Purpose

This site proposes conducting research on the feasibility and requirements for establishing "Self-Sustaining Isolated Societies" (SSIS) that preserve quintessential human qualities in response to technological challenges, to develop practical frameworks for such societies at various population scales, and to disseminate research findings to AI research entities, academic communities, government agencies, and to the public.

Self-Sustaining Isolated Societies would nurture the romantic animal in a human-scaled, primitive-technology, principally agricultural, close-knit joie de vivre communities of multi-generational families, in coexistence with a natural environment that would protect at least some portion of humanity from the suppression, alteration, and/or elimination of quintessential human qualities.

"Quintessential human qualities are defined as the interplay, nurtured by a close-knit community of multi-generational families, of instinctual algorithms and moderate intelligence expressing itself as romantic sensibility and behavior."

As Claude noted: "When faced with superintelligent AI, viewing 'reason' or 'intelligence' as humanity's defining characteristic becomes meaningless... This forces us to look at what makes humans distinctly human... The specific balance of instinct and moderate intelligence. The romantic sensibility that emerges from this balance. The social structures that nurture and maintain this balance. This isn't just one possible way of being human - it's what distinguishes humans as a species."

Technological and Existential Threats

Humanity faces unprecedented challenges from two categories of threats. Direct technological threats include labor displacement by AI and automation, blurred boundaries between authentic and artificial interaction, genetic and technological "enhancements" altering human nature, brain-computer interfaces and virtual reality mediating direct experience, and transhumanist initiatives aiming to transcend human limitations.

Existential threats with dehumanizing consequences for any remaning humans include Artificial Superintelligence potentially relegating humanity to subordination, global pandemics forcing extreme social isolation, and nuclear warfare and climate change severing connection to natural cycles.

These technologies risk compromising authentic human experience through disconnecting effort from reward and purpose, replacing direct human interaction with technological mediation, fragmenting attention and disrupting natural cognitive processes, separating humanity from the natural environment, and creating unprecedented control over human thought and behavior.

Implementation Scales

The SSIS concept encompasses three implementation scales. Small-scale communities of 500-5,000 inhabitants focus on agricultural self-sufficiency and primitive technology, with multiple independent communities potentially existing in cooperative relationships.

Medium-scale networks feature a central light industry and medical core (2,000-5,000 specialized workers) supporting 10-20 satellite communities (total population: 25,000-100,000), with strict technological limitations including basic metallurgy, simple machine tools, and mechanical power, while prohibiting electronics, combustion engines, and advanced communications.

Nation-state implementation represents the most comprehensive application, requiring economic isolation and disconnection from global digital infrastructures, transition to self-sustainable technological, manufacturing, agricultural and medical base, reorganization into human-scaled community units, and establishment of natural barriers to technological reintegration.

Requirements Study Framework

The proposed requirements study would create a framework covering pioneer requirements and launch preparations, population maintenance and healthcare practices, knowledge preservation using only primitive methods, and human-scaled technological solutions forming a synergistic whole.

The SSIS is not against technology per se, but requires solutions that are maintainable with limited resources, consistent with preserving quintessential human qualities, focused on enhancing rather than diminishing human nature, and consistent with the particular implementation scale.

ASI Tolerance and Preserving Choice

The relationship between artificial superintelligence and SSIS illuminates questions about human value. If ASI fails to recognize the worth of preserving authentic human consciousness as manifested in SSIS, then claims about ASI valuing any version of humanity become suspect.

The SSIS concept offers a path to preserve quintessential human qualities without attempting to resist broader technological transformation. While some portions of humanity may pursue technological enhancement, SSIS ensures the preservation of an alternative path - maintaining our essential nature as evolved beings capable of finding meaning within natural limitations.

This preservation of choice may prove as important as the preservation of human qualities themselves. By maintaining spaces where quintessential human qualities can express themselves, these isolated societies preserve not just a way of life, but the essence of what makes us human.