The 8-Billion-Person Problem
You can’t colonize three planets with a yacht club.
That’s the cold truth I’ve been wrestling with for two years. Earth has 8 billion stakeholders, and every one of them wants a seat at the table. A “first wave” of 500 hand-picked geniuses? Cute. It would be vetoed by the UN Security Council before the champagne corks hit the floor.
We needed a minimum viable civilization—genetically diverse, culturally balanced, geopolitically bullet-proof, and trainable—without building a single new dorm.
The answer was staring us in the face: America’s mega-universities.
420,000 Pioneers, 7 Campuses, 1 Big Idea
We’re hijacking seven U.S. colleges—each already built for 60,000 humans—and turning them into proto-colonies for 24 months.
| Future Settlement | Earth Campus | Mix |
|---|---|---|
| Capital Island | University of Michigan | 20% China, 20% India, 20% USA, 40% global |
| Capital Mainland #1 | UC Berkeley | Same scramble |
| Capital Mainland #2 | UT Austin | Same scramble |
| Planet B North | NYU | Same scramble |
| Planet B South | University of Florida | Same scramble |
| Planet C East | UIUC | Same scramble |
| Planet C West | Arizona State | Same scramble |
That’s 420,000 pioneers, 60,000 per campus, deliberately scrambled by nationality, skill, and dorm floor.
The Scramble: How We Force Friendship
We don’t hope people mix. We engineer it.
- Dorm floors: 50 beds, no two from the same country.
- Dining tables: 8 seats, rotated weekly.
- Class sections: 30 students, 15+ nationalities.
- Sports teams: Cricket vs. football hybrid leagues.
- Farm crews: 12,000 students feeding 60,000—no silos allowed.
By Month 24, every pioneer knows 50–100 people across 10+ cultures. When they wake up on a new planet, they’re not strangers—they’re dorm-mates.
The Curriculum: Civics, Chickens, and Charters
| Year 1 | Year 2 |
|---|---|
| Dorm-villages of 1,000 draft charters | Campus-settlements of 60,000 run referenda |
| Farm plots feed the dorm | Stadium votes decide forest clearing |
| Goat-theft trials in dining halls | Solar Bowl unites 60,000 in hybrid sports |
Every charter is ratified in a stadium. Every pioneer has served on a jury. The American system is baked in—not imposed, practiced.
The Mind-Stream: 10¹⁶ Thoughts Can’t Lie
Every pioneer wears a neural uplink (the “pill”). We record every thought, vote, and late-night ramen run. The Connection Score predicts who will thrive in a forest with 60,000 strangers.
- CS > 75 → Zap-eligible
- CS < 50 → Wave 2 (still recorded, still in the game)
Zap Day: From Quad to Colony
Month 24, Week 4
Michigan Stadium, 11:59 PM
“Floor 7, Cabin Row A. You’ve got this.”
— Dorm RA (now mayor)
T-Zero: 60,000 Wolverines vanish from the Big House.
T+1 minute: They materialize in a forest valley on Capital Island.
T+5 minutes: First vote—riverfront cabins by merit or lottery?
Result: 79% merit. Charter upheld.
Why 420,000 Is the Minimum
| Risk | Below 420K | At 420K |
|---|---|---|
| Genetic bottleneck | Real | 42× safety margin |
| Cultural erasure | Likely | 200+ sub-cultures preserved |
| Geopolitical boycott | Certain | Every nation gets 100–500 seats |
| Social fragility | High | 60K pre-bonded settlements |
The Long Game: 30 Million in 50 Years
- Wave 1: 420,000 (Year 0)
- Wave 2: +1.5M (Year 5)
- Natural growth: 30M by Generation 2
- Capital Island: 10M-city of log cabins, stadium parliaments, and maize fields
The Takeaway
We’re not sending astronauts.
We’re sending dorm floors.
The solar system won’t be founded by heroes.
It’ll be founded by 60,000 kids who already know how to share a bathroom, split a pizza, and ratify a charter in a stadium.
The Great Zap begins in 24 months.
See you on the quad.
