The Richly Imagined Future

Anne Gorgy Rebecca Manoharan Victoria Milley Felicia Semiawan Janavi Vengatesh

The Richly Imagined Future Assignment 3

09-11

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3-7 FOREWORD

8-14 ANALYISING COMMUNITIES Oneida Community Auroville Community Slab City Inuit Community Amish Community Kibbutz Community

15-24 ANALYISING IDEOLOGIES

Key Principles of Hinduism Health is Wealth Darwinian Theory of Morality, Ethics and Principles Tibetan Buddhism Ubuntu Philosophy

25 MISSING PIECES IN CURRENT SOCIETY

OUR FRAMEWORK: AURELIA 26-42 09-11 Inception Stimulus Genesis Auctus

Coexistence

Perfection of the Imperfections Accompaniment

Ebb & Flow

Spotless Mind

The Blood-Related Finances Brain-Trust

Jubilees and Jubilations Tempus

Values and Morals

Imago

STAGE 2 CONCLUSION 43-44 09-11

45-96 FURTHER CASE STUDIES Time Money Health and Wellness City Planning Infrastructure Culture Spirituality Government Communication Work Energy

OUR THINKING 97-99 09-11

Pathway of pathways

AURELIA COMMUNITY STRUCTURE 100-111 09-11 Aurora Socius Salus Agnitio Experimentis Ex-nihilo Sententia Jubilees and Jubilation The Brain Trust Urbis Pretium information Tunnels Vibe

SCENARIOS 112-119 09-11 Chapter 1: Discovering, Managing, Developing The Self Chapter 2: Karat Of The 7th Aurelia Systems Chapter 3: Health, Harmony, And Hope Chapter 4: New Year Jubilation Festival Of Aurelia (Ceremony Of Light)

REFLECTIONS 120-122 09-11 CONCLUSION 123-124 09-11

For further beyond, from farther ago… Of the natural world, humankind, settlements, communities, evolution and advancements… Of values, morals, ethics, principles and ideologies… Of energy flow, transcendence and full potentials…

To the Richly Imagined Future.

Richly Imagined Future

FOREWORD

When given the opportunity to design a new community that reflects our own set of values and beliefs, we had to establish first a base of knowledge of what is out there, and current and past communities, understand and absorb the true meaning and interpretation of terms and definitions hovering over our current societies, construct a frame of work to organize our thoughts and ideas in an effective and constructive approach, and lastly set a framework that will influence the shape of life in our new community.

For the first phase, we looked into existing communities, tribes and religious sects, and also ones that used to exist before. These communities and organizational inhabitants were studied in terms of structure, resources, individual significance, lifestyle, religion, systems, law of conduct and principles, their networks within and outside of the community, and their ideologies that governed most of their actions. These communities were then analyzed into key points, which influenced them and helped in either their flourishing or downfall, so that we could refer to and draw upon.

From that phase, we encountered a lot of terms and definition that we needed to clearly identify. These included terms such as ideologies, morals, ethics, values, and beliefs. Therefore, clear definitions and interpretations needed to be generated to fully differentiate between the different terms and effectively utilize and employ them correctly.

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Figure 1.

Community Organization Map

Based on the previous two aspects, we started having a relatively clear idea of what comprises a community, influences its structure and behaviour and reasons for flourishing of such communities or causes that led to their ultimate doom. Thus, we constructed a graph of a set of elements that will be considered in the construction and establishment of our community and its framework. (see Figure 1.) These elements had the role of organizing our thoughts and ideas, and always keeping us in track, and influenced our discussions and conversations.

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We then drew up a critique of what’s currently out there in the world, where our humanity went wrong, and how in that sense our community is differentiated. This would be utilized to draw a comparison of the existing and what we have proposed in our new community, to enable us to assess both the present and our proposal, to further guide our community construction.

It was time then to start establishing the framework of our new community, which was influenced by all the knowledge that we have previously gathered, as well as our input individually and as a whole team. The new community was given a new name, in which everything else was redefined, as well. The new community has new definition in contrast to the currently used ones, and different structure and system as well. In order to achieve such a new construction, we had to rise with our imagination to beyond the norms, definitions and the existing structures we are accustomed to and create our own.

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Richly Imagined Future

ANALYSING COMMUNITIES

Through an analysis of various communities, we gained several insights regarding the similarities and differences of communities based on their ideologies, belief systems historic roots, communities, nature of people, behaviours and their functioning as a whole in various domains and practices.

Looking at unique communities that has its own fundamental quality, helped us investigate and address issues and matters that are going to impact in shaping the re imagined future.

Figure 2.

Oneida Community Map: Showing the features that we felt should be in our own community

Oneida Community

educating them through practical sex education.

Oneida Community was a religious communal Spreading the knowledge and instilling awareness in the future generation of the community gave a settlement founded in 1848 in Oneida, New York by sense of social satisfaction and procreation to men John Humphrey Noyes. They were otherwise known as Perfectionists or Bible Communists who believed that and women of this community. The idea of Mutual criticism was a method of eliminating undesirable they were a utopian religious community at first and then became a socialised community. The community character traits in the community and eventually leading to intellectual improvement. had reached to a population of 300 people, where The values that the community as a whole conformed they had a complete bureaucracy that consisted of to were sharing with one another and the aspect of 27 committees and 48 administrative sections. Their socialism. With their practices of sexual union, grew primary line of work involved manufacturing of silver, strong bonds within the community increasing the leather bags, woven objects and also farming and relationship bonds between one and another and this agricultural practices. All community members were grew in span of their existence. Their stronger values expected to work only according to each of their relates to the notion of individual perfection which was abilities. They had systems where their jobs were tied to their starting beliefs, doing good to all in the rotated in a periodic manner, where people could get community and in forgetting oneself and working and gain the essence and importance of other tasks. giving back to the fullest for the welfare and happiness Their belief systems revolves around the concepts of of all in the community. complex marriage, mutual criticism, contraception, stirpiculture and about role of women. The community The Oneida Community lasted for 3 decades, and in the course of its lifespan, there were complex issues rejected the idea of monogamy and instead have of social organisation in their lifestyles and practices. a system where every woman was the wife of They were in the journey of reshaping the deep every man and every man was the husband of understanding of sexual attitudes and behaviours every woman. The reason behind this is that, Noyes and differences in the underlying relationships believed that there should be no possessiveness or between genders. Noyes desires of creating an exclusive relationships. One of their responsibilities as ideal community were bound by the barriers and a community was to give children of the community the strengths of the people who were a part of this a sense of communal responsibility in the realm of community. the actual essence of their community by means of

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Figure 3.

Auroville Community Map: Showing the features that we felt should be in our own community

differences. As their customary regulations, Aurovillians have no rights of property ownership in the township, smoking and consumption of alcohol is banned, no located in Tamil Nadu, India, with a present population police, no political affiliations, no taxes for research and of 2,400 people, they are in the harmonious journey development, no gas stations as transportation is only of accommodating up to 50,000 people from all through means of bikes and eco sustainable modes. around the world. Auroville’s purpose is to realise They believe in complete equality of sexes where humanity-in diversity and a platform to transform they can be free of moral or social conventions and consciousness and experiment human wholeness. can live freely to obey just the single supreme power Auroville performs various research studies on a of truth. Also there is no monetary exchange within regular basis to re define and dive deep into the future the township for certain tasks and jobs and they are of sustainable living, cultural, environmental, social moving towards to goal of self sufficiency. Manual and spiritual needs of humankind. Their charter work is valued as an indispensable for the discovery claims that Auroville belongs to no single person of the inner self. In the sphere of education, they’re and belongs to humanity as a whole and that they principle is unending education and so the curriculum intend to join the past and the future through research is very unique. In terms of sustainability and resources, and innovation. They consider Auroville to be the they have hundreds of acres of green farms from where Microcosm of the world, with the plan of the city materials are sourced for consumption and usage, to that represents the structure, forces and energy of a reach attain sustainability. galaxy, their sites of performing particular tasks are The community of Auroville is the beginning to new ordered in a way that generates maximum energy systems of living and behaviours where people flow. The center of the township houses the soul are united together, at the same are in the quest of auroville and it is surrounded by other services of discovering the meaning of their existence, they in order of importance and usage. The setup and believe Auroville is a city the earth needs. The ideology, organisation in every aspect of the community has where there is a greater moral force that governs a scientific reason. Their beliefs are predominantly to all proceedings within one self and the exploration help one to realise their self through various mediums of finding that, is the determining idea of everything such as yoga, unity in diversity, community living, becoming tied together in Auroville. usership and various other aspects.

Auroville Community

Auroville is a universal modern day township

The culture of auroville is to enrich progressive harmony and live in peace above all other

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Figure 4.

Slab City Map: Showing the features that we felt should be in our own community

Slab City

to maintain certain aspects of the site are arranged through government grants. There are no official laws

Slab City is a campsite used for people who for “Slabbers”, no governing forces to adhere to, other own recreational vehicles, situated in Colorado Desert than of the country’s laws and use of common sense. in California. The name Slab City is derived from the remains of what the site used to be, remains of concrete It’s a free land in where all people are welcomed, with no discrimination of economical status, and they slabs of the abandoned Marine base, Camp Dunlap choose how to live their lives off-the-grid alone or with during World War II. It is a off-the-grid setting where other “Slabbers”. In the Slab city there is no financial RVs are brought and people inhabit the space for a inequality and everyone is treated the same. Slab short period of time. There are about 150 permanent city showcases themselves as a community where residents who live there all year round. The rest of the all inhabitants are given equal respect and have no population are comprised of ‘snowbirds’, the poor, and people who want to experience off-the-grid living. discrimination amongst fellow Slabbers.

All materials, goods, or services that enter Slab “Snowbirds” are North Americans who go away to warmer climates along the Sun belt to avoid the winter city are meant to be taken away and nothing is allowed to stay there. Despite the shared common months. Other residents are compelled to the Slabs understanding and unwritten rules of living, Slabbers due to poverty. Few retirees take residence there. And are not compelled to keep them due to the lack of others come to experience or learn how to survive off-the-grid. It is residence for over 6,000 people during enforcement. Therefore, Slab city is in a state of people not cleaning up after themselves. Lack of hygiene the winter months and about 100 people during the summer. Their housing and goods in the city are made and lack of safety/security can lead to a place of incongruity and chaos. These issues being faced from discarded, recycled or repurposed materials, in now will determine the fate of Slab City. this way it encourages people to reimagine the world where every act is an opportunity to express yourself.

The campsite has no electricity, no sewers/toilets, no running water, and no trash pickup.The revenue

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Figure 5.

Inuit Community Map: Showing the features that we felt should be in our own community

Inuit communities

children only gain knowledge about the guides of living successfully and fight for survival, from their

Inuit communities are small isolated family and community circles and transferring it over communities in northern Canada.The foundation of generations, having so set curriculum or educational the inuit communities are based on family bonds as organisations. They do not have a leader or a chief they possess close relationships with all community members and are dependant on each other, therefore and the community as a whole makes decisions for the functioning of the community. social factors being of foremost importance in the Structures that govern the community are conservation Inuit Culture. Their primary belief systems are sharing of traditional culture, residential schools, shared resources and being influenced and reliant of fellow community members. Their day to life is characterised residences, traditional law, no formal authority, focus of customary law where the victim is set in a by strong bonds of security, affection, closeness and state to return back to harmony, causes of conflicts daily chores and by working together, principles such as kinship, decision making and cooperation tie them to with behaviours, methods of social control where misbehaving or breakage of rules was unacceptable form a stronger community. behaviour, and various other aspects. Establishing Labour and responsibilities are divided between values of independence, innovation, traditional people where men build homes, and perform sharing, non-interference and free will, leadership on tasks of hunting and fishing whereas women did specific tasks, constant interactions between people, the household chores. People within the camps are interdependent and perform their skills at the same time controlled display of emotions, friendly relationships, Inuit communities constantly ensure in maintaining exchange food sources, skills and services because their strong cultures and bonds. Learning about and of the closely bonded relationships between one integrating their fundamental beliefs of survival along another. They require one and another for survival, with traditional lifestyles, the basis of community and and punishment to wrong doers occurs by putting family lie deep in their roots. the fellow doers to isolation and are withdrawn from affection, which is frightening for them as their community opposes this. They claim that there are no differences in social classes and between themselves and their environment. Also, the education system is organic, having values of shared knowledge wherein

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Figure 6.

Amish Community Map: Showing the features that we felt should be in our own community

Amish Community

The Amish community was founded by Jakob Ammann, in 1693 and are still to this day thriving with a population greater than 290,000 people. located mainly in parts of the U.S and Canada. The Amish culture is strictly coherent to a set of unwritten guidelines called the “Ordnung” which is based off the scriptures of the Bible. The main ideology behind this community is separation from worldly sins to receive salvation.

They believe the purpose of life on this earth should be lived as pilgrims who pass by, to reach their eternal goal, Heaven. They believe that if they focus on this goal by being separated from the worldly sins, they will be able to reach this goal faster. Therefore, this community follows strict codes of conduct, which eliminates the need for making decisions to ease the pressures and refocus on their only goal. For example, they do not worry about trivial decisions such as clothing, because the guidelines determine what they should where and how. All are equal and there is no need for competition in this society.They believe having a close-knit community as a support system in time of need brings inner peace and contentment. The order of priority is as follows: God, Family, Church, which leads to a good Community. Community roles are governed by the sexes and roles.The family is the most important “social unit” or institution in the Amish culture, and much time and effort is invested into it. The roles of each member of the family are done willingly, cooperatively and with understanding. Intermarriage is not allowed, nor is divorce. To become part of this community, one must be joined to the church. The term ‘church’, is not used in a sense of place of gathering, however it refers to the

people belonging to the close-knit community. This initiation method is done through baptism, with the understanding that the the individual will remain in this society for the rest of his/her life. Leaving after baptism is not a choice and brings about shunning. The act of shunning is reprimanded when a member of the church does not adhere to the Ordnung. It is an act of isolation where the member is cut off from the church and is left alone to fend for themselves. Once the individual realizes his/her wrongdoing, and repents, then only can he/she rejoin the community.

In order to ensure the co-operation and willingness to abide to these rules after joining the church, a time, called Rumspringa (running around), is set for the teenagers between the ages of 16-21 to experience the pleasures of the world outside of their society (drinking, partying, wearing makeup, etc.) before they make the ultimate decision of joining the church for the rest of their lives. This event that takes place does not have much effect in making the ultimate decision, due to the fact that if they want to leave, they will be shunned from the community and will be separated from their family and the whole interdependent society.

The children, have only received up to a grade 8 education, therefore surviving alone in the world will be difficult without their support system. This could explain why the community is still flourishing and growing with the newer generations joining their support system community, the church.

The support system, strong family and community bonds, work ethics, and life in moderation can be reflected upon while looking at the harmonious lifestyles and the consumption of resources for a sustainable society.

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Figure 7.

Kibbutz Community Map: Showing the features that we felt should be in our own community

Kibbutz Community

other. When two individuals are ready to get married they approach the housing office and requested

The Kibbutz community located in Israel, was a room together. This act was seen as a way to traditionally agriculturally centered. The hebrew term “kibbutz” means “communal settlement”. This society is disestablish patriarchy and break the ideas of women depending on men socially or economically. When a socioeconomic system that is based on mutual aid, social justice, joint ownership of property, cooperation of children came, women were also freed of maternal production, consumption and education. The ideology duties in order to work, as the community is seen as a very work efficient community. Acts of sitting together behind this is “from each according to his ability, to as a couple was considered as being exclusive each according to his needs”. The first Kibbutzim was developed in 1909, Degania. Kibbutz society is a (opposite of communal notions). Their arrangement of marriage ensured very low rates of divorce as well, combination of socialism and Zionism. however it made it quite difficult for the people to make The Kibbutz people thought that is was selfish of a strong emotional commitments after. parent to control the child, which restricted growth of People who did not adhere to their roles in the the child as an individual. Emphasis is given to the community, were frowned upon, were not heard, and child’s creativity, individuality, and trust. They believe were released of responsibility. Decisions were made that children are a communal responsibility therefore, children are sent to live with other children in communal through consensus, day-to-day voting, and elected leaders. Jobs are rotational and everyone knew a bit children housing, where they are educated freely to become their own person, without the interference of a of every field. The people will learn their assignments, through duty sheets that were posted in dining hall. parent’s influence. This also frees the mothers to work with the men in fields and other occupations. The child This interfered with the process of specialization. is not dependent on the parents socially, economically, Everyone’s basic needs were taken care of and there was no need for stealing. Therefore, Kibbutz or legally. The housing is run by trained nurses and communities crime rates are well below national level. caregivers. The parents would visit their children In recent decades, some changes have been made daily for 3-4 hours after work and before dinner. This ensures quality time with their children and ensured the to their communal lifestyle however, they are still one of the major contributors behind the flourishing Israeli full attention of the parent to be given at one time. The children grew up with bonds as close as brothers and economy.

The Kibbutz’s communal system and efforts, efficiency sisters, and therefore even unrelated children found it in work/labor, equality of the sexes could be a difficult see the other as a potential marriage partner. reference for a harmonious system of community.

Marriage in Kibbutz community is not the traditional emotional and physical commitments made to each

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Richly Imagined Future

ANALYSING IDEOLOGIES In order for one to understand the reasoning behind various cultures or ways of life, one must tap into the society’s beliefs, principles, philosophies, and ideologies which establishes the governing morals, values, and ethics that would dictate the set guidelines for living in that society.

Overview

The various principles, beliefs, philosophies,and ideologies we looked at have one thing common regardless of their origins and content, all which strive for attaining goals in all aspects of life for the betterment of the human being. We have examined certain principles, ideologies, beliefs, and philosophies of all diverse origins (from ancient religious scripts, to humanitarian views, to universal and scientifically proven ideologies) to aid us in understanding the complexity of the human being.

Figure 8.

Overview Map: Detailing the different principles, beliefs, philosophies,and ideologies we looked at.

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Figure 9.

Key Hindu Beliefs: Map detailing the key belief that are followed in Hinduism

Key Principles of Hinduism

Hinduism, the oldest religion in the world and one of the dominant religions, signifies its being as a way of life, rather than a religion. It includes a wide range of traditions, cultures, laws and recipes of daily morality deeds based on one’s atman, karma, dharma and various other aspects.

The soul of real self, known as the atman is the immortal characteristic of moral existence. It is said to be the microcosm symbolising the macrocosm and complexity in each one of us, giving us the knowledge of various values and qualities have an identity of existence to absorb the pleasures and sufferings of life. The atman is beyond temporary selection and material designations of ourselves in accordance to specific terms and conditions.

It is a representation of the consciousness of the soul that is unchanging, eternal and alive. Atman is also associated to other aspects of human nature such as ego and ignorance that are projections of illusions and impermanence, whereas atan is meant to the truth and soul of permanence.

Dharma is based on the idea of the actions performed by an individual that would affect life, either in a positive or negative manner. Dharma denotes eternal law, personal duty or the very foundation of life, that shows the way to practice principles and duties to determine your true self.

Dharma denotes the amalgamation of the moral and responsible forces that orders the universe, considered as the power that retains the world to function. By practicing dharma, one experiences utmost happiness, self confidence, tranquility and a stronger connection within one self to achieve an ordered and structured life.

With Hindu principles, reincarnation is the principle of rebirth where a soul travels a path through

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multiple births until they finally attain moksha or liberation.

There are various factors of desires, ignorances, actions and behaviours that limit one to attain immortality. Hindu beliefs asserts that the ultimate goal of human life is the attainment of moksha.

The well known belief that is tied with the above belief system is karma which is based on the idea which that every person’s actions throughout their life will decide their fate in the next life. The concept of Karma, goes with the saying, “As you sow, so shall you reap�, where the individual holds responsibility of the effects and causes of his/her actions, be it physically, mentally or emotionally and they are responsible in creating their own destiny. The notion being good actions will lead to happiness and bad actions leads to suffering or misery in present or the next life.

A common concept in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism is Detachment. It is the practice of life where we need to distant our lives from attractions and distractions by developing an actual resistance and clearly defined in our mind through self awareness. By staying physically, mentally or spiritually attached, the attachments takes over your consciousness acts as a barrier to achieve your vision and knowledge. They also instinctively control your actions, reactions, inactions, joys, sorrows, successes and failures and eventually define

your life and bounds you from freedom. The scriptures say that, freedom from our attachments provides us with liberation.

Staying away from all attachments does not refer to staying away from the positives of life, instead it is a way of being true and wholehearted to what you are aiming to seek or experience. In a detached life, one would possess a pure and clear presence of mind without fear or the compulsion of choice.

Only when we practice life of detachment and build divine virtues.

The ideology behind Ahimsa, is compassion and nonviolence.

This belief states that it is important not to injure or harm any living thing, as in the Hindu religion, the human incarnation can take on the form of any living thing during rebirths. Therefore it is not right to put an end to a life that is revered and sacred.

Its based off the belief that all living things have divine spark, therefore if one hurts the other, they hurt themselves. Also ahimsa has close connection to the belief of Karma, where when one acts violently, consequences will be expected. Therefore all things must be conformed to ahimsa, the act of nonviolence.

The ideologies behind Hinduism helps to discover the ultimate goals of one self and mankind and each of these concepts can be incorporated to tie together the community in finding balance and harmony.

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Figure 10.

The 7 Chakras : Energy centers in our body in which energy flows through.

Seven Chakras

Traditional Hindu Systems of beliefs comprise chakras denotes wheels, and it represents the seven energy centers of our body denoting our consciousness and the origin of energy systems. The energy fields that extends from our physical states are known as aura and it is said to be spinning energy centers in accordance to the balance depending on your current state of being or mood, and it regulates the state of health and balance. They are symbols that are essential for measurement and balance of vital health. These energy centers are meant to have the highest state of vibrations and spirit levels in the body. Every one of the 7 chakras represent particular spots in the body and have a set of values associated to each of them depending on the nature of its purpose and energy flow. The 7 chakras are the crown, third eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral and root and they respectively signify the spirit of consciousness, perception, communication and intuition, compassion, will and motivation, water, survival and stability.

The Chakras, is a universal reference for the flow of energy throughout the community to bring out vibrancy in the community and create stability.

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Figure 11.

Health Map: The basics of how good health affects our lives

Health is Wealth

“Health is Wealth” is not just a famous saying, but an ideology. This

ideology has more to do with all the aspects that make up the human being: mentally, physically, and spiritually. Whole health is key to life. Without good health, one cannot perform as well, be efficient, be successful, be happy, and live life to the fullest. Therefore, money is not a means of measuring wealth, but health is. Having money, cannot guarantee good health or buy pleasures experienced by the healthy. Therefore access to great or perfect health for all people equally, is a key criteria for all. The right to health not only covers the access to medication, health care, tools, technologies and services, it is much more than treating ill health and diseases. The umbrella of health should cover access to rights such as right to clean environments, fresh air and nature, physical activities, natural health food for the physical body. Meditation, self-reflection, artistic expressions such as theatre, art, and music for the health of the mind. Following a faith/ religion/ practice or way of life would feed the soul. If there is a balance of these three aspects one can be ensured a wealthy life.

This ideology can be taken into consideration when setting up communal value systems, in terms of priority, in conjunction with major realms/ aspects of life that make up the “self” first, which then defines a harmonious community as a greater whole.

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It is health which is real wealth, and not pieces of gold and silver.

-Mahatma Gandhi 20

Darwinian Theory of Morality, Ethics and Principles

Values dictates what is important in a person’s life, while ethics and morals determine the appropriate behaviour for living one’s life. Therefore, values become an important constituent of complex attitude sets that influence our behaviour and that of those who we interact with. Our personal choices and the worth of others is guided based on such set of values. On the other hand, ethics are the standards which evaluate our behaviour based for their morality, their righteousness or wrongness. Values thus become our measures of importances while ethics become the judgement for right and wrong.

On the other hand, principles are defined as the general truth or law comprehending many subordinate ones, the source or origin of anything. Having a principle centric approach that guide all human actions helps in making informed choices and judgements while likely knowing the outcomes of our actions.

While Darwin tied them up in a set of 3 main principles of evolution, which are random genetic variation, struggle for existence and natural selection. What we call today moral sensitivity or Darwin’s central concept of the moral sense, is the ability to sympathize and care for, help, nurture, etc., or simply put as being morally sensitive to others. By being morally sensitive, we become able to relate to other people’s needs through our heart, mind and affection, this becomes dependant on our courage and the other components that we call the will.

This is why Darwin’s concept is actually a theory of moral agency rather than merely a moral sense, since

Figure 12.

Darwinian Theory of Morality, Ethics and Principles

Figure 13.

Darwinian Principles of Evolution

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moral sense is passive approach. An agent acts on behalf of another, in such view moral agency is then the force of action on behalf of moral sensitivity and of another. A moral agent is then the person who acts in such a way. What then comes to build the true wisdom of our species, out of the thrust of moral agency, are the learning experiences that build within the core to a higher mind.

Figure 14.

Darwinian Theory of Morality

Morality is then defined as the huge inbuilt user manual that provides guidelines for human-to-human and human-to-pre human behaviour, based on past experiences, we have collectively agreed to be ruled by. It is then the norms, rules, customs, laws, and commandments. Social expectancies for moral sensitivity, moral intelligence, and moral agency are then established out of the power of caring, the power of reflection, the power of language, and the power of habit.

The importance of Darwin’s concept of morals and values and considering the drivers of moral sensitivity are the major insights that could lead us to build a balanced society.

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Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism which is based upon the teachings, meditation techniques, and ordination vows of the Theravada, and the philosophy and cosmology of Mahayana, is characterized by its distinct methods and techniques in greatly accelerating the spiritual development and journey.

Furthermore, Tögal which is a practice in Tibetan Buddhism revolves around the quality of immediate realization is concerned with enabling a person to actualize the different aspects of enlightenment within one’s self during their sole lifetime. Therefore, instead of traveling a number of mountains to reach a distant peak, it’s concerned with leaping there in a single bound.

Figure 15.

Key Tibetan Buddhism Beliefs

In the 1950s when Tibet was faced by the problem of how the religious and political authority related to each other, they came up with the model of union which was made up of a mandala like structure that represented the ultimate union between politics and religion. The political power lied outside surrounding a Buddha-core, in which it was a reification of a social hierarchy with concentric movements moving from inferior marginality in a graduated vertical series of steps towards central superiority. Such a model represented the nature of power spiraling to the center while at the same time radiating towards the periphery.

This could be drawn upon as an inspiration in term of structural construction and concepts of realizing one’s full potential and realization.

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“ Ubuntu Philosphy

Figure 16.

Key Ubuntu Beliefs

Ubuntu is a philosophy that considers the success of the group above that of the individual.

-Stephen Lundin

The term “Ubuntu” originates from the African tribe, Zulu, comes from one of the Bantu dialects of Africa. It means, “I am what I am because of who we all are,” or “I am a person through other persons”. Ubuntu is the philosophy that one cannot live in isolation, if you do you cannot exist. Through bonding and interacting with others, one discovers qualities and characteristics of him/herself.

“Interconnectedness” is used to describe ubuntu. The problem is that, we see ourselves as individuals, separated from one another.

The philosophy has the viewpoint that we are all connected somehow, therefore we as humanity belong as a whole. It is not about the self, one’s actions affects others. When one is doing well, it spreads, and others build upon it enabling them to be well also. This works vice versa as well, if people are being treated wrongly, discriminated, humiliated, oppressed, then the others will also feel decreased or lessened. When one practices ubuntu, one is known as an open, generous, compassionate person, and has a sense of wholeness just by being part of a whole.

This philosophy can be drawn upon to analyse the influence the “self” and its natures, characteristics, emotions, behaviours, actions, mindsets of our society today, has on the community to prosper as a greater whole and vice versa, as stated they both build upon the other.

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Richly Imagined Future

THE MISSING PIECES The concepts that influenced the construction of the community of Aurelia arose from current divergences in the society, in which Aurelia was constructed not as a utopian and ideal community, but rather a community that acknowledges all the faults, lacks and gaps of the human life and nature and works through them to achieve the ultimate harmony.

Figure 17.

Map of the Current Issues of Society

This commenced with the current society forces that derive the individual to become more self-centered and narcissistic, as a result of an extreme form of stimulation to become overly independent, even if it is on the account of others, leading to many misbehaviours and corruptions in the several aspects of human life. The lack of correct definition of the self in correspondence to others gave people the entitlement and excuses to misbehave, which have led to higher rates of crimes and abuse.

People have always been dictated of what to do, when to do it, how to do it, leaving no space for self exploration and finding its utmost potential.

People should be able to to have the freewill to choose the path for their spirituality, define their own skills and capabilities, and be the masters of their own time.

People have become living a non-balanced life with high expectations from everyone that are not met in return with rewarding circumstances, leading to oppression manifesting in several society levels. People are pressured to overwork with no free time to relax, or contemplate, leaving no room for self reflection and improvement.

With people lacking the care and attention from authorities and society, while also little time for themselves, people have become a liability to society rather than being active contributors neither are they giving back to communities for being over exhausted. Instead crimes, violence, corruption, and various forms of negativity are prevailing in societies, in which it becomes a clear signal of disruption in harmony through the different aspects of our daily life.

Due to the unbalanced lifestyle that people have been lately living, people have neglected in the middle of the way one or more aspect of their life whether it is their physical or mental health, or spirituality, causing them to fall out of harmony and leading to their despair.

Therefore, through the richly imagined future and creating a new community, we have been striving to achieve a new way of being that would avoid the pit holes that lead to disruptions in our natural world and humanity.

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Richly Imagined Future

OUR FRAMEWORK: AURELIA

The concepts that influenced the construction of the community of Aurelia arose from current divergences in the society, in which Aurelia was constructed not as a utopian and ideal community, but rather a community that acknowledges all the faults, lacks and gaps of the human life and nature and works through them to achieve the ultimate harmony.

Inception

Through an extensive examination of ideologies and systems of beliefs set and followed by each of the communities previously discussed, studies have been undertaken in the theories of energy flow, human nature, principles of evolution and in achieving harmony and balance. Through further analyses of the definitions of values, ethics, morals, moral sensitivity, agency and intelligence, and principles, we established a collective knowledge that would be utilized for influencing the arrangement of our thoughts and ideas. All this put together would govern the construction of the framework that is going to influence the creation of our community.

For the organization of our thoughts, we decided to do it from the inside and out and the sequence of how settlements and cities are established. Therefore, we started with the core and fundamentals that would be governing the whole of our community and everything associated, then we branched into examining the resources that would be used, the establishment of the family life and social system, then the construction of their shells and shelters, followed by the creation of networks that comprise of several aspects that interlock together on the basis of daily life such as education, labor, health, entertainment, matters of spirituality, finance and economics, and politics. This is then followed by the nature of the sorts of innovations that the community would be involved in, the boundaries and territories of our community and finally the external affairs and relations between our community with the other existing systems and communities. We would be mainly tackling the core, fundamentals, and the framework of the community for the time being.

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Stimulus

In order to start establishing the core of our community and the framework that will govern and influence the shape of life in such a community, we needed to figure out a starting point from which we could start generating and constructing that framework. Since humanity is the center of this world and what life revolves around, we decided to start from there. Although there have been many controversies and arguments around our human nature, through the different studies and theories, we reached an inference and conclusion that people are and will always be different and never equal due to our genetic variations and diverse talents and capabilities, humans are driven by their strive for evolution and struggle for survival, our understanding of concepts of natural selection and adapting to the status quo that governs our way of being and living, and lastly the importance of self realization and actualization from within one’s self and through interaction with others, in which one can not neglect nurturing the self and fulfilling its worth and significance, which could be simply put as our selfish being.

Therefore, denying such facts to construct concepts of Utopia and the idealistic world only pushes us away from it and stirs corruption due to suppression.

Furthermore, when evaluating the concept of having ideologies that govern communities and are used as the main driving forces, we came to realize the obstacles that arise from that concept which also eventually leads to the corruption of communities. This could be related to the fact that when people develop ideologies, which are systems of ideas and ideals and manners of the thinking characteristic of a group, that become challenged by the change of circumstances or the passage of time. People fight for the survival of their ideologies in all sorts of means even if it starts conflicting with their original convictions and beliefs, due to its incapability to adapt to all occurring circumstances and events while they strive for the maintenance of its existence, which eventually leads to its disintegration.

“

Ideology knows the answer before the question has been asked.

Principles are something different: a set of values that have to be adapted to circumstances but not compromised away.

-George Packer

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Figure 18.

Key Hindu Beliefs: Map detailing the key belief that are followed in Hinduism

Genesis

Based on all the previously stated aspects we have constructed the community of “Aurelia of the Compos Mentis�, which would be referred to as Aurelia and its inhabitants would be called Aurelians. Aurelia, which is a Latin word, means golden and Compos Mentis means having full control of one’s own mind.

The choice of name will be further explained and elaborated on as we go into aspects of our framework and the fundamentals that were used to build up that community.

The community of Aurelia is derived from and revolves around the self with relation to other, acknowledging the utmost importance of each single individual in the construction of the community. It is established on the basis of recognizing and understanding the inevitable characteristics of the human

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nature in relation to egotism with all its egoistic needs.

Therefore, that becomes the base of all basis, which everything will be established upon and revolved around. This then requires a guidance that shall always regulate and govern such aspects of the human nature and behaviour, Consequently we generated the Commandment of Aurelia. The Commandment of Aurelia is solely formulated on the conviction of “ Attending to Others as to One’s Self”. This arose from the study of morals and how they are currently used for differentiating between the good and bad, but that’s a purely subjective view, in which both the bad and good entail the absence of the other. Therefore, an individual’s behaviour and conduct is entirely informed of such notion, which indirectly infers the significance of the positivity of one’s actions and behaviours towards others in order to maintain their own,which operates as the community’s ultimate law of conduct. The Commandment of Aurelia is what ultimately governs the self and supervise its positive conduct towards others in the community and asserts the actions of all inhabitants. After that comes the main principle that guides one’s performance in the daily life and influence everything that they do, which functions as the individual’s ultimate purpose, goal and target.

The main principle which influences Aurelia and all of its inhabitants is the Harmonious Equilibrium.

The principle of Harmonious Equilibrium arises from three concepts, first the rule of the golden section, the Yin and Yang, and both the definition of what harmony and equilibrium separately. The rule of the golden section or the golden mean refers to the desirable middle

between two extremes, in which one is in excess and the other is in deficiency. The golden section believes in the presence of three ingredients which are symmetry, proportion and harmony. The Yin and Yang on the other hand discuss how opposites or contrary forces in the natural world actually compliment, interconnect, and inter-depend on each other to give rise to one another as they interrelate. Lastly, the definition of equilibrium describes the state of balance between two opposing actions or factors that are either static or dynamic or a state of adjustment between divergent factors.

Harmonious is then defined as forming a pleasing or consistent whole and being free from dispute.

These previous concepts influence the formulation of the principle of Harmonious Equilibrium, in which the various aspects of the human beings and their activities as well as elements of the surrounding environment and nature around them must be constantly in a state where everything is in balance and resolved of tension not through notions of uniformity but rather that of sustained harmony. Thus, it becomes an individual’s responsibility in Aurelia to maintain such a harmonious balance through every aspect of their daily lives and actions, and their various interactions within the surrounding world. Consequently, the Harmonious Equilibrium intervenes with every aspect of the community starting with coexistence of all individuals, perfecting the imperfections, accompaniment, morals and values, the spotless mind, finances, the blood-related, Ebb and flow, jubilees and jubilation, the brain-trust, and tempus.

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Auctus Coexistence

To further expand and elaborate on the previously stated aspects of the community, the first to start off with will be coexistence. Aurelians will be living together in a community in which they will be sharing the land and available resources, in which one would be in the constant being in the midst of another and contained within, and the other way round. People in such a system become not bound by being attached to each other and the resources, but rather acknowledge their existence through other people who directly and indirectly influence them, as well as the nature and environment surrounding them. Therefore, such a notion requires a balance in the state of one’s being in the presence of other’s and within the universe, in which a community acknowledges its establishment as a result of a whole of individuals existing together, recognizing the role of each of these individuals, which one’s self is a part of. Thus, such a revelation obliges the being of giving up subjective goals and selfish ambitions, due to the awareness of their incapability to exist by themselves. This is further emphasized in the branching out of coexistence, since its implies and influences the application of concepts of interdependence.

Human to human

Human to plant Human to animals

INTERDEPENDENCE

Interdependence conveys the significance of people and nature both living depending on one another, in which our random genetic variations along with our different natures and capabilities and realized where every aspect of the universe is a unique on its own but never complete and thus can’t exist independently.

Therefore, all people become responsible towards the well being of one another and the environment that they live in, through both their individual and collaborative contributions into the community. Such a concept accordingly implies the importance of communities

Community to community

CO-EXISTENCE

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becoming interdependent as well on the larger scale.

Interdependence would then comprise of subcategories in such a sense, in which it would comprise of human to human interdependence, human to animal, human to plant and community and community interdependence. Human to human interdependence is based on people’s incapability to exist by themselves, which implies their dependency on one another for exchange of tangibles and non-tangible aspects, and the exchange of goods and services. Secondly, human to animal interdependence ensures the importance of harmoniously living together in the environment, in which human beings are responsible for the well being and nurturing of animals, while at the same time animals fulfilling the needs of human beings through their capabilities and as their nature of being a resource, as well. Human to plant interdependence recognizes the vital role of plants in our existence through the constant supply of oxygen into our atmosphere and as a significant resource in the different aspect of daily life needs. However, such a vital role of plants must be met with more than an adequate amount of care and attention through consistently being taken care of and provided with sufficient nutrients. Lastly, community to community interdependence realizes the fact of the various geographical privileges, which entails and compels the different communities to depend on one another for their evolution and maintenance of their survival.

Human to human

Human to plant Human to animals

INTERDEPENDENCE

Community to community

CO-EXISTENCE

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Ebb & Flow

Ebb and flow is defined as a condition or rhythm of alternate forward and backward movement or of alternate decline and renewed advance. This would be applied to all aspects of Aurelia, in which there would be a consistent rhythmic flow of energy of giving and receiving, of losses and gains, from within and from outside.

The presence of Ebb and Flow is considered as a critical ingredient in maintaining Aurelia’s harmonious equilibrium, since it further stresses on the natural existence of notions of birth and death, giving and receiving that are primarily established through the construction of the ecosystem.

Through the scientific principles of the Chakras system, which comprises of the seven life force energy centers that flow through the subtle body and energy channels, it shall influence the shall influence the way of life at Aurelia. Such a system helps in leading a harmonious lifestyle and fulfilling our utmost ability, since it helps in the definition of human sustainability through the correct flow of such a powerful energy through our bodies, defining our actions, feelings and influences upon others and the community. This can be realized through application of energy flow to the self, then to interaction between people, and further to people and their surrounding environment, to eventually influence the whole energy flow within the community of Aurelia and other communities. This concept of energy flow will influence the life of Aurelians, who through their understanding shall apply to aspects of daily life and work to achieve efficiency and rhythmic balance of their being. This would also be applied to the whole community in terms of its structure, planning and institutions, in which its construction will be influenced by effectively enabling energy flow through it and the efficient integration of tasks and responsibilities.

Therefore, effective energy flow will be applied throughout Aurelia, in which value is added with energy added upon, and it would be seen through the different aspects of life in Aurelia which consists of Aurelians, their activities, work ethics, festivities, and self development.

Self

ENERGY FLOW

EBB & FLOW

System

Life & Death

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Spotless Mind

Each individual at Aurelia is identified as the self, and is granted free will and freedom of choice. This concept is also inspired from the concept of Atman, as discussed before, where the self is the microcosm in the larger perspective of the world where it is a the representation of our eternal self, inner consciousness and the essence of life. Through such freedom, people are expected to identify the means through which they will rise to their true full potential. Aurelians are not dictated by sets of rules or codes of conduct but rather guiding principles which would influence every aspect of their life, but are expected to explore themselves and their capabilities, remain active in the community and remain consistently involved in the community affairs Therefore, even though people are granted free will, however people must fulfill two main aspects. First of all they must live by the Commandment of Aurelia and by the principle of Harmonious Equilibrium. To comply with the principle, the individual must achieve a harmonious SpiritualPhysicalMentalSpotless mind in aspects of their spirituality with disregards to the choice of religion, physical health by keeping their body fit and vigorous, and mental health by maintaining a peaceful mind and a healthy emotional state.

The Blood-Related

The Blood-Related basically tackles family matters, in which the Aurelian family could be used a miniature reflection of the harmonious equilibrium of the whole community and need to maintain it within the family as a whole and the individuals who make up the family.

However, Aurelian parents must not intervene with the journey of exploring or finding one’s self and true capabilities, neither influence it, but rather maintain their children’s involvement in it. The children on the other hand, are brought up on the importance of giving back to the community and fulfilling their social responsibility, in which when the Aurelian community reaches a certain population number, younger generations are expected to branch out and expand the community over other geographical locations.

Mental Physical Spirtual

SPOTLESS MIND THE BLOOD-RELATED

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Perfection of the Imperfections

The aspect of perfection of the imperfections acknowledges the impossibility of the presence of the perfect, but rather everything in the world is lacking in one thing or the other, which implies the inevitability of the imperfections. However, harmonious existence could be achieved when people surpass the concepts of idealism, but rather making the best use out of everything and reaching the ultimate efficiency while being governed by harmonious equilibrium.

Only then perfection, that is not defined in usual sense, could be reached when everything would have risen up to their ultimate capabilities. This would involve everything that comprises the community and contained within.

PERFECTION OF THE IMPERFECTIONS

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Accompaniment

The concept of accompaniment involves providing notions of support, supplementing, and complementing, in which a community realizes the true capabilities, skills and talents of each of its members and works upon nurturing, developing, and enhancing such personal capabilities, in order to reach one’s full potential. However, such care and support implies the social responsibility of the individual towards the community and fellow human beings and the importance of the notions of giving back and paying forward. Through that approach, people are brought up to always care and nurture the development and the improvement of the other, which consequently influences their own development.

This also involves aspects of resources, in which with the different natural resource distributions, the spread of the Aurelian community over several geographical location, and the excellence of each of them in distinct fields of innovations, communities of Aurelia have responsibilities towards serving one another, and benefiting from their innovation differentiations to complete one another, contribute in their overall development and flourishing and achieving harmonious existence.

Moreover, as previously stated, since everybody is differentiated through their skills and talents, people’s uniqueness become the common element which the community is harmoniously balanced upon with a system of shared values. This implies people outshining in their fields of excellence with constant support and nurturing, while at the same time giving back to the community through complementing one another and reaching ultimate efficiency, productivity and innovation through that, and realizing one’s and the communities full potential. Such a concept abolishes any feelings of inferiority, and implies the fundamentality of collaborative work and complementing one another through that, in which people realize collaborative work as the path and the way to ultimate efficiency and becoming whole.

Resources Skills / talents Collaborations

ACCOMPANIMENT

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Finances

Aurelia has no money as a system for evaluating item value but rather their system is based upon time and energy values, which determine the overall value of the outcome. This implies that according to the time spent on creation and production, as well as the amount of energy input needed for such a process, the eventual item value will be set according to that.

In addition to that, since the community of Aurelia is based on the interdependence of all its human and natural factors, people don’t buy goods and services, but rather exchange it. In such a way, the whole community constantly recognizes the vitality of each of human and natural factors and the importance of their coexistence harmoniously in order to be able to perform daily life activities of exchange.

FINANCES

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Brain-Trust

Brain-Trust is defined as a group of appointed experts who are appointed to advise the government or politician. However, Aurelia will have no government, instead the community is divided into committees that are responsible for a particular issue, which then generates solutions by each of its members, to be later voted upon by the whole community. These committees are constantly rotational, as well as the individual it is comprised of.

Since, everybody in Aurelia is encouraged to achieve and rise to their full potential, they have the capabilities to be experts of matters.

Since the committees are all rotational, people get to contribute in the different aspect of life in Aurelia.

Jubilees and Jubilations

Since the community of Aurelia and Aurelians are aware of the significance of talent and innovations, Aurelia will be having social events, in which Aureliens are all expected in one way or another to contribute to it either by showcasing their talents and capabilities, or in the setting up, organizing of the event with all its needed aspects.

BRAIN-TRUST

JUBILEES AND JUBILATIONS

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Tempus

Time in Aurelia is redefined, in which the day could be organised in any way according to personal preference, as long as people are making the most out of their time and are achieving their harmonious equilibrium through such an arrangement. Therefore, time in Aurelia is highly valuable and people are expected to use it as a mean to achieve their harmonious equilibrium through it, by efficiently using it to finish their daily tasks and work on their personal development in terms of the spiritual, mental and physical self. People should also use it for leisure purposes and personal exploration. Thus, through efficiently distributing times between the different activities, people would be able to achieve harmonious equilibrium in their daily life.

In that sense, there is no working hours, but rather tasks that need to be executed, where people determine their most productive working hours and are expected to finish their work with most quality and efficiently. If people manage through either time arrangement or their capabilities and skills to save more time, this extra time therefore becomes their personal responsibility, in which they would be expected to maintain harmony through the other activities they would engage in and their behaviours in such free time.

TEMPUS

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Values and Morals

The values and morals of Aurelia are a fundamental element in its structure, in which it is defined as the standards of behaviours of the self towards others. This implies the involvement of both the self and others in such a definition, where the value and moral must still fall under the Commandment of Aurelia of attending to others as you would to yourself.

Therefore, the morals and values adopted by individuals which influence their behaviour towards themselves and others must eventually comply with the Commandment of Aurelia. This is based on the assumption of the human being as egoistic individuals with wants and needs that always imply their desires for finest and best circumstances for themselves. In such sense, if a person demands love and compassion in their life, they realize the importance of giving it to others first, resulting in heightening the sense of selflessness in Aurelia.

MORALS & VALUES

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“I SEE MYSELF THROUGH YOU”

Imago

The last foundational element in Aurelia is encapsulated in the statement “I See Myself Through You”. This statement is used by the community of Aurelia and its inhabitants as a reflection for their performance as a community and their personal performance, as well.

The statement implies that if an Aurelian sees the other as successful, it also suggests the person being successful, as well. This concept could further be applied as a reflection of Aurelia as a whole community, in which if all its members are efficient, it can infer the efficiency of the whole community, as well. This could be referred to as a consequence of Aurelia functioning as an interdependent society managed under harmonious equilibrium and the significance of the self through others.

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Richly Imagined Future

STAGE 1 CONCLUSION

Conclusion

Having examined extinct and existing communities across

the world, in terms of systems thinking, flow of energy, resources, and behaviours etc., we have seen the various governing morals, ethics,values, or principles that have been set as priority for the functioning of the community. In regards to various beliefs, philosophies, ancient scripts, and ideologies, we have examined the positive effects of certain ways of life, in which it becomes clear to us why they have been implemented since their ancient origins.

Having examined these principles, we have selected few ideologies that would preside in our re-imagined society, Aurelia of the Compos Mentis. Aurelia of the Compos Mentis will be a manifesto wherein people are able to voice their individual self within the community at the same time be a reflection of one another and treating others the way one would like to be treated.

The framework that was used to establish Aurelia will redefine community living and will open up a whole new network of opportunities that people will be able to engage in. Through the principle of Harmonious Equilibrium, an ideal balance is achieved in the community harmoniously influencing the individual scale, as well as everyone in the community, in which individuals have equal importance and the right to impact the community uniformly. By viewing the world through such framework, the complexities of life and the constant fluxes would be balanced by the pleasures of life, leisure time, relaxation, and self-reflection all in moderation.

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Richly Imagined Future

FURTHER CASE STUDIES

Time

What if the measurement of time did not exist? Languages would not include tenses (past, present, future tenses). There would be no history if time did not exist. Cultures would not have passages of life rituals or milestones if keeps the world going.

People would not be subjected to age. Records of actions or events would not have been recorded. Criminals would not have to do time in prison. There would not be any project deadlines.

Schedules, planners, calendars would not exist. People would not be paid by hours worked. National, religious, and secular festivals or holidays would not exist. etc‌The concept of time, has been debated over centuries as to whether it is real, in another dimension, can be travelled backwards.etc, however they all have one thing in common, time is a unit of measure, it’s intangible, and cannot be physically stopped, only goes forward.

In the ancient world, before the mechanical clock was invented, humans used various means of measuring, tracking, and keeping time. Most cultures relied on the cycles of natures, whether it be the cosmic cycles of the sun, moon, stars. Some others used water and sand devices as a means of calculating time.

Before the emergence of the mechanical clock, the most popular devices were the sundial (shadow devices), water clock, candle clock, and the hourglass. These methods of timekeeping were not the best at accuracy due to the reliance of other dependent factors, but it allowed the people to track hours and days. Some other cultures rely on moon cycles, tidal wave patterns, alignment of stars and planets in relation to their beliefs, even to this day.

Apart from the universal system of time, many cultures still use traditional methods of measuring time. In order to understand the reasoning behind their methods, we must look into their beliefs to examine why and how they measure time differently.

In certain cultures time has another category, sacred time. This sacred time is connected to religion or beliefs in supernatural powers that make that period of time an auspicious time to perform certain rituals or acts. An example of this would be found among the Aboriginals or Native Indians. Shamans’, medicine women/men who communicate with the divine spirits of their ancestors. They act as the bridge to their animal spirits. The shamans predict the favorable timings for hunting and planting seasons and performing rituals at the correct time to ensure success. They do this through astronomical observations of the positions of cosmic entities. The Shamans are respected as authoritative figures, in which the community relies on to proceed with events and activities. They have great control over the

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members of the clan as their beliefs govern the community. In various other cultures, the role of the Shaman is played by others in the society, such as a priest. They ultimately have the role of keeping and initiating the calendar.

Another way of keeping track of time is through annual, biennial, perennial events. These events act as countdowns to an anticipated event, measuring time. The Chinese New year is a great example of this. This is the longest festival in the Chinese calendar also known as the Spring Festival. It is celebrated at the turn of the chinese calendar. Originally this festival was to honour deities and ancestors. The Chinese calendar itself is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The new year begins with a New Moon and it ends with a full moon, a time of fifteen days. Just like how we have a leap year, the Chinese add another month, once every few years to catch up to the solar calendar, therefore the New Year begins on different dates every year. The New Year is a time for celebration of the family. Ancestors and family members who have passed away are highly respected and sacrificial rituals are made in their honor for contributing to the family glory and name. A creature is represented every year in the Chinese calendar. The calendar consists of twelve creatures, one for every year. The animals/ creatures are repeated in that order once the cycle of the twelve are finished. The birth of a child is remembered by the year of that year’s creature, which is linked to attributes of that animal or creature. These attributes later are looked into as in zodiac signs to see if two are compatible to mate. Through these methods, they record and measure and identify time.

Having identified and examined these ways of measuring time that have been passed down for generations and are kept till the present. This can give us insight on ways we can divide our society’s time apart from the universal standard of measuring time. The society’s seasons, festivities, and celebrations, determine the way of life, all ultimately defined by time. Our society’s governing beliefs, values, philosophies can be the determinant of how time is implemented and regulated in our community.

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Money

Money is the medium of exchange of goods and services that through which one can own someone or something and defines the wealth of a person. We looked into various aspects of exchange, to understand the roots of this idea and develop a system that works well with Aurelia’s community.

The first system we looked into was the barter system that was a way of non monetary exchange. It started with trading that began and continued on the basis of psychological trist in each other within barter exchange where they directly exchanged goods for something they believed has the same value or a higher value or purpose. An early type of exchange in terms of money was cattle where certain animals were for another animal for manure and produce. This system was effective and need to have a lot of belief in one another where every individual was meant to be reliable and responsible for themselves and one another. This worked in the basis of the coincidence of wants as well because it depended on what the buyer wanted, and what the seller had to offer and what he needed in return as well. There was an absence of common measure of value where things with greatest usability was only determined by the nature of objects that were chosen be exchanged with. There were a lot of pros and cons for this concept, but eventually came to an end where it slowly started to change into currency exchange.

Another concept we looked into is Primitive Communism, which was developed by Karl Marx where societies were based the Hunter gatherer societies which are based on egalitarian social relationships and common ownership where they were involved in “communism in living”. In primitive communism, there are no hierarchical social class structures. Here people who are able, will be a part of obtaining food and resources and they would share it with even with those who produce or hunt, and these are commonly shared with the rest of the society and the community. There is no private belongings in this system, and everyone have the same looking personal products, because there is no surplus. Also as and when things are produced, the community consumes it immediately, therefore needing people to obtain and work to gather more and more resources that can be consumed.

The last concept we looked into was gift economy, where it was a mode of exchange of valuable gifts and services that would be without expectations of getting a return product or any future rewards.

It was on the basis on pure warmth and willingness to grant, that is not been sold, rather been been presented to a fellow community member.

Having discussed the above concepts, we gained insights of various means of exchange of goods and services from ancient practices, and how it worked well where there was equality in the community and everyone cared for each other’s well being and very constantly interdependent on each other through exchange of skills, goods, food, services, environments, etc.

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Health Care System

Health is one the most important aspects for a community’s well being. It is a fundamental requirement necessary to promote a healthy population and it an aspect that addresses the welfare of the whole community, that includes every single individual. We looked into an example of a suitable system, effective healthcare program in the world, and a different perspective of perceiving healthcare.

The concept of care customisation is one that has been used for hundreds of years, but being developed further now with technological advancements in the field of healthcare and innovation.

This concept of care customisation was talked about in a TED Talk

by Eric Dishman, where he explores the boundaries of personal health care systems. He proposes the notion of “Care Anywhere, Care Networking and Care Customisation”. “Care anywhere”,is a healthcare model of care at the home, using diagnostic devices through smart implantables in our body. “Care Networking”, is by having an agent to guide you to perform certain self health care through appropriate methods and coordination. Lastly “Care Customisation”, involves the belief of instilling the right mindset for an individual through self motivational practices that is scientifically proven to improve the quality of life, and in turn increase the longevity of life. Incorporating all these systems, it cuts down on unsustainable and unaffordable practices that are sometimes incorrect as well. This would give people newer powerful ways of being their own assistance in health care for certain problems and eliminating the need for expensive systems and schemes. It is a collaborative method where there are caregivers as well as the individual patients and each one having the mindfulness and will to care and help one another.

Looking into Healthcare systems in various countries and locations and studying their functioning, a lot of insights can be grasped for the general practices and functioning of Health care systems in Aurelia. In Switzerland, Denmark and other Scandinavian countries, health care is considered a basic civil right and it been provided by the government as a part of the tax system. But unlike various other countries, Scandinavian people receive the worth of their taxes paid to the fullest by receiving excellent healthcare systems guaranteed to all citizens in the country. Their health insurances keeps them completely insured and covers all medical needs and treatment including emergency and surgery as well. Switzerland in particular has a very high life expectancy of 80 to 85 years of age. The fascinating aspect of Switzerland is that inspite of all their high quality services, they only spend 2.7 percent of GDP which is supposed to be the lowest amount used for healthcare in the developed world. Another aspect for their success in doing well is because their insurances are

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all bought through private organisations and none of it is sponsored by the government or by the employers, by which the whole system becomes more transparent and beneficial preventing any fraud in the system.

Analysing various healthcare systems and innovative structures for healthcare, we thought of looking into health and well being in a completely different perspective from the mainstream methods as well. Delving into different systems, we studied about Ayurveda and its system of healthcare which has been timeless and dated to be in use for over 5,000 to 6,000 years ago and is relatively new and gaining popularity to the rest of the world now. Ayurveda is a holistic approach of healthcare as it deals with mind, body, environment, behaviour and consciousness of the individual. It is defined as the perfect balance between body, mind, spirit and social well being as it looks the individual system as a whole and works together to improve health conditions. These systems are scientifically proven for thousands of years and are meant to be linked to the connections between the universe, earth and the human being. Knowing a person’s body constitution of energy through various techniques, one can maximise one’s health through diet, lifestyle practices, herbal medication, massages, aromas and various other natural therapies. It is said that our initial balances in life are disturbed by the lifestyles we follow in the present day, and it is key for for us to take into consideration our diet, exercises, profession, relationships that should be able to give us physical, emotional and spiritual balances. Ayurveda can treat most diseases and issues with an individual as it is considered as totality treating the patient as a whole. Using this approach in a slightly different manner, these dietary patterns and systemic belief systems of balance between all aspects of the body, should be followed by everyone, built into the community’s daily lifestyle. This in turn will result in a healthy environment for all will be very beneficial. Also with our community of Aurelia, where whole idea is to have the right balance of all aspects in life, this would be good inspiration to make use of for the well being of the community.

Public Health

Earlier this year, January 2015, New Orleans has taken a stand against smoking in public places such as bars, restaurants, and gambling halls. The city council has voted in favour of this, as they feel it is a step closer to a healthier community. The importance of this ban specifically was stressed by the detrimental effects smoking has on non-smoking employees and musicians, bartenders and waitresses working or performing there. It is not so simple for these employees to choose between avoiding such places when it is hard to find jobs elsewhere. Councilwoman, LaToya Cantrell, couldn’t stress more to

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see a change take place, as it is causing illnesses and deaths among non-smokers, who are forced to breathe toxic air. She states, they have a right to breathe smoke-free air. Musicians has also witnessed many fellow artist friends suffer and die from second-hand smoking and want this to stop. Many people claimed that smoking was part of the essence of New Orleans, and risked business profits. Cantrell says in defense that she doesn’t think getting cancer from second-hand smoking isn’t part of New Orleans culture. Other cities across America such as New York and Chicago have already implemented this law, in response to the community’s health. About 16 million Americans suffer from smoking related diseases. Smoking is the most preventable cause of death, as 480, 000 people die from smoking yearly, and 41,000 people die yearly from breathing in secondhand smoke just in the United States. Due to shocking stats like these, cities are taking a stand to implement laws for the greater health of the country.

Bristol, is the first city In the UK to implement outdoor smoke-free areas. The British trial was brought to the attention by the local government group Smoke-free South West. Millenium square and Anchor Square in particular are voluntarily under this cigarette ban, as the poll resulted in 61% of locals were in favor if this. It was brought to attention, that these places were high traffic areas for children playing, and therefore having a smoke-free zone would be much beneficial. Bristol now joins, New York, Toronto, and Hong Kong in outdoor smoking bans. Ms.Vass, a chain smoker for about 15 years, speaks out to warn people about the damage smoking can lead to, as she faces the consequences of smoking. She is supported by her 15 year old daughter, Lucy, as she relies on her to get around, being unable to breathe well. She warns and begs people to stop smoking and not end up like her, as she considers her life a life sentence. She emphasizes that it is not worth it especially if you have children.

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Public Hygiene

Singapore is known to be one of the most cleanest countries in the world, as it strives to have excellent standards of hygiene and public health. The country thrives on implementing strict fines and regulations for misconduct. The Public Hygiene Council was formed in order to promote public hygiene, with representatives from various sectors in partnership to take charge in coordinating these efforts. The relatively new council, launched in 2011, to promote practices to improve personal and public hygiene to complement the government’s efforts of high standards in Singapore’s health and hygiene. Their goal is to get the public informed and involved in hopes of collective efforts and discussion to enhance excellent models of hygiene. The council organizes movements, such as the Keep Singapore Clean, Keep Singapore Beautiful, Singapore Kindness movements, to promote neighborly acts of kindness and consideration such as litter picking and helping keep public spaces clean. Singapore’s vision model is for everyone to embrace and advocate good personal and public hygiene, not just for high standards and recognition, but as a way of life.

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Senior’s Welfare The elderly population is rapidly increasing and so are their needs for health care. Inspite of the advancements in technology and superior healthcare, the problems, disabilities and diseases still last to exist in many today. Especially the elderly people are more susceptible to issues and easily catch diseases or infections from others or the surroundings. Also aging has various side effects and not following the right lifestyle or the right methods, they are prone to get various health problems. There are difficulties in acquiring health care insurances, long term care insurances and limited access to other specific health care coverages. Looking into this aspect in detail, we looked into many varied schemes in different countries and regions to understand the patterns in the welfare of seniors health care.

We looked at the systems set in place in Sweden in the field of senior welfare and discovered that their system ranks the first for treating the elderly and has well organised and structured networks set.

Sweden’s health care organisations are very considerate and helpful for seniors and their lifestyles and they focus on and assist various aspects such as home help, communal meals, assistance, daytime activities, transportation services, and also included pension systems, preventive health care, simulation needs and helping in the needs of the elderly lives and the care required for them. By serving all these necessary needs such as offering help with those with disabilities, providing readily cooked meals, delivering accessible and convenient transportation methods to travel in and around the city, giving the freedom to seniors themselves to decide when they can retire or when they get their pension, equipping them to be able to attain all kinds of medication with doctors monitoring every aspect, also being able to provide leisure activities for them to relax and have pleasurable times such as music, painting, arts and other cultural activities to stimulate their mind and body to improve and enhance their overall well being. The Swedish government also does city planning giving seniors much importance in allocating locations to meet their needs, and also keeping in mind the required spaces they would need close by, such as hospitals, parks, community centers, etc. Teams of experts in this field are constantly working to ensure that seniors have a comfortable and healthy life and to provide them with the best facilities they can possibly offer, keeping the community hale and healthy.

The next case study that was studied was another Scandinavian country, Denmark. Denmark’s health care model for the elderly is based on the systems of providing varied choices of care and

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support through periodic checkups, providing housing needs and requirements, encouraging self care, foodcare, transportation conveniences, and enrolling seniors into various events and programs.

All these have been achieved by following steps such as methods where they offer to an extent of 24 hours of home care for free for seniors, aged 67 or older, and as they turn older, they have the right and are meant to receive 2 complete general check ups a year from public services to investigate if they are in need of home care or any other medical help. Another offering is providing seniors with private nursing homes and close care accommodation. They are also training elderly people in assisting themselves to perform their own tasks through easier methods and services. Their homes and locations are also are planned accordingly to nourish gated communities, senior citizen residences and having transportations that suits them all in those particular neighbourhoods. With the growing aging population becoming larger in the past decade, and with the developments in the cities and lifestyles, families are finding it difficult to care for their elderly family members.

Having said this, care and welfare for the elderly is a major aspect and must be taken into consideration and the goal in our community will be to cater the needs for all age groups and plan the city and the functions and entities in a way that is of conveyance of accessible for all people. With the information said from above, we will provide care systems that are a part of everyday lifestyle well being exercised routines that will ultimately reduce the amount of issues faced by older people, and keep fit, healthy and active.

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Child Care

In accordance with Denmark’s education system, child care and early education is in the centre of the community. The children’s well-being and developmental care and growth drives family and community living. It is a culture of flexible hours in correlation to working hours for parents, where their child is concerned, as parents can leave early to pick up or drop off their children.

Children are given priority and raising them is done equally by both parents, as fathers are given paternity leave as well. In fact, most fathers are exceptionally involved with their children. It is very normal to see the same or more male employees than females in child care services and institutions. With both parents sharing hours working and pitching to their income, it is more feasible to pay for such services.

These customs, parenting techniques, and child care is very unique and in opposition to many western cultures worldwide, including the American culture. A custom in Denmark is for parents to park their babies in prams outside stores, unsupervised, to let them sleep even in sub-zero temperatures in order to ensure they be exposed to fresh air as soon as possible, especially during winter to stop the spreading of germs and diseases that are circulated inside. The children are hardly yelled at and learn through experiencing and the consequences of their mistakes.

Parents have the freedom to allow children to explore the outdoors and play unsupervised. Perhaps this is why Denmark’s crime rates are substantially lower compared to the rest of the world, giving priority to the growth and development of their children, by ensuring a safe environment for children to explore, play, and grow. They allow their children freedom to explore and become an independent person with personal interests. A holistic view is taken for the child’s well-being; mentally, physically, and socially.

As soon as the child is born, parents must contact local municipals to book a place for their child for early child care.

Children are given into the care of ‘child-minders’ at daycares, nurseries and preschools, which are the responsibility of municipalities. These institutions differ among municipalities.

Here are a few types, “Day care with an approved childminder (Dagplejer) for children up to the age of three, Private day care for children up to the age of three, Nursery (Daginstitutioner) for children aged six months to two years, Crèche (vuggestuer) for children aged between three and six, Integrated institutions (Aldersintegrerede institutioner) for children aged six months to six years, Særlige dagtilbud is a special day-care facility for children with permanent or considerably reduced mental or physical

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capacities”. Parents have to pay for their children’s care, however the fees are of low costs. Some municipals even pay parents to take stay home and take care of their children. Costs vary by number of siblings, age, and institution. Grants are offered to parents needing financial assistance.

The Ministry of Social Affairs is responsible for early childhood education and care. Individuality and intrinsic values are key in the Danish culture, and therefore each child is given full attention and care. Each stage of the child’s life and growth is carefully monitored and evaluated. If by any means the child does not match the average progress, they are given special attention. For example, children of three years of age should speak Danish.

If they do not exhibit this, it is mandatory for the child to receive language stimulation services, which are provided by the local authorities. Possibly, these services are reprimanded to ensure the smooth transition for the child into regular school, with all the prerequisites necessary to progress. School in Denmark is mandatory for children above the age of 6. The children attend preschool the year before entering compulsory school.

Another factor that contributes for a successful child care system is dependant on the size of the communities/country. With smaller populations, services, benefits, and childcare support is given at an individual state to all citizens. All though citizens must pay a higher tax rate than most countries, it is worth the individual’s lifetime benefits and in return societal success.

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Education

For our community, we feel that our standards for an excellent education system would perhaps lean more into Finland’s/ Denmark’s education model system, esteemed to be one of the best and most successful in the world which is evident in their endeavors. The reason for Finland’s success in their education system mainly relies on the community morals and values that dictates their ‘norm’ actions and way of life. If you take their education systems and place them out of the context of their society, they wouldn’t work. The explanation for this is seen in the importance they place in their education system and how they prioritized it in their hierarchy of systems, where the community revolves around the education system and not vice versa. The reason being that it not only provides educational services but social services as well. Finns believe that their system should allow children to create their identity and is based off of cultural values of intrinsic motivation, personal interests, important learning done outside of classrooms, experiencing, and creating identity.

They do this in reasonably short school days which are packed with sponsored extracurriculars as they believe that the most important learning happens outdoors and outside of classrooms, letting this ideology dictate how school hours are scheduled. Their low-stress culture allows the children to grow up with personal interests in various careers, in a society where careers are all given equal importance of status and respect. However lax this system may seem, it is nonetheless not all play/ flexible as it is balanced with rigid guidelines and rigorous work, and is supported by its 100% literacy rate. Their recent radical change to their education system of having no separate subjects in school, introducing a “phenomenon-based teaching” which is basically teaching crosssubject topics that cover two or more subjects in one. They believe in a change in the system that is more suitable for children to keep up with the changing technologies and survive in the world once they step into the workforce.

Closely following behind, Denmark scores 99% in its literacy rate because of their impeccable education system which supports education as a right for all. Their other key principles for education are high standards, lifelong learning, active participation and project work. They believe not only having basic education as mandatory for all its citizens, but thrives to have high quality education as well in order for generations to prosper in this competitive world. Their drive to high academic standards are paired with innovative learning strategies, all regulated and financed by the

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state, to keep up with the “globalised knowledge-based society”.

Upper secondary schools prepare the students to enter higher education, while vocational education and training is given to students who are pursuing a career in trade or industry. Higher education involves innovative methods of research and teaching.

Their motivated learning environments aid in the students’ academic excellence. Many programs are taught in English due to the fact that Denmark is a preferred destination for international students. Apart from attending classes, students are encouraged to play an active role in building their analytical or critical thinking skills, through carrying out independent or group projects and through discussions. Learning does not stop after higher education, according to N.F.S. Grundtvig, a 19th century Danish clergyman and philosopher, lifelong learning is mandatory for active participation of the citizens in a democratic society. This idea has been followed and now supports adults with the classes, education, or training needed to thrive in their workplace. Due to this, constant upgrades are implemented in the workforce, satisfying the people’s needs. This whole education system correlates with the ‘Think-Play-Participate’ philosophy.

Because both countries’ education systems are prioritized, as in the center of the community, it dictates all other aspects of the community in the whole such as security, work/labour force, family life, economics, healthcare, childcare, and in general having a wholesome quality of life. Their investment in their education system allows them to influence better growth and development of their children as they become dynamic individuals, as the future generations, in whose hands the country’s success depends on.

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TED Education

Looking at the TED Talk by Ricardo Semler, who spoke in regard to education and how the systems need to redefined and what the goal and purpose of education and knowledge must actually be, we discovered the different systems that are being put in place where the student is the key stakeholder in the whole process and experience and how this makes them productive, successful and knowledgable. He states that we have reached to the states of industrial revolution, age of information, age of knowledge, but we are not getting very close to wisdom. So he says the process is looking for is wisdom and knowing the for the most important things in life which are forgotten which are love, death and the purpose of life. He says that these are the essentials and educational institutions need to inculcate these practices and they are the ones who need to give us these aspects of knowledge. Knowledge of subject matters should be given that will ideally make us realise how to measure ourselves which relates to physics, math; and also how to express ourselves like poetry, music and literature. This being said, he proposed a method which gets away from the stereotypical educational systems of education, instead we should be working on overall skills and gaining knowledge based to fulfill every skill. So for this purpose, they had the idea where each student has a tutor who don’t teach, but are people who have passion and expertise in subjects in regard to their profession or not, who guide the student and pass on their knowledge and their beliefs to the students. In this particular school example proposed by Ricardo, they had senior citizens as these tutors as they believed they possessed the most wisdom with their years of experience and knowledge about the world and subjects. Another method of teaching is through having courses such as Constructing a bike, renovating a room, etc, that will include subject matters from many disciplines, therefore holistically tieing it all together, as well as giving it a practical context for usage of the knowledge and study that enhances their understanding towards the subject and learning. Another method of letting students learn is through experiences, where they are let loose in a space and given no rules and are allowed to wish anything they wish to do. With this set in practice, based on their own experiences, they will know if an act is good or bad for them, or whether it is the right or wrong thing to do. For example, a bunch of children were allowed to hit themselves on their head, and after a week, they all realised that it hurt them, and did not do so again. So applying schemes like this, children or students learn by themselves and this creates a

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stronger foundation in their life and gives them the confidence to be innovative and creative. This way, all the skills needed for the student are imprinted to fulfill every aspect needed to becomes wiser and knowledgeable and acquire the fundamentals to live life and reach greater heights.

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City Planning

Cities from the ancient times are known as the heart of a civilization and are also known as the engines for future growth. The planning of the city is a primary element in terms of the functioning, movement, flow in a city. From the ancient civilisations and the dawn of societies and communities, city planning has been an essential aspect for a healthy city.

Garden City Movement We looked into concepts for cities to get inspiration, of how cities were imagined to look like and also how various cities have some of their ideologies based on these concepts. An example of a concept city is the Garden City, which is structured in a unique manner, so that all facilities, amenities and activities can be comfortably performed in an efficient manner. The city consisted of a concentric model where the core of the city would be green spaces, from which all the other developments would grow from. Residential quarters were on the next ring, followed by industry and agriculture. The interesting idea of this concept, was the way the city would have a maximum population, after which a new city with the similar concentric model would be created beside it. This model helps us, as it is similar to what would be suitable in Aurelia in terms of the similarities of its concentric model and how its connectivity and efficiency in planning the city addresses the complete functioning of the city itself.

Plato: The Republic The next city plan we looked into was the Plato: The Republic, which is city is one that is built upon Socrates’s ideas and principles of a city that needs to accommodate every individual’s basic needs. The community is one, that reduces the physical desires of the human body by enhancing the soul to become bolder and stronger. In Socrates’s Utopian vision of a city, he believes that the city should be a means through which, an individual as well as the community is able to reach to its highest capacity by means of various mediums such as reason, education, natural abilities and their capacity for survival of the community. So this ideal city proposed by Socrates is one that focuses on the soul, rather than on bodily desires of human beings, hence entering into a more spiritual perspective of things creating immense value in the society and the surroundings of the city.

Masdar City Another one is the Masdar City which is a city in the making in Saudi Arabia proposed to be the world’s most sustainable eco city where experts have been looking into ancient techniques and combining them with modern technologies. They believe all our natural resources are blessings and harnessing those that are unlimited, such as the sun’s energy to its maximum potential will drive in creating cities of great innovation and great examples for the future. The city being in

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a desert location will use cutting edge methods and renewable sources, thus decreasing the carbon footprint to an extensive level, ultimately aiming for a zero carbon city environment. With the advancements of cities like Masdar, will originate completely revolutionary business models in design, technology, infrastructures and lifestyles.

Auroville Auroville is a township in southern India, that we discussed previously in regard to its community being one where one discovers oneself and develops their self mentally, physically and spiritually creating mind, body and soul connections. Here we are discussing the city plan of Auroville, as it is a significant and relates to the core values of Aurelia which is a Galaxy concept model of a city. The city plan aims is becoming the model of the future and a “the city the earth needs�, and the galaxy concept relates to the significance of making it a universal entity as well as, the energy and lines of forces that radiate from the center and out. At the center of the city is known as the soul of Auroville, which is a place for silence and concentration. Everything else is planned out from the center all directions. The north of the center is the industrial section, east is the cultural areas of activities, south is the residential spaces and the west of the center is the international centers for activity and innovation. Even these 4 areas are situated because of orientation in regard to galaxy structure that is meant to radiate from the inner core as lines of forces in these directions. The reason of mimicking the galaxy structure for Auroville was to experience the rhythm and energy of the spaces, our self and people around us. Surrounding the whole larger circle of these spaces is a green belt that consists of forests, farms, sanctuaries and settlements of those who work in that space. With this structure set, there are still possibilities of flexibility in the plan which again relates back to the whole concept of the ever changing energy in the galaxy.

The elements that will be suitable for Aurelia from the above case studies are the concentric circle model, importance to the self and all the aspects of Auroville and its connection to energy flow in the city for positive purpose and well being.

Figure 18.

Auroville

Having said this, City planning is essential for every single aspect in the community and informs how and what happens on a daily basis. It informs the interactions, transportation, and every other simple detail in daily lifestyle.

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Transportation

Transportation is a basic need for human being to move from one place to another and this system influences growth, efficiency and quality of life in urban areas to provide accessible modes of moving around for people.

We have studied about a few models based on modes of transportation and systems set in place or that are proposed for the future in regard to sustainable and efficient outcomes in regard to holistic comfort and wellness of the city and the people. It is said that the four pillars of urban transportation are Space representation, organising structures, democracy of people and the market philosophy. We delved into all these aspects to broaden our knowledge to gain insights for an ideal system of conveyance and getting around.

Various cities like Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul and Lyon, Curitiba have good public transportation systems and they offering very good quality of services. Many of these systems are managed by the government, but led by various private operators with contacts that balances the delivery of needs by public services. Many schemes are such as Transportation management systems, intelligent transportation systems, urban transportation systems, sustainable transportation and design and operational schemes have been put in practice in these places for system development and expansion. With the studies, we found that most of the above examples where this being implemented, there are common elements that are used which leads to success of their transportation system. The similarities are that cities offering multiple modes of transportation, having a common card that makes it easier, information systems to enable users access necessary information at the right time and right place, and providing accessible and scheduled systems that are efficient and are time effective. Examples of these implemented in the real world, are aspects such the Copenhagen system where their metro connects suburb regions and longer distant travels, and in specific zones, and they also have urban bike programs allowing people to ride across zones easier. The other example is of the Hong Kong MTR with the Octopus Card, where the card can be recharged constantly for transit credit, which is of great convenience. This idea has been an inspiration for many transit systems are slowly being implemented in many cities as well. The final example of a good transit system in a city is Seoul, where the system is completely user friendly and where systems behave in accordance to all human factors, satisfying the needs and motivations of the travellers and also enhancing their experience through WiFi services underground and robots that offer with customer service. Small elements such as the above, have a large impact on the transportation systems and organisation. This being said, the key elements to take from this are the levels of importance given to the user and how human factors needs to looked into for a well functioning transit system.

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The following case study is Personal Rapid Transit, which is otherwise known as podcar. It consists of a network of automated vehicles that have built guide ways that they follow in order to navigate around the space. The transportation systems set in place today have issues such as, following particular routes, wasted time for transit wait times, de routes and other inefficiencies. Podcars would tackle this problem as the functioning of transit will differ in ways where, small groups of people would be using each pod, where the podcars would have a large network of tracks that goes to various destinations, it would be more private, one could pick their own schedule and the experience becomes smooth and fast. This concept of the Podcar will reshape today’s transit and it could be an effective system to think about while thinking of the movement and navigation for people in Aurelia.

Another case study performed by us relates to future probes wherein, with continuous development and advancements in the urban cities, automobile industry and with the growth and size of populations, there has been increased levels of pollution and global impacts. Through infrastructure and expansion, cities have become concrete jungles, slowly taking away the humanness of the earth and our surroundings. In the recent past, there has been a growing awareness in city planning and of lifestyle changes, and creating more efficient systems that reduce environmental footprint. Cities and other systems are taking into consideration the interconnectivity of networks and redefining them where people are able to navigate the city without the usage of automobiles. The future of car less cities is a vision that is looked into with great importance, and steps are constantly being implemented through making small changes in the working of a city and through awareness.

Studies have proved that Walking is ranked the number one priority of transportation, followed by Biking is of the second highest priority and having automobile systems at the bottom of the list of priority. Biking not only saves 80 times the energy used by automobiles, but is also a means of effective physical activity. It is faster than walking and is efficient for travelling short to medium distance commutes. It also improves the overall and well being of the community resulting in a healthy and active society and it is proved to be the most effective transportation. Having said this, future trends are proposing that automobiles are a part of technology from the past, and the future, here in particular 20145 systems of transportation, holds systems that have a mixed balance of affordable interconnected city systems through wireless technology, solar powered energy giving rise to compact innovations in regard to electric bikes, electric cubes, electric walking devices through which one can move around easily.

In respect to the city planning of the transit in the city, the one which has been in use and has been successful till date is the grid system that suits the plan of the city, where transportation vehicles navigate in parallel lines, and

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these are efficient as people need to walk very less to reach one stop and also that every major intersection is covered and accessible through transit.

In addition to the grid system, there are other types of grids that include class, radial, polar grid and spider web that are different patterns that sometimes are included along with the grid systems or sometimes are standalone systems by themselves.

All this being said, transportation has various elements that revolve around the city and its functions and that manage to cater the needs of every individual in the community. With many of the above systems, certain sections could be incorporated in the bigger picture of Aurelia to inform the movement of people from place to place in the most sustainable, well planned, balanced and harmonious possible way.

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Manufacturing and Production

Manufacturing could be defined as the process of producing merchandise for use or sale by labour, machines, tools, chemical and biological processing, or formulation. From handicrafts to high tech, the term is usually used to refer to industrial production involving the transformation of raw materials into finished goods on a large scale.

On the other hand, production is the process that involves bringing together various material inputs and immaterial inputs such as the how and plans, to create something for consumption. Thus, it’s an act of creating an output in the form of goods or services that holds a certain value and is meant for the utility of individuals.

There are currently two emerging trends in the area of mature technology.

The first one is the prevailing of semiconductors as the cornerstone of global information technology economy, and the continuous research in the area of linear scaling of silicon-based circuits, and the increased diversification in materials and construction of such circuits, to design completely novel computing devices. The second emerging trend has to do with advanced materials whose internal structures have superior properties, which in manufactured products facilitate transformative changes. Such properties could help in reducing costs, while providing technical benefits.

Other two trends that are emerging in the less mature industries include additive manufacturing and synthetic biology manufacturing. Additive manufacturing involves using various techniques for adding materials in layers to build solid parts, in which it is believed to have the potential to change how products will be designed, sold, and delivered to customers in the future. Such trend will provide the opportunity fro mass customizations and design changes to be possible. Additive manufacturing machines will be targeted to both the consumer level for at home usage, and industrial machines that will be used for rapid prototyping and direct production of parts. On the other hand, manufacturing biological substances from radically engineered biological systems for novel purposes could now be possible through synthetic biology. Synthetic biology and specifically biomanufacturing has the potential to reframe conceptions of advanced manufacturing.

Currently, companies and countries are investing in cyber and related physical infrastructure and expected to lead through exploiting the resulting increased flow of information. Such expansion in computing and sensing capabilities will amplify the importance of semiconductors, and imply the possibilities of advanced manufacturing processes to be more energy and resource efficient. Moreover, advances in systems design and materials will likely propose the acceleration and transformation of manufactured products.

In addition to that, with the technological advancements and the realization of cost effective implementations, self assembly based fabrication processes and biologically inspired designs is expected to be integrated with the manufacturing processes.

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Recently, an emphasis has been placed on the interdependence between manufacturing and future innovation, and the linkage between the production base and research activity and the role of such interaction for future innovations. Based on such realization, companies are relocating their R&D departments to their production base locations.

A rising concept in the manufacturing industry is being driven by SMAC, which refers to social, mobile, analytics, and cloud, in which it is becoming an essential technology kit for enterprises and refers to the emerging wave for driving higher consumer engagement and growth.

Social media has forced manufacturers to become more customer-centric, with today’s connected consumers being more informed and expect products on-demand. While businesses are trying to save on labor and service costs, the Internet of Things will also allow for condition based maintenance that will drive the process efficiency. Moreover, an increased focus is currently directed towards science and engineering education, to develop a workforce that can manage highly technical systems and allow for a greater automation.

A significant model in manufacturing that is worth mentioning is how the Lida factory utilizes ongoing factory automation for making highly competitive products.Their production is handled from the line design to the development and design of automation equipment and molds. These technologies are combined to build automated, high efficiency, and high precision production lines that can’t be imitated. In such sense, divisions collaborate to create the optimal motor design, production line configuration, and equipment molds, in which top staff members from sales, motor design, manufacturing technologies, facility development, and other divisions participate in the process.

Agroprocessing Another segment worth mentioning is the agroprocessing industry, which involves a manufacturing operation that is responsible for the processing of raw materials and intermediate products that are derived from the agriculture sector. Therefore, agroprocessing usually refers to the transformation of products that are originally derived from agriculture, forestry, and fishery. It involves both simple operations like sun drying and harvesting to capital intensive methods.

Recent trends in the agricultural research and technologies is mostly based on biological and biotechnological innovations, as well as modern processing technologies.

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Agriculture

Ancient practices: Agriculture was the backbone of civilization and settlements. It has always been the central focus that dictates communal life. Having examined the Kibbutz culture and community in our previous report, we found insights on communal dining and how the gathering of food was everyone’s responsibility through the participation of all. We will examine other types of agriculture and ways of gathering food resources, such as subsistence agriculture, Cuban’s Urban Farming Revolution, and the 100 Mile Diet, to get some insights on various methods of food sources.

Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focuses on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families.” This subsistence agriculture emerged from human settlements during the Agricultural Revolution from the Stone Age, a transition from the hunting and gathering lifestyle to agriculture and settlements. It consists of crops and animals that provide food and clothing throughout the year. Planting decisions are made with two things in mind: what the family needs for upcoming year, and what the market prices are. It was the most dominant production systems for food, until capitalism became prominent and global. Subsistence farming still continues today.

The Cuban Urban farming revolution, happened in response to a collapsing food provisioning system. The government then implemented various organic agriculture systems and methods of farming for the production of crops, through the use of peasant labour. Urban guerrilla gardening initiatives prospered into new state approved farming programs. Much of this widespread voluntary participation efforts have contributed to “ ‘what may be the world’s largest working model of semi-sustainable agriculture’”. Due to this success, the country has quickly recuperated, revived, and flourished into an excellent local self sustaining foodshed that is affordable and accessible. Cuba’s capital, Havana, is home to more than 2 million people, and displays many modern infrastructural elements, unlike other cities in the Caribbean. By rethinking their agricultural systems into their landscapes and infrastructures, they have been much more efficient. The “food production infrastructure has been woven into the city fabric, with interventions that range in size from backyard gardens to large peri-urban farms.” With the continuous support and aid of the cuban government, helping the people to make this a success.

The government provides them with physical support such as training, or financially through subsidized agricultural stores, having compost production sites, pesticides labs and veterinary clinics.

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“This combination of top-down state support and ground-up citizen participation has proven wildly successful; economist Sinan Koont estimates that ‘more than 35,000 hectares of land are being used in urban agriculture in Havana’.

“Havana’s urban growers take this work seriously, and have transformed underused urban spaces into exceptionally productive spaces. On one rooftop in the El Cerro neighbourhood, a single farmer raises 40 guinea pigs, six chickens, two turkeys and more than a hundred rabbits. His 68 square-metre system incorporates closed-loop permaculture principles, where he grows vegetables, recycles organic animal waste, collects water and exploits a number of inter-species synergies. He has built his own machines for drying and preserving feed, which allows him to collect abundant waste compost from nearby markets and stores and put it up for leaner times. His small rooftop enterprise produces meat for area restaurants and markets; he is one of more than a thousand small livestock breeders in Havana.”

The 100 Mile Diet movement began in March 2005. It is based off a urban couple’s, J.B MacKinnon and Alisa Smith the authors of the book The 100 Mile Diet, experiences of living for 1 year without eating anything but locally grown, produced, and manufactured food within a 100 miles of their home. This diet was challenging and limiting as finding local ingredients in the grocery store was scarce.

They depended on farmer’s markets and visits to local farms. Their staples included, chicken, seafood, root vegetable, berries, and corn.

Even though they lacked in cooking oils, rice, and sugar, the food that they preserved for the winter was more than abundant, with plenty remaining. The average ingredient in an average meal, has travelled about 1,500 miles or more to reach your plate. Due to the import and exporting of goods over thousands of miles of sea, land, and air, there are some consequences. The freshness of the produce is dramatically reduced and in return loses its taste. Also another major consequence of the transportation of these produce/goods is the fact that it leaves a huge environmental footprint. This type of eating encourages sustainable agriculture when locavores, people who only abide by eating locally produced/grow food, are treated with the freshest, preservative free, seasonal harvest.

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Waste Removal Systems

Netherlands Systems “ Thanks to its top-notch waste management structure, the Netherlands is able to recycle no less than 64% of its waste – and most of the remainder is incinerated to generate electricity. As a result, only a small percentage ends up in landfill. In the realm of recycling this is a country which is practically unique.”

When it comes to waste management, the Dutch and the Netherlands have excelled in innovations that have brought them success. They abide by a straight-forward approach known as the “Lansink’s Ladder”, appropriately named after a member of the Dutch Parliament who proposed this approach. This approach forms the fundamental guidelines of the ‘waste hierarchy’ in the European Waste Framework Directive. It is “avoid creating waste as much as possible, recover the valuable raw materials from it, generate energy by incinerating residual waste, and only then dump what is left over”. This approach’s success is due to the cooperation of the faithful citizens and to the innovative technologies that makes the simply worded approach all possible. A survey among the Dutch people resulted in 90% of them separating their household waste as the most popular environmental acts, followed by turning off the tap while brushing, and lowering the thermostat by one or two degrees. However these environmental acts of awareness was stimulated by something greater than just for personal satisfaction. Strict taxes, due to lack of space, were enforced for every tonne of material landfilled, pushed companies to look for other methods such as recycling or incinerating to avoid paying for their waste. This brought about innovative thinking of ways to sort, clean, and process “residual matter” into endless possibilities of new material like, “concrete blocks, clean soil, fluff, compost for potted plants”. A prime example of a leading company of innovations is VAR, a full-service recycling company with the latest recycling technology. Their company is divided into five divisions: “minerals, sorting, biogenic, energy and engineering.” Their newest breakthrough technology can generate energy from vegetable-based waste. They also extract combustible methane gas which is transported by a pipe system to a generator that converts the gas to a remarkable amount of electricity enough for 1400 households. Other countries are much interested in VAR’s modern systems and come to take a look at their business model. The key to this model is having a fully sealed waste disposal site and a reliable system to extract methane gas. Other companies such as Nihot have a high level of expertise when it comes to manufacturing sorting machines with high levels of accuracy. From ceramics to debris glass their portable machines is very useful on

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on-site demolition to sort waste without having to transport them to processing sites first.

The various integrated systems of collection, sorting, and reusing waste materials took many years to plan, engineer, and execute, since the Dutch had no prior example to follow. Their innovative systems took several years of trial and error for their vision to succeed.

It also calls for the participation of all the citizens to do their parts in managing and sorting their household waste. Now the impeccable modern systems are an attractive model for other countries facing problems with waste management to follow and learn from the Dutch’s mistakes.

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Festivals

Festivals are expressions and symbols of celebrating life, culture, surroundings and are special moments and emotions in our lives that play a very important role in the structure of our life and the connections we gain with the people and the environments around us. Festivities are meant to bring happiness in our life and make us stronger in the sense of our community. They are symbols of bringing messages of love, tolerance, understanding and to express gratitude and as a whole, they festivities relate to harmony, peace and happiness which are the essentials of life.

When we looked into this aspect of festivals and celebrations, we came across the usual festivities that are celebrated in the western world today, in addition to that, we found systems that have been said to be followed for about hundreds of years, a few such ideologies in India and China, and we have discussed its significance.

India is a country that presently has the highest number of festivals in the world, because of its vast culture, ancient methods, mythological contexts and the levels of importance and respect they give to the people around, surroundings, tools, work, environments considering them all transcendence of the ultimate power, that can be referred to god if one wishes to. The importance of Indian Festivals is to make life a celebration, which is the essence of their culture, and letting celebration be a passageway to the most heartfelt aspects of life that take life to a whole new state of energy flow and enthusiasm. It is said that in the ancient days, 365 days of the year used to days of celebration, wherein all the simple aspects of life and daily activities are celebrated that in turn makes everything a happy event. Noways people consider festivities as just holidays where you wake up late and relax and there is a gap between work and leisure now, where if something is important they become very serious about, and if it is not important, they don’t show much involvement. But in the past there was a different interpretation of the relation between work, daily life and celebrations. As said by Sadhguru that, “If you approach everything in a celebratory way, you are able to learn to be non serious about life, but absolutely involved”, and leading life in this manner, we don’t miss the point and the significance of every activity we perform.

An example of this is celebrating every day of a harvest season, where the first day is celebrated for the aspect of planting, and then picking, seeding, watering, etc, which makes each and every activity significant and important, as the same time festive and spreading happiness to all within the community. Even today, India celebrates various festivals where they worship, respect their tools of work, their parents, family, workplace, education, mentors, and every aspect involved in their life, which in turn instills meaning and respect for all the activities and details in life. Having this joyous time, it is said to offer powerful possibilities for holistic growth, and also to represent aspects such as light of clarity, and understanding the self for to attain success and victory.

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Arts in Societies

A society without the civilizing influences of art, becomes stripped out of what is most pleasurable in life and is bereft of a national conversation about its identity or anything else. The inherent value of culture and its contribution to society, along with its symbiotic relationship with education and economic power is all linked to art, due to its critical representation in the investment in our quality of life.

The power of art lies in its simplicity, and how it can conveys ideas across classes and cultures without relying on any language or written text, making it a very powerful tool of communication bringing communities together. A city that has a greater focus on art enjoys social cohesion, better civic engagement, improved child welfare, and decreased poverty. Community art enables citizen to work together and create a shared vision of their ideals, values, and hopes for the future.

In addition to that, art is a significant tool for documenting the collective present and passing it over to future generations to communicate ways of thinking, values and more. Art also has the ability to become a tool for social change or even become used for therapeutic healing.

Researches have shown the ability of music to improve skills in maths and reading, while also promoting creativity, social development, personality adjustment and self worth. Therefore, in such sense the worth of culture and heritage is not solely measured in pounds and pence, but rather through its art value, since it is the heart, essence and soul of a society.

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Spirituality

Spirituality is a key aspect in the holistic approach in the community of Aurelia.

Spirituality as a whole is an extensive concept that brings out various views and through diverse standpoints. On a general basis, it refers to a human being’s experience in the journey of searching for the connections of something, and it is associated with looking for the meaningful aspects of life. It involves transformation of the self in several levels of the human experiences in numerous contexts.

Viewing the aspect of spirituality in certain contexts and understanding their approach of the means by which one reaches to their highest potential, a couple of case studies were performed to better understand these aspects.

His Holiness, The Karmapa gave a TED Talk in Mysore India which was about the Technology and design of the heart. He is a great spiritual leader and he believes that, in our world of great revolutionary technological developments, it is key for us human beings to invest a lot of our energy in developing and working on the improvement of the technology of our hearts. He talks about the importance of human beings being able to connect with one another through simple means such as heart-to-heart or mind-to-mind, which is far more important and a fundamental act which we must all inculcate and retain in our everyday lifestyle.

He implies that it is essential to establish these mind and body connections through various means of self development and spiritual mediums, for the enhancement of our future well being. He says it would benefit the world and the upcoming advancements at the same time, keep one constantly being able to reach to their highest capabilities in all realms. This idea of the Technology of the heart deeply relates to essense of Aurelia and will be incorporated in its core values, so that it is deep rooted in the people’s characters and attitudes.

Another case study that was carried out was the program called Inner Engineering, which is a program that provides the tools, techniques and pathways to empower oneself to design one’s life the way they wish to do so, with constant mentorship of yogis and visionaries who guide your one’s in reaching to one’s highest potential. The course includes subjects such as the following that include Mechanics of life, Bondage, to live and live totally, finding your high potential, discovering sounds of creation and creating what you want. These themes are meant to take one to a higher destination on the levels of the mind, body and soul. It has proved in most of the cases to successfully help people redesign and redefine their lives to a whole new level that they themselves never could imagine.

These subjects are normally taught in terms of activities, talks, meditation, relaxation, interactions and various other methods.

Another aspect that we looked into in terms of spirituality is the act of performing spiritual deeds on a daily basis in various ashrams in India. Ashrams are surroundings that offers a tranquil and calming setting that helps one to get away from the stress and distractions of life. The ashrams are communities having opportunities of spiritual nourishment, varying from yoga, pranayama, retreats and intellectual sessions. People with a common spiritual goal work, live, study, draw and perform various other activities together at the Ashram. Ashrams are

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known as umbrellas of energy,where you are aiming for spirituality which means contentment and the peak of well being. Many of these communities strive to human empowerment and community development.

“The reason why the ashram is being structured and created the way it is, is to make people understand that a spiritual process does not mean barrenness of life. Spiritual process means grandeur of life. It does not mean obscenity of excess but grandeur of life. Some aspects very carefully crafted to be minimalistic, some elaborate and exuberant.” – Sadhguru Yoga is a practiced discipline of physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of the human body. It originated from India and practiced in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. When yoga gurus introduced yoga to the west, it became all about physical fitness. However, the Indian traditions practiced yoga not just for the physical aspect, but more importantly for the mind and spirit, through meditation for the spiritual core. In Hinduism, one of their six orthodox schools is yoga, which has its own epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophies. Through the westernization of yoga, the secrets of yoga has not only been veiled and therefore hasn’t allowed yoga students to reach their fullest potential. The secrets of yoga has not been taught to many and its deep epistemology is still hidden from most.

The secrets to yoga lies in the spine. The yogi’s philosophy is “that the age of a person is measured not by number of years but by the flexibility of the spine.”

One of the main symptoms of aging is your spine becoming stiff and rigid cutting off ease of movement. Almost the whole physical aspect of yoga relies on the flexibility of the spine, preparing it for advanced positions. If one understands this truth, one can master yoga. The importance of the spine is not only emphasized as all movement is initiated and integrated by the spine, but also the fact that all of the nerves eventually connect back through the spine therefore all organs are affected by the health of the spine. Yogis’ believe that our emotional states are also located in areas of the spine, as it physically acts as the energetic channel that moves psychic energy through the chakras as they all align with the spine. Once the importance of the spine is understood and is practiced through yoga, your age will no longer define you, but the flexibility of your spine will.

This being said, focusing on spiritual self is key for overall well being of the self and the society and this could be performed by various tasks such as being interdependent of one another for various activities, training their body’s and mind’s to reach to their highest and focusing on their balance and harmony of all their energy levels.

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Government

Communities need good governance as it maintains law and order in a community. Having governing bodies in a community leads to better decision making, ethical practices, community development and overall welfare of the community. A few examples of good government systems in a few countries as well as government systems proposed of experts have been studied to understand the value systems of a good governance, for the betterment of our community.

Many politicians and experts in the field of governance have started thinking and implementing new ways to create an ideal government system. One such example is the talk given by David Cameron, a politician from UK, about the new age of government. He asks the big questions can have the ability of transform governments and take it to a whole new level for social, political, environmental well being. He asked the question of “How we could make things better without spending more money?”.In the context of the insignificance of money, is a quote from Robert Kennedy saying, “The gross national product does not allow for health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include, the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measure neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.” This being said, makes perfect sense in the context of Aurelia and complements the value system in our re-imagined future. Continuing with this talk, David proposes that overall well being has nothing to do with money, but has more to do with achieving well being and contributing to aspects of family, friendship, community, values, environment, achievement and fulfilling work. These can be accomplished through giving “People the power” and by “Understanding the people”. By giving people the power to govern and have control over their lives, high levels of transparency, choice and accountability can be achieved. And by giving people more choice to the people and putting them in the spotlight, the society becomes receive stronger and works together as a whole and each and every individual has a role to play, and becomes accountable for the community’s system flow. So concluding this notion of a system, people are the drivers of the organisation and functioning of the community.

Another system we looked into was the government and Switzerland, and we discovered that a lot can be learnt from the government of Switzerland and their systems in creating one of the stable, competitive and economically strong countries in the world. They are officially known as a federal state. Although, there are various reasons due to which their government is doing so well resulting in a prosperous nation. A couple of reasons are as follows, one being, having small sized communities, as every level becomes equally important and alert, and each and every single aspect is required to function appropriately for overall development.

Another aspect is to have a few mediators in different levels to investigate activities going on in the community, also to instill responsibility to every individual.

Decentralisation is another characteristic of a good government, where the finances

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and systems are spread out, and there is no central power having full authority. A continuation of this aspect is how decision making is performed on a local level, leading to the impact of positive decision making, as every has an opportunity to have a say, before making the decision. Also their politicians are mostly not career politicians, and are those who have a greater knowledge in other aspects as well.

This way, the governing people have extensive professional experience and can judge and make decisions keeping in mind every detail involved in the community, and this can happen also through collaboration with other experts in various other fields. In Switzerland, the core attitude amongst all people is a middle class attitude, where people are not defined by language or religion, but by mainstream thinking and no-nonsense attitudes and pragmatism. Being a country that is politically neutral, they avoid political issues and now are the safe haven of the world for money and brain power. Switzerland’s biggest resource is their methods of investing in its people, through the four pillars of Human capital which are, Health and Wellness, Education, Work and Employment. They have steered their way through in creating an “enabling environment” that has led to a country that is highly innovative and who know how to leverage skills of their people to establish brighter futures, by constantly re-investing in Human Capital. Having all this set in place, it pays off as the country is well developed as a whole and can created an environment where the community and people can flourish and grow.

Another country that was similar to Switzerland was Denmark and who their proper functioning of the government has led to rate them as one of the World’s happiest countries in the world. Their government is again, very transparent and has almost no corruption. They pay one of the highest taxes in the world, but get the worth of every penny they give in terms of the high quality facilities that are provided to them by the government. Getting in Denmark and becoming a Danish citizen is a strict process, but again this is due to the rights they receive and they wish that nobody exploits these rights. Denmark’s government, everyone is equal, with no hierarchy and it is a democracy where the average voting rate is 87%, which means everyone voices their opinion and free to do so without any fears or barriers. Other ways of living, that are in existence in Denmark are in regard to excellent parent welfare, healthcare being a civil right, gender equality, sustainable environments where biking is norm, having responsibility of each other and overall interdependence and equality.

With these structured formats of government functioning, there are elements that can be taken away that could be implemented in Aurelia, such as the concepts of Understanding the people, giving the people the power, investing on human capital and having an equal society.

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Communication

Being connected to one another within a community and with other communities is key in maintaining a healthy relationship between people, systems, environments and behaviours. Communication between individuals can be dated back from the beginning of human existence till date, and how it has been advancing over time creating the systems we have today. Communication is important not only for data transfer, but also building communities to greater levels through interaction between various individuals. We examined aspects of communication from the basics such as languages, dialects, newspapers, media, social media and also various other mediums such as art, creativity, professional experiences, etc. Looking at Media, we looked at the beginnings of how it all started for the purpose of creating a transparent community where every individual has the resources to stay aware of the current happenings in a society.

This way, all activities undergone by governments, businesses, entertainment and various other agencies were exposed bluntly to the people, for them to know exactly what reality was. This made these organisations to become cautious of their doings as they knew they were being watched. Fast forwarding a couple of decades from the beginning of the newspaper and media, was the evolution of social media which revolutionised the way people connected with one another and also changed behaviours of people in our everyday lifestyle. Social media offered a stage instilling power to an individual to showcase freedom through expression to a wider demographic from anywhere in the world. Also with the internet and social media, people got information of world affairs live or within seconds and basically everybody is connected all the time.

Other ways of effective communication is through various other mediums such as art and creativity. Art is believed to be a way of communication to improve relationships between people to achieve the greater perceptions of human experiences. Communication through art is unique as it connects one through emotional aspects to feel the deeper meaning of fears, happiness, dreams and possibilities that can transform one’s perspective of the world and also gain knowledge from the artist and from members of the community. This means of communication was used immensely in ancient days, and is being encouraged to be implemented in today’s modern day as well, as it still has a

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significant value and impact of people.

Another aspect of communication in different view is the mind to mind connection through the self, which are ways of connecting with people in deeper way which is easy and fast.

We unconsciously do this everyday, normally with people who are close to us and those who let us enter their thoughts and understand so. A few examples of this are aspects on a day to day basis that we hardly realise like thinking of someone and then they call you, how you want a specific gift and you immediately get it as a gift, or know what someone is going to say before they actually say it, and many other things like that. This method of connection between mind and mind relates to our spiritual levels and this can be something that can be trained with practice and dedication. These kind of mental modes of communication are just the simple categories of life and are drivers of well being.

Staying connected is key and communication between people is the driver of knowledge, education, exchanging information, transfer of goods and data and every aspect of functioning and activity in the community.

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Work Conditions and The Workplace

It has been discovered by the Conference Board that the main reason behind U.S. workers growing so disengaged and unhappy in their work correlates with organization designing their work poorly. People are asked to perform jobs that lack sufficient challenges and variety, in which routine and repetitive work offer little opportunity for growth and personal development and fulfillment. Thus, eventually leading to dulling employees spirit.

Sir Michael Marmot studied the health of Great Britain’s government workers over a period of 40 years and discovered that the employees who consistently had the poorest well being and highest mortality rate, were associated with them having the least control over their work lives.

Therefore, he concluded that people who are given a greater control over how and when the work gets accomplished, enjoyed more optimal health and performance.

It is thus fully realized and understood now that examples of traditional remedies to work disengagement such as pay are becoming no longer effective. Even though money could quickly restore spirits, however workers have grown more immune to its influence. It has been discovered and recognized that what truly drives an employee’s innovation, productivity, and loyalty are their feeling and emotions towards what they do.

For the study of that novel approach, which improves employees morale and increases their engagement, enthusiasm and productivity towards the work that they do, two companies were examined. The first company is SAS and the other is Google, which adopted many of SAS’s worklife concepts and ideas.

SAS

SAS Institute or SAS, which is short for Statistical Analysis Systems, is an American developer of analytics software in the US. The company developed a workplace environment and benefits model that is designed to help in retaining employees, focus more on their work and cut down on operational costs.

The company realized that workers positively and instinctively respond to organizations that consistently demonstrate the value of the individual and that each of the employees matter, and thus reached this untraditional insight that later governed their workplace model. The primary goal of the company has been to design a workplace where employees could work in a fun-working, stimulating, and rich-resourced environment that would

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allow them to produce greater results. SAS focuses on an employee’s effectiveness more than their productivity. The company’s CEO further stresses on the significance of how employees should be treated, in which his guiding standard for decision making is determined by how he himself would like to be treated.

The company encourages employee-centered values, employee interdependence, freedom, challenging work, and a spirit of risk taking. SAS also has a reward system that encourages interdependence, in which everyone would get a bonus in the sales organization for example based on performance not relative to other members of the sales force, but relative to the target.

An example of employee centeredness in SAS could be realized in each employee having their own office, instead of using cubicles. The company describes this as a way to increase productivity, in which SAS’s CEO explains it as this how he would like if he was an employee. That fits what was described earlier about their principles about how employees should be treated. Even though employees don’t usually work for 35 hours, some stay for longer shifts as a matter of choice because of their love of the job rather than lack of productivity or enormous loads of work. The company is further known for its flat organization consisting only of 4 layers from the bottom till the CEO, who thus gets a lot of direct reports.

Therefore, SAS has been received in recent years by media attention as the “utopian” environment for what it has become. The company’s physical space is country-club like, has 2 child-care centers, a fully staffed health center, state of the art athletic facilities, and many other perks. The intangibles that the company further offers include unlimited employee sick days, no executives dining room or coveted offices and no reserved parking, which further highlights that organization flatness and serves as a manifestation for their work life ideas and concepts.

SAS’s ideas can thus be summarized through their concepts of value people above all else, to give is to get, trust above all things, and ensure employees understand the significance of their work.

Google Google’s leadership team strongly believes in the value of their employees and the importance of giving them true influence of how the company is run, “If you value people, and you care about them as whole people, one thing you do is give them voice, and you really listen.” The company also solicits and requests from its employees feedback on everything, how they would like to be compensated, and takes action upon that. Google further stresses on their transparency through providing employees with full trust and giving them extraordinary access to the company’s information, with the high expectation of using it for the good.

The company’s work life is derived by their strong unconventional notion of giving the people the freedom, and being amazed by the work outcomes generated from

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that freedom. Such a progressive ideas allows for employees’ working hours discretion and employees engaging in leisure activities. Employees are also given the opportunity to devote 20% of their workweek towards a project of their choice. Through that concept, Google believes that through employees loving to work their, they will achieve success.

Through these concepts and applying them to the work life, Google believes that instead of coaxing energy out of its employees, they would be harnessing that energy instead, which would help in the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the company.

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Job Hierarchy

As businesses grow in size, structure and job descriptions sometimes become needed to organize the business and help in sustaining operations running smoothly and avoid confusion. From that point hierarchies start to develop to clarify and define who has the decision making power and control, and who gives directions to whom.

Therefore, a hierarchy refers to the level in management from highest to lowest, in any business. People working in higher levels usually have decision making power more than employees occupying a lower level hierarchy. Lower level employees generally take directions and orders from higher level employees. Most businesses would usually have around three levels of organization hierarchy. here are several different types of organization hierarchy models.

These include line organisational structure, staff or functional authority organisational structure, line and staff organisational structure, committee organisational structure, divisional organisational structure, project organisational structure, matrix organisational structure, and hybrid organisational structure.

However, poor productivity, work stress and burnout, and increasing unhappiness, were all signs that the linear chains of command in a traditional management hierarchy structure are unable to keep up with the rapid pace of the shifting business environment. Thus, the concept of holacracy in work arose.

Holacracy is a word derived from the Greek word holos, which means a single autonomous unit that is self sufficient but reliant on something larger.

Holacracy is therefore a comprehensive practice for organization structuring, governing, and running. Instead of the top-down predict-and-control paradigm, it uses a new way of achieving control by distributing power.

Consequently, there is no longer a standard chain of command, but rather everyone becomes their own leader, with the empowerment to make decisions based on outcomes rather than relying on jobs or departments.

Therefore, due to the distributed authority, the decision making process becomes faster, with each individual acting as an entrepreneur bringing knowledge and effort to successfully finish and execute the project in hand.

It’s not leaderless, but rather each individual take personal accountability for their work. Therefore, innovative companies have found and applied holacracy as a more effective way of doing business. With holacracy, there is a more natural flow of work in the business and less artificial fault lines between departments to divide the work, creating value streams that allow the customer to enjoy a better service at the end.

One company that has implemented holacracy to their business structure is online shoe and clothing supplier, Zappos. The company is now made up of different circles, around 400 of them, where employees can have

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any number of roles within those circles. In such sense, nobody would be hiding under titles and through that there is radical transparency.

According to Zappos’ CEO, Tony Hsieh, because holacracy is politics free, it quickly evolves to define and operate the purpose of the business or organization, responding to markets and real world conditions in real time.

Holacracy also creates a structure, in which people have the flexibility to pursue what they are most passionate about.

Even though Holacracy might feel unnatural at the beginning and sometimes even confusing, but focus in on the work not on the people, and meeting can help quickly resolve the confusion or tension.

When Zappos decided to switch to Holacracy, Hsieh told the crowd on that rainy November afternoon, “Darwin said that it’s not the fastest or strongest that survive. It’s the ones most adaptive to change.”

Therefore, holacracy helps in distributed authority, harnessing tensions, establishing clear roles and responsibilities, no more frustration and disengagement, creating a transparent governance, steering roles dynamically, and eliminating the drama and the boring, timeless, redundant meeting.

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Working Hours

The work week is regulated by many countries in regards to minimum daily rest periods, annual holidays, and the maximum number of working hours per week by law. However, the working times may differ from one person to the other based on location, culture, lifestyle choice, and the profitability of the individual.

Most countries have a standard working hour of approximately 40 to 44 hours per week, with additional overtime payments by around 25% to 50% from normal hourly rate. However, it is different from one country to the other, with 35 working hours in France and up to 112 hours per week in North Korea labour camp.

According to the automobile manufacturer Henry Ford, he believed that workers needed adequate leisure time to consume products, and consequently perceive a need to purchase them. This policy was proposed for business reasons rather than humanitarian ones. However, Ford Motors ran dozens of tests to discover the optimum number of working hours for work productivity and discovered that the sweet spot is 40 hours a week. Even though, adding another 20 hours might cause a minor increase in productivity, however it lasted for only 3 to 4 weeks and then turned negative.

In modern day life, there are many factors that have contributed in the decrease in number of average working hours and increase the standard of living. These include the technological advances in efficiency in terms of mechanization, robotics, and information technology, the increase of women equally participating in income making, and lastly the dropping of fertility rates has led to less working hours needed to support children financially.

A term that was negatively used to describe conventional and possibly tedious work was 9-5. The term was used to indicate that a person is an employee, mostly in large company and involved in a a tedious or unremarkable occupation, rather than being self-employed. It also suggests a job with low career risk and stable hours, but of a subordinate position.

As previously stated, countries and cultures might have different work times from each other. It has been known among historians, anthropologists, and sociologists that early hunter gatherers societies enjoyed more leisure time than that of capitalist and agrarian societies. In the hunter gatherers society, working times are estimated to be for an average of 6 to 5 hours per day, for 2 days a week, and it is believed that it is bad luck to work for 2 consecutive days. On the other hand, Netherlands and France have the lowest working hours currently, with 27 hours and 30 hours, respectively. Netherlands is expected to become to reach an average work week of under 21 hours.

Around 75% of people aged between 15-64 years have a paid job in Netherlands, with 1381 working hours a year that is less than the average of 1765 hours. Less than 1% of employees work for very long hours, and only 1% of men work for very long hours and almost no women at at all.

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That being said, 82% of the people in Netherlands say they have more positive experiences in an average day such as feelings of rest, pride in accomplishment, and enjoyment, than negative ones like pain, worry, sadness, and boredom.

Therefore, it has become observed that people who work for long hours get burned out and inevitably start having personal problems that get in the way for executing things. However, advocates of long work week always refers to even the longer work weeks such as in Thailand, Korea, and Pakistan, and implying that longer work weeks create a competitive advantage.

That being said, modern workplaces are looking into accommodating changes in the basic structure of scheduled work and the workforce. Current emerging concept includes flextime, telecommuting, and zero-hour contracts Flextime In contrast to traditional work arrangements obliging employees to work from 9 am to 5 pm, flextime is a variable work schedule. It usually consists of a core period of around 50% of total working time, generally from 11 am to 3 pm, while the rest of the working day becomes flexible time. During flexible time, employees can decide when to work subject to achieving total daily, weekly, or monthly hours in the region expected by the employer and the necessary work that has to be done.

Advantages of such time system include allowing employees to adapt their work hours based on public transport, their children’s schedule, and thus less congested road traffic. This creates a better work-life balance, less commute, more days off, less fatigue, and less sickness days. On the other hand, companies benefit from more motivated employees, more effective and efficient operations, less fatigued workers and so less errors.

Flextime can also provide staff covers outside normal working hours, and reduce the need for overtime. It can also improve providing equal opportunities for employees who are unable to work during standard working times.

Flextime has also allowed for giving employees a greater freedom to organize their working lives to suit their personal needs.

In addition to that, with the rise of the concept of flextime and allowing employees to choose when they work, another concept emerged that is Flexplace allowing employees to choose where they work from, in which it is believed that flexible working will change the nature of the work environment.

Flexplace Also sometimes referred to as telecommuting, flexplace is when a company allows its employees to have more authority to choose where they get their work done regardless of the time of the day. It usually occurs as a result of an agreement between the employer and the employee, or the nature of the job itself where it can be performed in any context or place.

With multiple benefits for both the company and the employee, flexplace allows organizations to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing energy consumption,

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traveling costs, and parking spaces. On the other hand, individuals enjoy improved performance and productivity, through flexplace schemes, as well as enhanced supervisor/worker relationship, morale and job attitude.

Telecommuting Remote work, telecommuting, or telework is a work arrangement that entitles employees not having to commute to a central place for work. A person who telecommutes has multiple names that include telecommuter, teleworker, and sometimes “home-sourced” or “work-at-home” employee. Sometimes called “nomad worker”, these are the people who use mobile telecommunications technology to do their work from coffeeshops or other locations, while other many telecommuters work from home. According to a poll by reuters, approximately “one in five workers around the globe, particularly employees in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, telecommute frequently and nearly 10 percent work from home every day.”

Even though telecommuting and telework are closely related in concepts, however there is a difference between the two. Technology assisted work carried out outside of a centrally located workspace is considered as telework.

While, telecommuters usually maintain a traditional office and mainly work from an alternative site from 1 to 3 days per week. Thus, telecommuting generally refers to work that is done at a location that reduce commuting times.

A concept that is broader than telecommuting, telework in its definitional framework has four dimensions. These dimensions include a work location that can be anywhere away from the centralized organizational structure, usage of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) as technical support for telework, time distribution in reference to time replaced in traditional workplace, and lastly employment relationship diversity between employer and employee ranging from full time employment to contract work.

Based on the Job Characteristics Theory, which proposes that the traits and tasks of the job itself, affect the work attitude and behaviour of an employee, telecommuting might have potential benefits and drawbacks. If five job characteristics are present, an employee is expected to experience more internal work motivation, satisfaction with personal growth opportunities, general job satisfaction, higher job performance, and lower absenteeism and turnover. These characteristics are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Of all the 5 characteristics, telework specifically changes the nature of autonomy and feedback in comparison to face-to-face work interactions. According to Job Characteristics Theory, autonomy and feedback changes influence work behaviors and attitudes more than changes in skill variety, task identity, or task significance.

Thus, this may result in teleworkers becoming more responsible towards their work leading to the extent of feeling accountable and in control of their work.

The autonomy experienced by a telecommuter, helps in lower work-family and activity conflicts due to the freedom to arrange the work, increased control

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over life demands, and increased freedom due to fewer time restrictions that allows workers to participate more in recreational social or physical activities.

With electronic communications, fewer cues or signals are present, in which teleworkers might encounter difficulties interpreting and gaining information, and consequently, receiving feedback. Being away from the office might imply limited information and greater ambiguity in terms of assignments and expectations, which might result in frustration, exhaustion and greater conflicts.

Feedback and communication might also get affected with a manager’s location, in which clarity, speed of response, richness of the communication, frequency, and quality of the feedback are often reduced with teleworking managers.

Telecommuting might be of great benefit for communities offering full employment for marginalized groups such as work at home parents and caregivers, the disabled, retirees, and people living in remote areas, as well as reducing traffic accidents and congestion, relieving pressure on transportation infrastructure, reducing greenhouse gases, reducing energy use, and improving disaster preparedness.

Telecommuting is also considered beneficial for companies in terms of expanding the talent pool, reducing the spread of illness, reducing costs that includes real-estate footprint, increasing productivity, reducing companies’ carbon footprint and energy usage, reducing turnover and absenteeism, improving employee morale, enhancing continuity-of-operations strategies, improving their ability to handle business across multiple time zones, and augmenting their cultural adaptability. In such sense, it is estimated that telework saves companies around $20,000 per employee.

Therefore, with telecommuting individual get to improve their work-life balance, reduce their carbon footprint and fuel usage, free up the equivalent of 15 to 25 workdays a year, and save thousands of dollars spent per year in travel and work-related costs. Consequently, telecommuting has long promoted as a method to increase an employee’s productivity, in which their effort and dedication are more likely to be measured in terms of output or results.

Zero-Hour Contract It is a type of contract, in which an employer claims to offer a discretion for employees to work with varying working hours, usually from anywhere near full till zero hours. Such concept has spread widely across the UK, specifically after the global financial crisis.

In a Zero-Hour contract, an employer usually asserts that they have no obligation to provide work for the employee. On the other hand, the employee offers their willingness and sign an agreement to be available for work as and when required, so that no particular number of hours or times of work are specified. Thus, an employee is expected to be on call at all times and receives compensation for worked hours only. Such a contract becomes an ideal option for people, such as retirees and students, who want occasional earnings and are entirely flexible about when they work.

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However, a Zero-Hour contract differs from a casual work contract in New Zealand. In a Zero-Hour contract, an employee is on call for all day hours, and are obliged to turn up for work. However, in a casual contact, an employee has the right to refuse a work that has been offered to them, and is guaranteed minimum hours for the week. Thus, the term “zero-hour contract� is British English for an employee who is on call with no set minimum hours or definite schedule, and works under an employment contract.

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Division of Labour

Skilled workers are described to be any worker who possesses any special skill, knowledge, training, or ability in their work that is usually acquired. Such a worker may have learned their skill on the job, or attended a college, university, technical school, or had some kind of formal training. Most jobs require a certain level of skill, and such skilled workers bring expertise while performing a specific given job.

Specialization of cooperating individuals who perform specific tasks and roles is generally referred to as the division of labour. During the era of industrial revolution, large amount of labour was saved by giving workers specialized tasks. With workers having to perform limited or single tasks, eliminated the long training periods required for craftsmen training, and instead replacing them with lesser paid but more productive unskilled workers.

The increasing complexity in labour division is historically associated with the rise of capitalism, the complexity of the industrialized processes, and the growth of total output and trade. This concept of division of labour has been observed from the Sumerian civilization, in which assignment of jobs corresponded with an increase in trade and the rise of economic interdependence. In addition to the that, producer and an individual worker’s productivity is generally increased by division of labour.

However there has been mixed views regarding the advantages or disadvantages of applying the concept of division of labour. According to Ibn Khaldun, the 14th century scholar, an emphasis upon the importance of division of labour in the production process was highlighted. Ibn Khaldun states that the individual human power is generally insufficient to obtain even the basic needs such as food. It neither provides him with as much as required for living.Even a minimum quantity of food could only be obtained by much preparation. Therefore, many powers obtained from fellow beings becomes needed to obtain food for them and himself. Thus, the needs of a specific number of people that are greater than their own number, could only be satisfied through cooperation.

On the other hand, Karl Marx argued that increased specialization has lead to workers with poorer skills and lack of enthusiasm for work. That is due to a process of alienation that occurs when workers become more specialized and the work becomes repetitive, until eventually complete alienation from the process of production. Consequently, the worker becomes spiritually and physically depressed to the condition of a machine. In such sense, division of labour implies more specialized tasks, less training needed, and more unskilled workers. He further argues that the transcended division of labour in a Communist society , means that the balanced human development occurs when people fully express their nature in the variety of creative work that they do.

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TED Work

We looked into the TED Talk called “How to run a company with (almost) no rules�, and got many insights of work culture and new tools and techniques for enhancing our lives and creating the harmonious balance between both. A lot in life relates to how we plan out our lives for the near future and the far future forgetting to be mindful of the moment. People are so busy in their work life, that they miss out of the simple joys they wish to carry out now and then, resulting in regretting why they did not do so before. So the concept here was to do two tasks a week that you wished to do if you had only 6 months to live, so that you don’t miss on things in life when you are living now in the moment. Now, the perception of the opposite of work is idleness, but if we have that as a notion, our lives is filled with imbalances. So a concept developed in the workplace was to give the employees a structure which is not similar to a boarding school, but to look at it in a different way. A company with almost no rules was proposed where employees would have the chance to choose whether they needed to work from home or come to work, where they could set their own salaries, where they could decide what they needed to know, take how many holidays they wanted, but only meet the targets they were asked to reach within a certain period of time. This way of giving people the freedom to work the way they wish to, people are able to treat work as a part of their life, and not as separate entity, that in turn leads to Life Balance.

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Retirement

It is usually described as a point where a person stops their employment activity completely. Some people may also semi-retire through reducing their hours of work. Even though some people retire due to their physical conditions (by illness or accident) that unable them to work any longer or as a result of legislation concerning their position, other people choose to retire when they become eligible for public or private pension benefits.

With retirement, a lot of important life changes might occur. Some retired worker relocate or move to a new location such as a retirement community, in which they have less contact with their previous social life and must adapt to a new lifestyle. Tourism also becomes a common marker and sometimes becomes a lifestyle for some, referred to as greynomads. When retired people decide to move to warmer destinations, this process is called retirement migration. Other retirees choose to volunteer in charities and other community organizations.

An important observation and note that could be deduced from these new lifestyle definitions, is that 4 out of the 6 involve working. There is now two challenges posed with the Baby Boomers reaching retirement age; whether there is currently sufficient number of skilled workers in the workforce, and whether the pension programs are sufficient to support the number of retirees. A people’s decision of whether to return back to work after retirement or not is dependent on many factors, which include difficulty of planning for retirement, wages and fringe benefits, expenditure of physical and mental energy, production of goods and services, social interaction, and social status.

Retirement usually happens simultaneously with an individual’s deterioration in health, which correlates with increased age and might play a role in increased rates of depression among retirees. However, based on several studies, healthy elderly and retiree are as happy or happier and have an equal quality of life as they age, in comparison to younger employed adults. Therefore, retirement in itself is not likely to contribute in the development of depression.

Due to failing health during the last years of life, many people start requiring assistance and sometimes extremely expensive treatments in some countries provided in nursing homes. However, those in need of care, but not of constant assistance, may choose to live in a retirement home.

Of the highest ranked recommended destinations for retirements are Ecuador and Colombia. That’s due to their generous array of benefits for retirees, which includes discounts on flights, movies entry, and sporting events, public transport and utilities. It also goes back to their incredibly low

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cost of living and their finest and most affordable care systems. Therefore, it can be deduced that the main highlights for these destinations are their safety, good value, and settling with relative ease.

Pre-tirement A neologism for a new working state that has emerged is now known as Pre-tirement. The term describes a state that is positioned between the traditional employment state and retirement. This kind of state could be mainly found in first world economies with aging populations. A Pre-tiree is expected to continue creating economic wealth and/or contribute to the knowledge generation by research, whether on part time or reduced hour basis. Some retirees even take this state as an opportunity to give back to the community through providing unpaid social support. Such a form of unpaid work contributes in creating an economic benefit through allowing taxes to be focussed on other wealth creating or protecting activities, but relies on the existence of sufficient financial resources.

Workamping Through a new concept known as “Workamping”, retirees get to mix both working and camping together in one concept. Workampers usuals live in RVs, while working in recreational areas such as parks, campgrounds, amusement parks or resorts. Such work is performed in exchange for wages and a free campsite for them to park their mobile homes.

The Burbank Senior Artist Colony Another form of retirement could be observed in a community located in Burbank, California, in which its main focus is on the arts and is an ideal place for writers, actors, and musicians. Retirees in The Burbank Senior Artist Colony are housed in an apartment building that features a performance theatre, a media center, art studios and on-site art classes.

Wellness Retirement Home A retirement home in Bethesda, Maryland offers what they call “wellness offerings”, which are for the mind, body, and spirit. It features a gym Keiser athletic machines that are designed for elite athletes but well-suited for seniors, a full-service spa, three health conscious gourmet restaurants, organic herb garden, indoor golf range, putting green, outdoor walking trails, swimming pool with electric lifts, and onsite physical therapy. Daily classes, which include water aerobics and an onsite personal trainer, are also offered. There are also cultural offerings provided that include an art studio, woodworking shop, professional recording studio, performing arts center, wine cellar and tasting room for owners’ private collections, and resident-run clubs for poetry, foreign affairs and other topics.

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Energy

Energy refers to the strength and vital necessity that is required to sustain physical, mental activities and the power for utilising resources for entities to work and function. We looked into various aspects of energy sources that includes the energy of the body with the mind and soul, the energy in regard to working of systems, and different types of energy such as bio energy, solar powered energy, wind energy, hydropower and electrical energy.

An example we looked into the the BioEnergy system is one from Sweden where bioenergy represents most of the energy supply used in manufacturing and industrial methods of production. They use waste food, sewage, rotten vegetables, animal and human wastes that can be converted into green biogases and gasoline that is used for transportation systems, industrial plants and various other energy requirements. With the advancements of bioenergy alternative fuels are being formulated that can replace chemically formulated ingredients and sources of energy. Examples of a few that were devised in Sweden were making ethanol from grain or cellulose.Another example of practices is innovative environmental management practices in switzerland where there are bottle banks at every supermarket, and paper, cardboard, cereal packets turned into telephone bills and various other objects. They have schemes where the more you discard, the more you the pay, which results to using the waste and repurposing them creatively. These can revolutionise the systems of sewage, energy, balance, where there is a constant flow of energy that is being let down into a source and taken in by another source leading to continuous flow and constant exchange of energy.

The next type of energy we looked into are renewable energy sources, that could possibly eliminate fuel like gases and oils. Using solar energy can be a source of limitless supply of energy having very less maintenance and that lasts for a long time. Using solar energy is effective financially, environmentally and is widely abundant and exists till the end of life. Technology that is being devised in Japan is one that is working on wireless electricity. This technology is believed to cut

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down on cable connections and has the possibility of becoming the mainstream energy sources that could perhaps solve earth’s energy problems. The other renewable energy which we looked into was wind energy, where electricity is produced from onshore or offshore wind power, and this works well because wind is inexhaustible and it will remain forever and is free.

As discussed in the previous readings in regard to the traditional hindu systems, we have seven energy centers in the body that comprise chakras denoting our inner consciousness and our energy flow which regulates the energy balance as well. So relating back to this energy and systems associated with the body, this energy radiates all around the self, the community and is a major part associated in energy flow.

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Richly Imagined Future

THE PATHWAY OF PATHWAYS

The Pathways Of Pathways

After settling on a framework and constructing an image of how Aurelia would be conceived and and its core base of values and principles, a more solid construction of the community had to be established. However, an effective way of conceiving and construction, is the result and reproduction of constant assessment and reflection of what has earlier been established.

Therefore, it was necessary to go through a state of contemplation of events and things taking place around us, our past experiences, the ups and downs we go through, and values that have been shattered and redeemed. what then becomes left is the conclusions that people draw upon such experiences that guide their life and how they choose to live it later on.

Based on such notion, three main concepts were brought forth. The first concept was generated from reflecting upon how people behave after going through the different life experiences and traumas. So, imagine if the optimum answer to the question that has long been asked of what do you want to be in life, is a sponge. A sponge in both the form and function. The radical notion of people adopting such concept revolves around their ability to absorb it all, whatever life throws at them, the good and bad, what would develop them and build them up and what would completely shatter them to pieces, they would fully absorb all the ups and downs, because such experiences will only wreck them down to build them up again. They would then, like a sponge, get rid of it all and get it out of their system to reflect and ponder upon to draw life conclusions, which would shape the rest of the course of their life journey. Only then people would come to peace with themselves that they have to accept it all and immerse themselves completely in those life experiences to reach that higher state and purpose that would guide the rest of their life.

The other concept has to do with our own observation of other people’s lives and how it looks like. On daily basis, we encounter different people who we might or might not interact with, or just bump into. But what if, every time we encounter someone, we imagine another dimension of their life beyond what we see. An imagination of what they have passed through, and what they are currently passing through, their struggles, or achievements and celebrations, people who would share that with them, or people who they wish were there. An imagination of whole life experiences and scenarios other than your own, and how would that shape and influence our perception of the people around us and how we interact with them. It could be inferred then that we only pass by and perceive tips of icebergs, with a base that we can never see or truly experience, except when we are fully colliding and diving deep, and the life that we are living becomes a life of only interacting icebergs with a mass that is incompletely realized.

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The final concept has to do with our journeys in life events and how everyone is walking in their own paths and tracks in hope for finding a higher purpose or outcome that gives meaning to everything that they have passed through. People become then in constant search for that light at the end of the tunnel, a light that would make sense to everything that they had to go through and experience, a higher goal. Consequently, such light forces people to keep on going in anticipation of knowing that end result.

However, people mistakenly consider the tunnel to have an end and give up in the middle, not realizing that the tunnel is an ongoing path of every action that they take and engage in, and the light is realized along the way in their experience of the journey. Therefore, the light doesn’t become an end in itself, but rather the means to an end in fulfilling our full potential and higher purpose in life that involves encountering incidents and events along the journey.

Another notion that we have come across and built upon later is the tree of life and all the symbols that it carries. First of all, the tree of life encapsulates the optimum example for energy flow, in which it absorbs nutrients and water from soil, and uses the energy from sun to grow and develop and branch out to become a bigger and firmer tree with its green leaves and fruits. The tree then becomes a shelter for birds and other creatures, creates shade, and its fruits and leaves get used by organisms as their food. In such way, the tree gives out energy as much as it takes, creating that optimum energy flow. Furthermore, the tree of life carries a lot of symbols that refer to our established set of values and principles. This is manifested in how the root that is the source of nourishment resembles the core values that people draw upon and guides their growth and development in life. Moreover, every element in the tree from the root to the branches to the leaves to the fruits is all interconnected and can’t exist by itself, in which if one part of the structure falls, the rest of the structure and its strength is affected, in which it can be related to the established notion of how the community members are interdependent along with the different elements of the community and the prosperity of each member and the community is dependent upon the efficiency and effectivity of such interconnectivity, in which one can’t exist without the other. .

According to these ruminations and reflections, our understanding of human journeys and experiences grew deeper. Through linking such findings with the previously established framework and examined case studies, we were then able to start constructing how the life would look like in the new community, and what enterprises the community would have and how it will be arranged.

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Richly Imagined Future

Aurelia Community Structure The construction of the community and the shape that life will take in it, should all be a symbol and a reflection of the values and principles that the community carries in its core and is derived by.

Thus, such values and principles would be manifested through the organization of enterprises in the community, the function of each and how they are incorporated in people’s lives, while capturing the whole essence of Aurelia.

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Aurelia Community Structure

At the center of the community lies Aurora that is a symbolic building used mainly for guidance of the community and it members, which is then surrounded by Socius that is a communal space, which is then interconnected with other enterprises in the community. These enterprises include Salus that has to do with the holistic health and wellness of the community members, Agnitio that is related to matters of spirituality and knowledge, Experimentis that is a creative lab and a space for research and development, Cogitatio that is related to the communication channels between the different community elements, Pretium that is related to the value of all elements that constitute the community and daily life, Ex Nihilo that is responsible for the agriculture, manufacturing, production, and innovation, the Brain Trust that manages all internal and external affairs of the community, Sententia that organizes the community members’ professions and practices, Urbis that is concerned with city planning and the organization of elements in the community, and Vita that is concerned with energy flow in the community and between the different elements. All these enterprises and community constituents are governed by the element of Tempus that is time.

These various enterprises and the different elements of the community is connected by Information Tunnels, that connects everything together and to the main source at the center of the community that is Aurora.

Aurora

A symbolic building that is inspired by the concept of a lighthouse, how it is beacon of light that is used to guide ships in the sea and show them their way, as well as bring them closer and safe to land. This also connects to what was mentioned earlier regarding the light at the end of the tunnel and how people keep on going in anticipation of that light that would give meaning to everything that they do and take part in.

Therefore, the building of Aurora is constructed to emit light that is the result of interconnected parts reflecting these rays of light that is designed to capture the essence of the community’s core values and principles of interconnectivity and realizing one’s full potential. The emitted light is then used as guidance for the actions and decisions undertaken by community members and enterprises, to derive them closer to the core and capturing these values. Moreover, since the community members are expected to work towards reaching their full potential, the light serves as a both a guiding beacon and symbolizes that the community’s values of interconnectivity and its core principle of treating others as one’s self watches over people, influences their actions and keep them on track. Furthermore, the light could be used as inspiration when people get out of track, in which it constantly draws them in and redirects them towards achieving their harmony and

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balance in every action that they engage in.

Thus, based on such notion, the community is designed and constructed in a way that everything is directed towards Aurora, in which such light could be visible to all enterprises and community boundaries and it all revolves around it. The light also could penetrate through the various enterprise entities, in which it becomes visible during the discourse of every action taken in all the different places and it becomes the illuminating light guiding their path towards achieving their full potential and achieving harmony in their actions and decisions.

Socius

A communal space that surrounds the lighthouse and is shared by all community enterprises and members. Such space is provided and designed as a meeting place for community members to interact, engage in conversations, and take part in the different community activities. The space is also used by the community enterprises as an open space, for them to have meetings, activities, workshops, or ceremonies. Socius could be also used when the community holds community events and ceremonies organized by the enterprize of Jubilees and Jubilations. Such space is meant to bring all community people together, connecting them and is shared by the community to the community to fulfill, achieve and realize its purposes.

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Salus

An enterprise whose name is inspired by and taken from the ancient Roman goddess of health and prosperity and identified with the people’s welfare. The Salus institution is concerned with the community members holistic wellbeing. In such sense, there in more hospitals or the traditional organization of the health care system, but rather a system that is concerned with the overall well being of the community members since infancy till old age. Therefore, when it comes to achieving a holistic well being, the concern is no longer confined to matters of mere body health, but rather everything that is related or affects the physical and the spiritual well being. This would include matters related to diet and nutrition, releasing body tension and stress, pressure points in the body, proper energy flow within the body, physical fitness, and mental and emotional health.

Since the different body elements and aspects are interconnected, when the body, mental, and emotional well being gets taken care of, it becomes reflected on the overall body health, performance and achieving a clear state of mind. Consequently, such a practice lowers the likelihood to get diseases or body ailments, and thus becomes in more coherence and harmony with the surrounding nature and achieves system of sustainability. However, Salus will still have a division or department for emergencies, and surgical operations, as well as providing healthcare for the elderly.

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Agnitio

In the community of Aurelia, the traditional idea and established notion about the educational institution is abolished and is not abided by anymore. Instead, emerges the institution of Agnitio, which means recognition and knowledge. Agnitio is not concerned with conventional teaching methods, but rather involves a novel approach to teaching and education, which has been inspired by recent revolutionary case studies in education and the Finnish educational model.

First of all, there are no more schools, teachers, subjects, and the different education grades. But rather, all members of the community are provided with mentors that supervise and guide their path and growth journey in life. Agnitio is concerned with matters of spirituality, life values and principles, our experiences on earth and our development and growth, and the member’s intellectuals and acquired knowledge and skills. The mentors are people in the community who have either retired or have reached a certain degree of self realization and actualization that have made them able and capable to give back to the community and help others reach their potential and goals and define their path in life. These mentors are not restricted to certain occupations or professions but rather they are life mentors that look over you and offer you guidance and wisdom in life endeavors and an on going learning process that never actually comes to an end.

On the other hand, members of the community of the different ages are all attendants of Agnitio with no grade division, in which they are in constant learning and acquiring of both knowledge and skills that would would guide their path towards realizing their full potential and achieve their harmonious equilibrium with their surrounding environment and the various aspects of life and matters of spirituality and intellectuals. In such sense, members of the community are encouraged by Agnitio and the community to be in a state of constant questioning of the environment surrounding them and its elements, aspects of life and its incidents, and the mysteries of natures and the human being, in which members of the community learn from such a process. When we are in constant questioning of the things existing and happening around us, not taking anything for granted, but rather wondering about everything and contemplating of its conception and existence and how it has been brought to life. This process of contemplating and questioning will in turn generate a deeper and broader learning process and knowledge acquiring that is not limited to one field or area, but rather a across multiple and various disciplines.

Members of the community are also encouraged and required to participate in hands on experiences that are always a part of

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community construction and development as a way to learn more skills and build up a knowledge base that is acquired by experience rather than taught by force, which in turn they can relate to better and more sense out of.

Furthermore, the relationship between a mentor and a community member revolves around guidance and giving clues rather than a dictating process with structured material, but rather its a process of exploration and discovery and diving deep into one’s self , the environment around them, and their interactions with other people, to contemplate in and reflect upon.

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Experimentis

Experimentis, an enterprise in the community that is concerned with aspects of research and development and is considered as a creativity lab, in which people come up with innovations and and carry out their research and experimentation within.

Within Experimentis, members of the society are provided with an equipped space in which they can carry out researches in various fields, experiment it and develop models to test it. The space is also provided with experts and mentors who provide guidance or advice on some matters. The mentors are expected to encourage members of the community of all ages to explore and discover capabilities of different materials and processes, generate ideas and make the best out of the resources present in nature and come up with their own, while still maintaining that harmonious equilibrium of the whole community. This serves as both a learning process for inhabitants of Aurelia and a venture to innovate and serve the technological advancement of the community and help in its prosperity.

The name Experimentis was generated from the notion of experimentation being derived from research and is used for testing and development of further research and hypotheses. Therefore, Experimentis captures the whole essence of a research and development process and what it comprises of. Through Experimentis, community innovations and technologies are generated from within that space to serve the community and its various sectors and contribute to its future development and advancement.

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Ex Nihilo

Close to the boundaries of the Aurelian community, lies the enterprise of Ex Nihilo that comprises of and is responsible for aspects of agriculture, manufacturing, and production. Within Ex Nihilo, every sector relates to the other and are interdependent on one another.

For the manufacturing sector to operate, they need to connect with both the agriculture and production sector and coordinate with them.

At the same time, the agriculture sector has to adhere to both the manufacturing and production sectors and comply with their needs.

Same with the production sector, in which it has to work with what the agricultural and manufacturing system provide and have it ready for distribution and consumption. Therefore, within such an enterprise, lies an ideal model of interdependence and interconnectivity between the different sectors and how one can’t exist or operate without the other, in which they coordinate to contribute in the community for reaching its full potential, while still being governed to reserve and work towards achieving the harmonious equilibrium.

The enterprise of Ex Nihilo function upon a constant collaboration between the different sector to optimize both the process and the outcome, in which the various sectors coordinate what shall be realized and how it will be realized and bring forth innovation to both processes. Furthermore, Ex Nihilo is in continuous communication with both Agnitio to draw interested members and receive guidance and wisdom upon undertaken decisions, as well as communicating with Experimentis to receive and obtain the recent innovations and discoveries to implement them in their products, services, and processes. Such communication occurs through the Information Tunnels, which shall be discussed later.

Ex Nihilo mainly operates upon resources obtained from and generated by the community, however unavailable resources that are needed for vital operations within the community or serve the advancement of the community could be obtained from other community through a process of exchange.

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Sententia

Governing the professional activities that the community members engage in, comes the enterprise of Sententia. An enterprise with a name that means opinion, a way of thinking, meaning, and purpose captures how the profession life looks like in Aurelia. Inspired by case studies of what some revolutionary companies and organizations have recently adopted in their work culture of people becoming their own entrepreneurs within the company organization through elimination of job hierarchies and providing more flexibility in terms of time and vacation and work policies.

The enterprise of Sententia emerges from the belief that the traditional notions of work and having a job have all been misconceptions of how it really should be, instead Sententia is about engaging in a professional activity that fulfills a purpose in the community which a person has enough knowledge, expertise, and skills to perform and engage in. Such professional activity is determined upon the talent and skills that a person shows while growing up and through their interaction with their mentor, in which it is a practice that a person really enjoys and can make a contribution that can serve Aurelia and help an individual reach their full potential and achieve their harmony, as well. consequently, such a concept implies that people would fully engage in activities that they are enthusiastic about and motivated to work in to fulfill their purpose in life and the community, while at the same time such activity emerges from their free will and continues to be in the same way. In each of these professional activities a person acts like their own managers with the conviction of other individuals being dependent on them and the work that they do, in which they get to organize their time and when and how to achieve their purpose but are still governed by the targets that need to fulfill along with the communities’ core values and principles. Moreover, since a person has the free will to organize their own time and how they achieve their tasks, a community member is expected to develop a range of skills that make them eligible for such a responsibility and develop some more along the way while actualizing and realizing their self through engagement in such activity.

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Jubilees and Jubilations

The Aurelian community has the Jubilee and Jubilations organization that is responsible for organizing the recreational activities of the community and preparing events, ceremonies, competitions, and leisure activities within the community, in which all inhabitants are a part of and take part in it. Through Jubilees and Jubilations, individuals of the community get to showcase their skills and talents in activities and competitions, as well as celebrate occasional individual and community events, and enjoy their free time.

Since the community is based on interdependence, the significance of each individual to realize their full potential, and the importance of talents and innovation, Aurelia organizes seasonal social events and tournaments, in which all community member engage in. Such engagement could be through either taking part in the organization of events, the setting up, and the preparations or through showcasing an individual’s or a team’s skills and talents in the diverse scopes and fields.

Activities and social events organized by Jubilees and Jubilations shall be held at the Socius, the communal space that is designed and provided to be used by the Aurelian community and Aurelians.

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The Brain Trust

The Aurelian community is governed by the Brain Trust enterprise that plays a critical role in determining and establishing the community’s rules and principles and taking decisions concerned with regulating the life in Aurelia, as well as matters of politics within the community and outside with other communities.

The Brain Trust have a regular meeting that must be attended by all community members once a week, in which they discuss recent updates and bring up matters that need to be decided upon. The meetings are regulated first by having an overall community meeting, in which they share recent updates and experiences with all community members. After that, the meeting is divided up into different committees that are each responsible for particular issues. These committees are comprised of a number of community members who work together to come up with solutions and decisions on proposed concepts. These solutions and decisions are then announced and shared with the other committees and community members to vote and decide on.

Since the community of Aurelia recognizes the importance of the self and the capability found with each person, and the ability to realize their full potential and achieve their harmonious equilibrium, each member of the community is encouraged and expected to contribute and have a voice regarding the different aspects of life in Aurelia.

Therefore, these committees and meeting regulators are rotational and are constantly changed, so that every member would have a voice in everything related to the matters of life in Aurelia.

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Urbis

Urbis is the way the Aurelian community is mapped out and planned. The City of Aurelia is planned in a way where all the enterprises and entities in the community are interconnected through the orientation, flow and energy and their function.

The plan of the city metaphorically represents, the top view of the tree of life with the core in the middle that is embedded with the values and essence of Aurelia. It spreads out from the core onto the outer elements of the community considering its function and effect it has on the community. The layout and the zones are created in regard to the overall well being of the community to instill productivity, knowledge, and escort the people reach to their highest potential within Aurelia.The enterprises are linked as overlapping concentric circles all around the socius, the communal gathering space, which is bordering the Aurora located at the core of Aurelia. All around the overlapping concentric circles structure of enterprises is the residential area that includes residential quarters for Aurelians to reside. Beyond the residences is the infrastructural development areas that include agriculture fields, green lands, manufacturing plants, production units and all the necessary elements required for building and fabricating Aurelia’s resources. This expanse of the infrastructural spaces expands and is then connected to other communities known as Aurelian Carats by means of networks and information tunnels and channels.

In terms of networks, it includes systematic methods of moving around from enterprise to enterprise and to other spaces within the community and to other communities for the purpose of movement of people, and for distribution of goods and services. Transportation in Aurelia is associated with the plan of the city, where all the enterprises and entities are connected similar to the interconnected tree of life as mentioned before. Fellow Aurelians can move around Aurelia in a holistic manner and the systems are designed in a way that are linked to energy flow of the community and the people. It is a system which involves the be a combination of energy conservation and energy consumption in regard to the human being’s energy flow. This holistic approach includes merging interconnected paths for navigation that would have people walking around in this intertwined space.

Walking and modes of transportation that includes body energy consumption is encouraged in the inner core of Aurelia, so that people are able to breathe the fresh air, realise their self in the environment, gain benefits for the surroundings.

For travelling longer distances, translucent drops that float due the force field between the ground and it base that is powered by solar energy, are our mode of transportation. These drops are mediums that can accommodate about 5 to 10 people each. There are variations of the drops that serves the purpose according to its context and use.

Throughout the city of Aurelia are imaginatory zones that enhances knowledge and guide the Aurelians to reach their highest potential. These zones are spaces where one can question the surroundings and artifacts in the quest of endless learning.

The remarkable idea of Urbis is that it unites the community as a whole promoting interdependence between the enterprises and spaces. Aurelian’s urbis therefore is the dwelling array of knowledge, wellness and growth sustaining the roots and branches of Aurelia.

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Pretium

For all the financial matters in Aurelia, comes the enterprise of Pretium. Money has ever been used to determine the value of things and objects, setting a higher price for more valuable objects and a cheaper price for the less valuable. However, this kind of differentiation then affects our perception of what to consider more or less valuable, which in turn affects how we deal with things and treat them and we start de-appreciating things based on their value. Therefore, what would happen if each object is equally valuable and how would that affect our perception and treatment of things? Thus, abolishing such differentiation in value that has long been established by money would set objects to become equally valuable, in which time and energy have been spent on bringing forth each of these objects, and consequently making them equally valuable.

Based on such notion, the community of Aurelia is based upon a value system that doesn’t include money, but in which everything in it is equally valuable due to the amount of time and energy spent on it.

Furthermore, since it is a community that is based on interconnectivity, everything belongs to everybody and the community, thus creating a system of value exchange and shared goods and services.

These goods and services are equally distributed upon community members, with the only condition of people being on track towards realizing their full potential and achieving harmonious equilibrium within themselves and the community, and fulfilling the tasks expected from community members to fulfill for the welfare of themselves and the community.

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Communicatio

The communication systems in the Aurelian community is Communicatio which refers to imparting or transfer of information.

Communicatio is associated with info channels that can absorb information through the eyes, as the wavelengths of information are transferred into your brain. People communicate with one another through the energy channels or aura that revolves around each individual, that is practiced through the spiritual endeavours of the Aurelians. Other means of communicating with one another is by modes of varied information tunnels that connect people from enterprise to enterprise, or through various networks for the purpose of gaining, sharing and transferring knowledge and information for the welfare of the community.

Signages are not present everywhere as it is meant to let one explore and discover the surroundings every time they travel from place to place. This way the learning process is continuous and everyday seems like a new environment for exploration.The Aurora is your compass to explore and discover the city and make use of the info channels within your surroundings.

This interconnected network of Communicatio enhances Aurelians to be able to count on each other for guidance in reach each person’s fullest potential in all realms.

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Vibes

The energy channels in and around the community of Aurelia is referred to as Vibe. These energy channels relate to the flow of energy within the self, connection with others, connection with Aurora and the rest of the surroundings. It also refers to the energy required for functioning and working of the community.

Most of the physical energy needed for production in the community is gathered from renewable sources or from bio energy which is energy produced from natural wastes. The community of Aurelia is well planned through Urbis to transform spaces to be able to acquire maximum energy from wind, sun, air, wastes and the rest of the environment. Also research and innovations will be performed constantly in Experimentis with collaboration of Ex-nihilo for creating better energy efficient systems. The vibe of the body and environment is defined also by practices by agnitio and salus through constant rejuvenation of knowledge gain and transfer. The vibe is also enhanced at Socius where everyone get together and increase the viber at the space, creating positive and challenging atmosphere.

The activities and lifestyle in Aurelia promotes the harmonious balance between the consumption and conservation of all the vibes in the community. This being said, in the community of Aurelia, the vibe of the environment is very important as it sets the mood for reaching excellence in every moment of their lives.

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SCENARIOS

CHAPTER 1: Discovering, Managing, and Developing the Self

As the sun rises, its warm soothing rays trickle down the side of my home. I wake up to be greeted by the morning sun as the shell of my home transitions slowly to a translucent shell. I take in a deep breath, the fresh cool air hits my nostrils as I feel it fill my lungs. The joy of a new day brings new hope, excitement, as I feel superior and refreshed to face new challenges. As I step out of my abode, when the frosted ground beneath my feet shoots up a chill up my spine. I take another deep breath as I walk toward the sandy coast. I focus on the horizon as the sun rises, turn my face toward the sun, close my eyes and salute the sun. As I breathe in the positive energy, my lungs feel at equilibrium. I exhale out exhaustion and tension. I continue with my positioned moves, in harmony with the beating waves as a soundtrack. As I come back to earth, I end greeting The Light with a series of meditative breaths awakening my spirit, soul and mind for a brand new day. As the sun rises, I return to start my day of exploring, learning, and gaining knowledge. I grab my pouch of water and burlap bag as I head out. I smile as the first thing that catches my eye, is Aurora’s rotating beam of light. I greet my fellow neighbors as I leave my abode. I walk across the residential terrain, onto the main path that starts my journey towards the light. I follow the route engraved in my head, making my own paths as I explore the wild in the cross section of the Nidum. As I hop across the river rocks, I look up to see Aurora’s beams smiling back at me. I know I am getting closer. I take a sip of water from my pouch and gather specimens I’ve never seen before, collecting them in my pouch. I reach a clearing, where I see golden metallic Drops floating across the force field, reflecting the beams of sunlight and the beams of Aurora. As I step on the field, I am repelled and I feel the energy flowing into my body as it leaves with every step.

I wave to fellow Aurelians as they step onto the field, we pass by a few people as I get closer to my first stop, the Agnitio headquarters.

I step off the force field right into gaps that sensed my presence. Its channels made way for me to walk through. As I made my way up to the top level of Agnitio, I found my Mentor, seated frantically absorbing information from our info channels. He heard me walk in and turned in my direction, greeting me with a smile. As the channel shuts contact with his eyes. He scan the specimens in my bag, taking out first a furry green leaf, his eyes gleam as they recognize it.

He asks me about the challenges of wayfinding, as each new day brings about unknown paths waiting to be discovered. We talked and debated and discussed. As he gave me advice to explore the north east section of the woods with the upcoming season of Bloom, where I would find my answer. I recorded notes using my Channel of beam, as it shot rays straight through my eyes into my brain. I felt more energized and ready to go on my journey of exploration. I went to the central recreational center and took a bike, as I pedalled

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I could feel the energy leaving my body through each sweat drop. I rode inside the underground tunnels that connected Agnitio to the next headquarters of R&D, Experimentis. Another set of channels sense my presence as it opens up to greet me inside. I am scanned at the entrance and my photo and information is displayed on the side. I am reviewed as a Seeker with an A level of experience, fields of interest, and knowledge gained. The information is processed and I am given permission to head into the central core of Experimentis. I walk by translucent capsule labs of groups of experimenters. I follow the projected golden line which leads me into Stacks. As I walk in, I head to the nearest channel to receive information of my specimen. I come across research docs and absorb them into my mind, renewing my lost energy. I take a step forward in my discovery as I inch in progress toward another experience. After feeling refreshed I head home, I step out of Experimentis, and another beam of Aurora shines before me, brighter than before. I head home, and get into a Drop to conserve some energy. I sit next to a mother and her child, as we swap stories of our day and engage on a conversation. I look out the window to observe the life of Aurelia. As the sun sets, and the night skies closes in, we near the end of the force field, the Drop connects to the air lift lines. As we ascend up, I looked down to see if I can spot my path of the day. We reach the edge of Nidum’s Ring, as we approached our district of residential homes. We get off the Drop and go our separate ways, I walk to the edge of the line of homes to reach my home. By now the sun had set, the night skies were spotted with twinkling stars.

The translucent shells turned back to opaque golden shells, as the rooftops slowly flicker into a hazy glow after being charged by the daylight. I walked into my home, as I was greeted by the savoury smell of food, and entered into the communal area as I greeted my parents and my sister, twirling her around once and placed her in her chair. We all sat, talked, laughed, and ate our share to restore the energy lost by laughing. We all gather to do moon salutations to focus all our energy, and breath out the negative energies absorbed. As the moon reflects the sun, I get lost deep into self-reflection to feed my mind and soul. I look through the window, and far in the distance is Auror, in all its glory, shining bright across the whole of Aurelia. I focus my mind on positive thoughts as I lie down to charge myself for a brand new day.

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CHAPTER 2: Karat of the 7th Aurelia Systems

Through the hustling and bustling noises of movement all around me, I get into a T- Drop fully loaded with exuberant grains of Solum. My duty is to recheck and scan the goods before assigning it to the launching pad. After I review the resources in the enclosed Drop, it is sent to be positioned at the Stem’s launchpad. A few seconds pass, as it gets shot across the tunnels of the Great Stem. Across the launching zone, is the incoming zone of goods. I overlook to see fellow production Hands examining, reconfirming and unloading the potatoes, beets, and corn off the blue-tinted chrome finished T-Drops. As the goods are unloaded they are sent through a force field leading to the heart of Aurelia, straight to Experimentis for sample testing and then to the Resource Centre, where it is distributed. Throngs of our meditative bells trickle and diffuse across the production plant, concluding our session of labour. It is time to finish for the day. As I grab my belongings from my capsule, I walk out into the open, taking in a breath of fresh smokefree air. My lungs blow up like a balloon, filling every air sac with pure oxygen, and deflates as I exhale my fatigue away. I automatically feel energized. I look around to take in the glorious view of the outskirts of Aurelia, hoping to discover the world beyond our karat of the Seventh Aurelia. As I turn my head back to the direction of the hill on which Aurora sits, I see the faint silhouette of a lighthouse, with a shimmering gleam of light rotating slowly. My friends and I hop into a Drop to head to the core of Aurelia. We pass the residential area of translucent shells, glistening in the sun, and soared above the Ring of Nidum, till we reach the core. We all get off the Drop, onto the force field, being rejuvenated with each step. We walk through the linked headquarters, right onto the grounds of Socius. As we enter, bright warm rays of Aurora welcome us as we stand few feet away from the raised structure. We stand admiring the greatness of it. When the raybeam of rotating light leaves our view, we come back to reality and talk while walking to the Resource Center. As I approach the colossal golden dome, it sparkles with gradients of purple, pink and orange of the reflections of the sunset sky. The spinning oblique disks make entryway for us to enter in. The translucent dome, filled with the last rays of the sun, is the hub of all liveliness, excitement, and commotion. I feel the collective energy being absorbed into my pores. As families come together to commune together and renew their energy in consumption, storehouses are open to the crowds waiting to be served. Once the members are scanned for the day’s productive energy, personal information display the screens, as a prescribed portioned serving is presented to meet the individual’s need of physical intake. The levels above make room for communal eating, as families gather around. I receive my abundant portion of all robust organic nutrients and vitamins. As I make my way to the top, I meet my loving wife and children seated in our usual spot near the colourful Alcayo shrubs. She greets me with open arms that wraps around my body, straightening my spine in

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the process. Shivers of joy and love flows straight from her body to mine. With my son grabbing onto my feet and my daughter clinging tight to my hand, we head back, sit down and enjoy our meal. The children run off with their friends, as my wife and I converse in daily affairs. As the dark blue sky turns charcoal black, the dome’s shell turns opaque, we consume our servings clean. It is time to go home, we greet people on the way out and walk hand in hand to the nearest Drop Centre. I board the Drop in full contentment, carefree and satisfied.

As we shoot across the night sky, I see my loving wife seated across from me, and hear the harmonious tunes of my ebullient children echoing inside our Drop.

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CHAPTER 3: Health, Harmony, and Hope

As I reach into my lab coat for my cultrum, I feel a vibing sensation. I look down at my wrist, the red light flickers rapidly. As I excuse myself from the capsule, as I get alarming news of my son. I rush on my way out of Experimentus to walk to the Salus located a few steps away. I follow the directional lights inside Salus’ white walls. The light stop, leading me to an entrance. A nurse approaches me, and explains my son’s condition. Sensing the fear and worry in my eyes, she assures me that my son will recover back to normal. I let out a sigh of relief. I walk in to see my son. I approach a transparent cube, where my son is resting in confinement for testing purposes. His eyes gleam with excitement as see he sees me walk through the entryway.

Four other nutricum, dressed head to toe in pure white, go about their work feeding in and interpreting data from the cube while constantly checking into the information channels. A huge screen displays scans of my son’s body and data points carefully examined by one of the nutricem. The nutricem then walks toward a screen of brick openings of channels. As I observe in the corner, a channel dings in response to a clicking sound. The brick is ejected, as a small glass container of medicine is removed from its compartment. The specially prescribed natural medication is then handed over to me, followed by a set of instructions to complete. A suction noise resounds as the cube deflates, letting out my son. He runs toward me in excitement and clings to my side. I head out home, with my son holding my hand to complete the steps of recovery. Daily for a week we follow the nutricem’s scheduled orders. I first set up relaxing baths for him, he ingests some medication along with his meals. We sit out in nature, absorbing the therapeutic rays of the sun, and play for as long as we can, exploring, learning, and asking. We refresh ourselves by constantly drinking Aurelia’s pure waters. We both sit down for breathing exercises to conclude each day. As our spines elongate, from the bottom up, in complete alignment to the vertical axis, we breathe in the uncontaminated crisp air, and exhale all our negative energies. As days go by, it is filled with more exchangeable laughter and positive energies. I watch my son recover, to his old animated self. The week draws to an end as the night returns. As I tuck him to sleep, his uplifting smile reassures my grain of doubt. As I leave the room, a momentary burst of Aurora’s light seeps in through the window, lighting up the room for an instant, restoring all hope and harmony within.

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CHAPTER 4: New Year Jubilation Festival of Aurelia (Ceremony of Light):

The night lights flickered as we walked through Channel C, following the sounds of harmonious music of Jubilation ringing across the stadium of Socius. The overwhelming warm glow of Aurora caressed my body as it turned away. The air is thick with positive vibes and energies. I hear children shriek in excitement as they run wild barefeet, playing around and in between the numerous tentus pitched up. I turned around to bask in the warmth aura filling my every pore. I take in the life of Aurelia, as people gather in blessed communion. The electrifying atmosphere penetrates into my soul, as my tastebuds come to life. A mixture of sweet and sour, and a bit of spice churns in my salivating mouth. With each bite my senses are awakened to new dimensions. My senses are drawn back to Aurelia as the Jubilee committee makes a resounding announcement, muffling and muting all background noise in the process. The spirited Aurelians stop to hear in anticipation. As the announcement ends, bells chime in unison with screams of happiness resounding throughout the ring. Everyone rushes toward the central stage, weaving themselves through crowds as they find clearings.

The spirited energies are tamed by invisible forces of suspense.

The whole city is at harmonious equilibrium. As the initiating ceremony starts, crowds gather around in unison to pay homage to Aurora. Bursts of colored fire shoot into the skies, as glimmering sparks fade while falling upon Aurora’s peak. The Ritus of Lux is initiated by a committee member who transfers a portion of Aurora’s divine light onto the winning torch. Gleams of light shoot out in every direction just when the tip of the torch kisses the light. At this moment, Aurelia glows from within dimming out as it reaches its outskirts. Aurelias of every karat across the globe are celebrating this time of Jubilees and Jubilation, as we usher in a brand new year of prosperity. The crowds disperse in means of celebration. Aurelians perform numerous acts. They move their bodies in oneness, interlocking with their partners.

As I pass the performers, I make my way to partake in Aqua Coloratum celebration. I push myself through the crowds of all ages spectating. I join the line along with fellow friends waiting to be dunked. My turn arrives. As I tightly grip onto the rope, I take a swing. In that moment I look at my reflection beneath my feet before hitting the blushing colored waters. Only then am I reminded of my span of life. I gasped for air as I come out of the water, the crisp air flows through my nostrils followed by a cool sensation right into my lungs. I stand up, as my body is emerged in waters five feet deep. I look around, I see a floating child, in his first span of life, nearby watching me with big brown eyes, waiting to be played with. I grab his tiny hands, as I twirl

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him in the waters, creating a teal, orange, and yellow spiral. As he squeals with joy, he points his toes down toward the surface of the waters, in at an angle, to creating a groovy pattern. His eyes widen in amazement as I continued to twirl him around.

As the beam of Aurora revisits us, the colourful waters glimmer across the surface, dancing under the moonlight. With every sharp squeal, through his tightly gripped fingers, burrowed into my wrist, shots of energy flow from his body into mine. I enjoy this as much as the little boy does, and that’s when I came to the realization that the boy and I share the same span of life in these glorious moments.

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REFLECTIONS

Reflections

From what has been previously discussed and described, Aurelia is a community that revolves around the self and the journey that a person undertakes in the course of their lifetime. The self as both the center and core of the universe and the orbit that it revolves around. The existence of the self involves its needs being met through its interaction with other fellow human beings and the surrounding environment.

Therefore, the community of Aurelia is constructed and designed based on the principle of Harmonious Equilibrium and governed by the Commandment of Aurelia. The principle of Harmonious Equilibrium is concerned with actualizing the self and reaching its full potential during a lifetime, while also achieving a harmonious balance and equilibrium within one’s self, the community and its various elements, and the surrounding environment. The actions undertaken to achieve such harmonious equilibrium and daily life practices are governed by the supreme Commandment of Aurelia, which states “ Attending to Others as to One’s Self” The physical construction of the community of Aurelia is designed based on inspiration drawn from life experiences and contemplations.

The community is designed as a top view of the tree of life, with the trunk and main stem in the center giving nutrients and nourishment to the rest of the structure, and then the rest of the structure is concentrically around the core and interconnected to it at all times.

In such sense, Aurelia’s Aurora, which captures the essence of the communities core values, as well as symbolically offer a beacon and a guiding light to constantly remind people of their higher purpose that they need to fulfill and work towards. It further draws them in closer to the center to take in the core principles and values of the community, and reflect upon them during their process of self realization and actualization, and their seek to reach their full potential.

The rest of the community’s structural elements surround Aurora and are also guided by its shining light, in which it offers provision upon each action and decision undertakes by the different city enterprises.

The various community enterprises are concerned with all aspect of life in the Aurelian community, from the holistic well being of Aurelians, to their knowledge and learning process and aspects of their spirituality, to professional activities and occupations, to enterprises concerned with matters of daily life and the community innovations and advancements. Such enterprises are both interconnected and interdependent on one another, as well as on members of the community to bring forth such visions and fulfill both individual and communal purposes.

Thus, the community of Aurelia considers both time and energy as

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valuable elements of life within the community, in which time is a measure to a person’s journey during a lifetime, their path towards reaching their full potential, and a fleeting element that can’t be renewed or restored. Furthermore, energy is a vital element in which both our actions and our state of being could be determined by and measured through our body energy and the energy flow between an individual and the surrounding elements in the environment, while also dictating our future course of actions and decisions.

Through such a structure, the community is able to provide an atmosphere and an environment that assists an individual in their process of self realization and actualization, and their embark on reaching their full potential and achieving a harmonious equilibrium within themselves and the surrounding elements of the environment.

In addition to that, the community structure is also designed for Aurelia to reach its full potential as a community, fulfill its purpose, exist in harmony within nature and bring forth innovations and advancements that help in improving the quality of life, maintain sustainability and proper energy flow, and achieve harmony and balance between the different systems.

As a result, this would then be reflected in the performance of the Aurelian community, and its efficiency and effectivity and its achieved harmony, and that of its inhabitants. The Aurelian community that is emerged from interdependence would reflect the state of well being of each of its members and their endeavor towards achieving harmony and balance and their our full potential. In which, the holistic well being and the state of harmony of one individual would imply the same state achieved by another member of the community. Through the developed concept of “I see myself through you”, it serves as a reflection of the performance of the community and each of its members, in which a crack in one element of the structure, would imply the failure of the whole structure, in which the state of being of one Aurelian is correlated and serves as a reflection to other members of the community.

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CONCLUSION

Conclusion

In a life of imperfections and hardships, and a constant pursuit of happiness and finding the meaning behind life and the experiences that we go through, arises the community of Aurelia. A community that acknowledges the disappointments that we go through and frustrations with the currently established systems of life and works its way through it.

Aurelia has been designed and constructed for its members and the whole community to realize their full potential through achieving a harmonious balance between the different elements and aspects of their life. As much as the end result might be significant and a measure of where person is in their life, it becomes irrelevant to the journey that has been taken and the practices, trials, risks that have been embarked on to come a fraction closer to a goal that has been a far. It’s not about the words spoken, or the actions taken, but rather the continuous and relentless pursuit to reach the other place and ultimate goal, where everything that have been experienced would make sense and complete a part of the bigger picture.

The life that we should be living is not one where there is a differentiation between the good and bad, the valuable and worthless, the successes and failures, but rather that of constant contemplation, questioning, and analysis of the environment around us and experiences that we go through, reflecting upon it, taking chances, falling apart, and starting over. A life where our own existence is irrelevant without others, and in our existence we realize that we are tips of icebergs that are visible, which have deeper, stronger and wider cores that usually can’t be seen by others, but should rather be reflected upon with other. The strength of our existence thus lies in our interdependence on one another and our co-existence. And the measure of the quality of our lives is not confined by where we are and what we have reached, but rather how far we’ve come and the amount of time and energy we have invested to become the individuals we are today.

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