Our asteroid survival: A fictitional history of the ten year survival of a large ELE asteroid impact by a small, pre advised, group

by Lionel Woodhead

  The design and manufacture of simple batteries was another basic requirement. Although we then had many modern batteries we knew they would function for only a limited period. We had many rechargeable batteries but these also would not be long term solutions. In addition the battery chemicals were dangerous to life and we would have to dispose of them before, or at least immediately, they showed signs of leakage. The disposal and storage of these items was into seal-able glass jars, of which we still had a considerable number, in case the material so recovered could be reused. We had to ensure that nothing that even might be useful would be wasted as even now, ten years after the apocalypse, much cannot currently be reproduced.

  Our battery expert was given the task of developing a low tech solution to the production of an acceptable portable battery. The manufacture of a battery was not a problem but what was required was a portable system that would be none leaking, reliable and rechargeable. In the early days this meant modern lead acid technology and these would push the limits of what could be considered man portable. A charged lead acid cell gives slightly more than two point one volts so even an old fashioned six volt system required three lead acid cells which, to hold a useful charge, weighs about half a kilogram and much of our modern equipment required a fifty volt battery. For this reason the design and creation of a man portable unit, within a reasonable period, would be problematical.

  We required a long term primary energy generation solution which, in the medium term, would have to be steam, wind or hydro or possibly all of the above. Our steam expert had been working on a solution for some time but we did not expect any high technology solution in the near future. In the short term, however, we were not disappointed with his efforts; in fact we were all full of praise.

  He was at that time building a larger version of the two small units he had brought with him. These simple systems were inefficient compared with turbines but they worked. They were the generators of hope in that they produced electricity using material we would be able to obtain from our local environment; that being wood. The system was potentially a sustainable solution to our original long term energy needs. There were problems, however, for example the energy required to produce pressure chambers or to connect tubes capable of transmitting safely relatively high pressure steam within the unit itself.

  The production of some resistive insulation medium, other than paper or cloth, for plating or painting onto copper wiring was required and this was left to our hard working chemist. The extrusion of wire was yet another medium term necessity related to the manufacture of electrical equipment. The number of interesting tasks we would have to learn would occupy us during our incarceration. In the early days we expected, at the very least, to have an interesting time.

  Over the next few months we allocated personnel to research projects. Initially this allocation was to volunteers and later to qualified conscripts; none of whom raised any objections to their inclusion in a project. It was considered, by everyone, to be an honour to be allocated to a team similar to an allocation to a football team.

  The term qualified, in many cases, was based on considered capability rather than paper qualifications. Though paper qualifications are a good indicator of potential some of our technical requirements were not covered by any of our inmate’s qualifications or experience. Being capable, for us, meant having the ability to accumulate and apply knowledge and sometimes to be able to think out of the box.

  Another basic requirement for any project team members was that they could get on with each other. This capability was considered a high priority. It was this that occasionally had the potential to break down a team to a point that the members of that team requested external arbitration. Fortunately this requirement was rare and happily the problem only broke up one team during our time in the shelter. That project was restarted with reallocated personnel but it was very unsettling to everyone concerned.

  During this early period our “original group”, decided to make some decisions for the future development of our society. The original meeting was arranged as a means of uniting our society but rapidly developed into a discussion that demonstrated the almost universal dissatisfaction with our previous world order. Everybody wanted to consider options as to how we should develop our new world.

  It was unanimously decided that the parasitic, elitist, professional politician and the related undemocratic party system would not be allowed. We had all seen the failings of such systems. In our future political system the representative of a constituency would remain the servant of that constituency and would never be allowed to become a party member. We would never allow political parties to develop as these had proven divisive and easily controlled by corruption of many forms. We decided that the controlling of parliamentary delegates by the corruption of party members would be illegal and punishable in the courts. Our representatives would support their constituents and not wealthy or powerful individuals who could purchase parties as a package. The infliction of friends of senior party members into constituencies arranged by party leaders to ensure friends at voting time could hardly be called democratic.

  The election of representatives to a forum, within a party system, resulted in those representatives (servant of the people) transferring their allegiance to a party (paid for by commercial groups) rather than to their constituents. In any future democratic system within our political order this would be unacceptable. Similarly the professional lobbyist, whose job was, in reality, to pressurize the representative of the people to the lobbyist’s (rather his employers) point of view, would also not be tolerated.

  It was unanimously decided that we would never again allow a political class even to exist. Our representatives would never be allowed to see themselves as elite. They would, in our new world, be representatives of the people at a committee and remain the servants of the people and not become their leaders. They would meet occasionally to resolve problems affecting the people and where necessary suggest rules or changes to rules, decided by the representative’s constituents which could, under certain circumstances, then be rejected by the people. For their visit to the forum the representatives would receive fixed expenses.

  The only semi professional representative, at these meetings, would be the elected president and he would be almost powerless except to arrange and manage the meetings where representatives would take decisions. He, or his deputy, would have a casting vote; but only if this was requested by the members of that forum.

  All future elections of representatives would be confirmed by manual count, no electronic counting; it being too easy to defraud. All voting would be by secret ballot. Secret ballot would be the rule except within the forum of representatives. Those chosen as representatives would never be volunteers as such personalities had been demonstrated as contrary to those required of a representative.

  We would never again allow career politicians; this idea had worked very well in ancient Greece and could do so again. A person would be put forward by a group who considered him to be the best person by qualification, attitude and presentation for the task rather than the best talker and/or friend of a party leader. After the initial plebiscite a choice would be made, by the entire constituency, from those chosen by the primary groups. Those chosen would have, at least, a minimum, not then undefined, level of education.

  The election of a president and his deputy, for a potential period of four years, would be allowed but they would merely act as the chairmen to the forum of representatives. This president or, in some cases, his deputy would be able to declare an emergency situation where he could take some dictatorial powers; but only for the period, initially, of seven days while the forum considered what action to take. If the presidential declaration of an emergency was later considered, by over sixty percent of the forum, to have been invalid he, deputy or president, would be removed from office and a new president or deputy voted into this honouree position for the remainder of the term. The president, or his deputy, could al
so be removed from office by a sixty percent contrary vote called for by twenty five percent of the forum.

  All ministers would be elected for the post by the forum of representatives. This election would be bound by the rule that all candidates for a ministry would, as a priority, be technically qualified in the purpose of their ministry. Initially, of course, we had no need of ministers as the group was too small but we had observed the problems caused by poorly qualified, incompetent ministers; especially those so arrogant that they did not even listen to their experts.

  When we achieved higher population numbers an alternative form of government, by a system of voted representatives of constituencies designed by the people, would be instigated. Those elected would remain the servants of the people and nothing more. Their task would be supporting, in the forum, their constituent’s requirements. In the event of severe failure of a representative they could be removed by a vote of no confidence by the forum. Never again would they be seen as leaders as had been designed by historic aristocrats in the pre-impact world.

  For our future constitution we intended to take, as our initial basic model, the early American constitution as, before it was so blatantly corrupted in the late 20th and early 21 century, this constitution was considered by almost all people to be the best ever constructed. As it states in its preface it was “created by the people for the people” but was degraded by a new version of American aristocracy based on excessive family fortunes being misused to increase their own power.

  In spite of the above I will always be proud of the fact that I became the first president even before my injuries rendered me of limited physical use. At that time, because of our limited numbers, all those over 16 years of age were allowed to participate in any discussions. During these discussions it was my task, as president, to try and keep control and direct the discussion. In other words I was a simple chairman - not a speaker. We also allocated an experienced secretary to the forum who tried to précis the discussions on that then rare commodity: paper. Once confirmed by the forum these précis became public documents.

  In our new system waste was not tolerated and, where possible, everything that could be, would be, recycled almost regardless of physical cost. We planned to mine old landfills for materials so wastefully disposed of before our current civilisation. We expected that this would be more productive than ordinary mining as it would only involve local, surface mining. We hoped that this would require no digging, tunnelling or, except in extreme circumstances, the use of explosives. Our small store of explosives had, during this time, to be used with discretion.

  The “original group”, largely consisting of qualified professionals with a scientific or manufacturing backgrounds or experienced specialist workers, developed plans for our medium and long term existence. We unanimously agreed that we would not allow independent banks. In this we especially included such parasitic principles as fractional reserve banking, fiat currency and usury interest.

  Fractional reserve banking, taken to extreme limits, allowed banks to obtain over one hundred percent interest on deposits whilst paying the depositor a small percent on his money. Even this level of profit had been insufficient for some banks and they failed to note that every unit reward they took from the financial system had to be earned by some form of real added value. They further appeared not to understand that production units were liable to lose their productive capability by being under capitalized as the banks hoarded their profits to their owners.

  These actions had been especially noted during the bank bailouts, using taxpayer’s money, in the financial disasters of 2008, 2030 and 2039. The money received by the banks as support, at very low interest and against the wishes of over 80% of the population in all cases, was then not used for the purpose for which it was provided: Credit for production. It was used merely to improve the capitalization of the banks so providing ever larger bonuses for management whilst destroying once solvent businesses and creating the basis for further financial disasters. In reality the debts of the banks, created by colossal greed, were transferred to the people.

  In our new future any privately owned national banks who printed unsupported money (fiat money out of air) on which they then charged interest would be charged with a criminal offense. We would never again allow fiat money especially money produced from air by debt which had created the countries national debts. In the future all monetary units would be produced by the state, in the current situation this meant our group of inmates, and it would always have some form of value support. Debt slavery would be outlawed from our society. Excessive buildup of wealth, and hence power, would, similarly, be controlled by taxation which would then be used to support the state. A creator of companies or a developer of a useful product would be allowed to reap considerable rewards but even this would be restricted to the product or companies benefits and would never again allow creators to enslave the populace.

  With regards to future taxation it was decided that no-one would be taxed on any salary obtained by work but a small amount of credit would be taken from production and excessive wealth to cover required expenditure incurred by the deliberations of the forum of the people’s representatives. The amassing of wealth would be encouraged to a point but beyond that, where wealth might result in excessive power, this would be controlled by taxation though productive assets (to be defined at some future time) would not be included in general taxation or death duties as damaging such possessions could be counter productive.

  In our future outside the shelter seed money for projects would be issued without interest, to accepted projects, by the state controlled banks. The returns to the general population would be based on a share of some form of benefit being returned to the society; this idea is based on Islamic banking principles which bans interest but allows investment. Such a development, if properly controlled, appeared to the “original group” to be an optimum solution to what had often been potentially dangerous to the countries’ finances.

  We had all seen banks becoming parasitic, due to unbelievable human greed, sucking finance out of the productive economies (Which incidentally make money allowing the banks to make a profit) to the detriment of the population. The idea that a notional monetary unit could be increased in value using manipulation (unbalanced derivatives etc.) had, in all our minds, been proven a dangerous fallacy. The excessive holding of money or financial units by individuals had evolved into power over countries removing the freedoms of the many. This would be unacceptable to the point of punishment in our new society.

  The increase in the recovery of necessary materials or the production of goods required by the people is, and we hoped it would always be, the sole improver of the finance of both the state and the people. This increase of the true wealth would allow the support of essential personnel, outside of the productive elements of society, such as those providing medical assistance, police, military and the teachers of our future generations. It was unanimously accepted that medical treatment would always be free at the point of delivery to all members of our society and to anyone else who could benefit. This latter generosity would be limited by the costs, not necessarily financial, becoming too high for our society to bear. We decided, however, that we would always consider any request for medical aid.

  Those non productive but essential units would always be supported and managed not by politicians but by members of the medical group, police, and teachers, they being the experts in their specific field. The financing of these units would, however, be monitored by our representatives. The same rules would apply to all social benefit groups such as cleaners, civil servants and a defensive military.

  My experience as a lecturer and qualifications as a researcher in high technology satellite and planetary communications were unfortunately of little use to any, then current, project groups. It was, therefore, necessary for me to find alternative uses for my talents whilst I upgraded my education to meet the then requirements. Initially I became a military defender
under Fabio, a part time teacher of physics and mathematics and a special assistant to any group that might request my assistance based on my broad spectrum expertise. I also had the honour of being voted into the position of president. At that stage this latter element of my work took very little of my allocated time being of limited importance and a very part time task.

  We were initially a communistic based society this being the political system most advantageous to small populations where all are involved in decision making such as the kibbutzim of Israel. In larger groups such an idealistic system cannot work and we would have to develop a system that the majority would accept. We would, however, stick to our basic premise that it would be based on a non party system.

  In the short term, until a suitable credit unit had been decided upon, money and taxation was not considered implementable as everything was currently held, in trust, by the state; meaning, in our specific case, the community of our shelter.

  The judicial system would be implemented by the community and completely separated from any form of executive. No person would ever again be above the law. The non violent rules of the ten commandment of the bible, apart from adultery which would have presented too many problems in a society which would later be striving for numerical recovery and genetic diversity, would be the initiator of proceedings. The defence of the law in a court would be non adversarial as this turns justice into a crude game. Being incompetent in this area we left the methods and rules for others to decide at some later date.

  During these discussions the work on the shelter continued. An inventory of items within the shelter was created by organizing of fundamentals into different elements (we could not waste paper) and these were then arranged into related stores. Meals were cooked, the shelter was cleaned, the energy distribution system was rearranged and improved and the ventilation system optimized. Weapons use and basic military techniques were taught to all who requested it.