FOREWORD

I am a fictioholic.

Stories of adventure, mystery, fantasy, historical fiction, science fiction and more have fascinated me since childhood. Enjoyment of fiction has always felt natural to me, and it probably feels natural to you.

But today my addiction to fiction stands largely broken. Today I choose to be more of a TOGAholic than a fictioholic.

The acronym TOGA stands for Type One Go Ahead. “Type One” refers to a category of civilization with levels of energy availability and technological development significantly higher than levels we now have on Earth. The phrase “Go Ahead” expresses enthusiasm for policies and aims that might help us become a Type One civilization sooner rather than later, sooner rather than never.

I prize the singular dream of a Type One human civilization more highly than the numberless dreams of fiction. Thus, more of my free time goes toward striving for a Type One Earth than goes toward enjoying the fiction I so naturally crave.

[...]

“All art is propaganda,” wrote George Orwell. His claim is delightfully debatable. May Operation TOGA draw you into such debates, into unexpected adventures, into an increasingly Type One life and Type One Earth.

LONG BOOKS ARE TOO SLOW

September 12, 2015, 11 am
No more and no less an undercover bodhisattva than you or anyone else, Max Progress sits in the Caltrain by a western window, headed south out of San Francisco, bouncing on blue and gray vinyl in the afternoon sun. His flight to San Diego will leave in two hours.

Max rereads familiar lines on the screen of his pocket computer:

        Long books are too slow
        For my purpose and our times
        What I mean is this:

        If you knew all things
        That I know, and vice versa
        We’d have nil to say

        Except what we’d like
        To share: curiosity,
        Artistry, science —

        Real world: Our viewpoints
        Differ, so we signify
        Aiming to explain

        Fiction is one kind
        Of such explanation: lies
        Meant to point at truth

        My aims are to move
        You to change education,
        Health insurance, and

        Income policies
        And to build nuclear plants
        In the USA

        AND to entertain
        Stretch your brain, relieve your pain —
        Humor crazed and sane!

        Long books are too slow
        For my purpose and our times
        So read this instead

No one's going to memorize and sing these haikus the way they memorize and chant the RPPK Credo. But they're all right as a poetic introduction to TOGA ideas, thinks Max. Of course, it would be good to add something about knowing deep in your heart and bones that your truest nature is cosmic intelligence and love, but the emphasis here is on the political side. The enlightenment angle's less popular. So many of us domesticated primates focus on our wallets above all else, and on wisdom and inner peace as no more than occasional afterthoughts.

A local radio news flash pops out of Max’s headphones. “In San Jose, a seven-year-old boy was killed last night by a handgun he was reportedly playing with.” Flashes of awful memories of his twin brother Andrew, lost to a similar tragedy, jolt through Max, as they do every time he hears this kind of story. He reflexively nudges his mind away from childhood agony by focusing on other things. Lucky for me that our parents' success with Domes To Go, their prefabricated, low-cost transportable house company, allowed them and me to live in safe places for most of my childhood. If only that success had come sooner, Andrew might still be here…Amazing how our prefabricated houses help desperate people find new ways of life so much easier now than was possible in the past. All those refugees from the California fires, Florida hurricanes and New Orleans floods now living decently in Domes To Go shelters all over North America prove it. Not to mention the millions from other countries living in Domes To Go shelters in new Siberian, Brazilian and Canadian settlements. Those water and electric utility companies never dreamed of finding so much new business, setting up new infrastructure wherever abundant water supplies can be found!

Max’s eyelids slide downwards over his worldly brown eyes, and he begins to doze. Hazy visions of Crete and its ancient capital Knossos drift through his sleep-deprived brain as his whole human biocomputer gyrates between waking and sleeping.

His cell phone chimes. From the number on the screen, Max knows the caller is Fullerton Buckley, his close friend and fellow originator of the TOGA — “Type One Go Ahead” — organization. Intuition tells him this will be no ordinary conversation, and his brain, heart and gut suddenly feel like synchronized electric generators coming on line together. Max presses the green button to answer the call.