, guild, racial, ethnic, or a matriarchal clan could be targeted for oppression by the majority element acting through the direct democratic processes. I tried to reduce the risk of that happening when I drafted our constitution. Another weakness of direct democracy is that it is subject to what is popular at a given moment. People can be easily swayed by the news of the day or by rumors, without adequate consideration of the long term consequences of some decision.”