Answers, Answers (notes from 2004)
	Truth The universe Gods Consciousness Free will Meaning Death Suffering Values Wealth Justice Conflict Summary

Introduction

I want answers that are:

1. complete: covering all the important topics with no gaps
2. simple: plain to see, and you don't need to read a hundred pages
3. rational - with solid reasons for every claim

I searched the web for years. I could not find any web site that passed those tests. So I made this web site. I don't claim that it is perfect. But there is nothing else like it. All the answers can be reduced to just five simple points:

1. Logic.
2. Family.
3. Cooperation.
4. Land rent.
5. Immigration.

What is truth?

1. Logic is the only truth, because by definition, nothing else is consistent.

What is the universe made of?

1. Everything is relative, because nothing can be defined except by reference to something else.
2. So the universe is made of pure logic. In other words, an infinite set of relationships that ‘if this is true, then that must be true’
3. (Remember that when we hit a stone, the pain is simply information in our heads; and when scientists examine solid matter they find it is made of quantum weirdness)

Why is there something rather than nothing?

1. ‘Nothing’ is a meaningless (i.e. illogical) word, except by comparing to something, so if nothing exists then something must exist.

Are there other, parallel universes?

1. Since only logic exists, every logical set of conditions is possible.
2. If we consider all possible things, there is nothing else outside to limit them. So all possibilities do exist.
3. Some conditions cannot logically exist together, so we have parallel but unconnected universes.

What is randomness?

1. Some conditions can exist together, without one set implying the other. In other words, one part cannot predict what the other part is like until something happens to make it obvious.
2. Hence we have randomness (and quantum uncertainty, and Godel’s incompleteness theorem).

How can we guess the answer if it is random?

1. Complicated conditions are built from simpler conditions. So there are more simple things than complicated things.
2. So if we have an unknown circumstance, it is more likely to be simple than complicated (hence Occam’s Razor).

What is space?

1. Complicated logical conditions must be separated in some way. For example, 1 + 1 = 2, but 1 is not 2. Hence we have space.
2. Space must exist in different amounts. For example, 1 + 1 = 2, and 2 + 2 = 4. The distance between 1 and 2 is less than the distance between 1 and 4, otherwise the numbers are logically meaningless.

What is time?

1. Since all possible universes exist, that includes now, and my world as it was one second ago, and as it might be one second in the future, etc.
2. Logic implies numbers. Numbers imply contrast and direction: After 1 comes 2, after 2 comes 3, and so on.
3. Very simple conditions (defined by simple numbers) can logically combine to form other, very complex conditions. For example, theoretical physicists can derive the entire physical universe from simple ‘big bang’ conditions.
4. So, a simple conditions with direction (numbers) imply very complex conditions with direction (different universes linked by time).

Why does time move in one direction?

1. Note that everything exists only in the present. Yet in order to have meaning we must contrast it with its ‘previous’ and ‘next’ condition.
2. Remember that time is based on numbers.
3. If a condition reaches a certain number, we know it must imply all smaller numbers. But it does not imply larger numbers.
4. We call the fixed alternative conditions the 'past' and we call the unknown ones 'the future.'

In one sense, time is an illusion

1. So time is a result of logic, it is not a background on which logic grows.
2. Put another way, all possible things exist at the same moment, but they have no meaning except in relation to what comes immediately before and after. For example, the number '5' is defined as 'more than 4 and less than 6'. It has no other possible meaning.
3. Put another way, time is another word for relationships, and the universe is built of nothing but relationships.

What is life?

1. We can define life however we wish. We usually define it in terms of reproduction. (Reproduction, like all other features of the universe, is a description of certain relationships.)

Can robots ever be alive?

1. If we can create a machine that passes every test of being alive, then it is alive, by definition.
2. If there is a fundamental difference between living things and machines then that difference must be detectable or it is just empty words.

How did life begin?

1. Since everything possible exists, all possible life must exist. However, if something can spontaneously appear, it can also spontaneously disappear. So it is incredibly rare for complex life to just appear and stay there without a cause.
2. However, evolution provides a possible cause. I will leave it to the experts to explain how this works. Even if some steps are unlikely, the appearance of a fully formed complex life form is even less likely.

Is there an ultimate Creator?

1. Evolution requires many small coincidences. But for a complex creator figure to exist, without any other cause, would be an incredibly huge coincidence. So evolution is far more likely.
2. So if there is a Creator, he must have evolved. So the ultimate creator is evolution.

Is there a god of any kind?

1. Life is a certain kind of logical structure. If we can create this on a computer (or in some other way), it would be easy for a few people to create more simulated people than there are ‘real’ people in the whole world.
2. If these simulations (or creations) create their own simulations (or creations), or if people find other ways to control others without those others being aware, the number of creations would greatly outnumber other forms of intelligent life.
3. If a simulation is sophisticated, the creation cannot tell if it has a creator or if it evolved naturally..
4. If there are far more creations than other forms of life, and we cannot tell which we are, we are probably created or controlled by another creator.
5. Knowing if we have a creator does not tell us whether they are more intelligent than us. They may be less intelligent, but have a good computer simulation. Low intelligence is easier to obtain than high intelligence, so we can assume no more intelligence than is needed to control us or start the simulation.
6. Knowing if we have a creator does not tell us if they are one of the many gods worshipped on earth, or if they even want worship, or if doing what they want is ultimately a good idea.

What is consciousness?

1. We are only conscious of a small number of things at any one instant. Since everything else is unconscious, it follows that consciousness only includes those few things – the seven or so items in short-term memory.
2. Everything related to consciousness – ideas, emotions, and the meanings we attach to them – can be explained by describing the structure of the short-term memory. So there is no need for any further explanation.

Why does consciousness exist?

1. Consciousness appears to exist in order to compare ideas. Many ideas can be pulled from memory, compared, adapted, and then lead to actions or the recall of further memories. Consciousness appears to be a good way to improve the decisions made by a brain.

What are feelings?

1. Feelings are messages in your consciousness. Like all things in your consciousness, they are based on events in the unconscious brain.
2. When these messages change then the feelings change. The messages are caused either electrically or chemically. Chemical or electrical stimulation from the outside has the same effect, if we know how to do it.

Why me? Why now?

1. I am exactly as I am because of various historical events – evolutionary history, my parents’ genes, the events in my life, and so on.
2. The question ‘why am I not someone else’ is meaningless. I am not a separate thing that sits in my head – I am a physical structure. This is what it feels like to be a physical structure.

Are animals conscious?

1. Since consciousness equals short-term memory, any animal that has a short-term memory is conscious.

Are atoms conscious?

1. Consciousness is just a particular structure. An atom is just a different structure. It is much simpler so being an atom would not feel as complex as being a person.

What is free will?

1. Everything either has a cause (that is, it has a fixed relationship with what we call 'the past') or else it does not.
2. When an event involves consciousness, and it involves comparing two or more alternative outcomes, it is called a decision.
3. Free will is fact that consciousness helps to make a decision. In other words, free will is the effort and work of consciousness.
4. Without this work, our decisions would be poorer. So we consciousness to work. We need free will.

What is right and wrong?

1. ‘Right’ and ‘wrong’ refer to the rules that govern choices. In any choice, one result is chosen (it is ‘right’) and the others are not (they are ‘wrong’).
2. We have evolved to make some decisions (perhaps all decisions) in order to survive. So the more important decisions are associated in the mind with life or death, safety or danger, peace or stress, etc.

What is morality?

1. The universe is complicated, so the brain needs simplified, generalised rules to help it make decisions. Generalised rules (such as ‘think of others’) that oppose more obvious rules (such as ‘take what you want’) are called morals.
2. The simplest example of morality (perhaps the basis for all morals) is the need to cooperate.
3. The need to cooperate leads to friendship, families, tolerance, and all the other morals we consider most noble and good.

What is the meaning of everything?

1. Meaning is another word for significance. In other words, what does a thing signify? In other words, what does a feeling or idea or action represent?

What is the meaning of life?

1. Life is the ability to grow, reproduce, adapt, etc. We do this in order to survive. So the meaning is survival and growth for our descendants.
2. Individuals must die, but families live forever. So, put another way, the meaning of life is the family.
3. Families can be very small or very large – covering a whole nation or species. People gain meaning by helping the family to survive. For example, one person might have children. Another person may devote themselves to service to the community.

What is poetry and art?

1. Some meanings are abstract, or highly dependent on context. When an idea represents a value that is not clearly defined, it prompts the mind to explore other possibilities. When one person creates such an idea for others, it can be called poetry or art.

What is happiness?

1. Happiness is an emotion we feel when our brain tells us that things are right. So when things get better or everything seems to be going OK, we feel happy.
2. So, to be happy, either get what you want, or decide to want different things, or change the chemicals in the brain that carry the message.
3. The brain deals with many needs, most of which are unconscious, most of which change over time, and some may be contradictory. So it is not practical to change all these things.
4. However, one issue guides all the others: the meaning of life. So this is the most important issue to get right.
5. Since the family (in its broad sense) gives life meaning, we are happy when we help our families.

Why is there death?

1. Since simple systems are far more common than complex systems, most systems will be limited in most ways.
2. Any life is part of a system, and will thus rely upon that system.
3. So the possibilities will be limited., In other words, there are limited resources available for life.
4. If there are different life forms, they will compete for the same resources. So some will not get enough and will therefore die.

Happiness and self-sacrifice

1. In the long term, life requires individual death (see above). So life after death refers to the family and not the individual.
2. Hence we have evolved to gain happiness by caring for others in our family or community. People who do not help others are generally less happy.
3. So those who give the most for their families are generally the happiest – e.g. anybody who approaches death but leaves behind a great legacy.

Heroes and villains

1. It follows that those who give their lives for their family or communities are heroes. They generally receive great admiration and feel excitement or inner peace.
2. In contrast, those who save their own lives at the expense of others are villains. They generally receive contempt and feel low self worth.
3. In the short term, villains can persuade themselves that they are heroes (and vice versa), but eventually evolution catches up: long-term survival depends on the survival of your family.
4. The happiest people are the heroes - too happy doing great works to care about their own lives.

Should death be avoided forever?

1. The universe is far too complex for any part of it (including a god) to predict the future. (A god could see further, but would make greater demands, so would still reach their limits.) So the best way to survive is through trial and error.
2. If a god-like being was able to partially predict the future, this would encourage others to stop thinking and experimenting. This would be fatal when, eventually, some change occurred that the god did not expect.
3. To adapt rapidly, we need to try many new variations of life, and the successful forms need to multiply rapidly. This implies a high rate of reproduction.
4. Since resources are limited, a high rate of reproduction requires a high rate of death. In other words, there can be no life without death, especially in the long term.

What happens after death

1. It appears that those who have the greatest happiness do not worry about the future. For the heroes and loved ones who gain the greatest happiness through self-sacrifice, the question or personal survival never crosses their minds.
2. Indeed, people change from moment to moment. The teenager is not the baby, the old person is not the teenager. So the future you is not you, but simply a guide to the choices that are available now.
3. If you cease to exist, you cease to exist. So when you are dead, there is no ‘you’ to feel pain or worry. So you will never ‘be’ dead because you won’t be there.
4. Sacrificing for the family brings the greatest happiness; extending a personal life brings unhappiness (see heroes and villains).

Life after death

1. Long term life refers to the life of the family or community (see death, above).
2. Our bodies and experiences continually change and replace themselves. You are not the same person you were as a baby. You will not be the same person a minute before death.
3. What survives is the idea of you. This is reproduced through your descendants and your ideas. Thye are part of you, and think like you, and seek to preserve you, in the same way as you are part of the baby and think like it and seek to preserve it.
4. Time is in one sense an illusion (see above). So if you have lived, even for just a second, then every moment of your life exists forever.
5. Since all possible universes exist, all of your possible alternative lives exist forever as well.

Near-Death Experiences

1. We have evolved to desire life for as along as we can be useful, and then (when our useful life is ending) to desire death.
2. Apparently, death after a worthwhile life is an enjoyable process (according to most near-death experiences). Some researchers indicate that near death experiences for ‘bad’ people are less pleasant.
3. In near-death experiences, old people tend to see dead loved ones, and children tend to see people who are still living. So this is simply a pleasant illusion.

The supernatural

1. So-called ‘supernatural’ things must be physical, because they interact with the physical world. If they did not, our physical senses could not detect them.

Magic

1. If magic follows logical laws it is not magic. If it does not follow logical laws, then it cannot exist because it contradicts itself. So magic is just a word we use when we do not understand what really happened.

Faith

1. Faith means belief that we cannot prove, either because the topic is too difficult to understand, or too difficult to explain, or explaining it would take too much time.
2. Since we do not know everything, and we have limited time, we need faith.
3. However, the need for faith does not tell us what things to have faith in. There are infinitely many things we could have faith in. Logic and experience help us to choose which are most likely to be helpful.

Religion

1. Religion provides a very efficient way to explain the unknown. By saying ‘God says so’ (or just ‘This is The Way’) we avoid wasting time on things we are unlikely to understand.
2. Religion also provides cultural norms that allow us to cooperate.
3. These two advantages – efficient use of the brain plus co-operation, provides numerous other benefits (such as happiness, business success, etc.)
4. Problems occur when reason can give us a better answer than simply ‘God says so’. In these cases, religion simply provides inertia, preferring old ideas simply because they are old.

Miracles

1. There are many things we do not understand. When a very good thing happens that we do not understand, we call it a miracle.
2. If we can attribute the unknown to God, then these miracles strengthen our faith in God.

Is the universe an accident?

1. The word ‘accident’ implies either a bad thing, or something that could have happened another way.
2. The universe is a good thing, because it created you and me.
3. The universe (or more accurately, the multiverse – all possible universes) could not have happened any other way, because by definition it is all possible things.
4. For the same reason, life, and your own existence, is no accident.
5. This does not imply a creator or designer. For example, it is no accident that the number four comes after the number three, yet this is true regardless of whether anyone is counting.

Does the universe care about life?

1. Life, by definition, reproduces and tries to survive. Non-life does not. So if it is at all possible, life will eventually expand to replace non-life wherever possible. So the universe chooses life above non-life.
2. Since the universe chooses life, it values life – or in other words, it cares.

Does the universe care about you as an individual?

1. Your existence is the result of countless events during your life and the lives of your ancestors, right back over billions of years. Every event went to create you and not something else. So trillions and trillions of times, your present universe has shown that it values (i.e. cares about) you more than any other alternative.
2. Although you will die, this is the only way to ensure that you would live at all. And you only die so that the universe can create the things you care about. (See notes on life after death.)

Why is there suffering?

1. Suffering is the way we know that something is wrong. Because of suffering, we are able to spot what needs to change, and fix it. Without suffering, people would be damaged and be unable to survive, and nobody would care. So the human race would quickly die out.

Why do innocent people suffer?

1. If only the guilty suffer, nobody cares. If nobody cared, we would never work to improve our health, safety, nutrition, etc. But because the innocent suffer, the rest of us work hard to make sure the next generation does not have to suffer. Thus the human race is improved.

You are the embodiment of eternal love

1. You have evolved to care about your family (see the meaning of life, above). In other words, your whole existence is a physical representation of love for your family.
2. Although we sometimes act out of hate, we only hate things that stop us getting what we love. So love comes first. If this is not obvious, remember that the conscious mind is only a small part of the human brain. We often do not see what is really happening, except after it has become very obvious.
3. Although we sometimes only love a few things (and hate everything else), survival depends on cooperation, so to survive we have to increase our love (that is, we chose to love things that other people love).
4. Hence, although we still fight, the story of civilisation is the story of increasing cooperation. Before civilisation, each tribal group would fight with every other tribal group. Slowly the circle of friends has expanded to include the local tribes (in a village), the local villages (in a city), the local cities (in a nation), the local nations (in multinational groupings), and soon the whole world, and then beyond.

Your roots

1. Since you have evolved, the record of your evolution is written in the genes at the heart of every cell in your body. Everything about you can be traced back from child to parent, perhaps for billions of years. So you have very strong roots!
2. According to the best-available theories, the complex atoms in your body (carbon in ever cell, iron in your blood, etc.) were created inside long-dead stars. So you are a child of the universe, created from stardust.

Friends and family

1. Survival requires cooperation. It is much easier to cooperate with those who are similar to you. Those who are similar and we cooperate with are called friends.
2. Those with similar genes and similar upbringing are more likely to be similar, so family usually makes the best friends.

Values

1. Many questions are very complicated but decisions have to be made quickly. In these cases, we have general preferences that work most of the time, but can be adapted as needed. These are called values.
2. Since life is complicated, we cannot calculate the best values. We have to just see what works.
3. So to find the best values, we need to see a choice of many different value systems and see which one world best. In other words, we must respect others’ values even if we do not share them, and be willing to change if other values work better.

Gut feelings

1. The brain often needs to make quick decisions based on imperfect evidence. When the decision involves emotion, it is called a gut feeling.
2. Gut feelings appear to be influenced by understanding. So if we learn that something is dangerous, we begin to get a bad feeling about it. Or if we learn that something is beneficial, we start to get a good feeling. So we can improve the quality of our gut feelings by learning more.

Traditional values

1. Traditional values have evolved over a long period and have been tested by many people. So if nothing changes they are likely to still be useful.
2. If circumstances change, old values may become liabilities. For example, common traditional values are the class system and prejudice against outsiders. Both of these strategies were useful in the past when education and communication were difficult. But today, education and communication are easier, so competition and tolerance are better strategies.

Strong communities

1. If a society has good values, and these are strongly held, it follows that the whole community will be strong.
2. Since values are hard to write down, they are hard to enforce from outside – they need to be believed inside the brain. So the strongest values are those that the individual has chosen.
3. As noted before, the best values can only be chosen by seeing alternatives at work. And as noted before, people work best when they are fiends – that is, they share similar beliefs and backgrounds.
4. So the strongest communities are those with shared values, but where individuals can see and join other groups with different shared values if they wish.

Values and money

1. We get what we value by exchanging other things – for example, time, effort, and risk.
2. This allows everything to be compared with everything else, and so a scale of relative values can be created.
3. The relative values can be represented by numbers. The numbers are given a name: money.

Values that money cannot buy

1. We may pretend that we cannot buy abstract values, but we spend a lot of money on our families, friends, a good neighborhood, churches, law, and so on.
2. Some things have an infinite price, so exchange can only go in one direction. For example, a child’s life may have infinite value to its mother, so the mother will pay any price to preserve that life, but will not sell at any price.
3. Sometimes money is blamed for injustice. However, money is simply a neutral means of exchange, so the cause of the injustice must lie elsewhere.

Land, labour and wealth

1. We increase value by taking existing things and doing work. For example, if we have land we can grow food or build houses. So our work (our labour) increases the value of the land.
2. We can divide all wealth into original materials (which we can call ‘land’ since land is the most obvious example), and the value we create (the creative act can be called ‘labour’). Since value can be represented by money, we can call it ‘wealth.’
3. Note that this applies to all values of every kind. For example, if we spend time on our families then we create a better family. Or if we do good for no reward, we create kindness. However, it is easier to talk in terms of land and labour.
4. Some projects (such as ships and roads) takes many months or years to complete. However, the project could be sold as a half-finished project at any point, and so the labour creates measurable value hour by hour, day by day.

Your neighbours create part of your wealth

1. Neighbors increase the potential use and thus the value of much of your property. For example, land in a city is more valuable than identical land outside a city.
2. Most property relies on other people for its value. For example, electrical goods, cars, fashions, etc., have little or no value to a castaway on a desert island.

Capital speeds up wealth creation

1. If you create tools, roads, banks, etc., you can create wealth more easily. These things are called capital.
2. Note that wealth can be created without capital, but capital simply accelerates the process.

Entrepreneurs are essential

1. Wealth creation is easy in theory. Most people do it all the time: whenever you see something that could be done better, or if you have an idea to make the world a better place, you are planning wealth creation.
2. However, it is easy to make mistakes. You need the skill to overcome problems and see the new idea through to completion. Someone with that skill is called an entrepreneur.

Property

1. To maximise wealth (that is, to maximise the production of things that we value), we should discover how wealth is created and encourage that process.
2. People do things that reward them, so creators of desirable things should be rewarded as much as possible.
3. The maximum possible reward is the full value of what is created. Anything extra would mean the extra wealth must either appear from nowhere, or be taken from someone else, thus reducing their reward.
4. Note that creation does not imply conscious thought or understanding, it only implies causality. We are not interested in reasons (unless those reasons create or destroy value), but only in the end result. Note that this is similar to the computing or scientific definition of property: a property is simply a feature of an object. For example, if a person has the effect of creating wealth, that wealth is a property of that person.

Crime

1. By similar reasoning, those who destroy the things we value should be liable for the full costs, including any secondary costs.
2. Note that governments may decide to create more of what we value by paying some of the cost. For example, they may decide that they get a safer nation (something we value) by subsidising lower criminal sentences in some cases.

How 'environmental pricing' can save the environment

1. The environment has great long-term value - people will pay a great deal of money for beauty, security and health.
2. Hence a forest (for example) has infinite value, because it provides value every year forever. So anyone who destroys such a resource, unless they do greater good in other ways (for example by replanting forests elsewhere), owes society an infinite cost.
3. So applying accurate costs will save the natural environment.
4. The natural environment provides real and measurable benefits to all society. So this 'environmental pricing' makes us all wealthier.

Ownership of land (and other natural resources)

1. Ownership only matters if a resource has value.
2. Value is created by people’s willingness to pay. So people create the value of any resource, including land.
3. If land has a certain value without any work being done on it, this value must be created by society. If someone then plants crops or builds houses, they create additional value.
4. So the person who controls the land only creates (owns) the additional marginal value. The remainder of the market rate (the price the land would have got if it were not improved) is always owned by society.
5. Land creates value continuously. This value can be measured by the rent that people are willing to pay in order to use that land.
6. So landowners owe society an amount equal to the rent that could be gained from their land if it was unimproved.

Notes on land rent

1. For more details, search the Internet for the terms ‘Land Rent,’ ‘Georgism,’ ‘the Single Tax,’ ‘Geoism,’ ‘SVT’ (Site Value Taxation), ‘LVT’ (Land Valuation Taxation), ‘Earth Sharing,’ ‘Geonomics,’ ‘Geolibertarianism,’ etc.
2. Many great leaders (such as Winston Churchill, before World War II took his attention) were strong supporters of this principle.
3. Land rent has been opposed for three reasons. First, strong opposition from landowners. Second, confusion between land and capital: many economists wrongly treat them as the same thing. Third, Cold War sensitivities over socialism: paying rent on land was wrongly confused with state ownership of land.

Taxation is theft

1. The principle of land rent allows us to calculate the precise amount that each person owes to the state. This payment to the state is in the form of a market rent.
2. Anything other than this (i.e. any other form of taxation) implies that wealth is being stolen from its rightful owners.

How to create justice, opportunity and more wealth

1. Land-rent will free up resources. Land-rent makes it uneconomic to hold land unless it is generating things that people value, so land that is held for speculation or tradition will be released onto the market.
2. Land-rent will lead to lower land prices. With a greater supply of land, prices cannot go up but can only come down. (For why this is, read Adam Smith or any economic text on supply and demand.)
3. The net result is to remove land from people who do not create value, and give it to people who do. Hence there is more justice and more wealth.
4. If people can own land without paying any rent, but can collect rent from others, eventually one person can control everybody else, even if that person does no work. (To demonstrate this fact, Lizzie Magie, a follower of Henry George, invented a game she called ‘The Landlord’s game’ in 1904. It became a great success and spawned many imitators. The best known version was marketed by Parker Brothers and called 'Monopoly.' It is still popular today: the game of ‘Monopoly.’)

How to prove who owns what

1. Ownership of an object depends on who created its value. This makes things very complicated, because values change constantly (see the stock market for example), values depend on laws, values are often speculative, and the value of an item might come from a thousand different places.
2. A similar problem occurs with paying an employee the right wage. This problem is solved by a free market for employment: good employees can move to a better job, and bad employers go out of business.
3. In the same way, a free market in governments allows a citizen to receive the value he is worth. No real world market is purely free, but the closer we get, the more justice we have.

The purpose of government

1. In order to create the things they value, people need to co-operate. When several million people cooperate in the same place, that is called a nation. The people assigned to govern the nation are called the government. Thus the government exists in order to create the things that the people value.
2. Value is created by labour. So the government exists in order to turn labour into wealth.
3. Efficient governments subcontract the wealth creation process. That is, they create laws to encourage businesses to arise, grow and specialise in different areas.

Immigration

1. If someone chooses to join a nation, they choose to obey whatever laws the government sets. The government can thus use their labour to create wealth.
2. A government exists to turn labour into wealth. So if it cannot create wealth from willing labour that arrives on its doorstep, then it is not competent to govern.

Notes on immigration

1. If nations insist that all citizens have the same (costly) rights, then they cannot afford to take in all immigrants. As a result, they lose potential wealth and also condemn millions in other countries to misery and death.
2. The most successful governments will find ways to increase immigrants’ wealth creation ability (e.g. through training for whatever needs the society has). This in turn raises their standard of living and their value to other citizens.
3. The main challenges are finding the land and reducing the effect on local property values. These problems are solved by the principles of 'land rent'.

How to run a nation

1. A modern economy is so complex that it appears that no person can understand it. All we can do is look at past experience and hope to see some patterns. But there are many possible patterns, so even the experts disagree. So political theory is not the best way to run a country.
2. However, Evolution provides a proven way to answer complex questions: try different methods and see which works best. (Note that there are many ways to try different nations, ranging from allowing more choice at a local level to allowing regions to secede.)
3. Since people cannot predict a complex nation, and we need to have many options, the weakest nation is one that tries to be ‘strong’ by limiting dissent.

Why should we cooperate?

1. The universe is very complicated, and can stop us getting what we want (or help us) in billions of ways.
2. In contrast, our human brains are limited, and can only predict a small number of these ways.
3. So the unknown factors are more dangerous than the known factors. For example, the strongest armies in the world are often defeated (in the long term) by events they cannot predict or control.
4. The only way to control the unknown is to predict it, and this requires human brains.
5. Co-operating means that both brains work together, thus increasing the chance of success. So we should always cooperate whenever possible.

Freedom:

1. Cooperation requires choices. So to cooperate, you must find ways to offer more choices. For example, on a national scale, a nation can offer a marketplace, rights to appeal, rights to emigrate or immigrate, rights to accede or secede, and so on.
2. All actions have consequences, so freedom is meaningless without responsibility. The sections on property and 'land rent' show how to maximise freedom and responsibility.

Justice:

1. Freedom with responsibility is called justice.
2. Freedom without responsibility is called chaos.
3. Responsibility without freedom is called tyranny.
4. There are more ways to die than live, so chaos tends to lead to failure.
5. The human brain very limited, so tyranny tends to lead to failure.
6. The universe is a very complex place, so pure justice or pure chaos or pure tyranny seldom exist. For example, chaos forms patterns, tyrants rely on supporters, and justice systems must adapt to unexpected changes.

When should we fight?

1. If the other guy will not cooperate, you can choose to either give in or use force.
2. Using force means pitting one brain against another, so it only works if one brain is much more powerful than the other. For example, humans can force their will upon farm animals.
3. Since brains are more important than other factors, any other basis for superiority can only be temporary.

What if cooperation seems impossible?

1. If two groups want different things, these things are just strategies for survival and growth. The universe offers practically endless possibilities, so there are always alternative strategies if people want to cooperate.

Does torture (or harsh interrogation) work?

1. This is a variation of the issue of force. Torture allows one person to force another to cooperate. However, it persuades millions of others not to cooperate. So torture does more harm than good..
2. The limited brain problem is particularly important with torture. The short-term advantage is harder to measure against the longer-term disadvantage, because (1) the torturer works in secret, and (2) people who live in fear will not give their true feelings. However, over the long term it is clear that the weaker the state, the more it uses torture. If torture helped, we would expect the opposite result.

War:

1. If force is a possibility, some individuals on both sides might gain (in the short term) from using force..
2. So there is a great incentive for both sides to use deception in order to start a war that will harm their own side.
3. So the two sides cannot trust direct communications. So if one or other side says 'they will not cooperate' you cannot believe them.
4. So a trusted third party is needed to provide accurate information. Note that the third party does not make decisions, it simply provides reliable information.
5. The third party has added brainpower and expertise, so can also suggest other possible solutions.

What is the basis of human law?

1. The easiest and most neutral 'trusted third party' (see previous point) is a set of written rules.

How to solve personal relationship problems:

1. Personal relationships and international relationships follow the same basic logic and so have the same solutions.
2. For example, the 'trusted third party' (see above) might be a friend or a counsellor or a church. The agreed laws might be a shared understanding or culture or national laws.

Summary: how these principles will save the world

1. The principles about life and families give meaning to life, without having to resort to ignorance or fear.
2. The principle of cooperation will ensure fewer wars, more trust, and better decisions.
3. The principles of land rent will ensure economic justice and greater wealth.
4. The principle of choosing a government increases trust, and prevents tyrannies.
5. These principles can also be applied on a personal level with similar benefits.

These are just some early notes. First uploaded November 30th 2004

Chris Tolworthy