THE CONSTITUTION OF TITANIA

 PREAMBLE
We, the undersigned comprising the founding Members of the international state of Titania do hereby adopt the following Constitution as the highest policy for governing all our future actions and procedures, both in our dealings with those outside our organization and in our relationships with all Persons, Members, Citizens, Mentors, Servants, and Critics within our ranks. Henceforth all written and unwritten rules of conduct for persons associated with this organization shall conform to the definitions and principles stated herein.

We furthermore share the belief that our planet is an actual being with awareness; and we refer to her as Gaia, after the earth goddess of Greek mythology.  We do not hold pagan beliefs about our planet or consider her to be an actual goddess; but we consider the myth of Gaia to be a valuable metaphor.  We are in many ways the children of our planet; and Gaia’s mythological children were the Titans; so we call the domain of humans collectively Titania.

We the undersigned further commit our lives to the maximization of creativity and its logical equivalents, our ultimate outcome being the realization of a world society characterized by universal happiness, prosperity, and well being, such as that described in Gaia’s Dream by Robert E. Podolsky. To encompass the constellation that includes Gaia’s Dream, the people who choose to bring it to fruition, the actions those people take to that end, and the commitment those people bring to their efforts we use the term “GaiaWyrd”. Wyrd, also spelled ‘würd’, is an Old English word meaning “destiny of choice”.  If one adopts a wyrd it means one dedicates one’s life to that destiny or outcome, putting it ahead of all other personal priorities.

ARTICLE 1: FOUNDING

We hereby create the international state of Titania, whose sole purpose is to promote and maximize creativity and its logical equivalents as described below.  Within the limits set forth herein all persons on the planet that wish to do so may participate in the affairs of Titania and enjoy the benefits and responsibilities accruing thereto. 

ARTICLE 2: DEFINITIONS

     ·        2.1 We believe it to be self evident that people are neither "good" nor "evil" except as their acts are "good" or "evil";

·        2.2 And that a person's actions are "good" (or equivalently "just" or "ethical") if they increase the creativity of at least one person, including the person acting, without limiting or diminishing the creativity of any person, including the person acting.

·        2.3 Since creativity is the product of ethical awareness and intelligence (as symbolized by the equation: C = EI) there are two ways an act may increase creativity.

·        2.3.1 An act may increase creativity by increasing someone's ethical awareness, degree of personal evolution, love, and/or growth, these creativity enhancers being logical equivalents of one another, in that any act which increases one of them must necessarily increase the others, and vice-versa;

·        2.3.2 An act may increase creativity by increasing the intelligence of any person who uses their intelligence creatively rather than destructively; where access to objective truth, access to energy, and freedom are enhancers of intelligence, since they increase one's ability to predict and control the environment or to initiate and maintain causal relationships between events in the observable world.

·        2.4 The lists of equivalent creativity enhancers given above are incomplete. There may in fact be an unlimited number of such equivalencies that apply. Hereinafter we shall use the words, "ethical awareness" to include all of its logical equivalents, and the word "intelligence" to similarly encompass all of its logical equivalents. The word "creativity" will be used to encompass both the preceding sets of resources, the distinctions between the two sets being duly noted.

·        2.5 From the preceding it follows logically that it is ethical to limit or reduce a person's intelligence in order to stop or prevent that person from acting destructively (unethically). This is generally accomplished ethically by limiting or reducing that individual's access to intelligence enhancers; since limiting a person’s destructiveness increases their creativity.

·        2.6 Where by "person" is meant any being having awareness of its own awareness... thus excluding those lower forms of life whose actions are merely "natural";

·        2.7 And acts which limit or reduce another person's creativity (or any of the equivalent resources listed in Section 2.2 above) are... with the exception explained in Section 2.5 above ...generally "bad", or equivalently "evil", "unethical", or "entropic";

·        2.8 And further, that good and evil acts by aware beings fall on an ethical continuum... where the best (most ethical) acts are those which contribute the most to the evolution of an individual or a group... and the worst (most unethical) are those which most increase the entropy (chaos or disorder) thereof;

·        2.9 And still further, that acts which are not "ethical" according to Section 2.2 above and which are not "unethical" according to Section 2.7 above may be said to be "ethically neutral", "innocent", "trivial", or merely "natural".

ARTICLE 3: PRINCIPLES

·        3.01 From the foregoing self-evident truths we infer that to act ethically each person must do his/her utmost to maximize creativity and its equivalents;

·        3.02 That ethical actions always increase someone's creativity;

·        3.03 And that ethical actions never destroy, limit, or diminish anyone's creativity.

·        3.04 And from the foregoing we infer that unethical means can never achieve ethical ends... this principle rejecting the notion that we can ethically sacrifice the creativity of the individual for the "greater good" of society, the "many", and so forth; from which it follows that:

·        3.05 Unethical means always produce unethical results (ends); trivial means always produce trivial results at best; and similarly

·        3.06 Means which are not ethical ends in themselves are never ethical;

·        3.07 From the foregoing it is also apparent that inaction is unethical. Creativity cannot be passively expanded or increased... this must be done actively to overcome entropic destruction inherent in the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This principle is basically equivalent to the adage that, "For evil to triumph it is only necessary for good men to do nothing.";

·        3.08 It also follows that it is unethical to tolerate unethical behavior. To do so is to violate Section 3.07 above. For this reason we are ethically bound to defend ourselves and others actively against injury or deceit when we or they are imminently imperiled by another's unethical behavior; from which:

·        3.08.1 It follows that it is unethical to augment the creativity of anyone whom one reasonably believes will use such augmented resources unethically... and it is therefore ethical to withhold the augmentation of creative resources from anyone whose ethical commitment one reasonably distrusts; and furthermore:

·        3.09 It is ethical to learn and unethical to be certain. When we close our minds on a subject we cease to learn... to increase our own awareness and creativity. Learning always increases creativity; and

·        3.10 It is ethical to doubt. Ceasing to have doubts about a subject we become certain about it and have ceased to learn. Doubts create new questions ...some of which yield new answers. Doubt is one of the cornerstones of creativity.

ARTICLE 4: LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS

·        4.1 Be it understood that the proper role of an organization's laws, rules and regulations is to empower those people acting singly or in concert who would embrace the foregoing DEFINITIONS and PRINCIPLES set forth in Articles 2 and 3 above and who are willing to make the moral commitment to live their lives as ethically as they can... as suggested by Section 3.01.;

·        4.2 And it is also the proper role of laws, rules and regulations to prohibit by the most ethical means possible any actions which are unethical as defined above;

·        4.3 Nor is it ever the proper role of rules and regulations to intrude, coerce, or interfere, in the lives of any people except as is truly necessary in order to accomplish the aims of Sections 4.1 and 4.2 above ...such intrusion even then to be that which is minimally required;

·        4.4 Moreover, whenever the laws, rules and regulations of an organization are in conflict with said DEFINITIONS and PRINCIPLES the ethics shall prevail ...the rules being deemed to exist solely as the servant of the ETHICS, the latter being always superior to the rules.

·        4.5 RESPONSIBILITY for actions: Under the aegis of ethical rules and regulations:

·        4.5.1 All people are responsible for their own actions and the consequences that result from those actions. In determining who shall bear the burden of financial or other costs when someone's actions result in harm to another person, ultimate (though not sole or total) responsibility rests with the individual who had the last available opportunity to prevent such undesirable effects from occurring.

·        4.5.2 Also, responsibility under ethical rules is not mitigated by the failure of an individual to understand, comprehend, rationalize, or anticipate the consequences of his or her acts... except as such failure may alter the availability of opportunities to prevent harm from occurring.

·        4.5.3 In any case, persons who enact harm on others in a self-induced state of mental incompetence (e.g. intoxicated) may still be required to bear the costs of the consequences of their actions when the act of inducing such incompetence was the chronologically last opportunity anyone had to prevent the unethical act from being performed.

·        4.5.4 Harm enacted by one person on another is solely justifiable when necessary in self or another's defense against the person harmed.

·        4.5.5 All laws, rules, and regulations enacted by Titanian leadership shall comply with the requirements of this document or be subject to summary annulment.

ARTICLE 5: OCTOLOGUE BASICS

·        5.1 Next to an individual’s family, the Octologue is the most important group to which a Titanian can belong.  An Octologue may have as few as seven participants or as many as nine.  Most will have eight, because it has been determined experimentally that eight is optimized for maximum creativity.  When possible, an Octologue should be comprised of four males and four females.  This too enhances creativity.  The first person in any Octologue shall be referred to as the Octologue’s founding member.

·        5.2  Decision-making within an Octologue shall be by unanimous consensus.  The members of an Octologue may use any consensus-forming process they like; but only consensual decisions may be legitimately said to pertain to the Octologue as a whole.

·        5.3  A new member may be admitted to an Octologue only by unanimous agreement of the existing members.

·        5.4  Expulsion of an individual from an Octologue shall only be allowed if agreed to by all other members of the Octologue.

·        5.5  Any person may resign from an Octologue at any time unless voluntarily bound by contract not to.

·        5.6  The members of each Octologue shall decide upon their own agenda; so the group may function as a business, a service agency, an educational institution, a therapy group, an action committee, a social club, or any other institution formed for ethical purposes. 

·        5.7  An Octologue can be bound by contract if all members of the Octologue agree thereto.

·        5.8  Any number of Octologues can enter into contract with one another in order to undertake projects beyond the means of a single Octologue.

·        5.9   An individual may participate in multiple Octologues.

·        5.10  Two Octologues are said to be linked if at least one member of one is also a member of another.

·        5.11  Two Octologues are said to be genealogically linked if a member of one of them was the first or founding member of the other.

·        5.12  Two Octologues are said to be interlocked if the member linking the two has been authorized by one Octologue to speak to the other on its behalf; such representation of course subject to ratification by the Octologue from which the linking member originates.

·        5.13  Two interlocked Octologues are said to be genealogically interlocked if the interlocking member of one of them was the founding member of the other.  Note that it is possible for two Octologues to be genealogically linked and also interlocked without being genealogically interlocked.

·        5.14  Two or more Octologues sharing a contractual relationship with one another shall be said to be obligated to one another.

·        5.15  If two are more Octologues are obligated to make decisions only by mutual agreement, that is by unanimous consensus of all members of both Octologues, then they are said to be telepathic in relation to one another.

·        5.16 Titania is authorized to establish an Octologue Registry where Octologues wishing to do so can register information about themselves for public access.  Such access is not required and may not be compelled; however Titania may choose to distinguish between registered and unregistered Octologues for some purposes, as long as the choice to do so is more ethical than the choice not to do so would be.

ARTICLE 6: CITIZENSHIP CATEGORIES

·        6.1 All natural persons that wish to do so may participate in the affairs of Titania.  There are six modalities of participation

·        6.2 Personhood
In Titania all persons are considered valuable members of society unless proven otherwise.  A person is any being that has awareness of its own awareness.  As such, a Person in Titanian society is due the same respect due any other person. Titania does not grant rights to Persons.  A Person has the right to act freely in any way they wish, providing their actions do no harm to another Person as defined herein.

·        6.3 Members
A Member of Titania is any Person who actively contributes to Titania’s financial support by subscribing to services provided by Titania on a “for-fee” basis.

·        6.4 Citizens
6.41 Any Member of Titania who wishes may become a Citizen of this pan-world state by learning how to participate in one or more Octologues, the eight-member building blocks of Titanian society.  In such groups participants learn to distinguish ethical acts, to make consensual group decisions, organize non-bureaucratic enterprises, provide humane education, and to foster in all a sense of belonging, safety, and heightened creativity. 
6.42 Interlocking Citizens’ Octologues comprise the Titanian counterpart of state and local governments. 
6.43 The Council of Servants (see below) shall define the minimal Citizenship education required of Citizens and is authorized to make provision for such education and to issue Certificates of Citizenship to those who are graduates of that education.  Citizenship is not a birthright.   
6.44  All Citizenship is subject to revocation by the Council of Servants.

·        6.5 Mentors
6.51  Those Citizens who teach others to be effective Citizens are called Mentors.  A Mentor is a teacher and organizer who also participates actively in the formation of mass consensus at the highest levels. 
6.52  It is the Mentor’s responsibility to distill from the input of millions the wisest possible vision of possible futures and to communicate to those millions the choices and opportunities faced by each Person as seen through the lens of that vision.
6.53  The Council of Servants (see below) is authorized to define the requirements that one must meet to become and remain a Mentor and to issue Certificates of Mentorship.

6.54  At a minimum a Mentor must be a Citizen in good standing, must have a good working knowledge of Titania’s Constitution, and must have demonstrated leadership ability by serving for at least a year as the founding member of at least one Octologue.

·        6.6 Servants
Using the same consensual processes that apply to other decisions, the Mentorship of Titania shall select a Council consisting of eight Servants.  These in turn choose one of their number to lead them.  This one is called the High Servant.  The Council of Servants, and its leader, the High Servant, share ultimate responsibility for the future of Titania. 

·        6.7 Critics
Using the same consensual processes that apply to other decisions, the Mentorship of Titania shall select a Council consisting of eight Critics.  These in turn choose one of their number to lead them.  This one is called the High Critic.  The Council of Critics has the authority to annul or repeal any Titanian law.

ARTICLE 7: DUAL CITIZENSHIP

·        7.1 Dual citizenship is permitted.  Acquisition of Citizenship in Titania shall not be construed as abdication, revocation, renunciation, annulment, or cancellation of a persons citizenship in one or more other nations in effect prior to attainment of Citizenship in Titania.

ARTICLE 8: SIGNATURES

Those signing this document shall include the founding Council of Servants and as many as sixty-four members of eight Octologues that interlock with the Council of Servants.

Interim Council of Servants: