Water metaphorically embodies the Concert Hall and Love’s concept of Complete Information. This means Citizens attempt to limit barriers to communication and accountability – fostering the return of emotional and informational Ripples to their source. For Citizens to access any degree of their Ripples’ details – how their interactions truly affect each other – a radically different type of social contract is practiced by the Water Bodies. Punishment is replaced by accountability. No longer is justice and retribution the goal, but empathy and communication, the priority. Outside the actual Concert Hall, the process of Complete Information is impossible, and in this Novel Universe, must be simulated to the best of the citizenry’s abilities. In doing so, a new kind of society arises, one based on intentional, vulnerable participation – on what is often difficult, but what is true (Love). While the process may include Community Sages in more difficult circumstances, Citizens are encouraged to share their Ripples directly, a skill not easily realized, but one that is fundamental to the cohesive nature of the Water.
A neural-democracy, actively practiced by its citizenry, constitutes a Water Body’s “mind,” its Higher-Order Conductor. To the degree possible, Citizens resist the manipulation of money, status of hierarchy, violence of ownership – all those structures associated with Power. Established through our neural-democracy to symbolize the Concert Hall’s occupants, Water-based laws attempt to maximize transparency, and equalize access to health, safety, and resource, ensuring an environment conducive to the intentionally vulnerable participation (Love) of its membership – the foundational conditions for the return of those Ripples. Bodies in habitual or egregious violation of this standard are subject to disillusionment, as directed by the River.
Members with affiliations based on their Pillars’ common interests are known as Assembly Spheres; whereas a group of tight-knit friends or literal family are known as Family Spheres. Any number of members (more than one) who wish to live by the principles of Love under a shared Primary Organizing Pillar might join together as a Sphere, a virtual or physical connection with each other based upon an agreed Charter, approved by the River – more aspirational than structural, Charters are a Cult Body’s least formal founding document. Any Sphere, or collection of Spheres with a sufficient number of members, may unify under a common POP, request the River creates and maintains a permanent, physical Community for them, and participates with their Sages in the founding of their Community’s Constitution, a formal governing document with neural-democracy at its core. Consent and complete adherence to this Constitution is required for anyone wishing to reside within the Community’s boarders for any length of time. Communities are the only Cult Body requiring a physical location, as this provides Citizens a safe, enclosed, physical space to simulate the vulnerable state of the Concert Hall’s Complete Information. Through a neural-democracy, Spheres and Communities establish laws to self-govern the day-to-day expression of their Primary Organizing Pillar. Though these laws tightly bind Citizens, Orphan Spheres – Spheres not part of a Community – are lightly regulated, so far as they practice neural-democracy and adhere to their Charter and POP.
The total number of Citizens in a Community is based on Dunbar’s number, between 50–250 persons, with the optimal count being around 150. This is an ideal cognitive limit to the number of stable, interpersonal relationships one might maintain, highlighting the natural constraints on the size and complexity of our social networks, impacting how we interact, establish various levels of intimacy, and even organize ourselves to perform common tasks or goals. Adhering to Dunbar’s number, ensures the citizenry’s self-knowledge – how humans have instinctually banded together throughout time, as our brains are not wired for an excessive number of intimate ties.
Directly scaling a neural-democracy beyond Dunbar’s number creates difficulties for cohabiting members, that must be generally resisted without considerable countermeasures. Instead of a Community of 500 members, it is better split into, at minimum, two Communities. A minimum of two Communities can be considered by the River Sages to be designated a “City,” the next level of organization around a POP when a group of members gets too large, both in the number of Citizens and scope of their POP’s goals and priorities. When organizing members into Water Bodies, smaller numbers with a more narrow focus of their POP better facilitate intimacy – a core characteristic of Love. On the other hand, amounts lower than Dunbar’s number make the expression of a neural-democracy dubious, as a neural-democracy requires numerous connections to function, just as many synapses connect a variety of neurons to create a single brain.
Without adherence to Dunbar’s number, social decision-making structures are subject to issues like prestige-biased learning, where an outside “celebrity” has an outsized effect on voters’ behavior. In groups of unlimited size, people tend to silo their views among the like-minded, obscuring trends among its population, whether productive or counterproductive. As member concerns develop, it can be difficult to recognize and address these “hidden” issues by the wider electorate before they create tension and fissures among the citizenry. Within Communities of appropriate size, the expression of authentic, inside membership preference is key to a useful neural-democracy. When the people in a Community interact on a regular basis, they come to understand each other as the experts on their Community’s wants and needs, and better share those developing concerns before they take root and create division. When they don’t, the Community splinters, either lurching back-and-forth between extremes, or paralyzing in place. Either way, the ability to find common ground is compromised, resulting in unnecessary suffering, as the Community’s true preferences are obscured by outside influence.
Communities are supported, overseen, and managed by the River, with “ownership” in-common among the citizenry inside the Communities – in many ways, each Community functions like a commune, or kibbutz. All NUC property is owned by the Cult and managed by the River. Once a Community has passed a new law, the River will lend support, financial or otherwise, to see the law enacted to the best abilities of the River and Community.
A Civilian (outside a Community) may own property etc., but as a Citizen (inside a Community), a member lives an entirely different life, where individual ownership is replaced with the concept of occupation. If one is not capable of occupying a thing, it cannot “belong” to them – in Communities, there are no owned yet unoccupied homes. Without Power, Communities have no incentive for extravagance, no structure of status. Beyond the aesthetic quality of fine craftsmanship, all Community property serves its intrinsic Community purpose, transcending any social signal of individual success or failure.
The Novel Universe Cult adopts this “occupation” concept as a guideline for the purpose of balancing the resources of a Community with the needs of its citizenry – supplying items that are both useful and desirable. There’s a spectrum of use-cases for different things that fall in and out of exclusive versus inclusive practical use. For instance, a vehicle is at one end, easily shared among many; but a toothbrush, at the other, and should not be shared. A bedroom, or a piece of protective equipment, may or may not be shared, depending on the circumstance of need. With the guidance and support of the River, Communities – when deciding on how to distribute resources – walk a fine line between the idealized and the practical, but they do it, ultimately, on their own terms.
Regardless of social or marital ties, all Communities create individual “Spirals,” a sacrosanct space for every member, such as a small apartment, tiny home, or secured room, to reflect the nature of the Signature-Frequency Set’s ability to be in its own solitary space. Orphan Spheres are also encouraged to create Spirals, either physically, virtually, or both. It is vital to have a place to store personal items, as they reflect the nature of a Signature-Frequency Set’s memory and accumulating history. Equally important is for a Community Spiral to allow one the seclusion of mediation and retreat. Therefore, these spaces are private and might only be violated by an Active Sage(s) with a Cult mandate to search for specific items as part of a River case, like an investigation of theft or fraud. Otherwise, visitors – even spouses or other close family members – must be invited before entering someone’s Spiral. Community Spirals symbolize our right and capacity for solitude, especially in a facsimile of the Concert Hall, where social vulnerability is not only required, but must also be intentional. Vulnerability without intention is not Love, but Power.
A Body of Love’s name should reflect, very directly, how the interactions of members support the Body’s POP. The scheme is meant to describe the active effect the Body’s environment has on the interactions of its occupants, as it is with the Concert Hall. The title of a Sphere, Community, City, etc. should usually be an active verb preceding a noun, such as the Roaming Band Sphere, or Ribbon-Dancing River Community. Simply put, the Body’s name is a refection of the Concert Hall’s function.
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