Sunrise Sustainable Technology Ventures

Contents
* Sunrise Sustainable Technology Institute Newsletter
* The ending of the Sunrise Sustainable Technology Institute
* Sunrise Personal Visions
* Sunrise Employment Agreement
* Sunrise Radical Plan
* New Sunrise Employee Agreement
* What this all made me realize
* A Later Phase (1991); The Sagittarius Institute
* Notes on Technology Library
* What Happened Afterwards
* One of life's jokes; an example of how Post-Scarcity works

A couple related ventures from the 1980s that fizzled.

Sunrise Sustainable Technology Institute Newsletter

Sunrise Sustainable Technology Institute Newsletter 3/20/90
[address snipped]

Sunrise Sustainable Technology Institute publishes its first newsletter.

Other firsts include: its first two members joined for $20 each one week ago; its first business plan HyperCard stack runs on the macintosh; a first draft of articles of incorporation is being reviewed; a first attempt at forming a board of directors was scheduled for next Monday.

Being first is exciting, as well as stressful. Sunrise's first president, Paul D. Fernhout, is handling the situation well. Positive feedback from several key people has helped: Ted Taylor, Ilsa Johnson, Stella Andrassy, Carol Allen, Jean Sinden, and Jennifer Morgan (to name a few).

Major goals over the next few months are:
1. Incorporation
2. Tax Exempt Status Application
3. 50 Members
4. Five grant proposals
5. STELLA Prototype: Sunrise Sustainable Technology Library
6. Computer Equipment
7. Office Space
8. An active Board of Directors
9. Strategic alliances with other non-profits
10. A greenhouse agriculture/aquaculture test bed

The Sunrise Sustainable Technology Institute helps people give creatively in the field of technology. SSTI develops a public domain library of technology (STELLA) compatible with long term human survival in style. SSTI deploys this knowledge to allow people freedom to design their built environments.

When operational, the Sunrise sustainable technology library (Stella) is more than a catalogue of technology. It contains the web of interrelations between technological artifacts. For example, consider a greenhouse made of plastic sheets covering an aluminum frame. Stella can tell you all the tools, materials, and skills needed to make such a greenhouse by presenting pictures of them on a computer display. Stella can then let you pick any component and trace all the things needed to make it. Through this process, Stella allows you to explore the entire web of technology.

But Stella can do more than help you explore. Stella can help you design. Stella allows you to design a new type of greenhouse. Stella can help you figure out what components go into the new greenhouse design. This is done using a user-friendly graphical computer interface where you can see a picture of the greenhouse as you design it. Stella can print out plans for this new design.

However, Stella can do more than design a thing in isolation. Stella can help you design an entire technology base to manufacture, assemble, repair, and dispose of greenhouses. Stella allows you to track every material used in the greenhouse's construction and what becomes of it at every stage in the life of the greenhouse. Further, Stella can help you design the entire web of technology you would need to do all of this to whatever degree of self reliance you desire. Stella can show you what tools and materials you need to import and export from your selected subset of the entire web of technology.

Using Stella, Sunrise is developing a technological web to allow the Institute to rely on sustainable technology for 90% of its operations. Sustainable technology is technology that can be used indefinitely without harm to the environment and which can be recycled or disposed of without environmental damage. Every system developed or adapted will be put into Stella and made public domain for anyone to use. These systems would eventually include housing, food production, paper use, energy use, transportation, communications, and computing. Stella would be used to assess priorities and degrees of sustainability for all the technology the institute relies on.

Like any living system, Sunrise will grow over time. Sunrise's growth strategy will be to replicate itself in other communities. Each institute will have a Stella system, and the Stella systems will all communicate with each other to share innovations. In this fashion, Sunrise can help many communities increase their use of sustainable technology.

As the institute grows, it will market sustainable technology it has invented or discovered to the surrounding community on an ability to pay basis. In addition it will provide consulting to organizations increasing their sustainability and decreasing their negative impact on the environment.

When established, the work environment at Sunrise offers the following to employees and their dependants: food, shelter, energy, tools, work space, health care, day care, transportation, communication, computation, household goods, education, a retirement plan, creative companionship, and a small salary for a few luxuries. While no one at Sunrise will get rich, Sunrise employees know they and their families will be provided for. The Sunrise environment is experimental: the employees live with, work with, and test technology they have discovered and developed. Since all work is in the public domain, Sunrise employees know they work in service of humanity and not a specific corporation. Sunrise employees have no fears that some organization might shelve their ideas and deprive them of rights to use them. By setting a high degree of self-reliance as a goal, Sunrise helps assure stability for its employees no matter what happens to the larger economy.

While not-for-profit, Sunrise still needs money to operate. Sunrise's money will come from the following areas: 1. Donations 2. Grants 3. Individual and Corporate Memberships 5. Proceeds from selling sustainable technology 6. Proceeds from consulting on sustainable technology 7. Proceeds from workshops and tours 8. Proceeds from selling access to databases
[not from selling the data!]

On an operating level, Sunrise will strive to utilize volunteers, exchange services with other non-profits, and supply its needs from the in-house productivity of its own staff whenever possible. Since Sunrise provides most of the necessities of its staff and their dependants, salaries can be low.

By focusing on developing, testing, and using new methods of production, Sunrise will acquire over time a physical infrastruture that is an embodiement of the ideas in Stella. This infrastructure will include machine tools, housing, a seed bank, breeding stock, energy production facilities, recycling centers, biological sewage treatment facilities, day care centers, computer hardware, meeting rooms, vehicles, and so forth. Employees using this capital along with Stella will be able to extend the capital base at times without the necessity for large amounts of money. This is possible through the use of collected energy applied to recycle materials and manufacture them into needed items that more than make up for the wear and tear (overhead) involved in creating them.

This is the fourty year timeline of goals for Sunrise: 1990 - 50 members, computer workstation, greenhouse, 100 items in Stella 1991 - Several staff, ten volunteers, 200 members, several workstations, on site housing and day care, 1000 items in Stella 1992 - 10,000 items in Stella. On site energy production 1993 - 50 staff on site, 50,000 items in Stella 1995 - 200 staff on 2 sites, 100,000 items in Stella 2001 - 10 institutes, 1 million items in Stella, Desert Institute. 2011 - 30 Institutes, 10 million, Antarctic Institute 2033 - 100 Institutes, 100 million, O'Neill Habitat Institute

The ending of the Sunrise Sustainable Technology Institute

Paul D. Fernhout [address snipped] Princeton, NJ 08540 July 14, 1990

Dear Members:

Thank you for your support in developing the Sunrise Sustainable Technology Institute as a non-profit venture. Through your support we met our first membership goal. A friend suggested I evaluate my strengths and weaknesses for this venture.
I did. As for weaknesses, I do not enjoy asking individuals for monetary
support or for volunteered time. However, these are at the core of most non-profit organizations. I am good at working intensely for short periods of time to develop new technology, particularly computer software. Since this is where my strength lies, I have decided to restructure my efforts toward a for-profit venture to develop educational software as its first project. In particular I am developing a computer game that teaches organic gardening. The cash flow from this venture when successful will allow Sunrise to expand to develop other software projects, such as the technology library mentioned in our first newsletter. In addition, at that point, other people could be brought into the company to develop and manage other self reliant aspects of the corporation such as corporate gardens, flexible manufacturing systems, solar collectors, and an ecological resort/conference center. It is important to me that this organic gardening game project by itself is a socially responsible effort. I hope it is just a first step towards more such projects. Even if it does not allow me to go further, by itself it is a worthwhile effort. This is a very important part of my development strategy, since there are many money making opportunities in this world. Earning capital through socially responsible efforts creates positive energy in myself and others. Earning capital through more conventional means such as helping huge companies sell sugar to children produces negative energy. My safety net in corporate development is knowing that even if we fail at any point the means have justified themselves. You may ask where that leaves your membership contribution. In order to resolve this fairly, I am returning all contributions received. Please keep your fluorescent lightbulb or book on 50 ways to save the planet as a token of thanks for your support.

Sincerely,

Paul D. Fernhout

Sunrise Personal Visions

Paul D. Fernhout - Sunrise Personal Visions 3/9/90

Why did I found Sunrise Universal Services, and what is it to become?

The ingredients of my Sunrise Soup (people, books, and ideas) O'Neill & Bernal: Space Habitats and Self Replicating Systems Skinner: Walden Two Norris: Socially Responsible Business and Control Data Calthorpe and Van der Ryn: Sustainable Communities Lovins: Brittle Power and the Soft Path Morris and Hess: Neighborhood Power and Community Technology Jane Jacobs: Cities and the Wealth of Nations Coates: Resettling America Bass: Space Biosphere Ventures and Biosphere II Taylor: Micropolis and the renewal of the Earth Disney: EPCOT-Experimental Prototypical Community of Tommorow Bookchin: Post Scarcity Anarchism Robbins: Diet for a New America Ogilvy: Many Dimensional Man Merril & Gage: The Energy Primer Todd: The New Alchemy Institute Dickson: The Politics of Appropriate Technology Harlan Thompson: Silent Running, Robots, and Domes Tokar: The Green Alternative Ekins: The Living Economy Hopkins: How to master the Art of Selling Winner: Autonomous Technology Simon: People: The Ultimate Resource Commoner: The Poverty of Power

These are many times this more books and people I have not listed, but this is a representative list and the most important.

There are two reasons I founded sunrise. One is for the convenience and psychological edge of doing business as a corporation. The second is to give birth to a new baby embodying parts of myself and my dreams. I am a designer of technological infrastructures. Sunrise is my vehicle for designing and building a sustainable technological infrastructure. Thus the following statement of purpose for Sunrise:

Sunrise was founded to construct and support human communities in land, ocean, and space by developing and deploying a sustainable, self-reliant, and self-replicating infrastructure. Sunrise will own and manage this infrastructure where possible. This infrastructure is a mix of people, plants, animals, microbes, machines, structures, and information. The infrastructure will evolve.

I have the vision of a self-reliant corporation that has its own industrial base apart from the larger economy. The idea is that the corporation can produce almost all the neccesary and luxury goods and services of life in-house. Thus it can plan effectively for its own needs and survive.

The corporation will someday own O'Neill habitats in space, underwater bases, underground cities, and communities in suburbs, rural areas, cities, the desert, and the antartic. Domes and environmental conditioning will be used as appropriate. Each of these communities will only trade by choice, not out of neccesity. They will all be linked into an information network and corporate library to share their local innovations and ask for ideas on specific problems.

The corporation will own facilities in manufacturing, agriculture, information processing, education, housing, dining, health care, recreation, and so on. These facilities will be in both park clusters and in networks spread in a community.

Sunrise Employment Agreement

Agreement between Sunrise Universal Services and ________________________

For the following considerations from Sunrise during the duration of this relationship ***: 1. Health Care 2. Near Site Child Care 3. Family Education and Therapy 4. Housing 5. Meals 6. Equity in the local company branch 7. A salary of $__________ per ______ 8. Access to the Sunrise Information Network 9. Access to transportation facilities 10. 10% of royalties or profits from any individual creative work done with the company and a lesser % of group work. 11. Retirement plan 12. Access to Sunrise recreational and cultural facilities 13. Access to Sunrise addiction rehabilitation programs 14. Access to the Sunrise manufacturing network 15. Access to the Sunrise procurement service 16. Other services as implemented Note: Not all services may be initially available, but will be provided eventually.

The above signed person agrees to: 1. Allow Sunrise free unlimited use of all ideas, patents, and non-personal writing done by person in any capacity whatsoever during association with the company, and to provide documentation of such work as it is done. Note this require special wavers from other companies for work done for freelance where that company wanted to hold on to all rights Such exclusive contracts could not be morally or legally entered into under this agreement. 2. To do what work needs to be done at Sunrise to keep it functioning and growing as a sustainable community. The demands of such work in time and effort shall be in line with personal capacity and community norms. 3. To continually grow as a person in personal health and relationships and to seek help as neccesary to do so. 4. To govern oneself to reasonable standards of behavior given the Sunrise culture and the cultures it is embedded in, including becoming a productive person.

This agreement can be terminated upon two weeks notice by either party. Termination by Sunrise will be preceeded by a written warning of specific causes for dismissal, with one chance for improvement.

Sign and Date: For Sunrise: ____________________ Employee: _________________________

Sunrise Radical Plan

"Radical Plan"

I don't like patents and copyrights. So, what about this business plan: Everything sunrise delvelops will be public domain. Donations are appreciated, of course. But Sunrise makes its money off of providing a service - a communications and computer network to give access to that public domain information, and by selling goods and services derived by using that public domain knowledge. Sunrise will not engage in development work unless is can be made freely available. (a Non-profit?) All that is require to use sunrise information is to acknowledge: "Some information provided by Sunrise Corporation"? Maybe not even that.

Major concept: that just as the law is public domain, and you still pay lawyers $150 an hour, Sunrise's technology base could be public domain and Sunrise could still charge $200 an hour to help use it, and extend it, and refine it to specific applications.

New Sunrise Employee Agreement

Agreement Agreement between Sunrise Sustainable Technology Institute and ________________________

For the following considerations from Sunrise during the duration of this relationship ***: 1. Health Care 2. Near Site Child Care 3. Family Education and Therapy 4. Housing 5. Meals 6. Equity in decision making in the local institute branch 7. A salary of $__________ per ______ 8. Access to the Sunrise Information Network and Stella 9. Access to transportation facilities 10. Retirement plan (extends beyond the duration of this agreement) 11. Access to Sunrise recreational and cultural facilities 12. Access to Sunrise addiction rehabilitation programs 13. Access to the Sunrise manufacturing network 14. Access to the Sunrise procurement service 15. Other services as implemented
*** Note: Not all services may be initially available, but will be provided
eventually.

The above signed person agrees to: 1. Put in the public domain all ideas, patents, and non-personal writing done with Sunrise in any capacity whatsoever during association with the company, and to provide documentation of such work as it is done. 2. To do what work needs to be done at Sunrise to keep it functioning and growing as a sustainable community. The demands of such work in time and effort shall be in line with personal capacity and community norms. 3. To continually grow as a person in personal health and relationships and to seek help as neccesary to do so. 4. To govern oneself to reasonable standards of behavior given the Sunrise culture and the cultures it is embedded in, including becoming a productive person.

Sign and Date: For Sunrise: ____________________ Employee: _________________________

What this all made me realize

It was writing and reading "two weeks notice" that eventually made me realize it would never work. Again: "So, when you get "fired" at Virgle -- it's out the airlock without a helmet?

And all "intentional communities" have related issues with equity.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22intentional+communities%22+equity
http://everything2.com/e2node/Legal%2520Structures%2520for%2520Intentional%2520Communities%2520in%2520the%2520United%2520States

Basically, this all made me realized there is a difference between being an "employee"
(even an employee-owner) with revokable rights or loseable equity, and being a "citizen" with irrevokable rights.

A Later Phase (1991); The Sagittarius Institute

A later phase:

The Sagittarius Institute

People, Technology, and Nature in Sustainable, Replicable, and Renewable Communities

The Sagitarius Institute has the long range goal of linking people, technology, and the environment into a sustainable symbiosis. The institute will work in partnership with other public and private sector organizations to develop and deploy technology for a more sustainable society.

A more sustainable society will be less dependent on non-renewable resources, more decentralized, more networked, more secure against economic disruption, more efficient in energy use, high in biodiversity, healthier, safer, less addicted, less alienated, and more fun.

The institute's early focus involves using computer and information technology in three ways to promote this mission.

The first way is to improve the routine operations of organizations with missions related to fostering sustainability and meeting other major social needs, for example in the field of sustainable agriculture.

It helps organizations by providing computer system setup services, software training, troubleshooting, operations support, programming, desktop publishing services, administration, and organizational and management consulting.

This sort of support has already been provided by the executive director previously for the Natural Organic Farmer's Association of New Jersey (NOFA-NJ), the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association's Sustainable Agriculture Project, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture Division of Regulatory Services, the Princeton Whole Earth Center, and the Princeton International Solar Institute.

The second way is to develop computer software and other media to directly educate and inform the general public about sustainability. This includes showing what they can do directly to improve their lives and their communities, such as through a computer game about organic lawn care. The institute will form partnerships with other organizations when possible.

One project the executive director already has ongoing with Applied Biomathematics involves a software package for ecological modeling and risk assessment.

Another such partnership under consideration might be with the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, NOFA-NJ, and/or the Whole Earth Center to develop a computer game about organic agriculture and its economic, health and environmental dimensions. Players would run a simulated organic market garden or farm tailored to local growing conditions and would gain points for building up soil fertility and loose points for pesticide use or groundwater pollution.

Future computer projects could involve multi-media systems at nature centers, libraries, and museums, an interactive CD-ROM on sustainable development and technology, and a Nintendo game about environmental issues.

The third way is to develop a computerized sustainable technology database and holistic design system. This will allow individuals and communities to choose their desired levels of self-reliance and risk and then design and simulate lifestyles, communities, and economic ventures that achieve them.

It would be like a combination of the Electronic Whole Earth Catalogue, the Appropriate Technology Source Book and Microfiche library, AutoCad, HyperCard, Sim-City, a geographic information system, and an expert system.
The executive director has been exploring this system's development for
three years.

The institute is funded principally through fees for computer services and royalties from sales of software and other educational media. Donations are welcome. The institute does not yet have 501-C-3 tax exempt status but will be applying for it. To do so it needs to get service fees and royalties accepted as exempt function income. The Institute will also apply for grants alone and in partnership with other organizations.

Paul D. Fernhout is the executive director and chief bottle washer. He has a B.A. in cognitive psychology from Princeton University. He was later manager of the university's robotics and expert systems laboratory and then a PhD graduate student in civil engineering, operations research, and statistics. Since then he has administered an organic farm certification program and been president of a computer consulting corporation. He is presently pursuing a PhD in Ecology and Evolution at SUNY Stony Brook.

Notes on Technology Library

Many collections of technology have been created. For example there is the Whole Earth Catalogue, the Energy Primer, and a book called The Appropriate Technology Sourcebook. The institute will have a far more interrelated computerized technology library as its core. This project goes beyond their approach of cataloging technology and having pictures of it. The heart of this project is modelling the interrelations of technology using the emerging computer technology of hypertext and network modelling.

This fundamentally interdisciplinary and integrative approach will provide new insights into the nature of our technology. It will allow one to design more than specific technological artifacts. It will make possible the design of entire technological systems and the economies that accompany them. It make possible tracking specific substances, like lead, in a technological system, and figuring out ways to eliminate their use. This technology library will allow people to mix and match technologies and see what industries are necessary for them to have the artifacts they want.

Imagine having a computerized library of tools and their interactions arranged in such a way that would allow anyone to explore the implications of any technological artifact or assembly. For example, imagine studying the automobile. One could examine all the seperate component parts - windshields, frame, radio, tires on a computer workstation. One could also examine all the systems needed to put the automobile together. Pictures would appear for all the diverse elements. Then, one could explore the tire, and all the technology required to create it. One could explore this network indefinitely, and examine all the interrelations fundamental to the industrialized economy we live in.

Imagine the benefits of understanding this web. With powerful enough information management tools, one could invent new technological webs. These new webs might be simpler or more robust than the one we live with now. A new web might be designed that would be more sustainable. It would consist of products that were more secure, self-reliant, self-replicating, durable, low cost, non-polluting, energy efficient, evolving, and pleasant to use. For example, it might have at its base solar collectors, windmills, renewable fuels, and organic farming. The system could help answer the questions: what do we need for such a technology and what don't we need?

What Happened Afterwards

I met my wife around then and things settled into a more modest
"Kurtz-Fernhout Software: Developers of custom software and educational simulations."

I learned to: "Think globally, act locally, plan modestly" :-)

I still think there were a lot of good ideas there (so I am sharing) but I did not have the social skills etc. to make them happen then (plus computing was much more expensive then :-).
"Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business"
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free

Although in a way, Google approaches some of those "Sunrise Sustainable Technology Institute" ideals:
"At Google, we�re committed to helping build a clean energy future."
http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/
"Google Opening Day Care Center For Bitty Googlers"
http://insidegoogle.blogspot.com/2004/11/google-opening-day-care-center-for.html
"Massage interviews?"
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/massage-interviews.html
And so on.

One of life's jokes; an example of how Post-Scarcity works

One of life's jokes is that the technology I was working on for a long time, the Pointrel Data Repository System, indirectly helped inspire WordNet (started by my undergraduate advisor at Princeton as I left), which is the basis of much of Google's fortune from Adsense. Well, at least somebody got something out of it. :-) I'm pleased to have a service like Google to use to build these essays. It's very useful for these ends and others. So, I got something out of it too. :-) That's the way post-scarcity economics tends to work. :-)