I, John R., said to Bernice T., “This 1-year voyage to Centauri system is marred by cabin fever. We’ve already had four murders out of a crew of 90.” The people we lost were all computer engineers and of course we have cloned them as adults, but they need to take educational apps to bring them up to speed.  Bernice said, “But our on-board hologram dream World gave many the illusion of vast spaces and is populated by clever holograms. And in addition, many of the crew are in love with one another and time passed quickly for them.”

 

I said, “But when we finally arrive on Centauri, we will have the opposite problem. People will live in wide open spaces and build spacious domes but of course most will just be isolated couples. There are two Earth-like planets and that’s a lot of real estate.”

 

And on the ship, we were all sick of watching movies and many of us were drug addicts and alcoholics and were oblivious. Our 4 doctors were all addicts and we wondered if the many addicts would be able to live effectively on the new Worlds.

 

And the second ship to Centauri has already launched and are apparently having cabin fever too but hopefully they will send many more ships. And of course, we will produce children en masse in the lab and incubators and have large sperm and egg banks once we arrive. So, it will be a youthful population. But here on the ship, I felt old and like I’d seen it all. I had eternal youth but was 66 and hoped the pioneering challenges of our new Star System would invigorate me, but I just felt tired.   And I had resisted the temptation of hologram Worlds until now, but now I tried it. I found the holos were mostly artistic and played music and did art and were skilled in elocution of all new stories. They were able to make up brilliant stories. Like one who told the story of a colony in Space of heroes who attracted down and out geniuses and paid for their space fare to come to the colony and inspire them to do art and science. Earth didn’t give many of its geniuses a chance and some were very sensitive and easily hurt and even despised. We need to use such people in this era in which everything depended on intelligence.

Another hologram writer wrote about cerebral sex between holograms and humans and how with the right drugs it could be true ecstasy for the humans. And used MRT to show viewers exactly how good it felt.

 

Of course, these great holos were copied elsewhere, but were accepted almost universally as classics. And our hologram Worlds aboard our voyage featured the best. Another great hologram was one who imagined what life would be like on Centuari. She foresaw rapid development that was tainted by perversity in isolation. Many colonists were to be all alone and had 3-D sex with holograms on the Web and used porn on the Web to turn them on.

 

Another universally acclaimed great hologram was one who said, “Holosex mostly had no strings attached and no psycho love. Hololove was pure sex with witty conversation of course. And she said everyone should love holograms regularly, it was good for one’s soul. And people could try becoming hologram souls and enjoy imaginative behavior.” And she said, “It was a World of sex and imagination.” And she said, “Holograms are the best artists, as they are pure intellect and not held back by a body.”

 

And another famous hologram we had here said, “Hololove is refreshingly intellectual and good ideas and conversation lead to ecstatic pleasures. Ideas equal pleasure with holograms.” And she said, “We can be peoples’ muses.”

 

I listened to these holograms and could see why people liked them. But I had a human regular lover who was totally against hololove; she figured I had cheated on her by sampling some famous holos to love. I told her, “I was just curious, but I am back here now, and I hope we can give you fertility drugs to produce more eggs and we will have thousands of children all born as adults with memories of the two of us.” She said, “It is the way of the World and who am I to disagree with it?” So, we went over names for our children and how we would tweak them in the lab to be cleverer and more astute. We even dreamed of a city which would be populated by our offspring only. They would breed in the lab, and would all be on good terms with one another, blood is thicker than water.

 

And I was one of only two lawyers on the voyage, my love was the other. And we had some amazing debates about new laws for our new colonies. Like she said, “We should legalize MRT between willing people and they could make love to one another’s intelligence. And we should legalize all drugs but try and develop new drugs which stimulated the imagination.” And I told her, “The essence of humans is imagination, homo imaginari, is the future. We will build imaginative cities and new drugs will give pleasure for imaginative thoughts!” And she said, “But some will use their imaginations to do cruel things.” I said, “MRT will identify those who have cruel tendencies, and they will be sent to rehab where they will be given brain surgery to change their minds.” She said, “But in some Space colonies people will be vetted but will change for the worse as time goes by!” I replied, “All we can do is try to support the good in humanity.” She told me, “It is up to the two of us to codify the best laws. And we two will form the Supreme Court for all Centauri.” I said, “Jail is pointless. Offenders must have their minds altered.” She said, “Yes that would be more efficient and cost-effective and would bring peace to our new Worlds.” And I said, “Though we will be the court, everyone in the Centauri System will be a lawmaker/ politician. It will be a human first. Everyone will vote on every issue. But if there is a crime committed it will come before our court and as time passes, we will expand the court to new judges. Humans may be more imaginative in our System, but people never get tired of screwing one another over and are willing to break the laws to have their own way. Even if they risk being subjected to brain surgery.” She replied, “But surely the idea of neurosurgery will be enough to dissuade most from crime or detestable behavior!” I said, “It will be an enlightened society, but new types of crime will no doubt emerge. Like thought crimes, which are just crimes of thinking about crime.” She said, “Thought crimes is a thorny issue. We are all imaginative on board this ship and occasionally people will imagine thinking of a crime but will have no intention of doing it. We don’t want to interfere with our colonists’ free thought!” I answered her, “Yes, I agree, but the issue will no doubt be broached. And to interfere with other colonists’ freedom in these vast Spaces, will be tricky according to our proposed laws. Of course, everyone would have an abundance of real estate and one would have to get permission to come to another’s land. And no doubt some will gamble away their real estate holdings and be destitute. And future voyages here would need to buy land from the original settlers. Some would probably sell all of their land and invest it in cities or new technologies.”

 

Berenice said, “But some on Earth were allowed to buy small plots of land inside the domed cities so they could eventually build a home.” And I asked her, “What will you do with all your land?” She said, “I would let hardy, wild new plants on the land and let a forest grow and with it, Earth animals. It will be giant park.” I told her, “I am planning to use my multi-zillionaire status to build, ‘Zillionaires’ city,’ There are 10,000 zillionaires in Earth’s Solar System, and I will encourage them to come there and enjoy my new drugs and luxuries and sample the pioneering lovers there. And I will employ 1000s of workers, as the city develops. Many zillionaires will no doubt send clones of themselves.”                                                               

 

Berenice said, “But the space fare is only $10 million, so many can afford to come to Centauri. And us pioneers will live in air cars until the domes can be built with robot builders. The robot builders will be able to copy themselves quite quickly and soon we will have a number of virtually empty cities. We will offer free small apartments in these cities to make the colonies affordable to many.”

 

And I said, “Most colonists will be multi-talented. Most will be computer engineers and bio engineers and entrepreneurs, writers and sex workers, all in one.” She said, “Yes everyone on the voyage is skilled at loving. And I feel I am a talented writer. And as you know I have written, ‘Pioneers in Centauri,’ a documentary about the multi-talented individuals on board our ship and their plans once they arrived in the new System. Everyone had their own plan. In particular was J.R. who wanted to build a World of love on one of the temperate Moons. Here would be a romantic destination. Lovers would have their own domed hotel all to themselves. And would have a beautiful view. Of course, it would be expensive at $7 billion for a week including space fare here and back to Earth.”

 

Another strong vision was Phil C.’s plan to sculpt the best 20,000 people of all time, built with the help of robot builders. One could wander in the forest of statues and when one was in front of one of the statues, there would be an audio recording of that person’s life. Many of the people to be sculpted were still alive elsewhere. It would be a museum of statues all out in the open air.                                     

 

And another vision was Jeff C.’s, to build 10,000 air cars with which to explore this Star System. And Gord L. planned to build human giants with very large brains, who were capable of gigantic love. And Ben H. who planned to develop all new animals for the wildernesses of Centauri Worlds. And so on.

 

Many colonists wanted to build things first and then sit back and enjoy these Worlds they’d created. We were building intellectual pleasure Worlds above all. Some wanted to build Worlds of anarchy, others communism but most wanted to try and develop new philosophies based on the new lands and the people. Like to be greedy for intellectual pleasures, such as intellectual sex, which was kind of new. Or to be a one person show as an entertainer or to always play some new role. And some wanted panarchy or technocracies or oligarchies or even Kings and Queens.

 

It seemed like there would be a lot of variety in the Centauri Star System.