Four Types of NUC Members
The process of conversion to a Wanderer establishes the first relationship between convert and Cult– the River Sage. From that point forward, the member’s represented and supported by their River Sage(s). Wanderers require minimal commitments, restrictions, and support of / from the Cult. Over time, the member may simultaneously belong to any number of Bodies who will take them (both Water and Rocks), and request any number of changes to their Sage(s). Neither membership in a Body nor changes of their Sage(s) is guaranteed. The only certainty is that a member will have at least one Sage at their side, and will, as long as they wish to participate, always have the option to remain attached to a River site as a Wanderer.
Once qualified for the honor, all members are encouraged to adorn Cult-related tattoos, either permanent or semi-permanent. With a successful conversion, the Cult’s icon may be place on the member’s body in a spot to symbolize how they initially intend to contribute. For example, a writer might place it near their dominate hand. Additional tattoos include: Tribe(s) / Communities(s) to which they belong, pilgrimages they’ve completed, rituals they’ve played a key role in, special awards they’ve received, or simply to note their intention to remain a permanent Wanderer with no ties to anything but the Novel Universe Cult and the River. Sages are the only members required to don a specific style of tattoo, consisting of an app-scannable, unique mark for the purpose of the member’s identification as a Sage by the membership. Ideally, the tattoo is placed either on a shoulder, wrist, or at the center of the sternum just below the collar bones. In tandem with NUC’s apps, these tattoos function as marks of authority while the Sages carry out their duties.
Wanderers:
After a successful conversion, a Candidate becomes a Wanderer, and may apply to become a Freeman, Civilian, or Citizen; but in the meantime, remains a Wanderer– a ward of the River. Unless physically inside a Body of Water, the status of Wanderer requires only that a member identify as such, as this is the default status of all Novel Universe Cult members. Wanderers are free to associate with each other in any number of ways, just so long as they do not violate the laws of any Cult Body or resident State government. However, there are no formal Bodies, organizing pillars, ritual practices, or social structures of any kind associated with Wanderers. Wanderers exist in isolation, symbols of the Spiral. They may seek assistance and support from their attached sites, but are not guaranteed to receive more than a minimum level. River Sages are encouraged, but not required, to take a personal interest in the Wanderers they are assigned to, as these relationships might, not only be advantageous for the Sage, but also seminal for the Wanderer, who may not have any other close Cult contacts.
Additionally, Wanderers may provide their time and effort to those River sites as volunteers, helping in a manual or professional capacity, but also may be hired by the site and paid for their work. The Cult encourages Wanderers to seek out Water and Rock Bodies to join, but also understands that some member’s greatest value to the Cult and wider world will be to remain a Wanderer– artist and artisan alike– impartial and detached, able to view the Novel Universe from that unique Mixture of both Love and Power.
Freemen:
Freemen represent Power on Earth, gathered first together as a Clade, and growing to become a Tribe. Unless a neural-democracy is used, each Body chooses a form of Power– the Tower is a governance of hierarchy, such as an absolute dictatorship; the square, anarchy, such as a pure democracy. With a minimum of three members for Clades and twelve for Tribes, there is no maximum number for either Body. Members with affiliations based on common activities / interests are known as Assembly Clades, those instead, based on interpersonal relationships, such as a tight-nit group of friends or literal family, known as Family Clades. Freemen Bodies are designed to effectively extract novelty for each member through their Primary Organizing Pillar, while maintaining the potential to make real-world profits for the individual / Body. Beyond general adherence to the Novel Universe Model and Cult practices, Rock Bodies are free to set their own laws, agendas, and further rituals so long as they do not conflict with other Bodies and are approved by their Sage(s).
Rock Bodies are affiliated with a number of Water Bodies, serving as both the Waters’ economic representatives to and physical protectorates from the world outside the Novel Universe Cult, thereby insulating the Water Bodies from the world and symbolizing the Concert Hall’s seclusion behind the barrier of Complete Information– a process of accountability that enables access to the Hall.
Rocks Bodies physically and financially protect their Water Bodies from threats, and work with the River Sages to acquire needed resources for or liquidate items created by the Water. For example, should a Community invent a better solar panel, the whole Cult benefits by receiving the technology, but the Sages will assign the Water’s affiliated Rocks the processes of patenting, marketing, producing, and selling those panels for profit to outside interests. With all development and related costs returning to the Cult, Rock Bodies collect the net profits. The River Sages reallocate all Cult income for the benefit of the Cult as a whole– if a Community has either an incentive or drive for profit-seeking activities, it is no longer a Community but a Tribe. Just as a nation’s infrastructure benefits all of its citizens, it is the Cult that creates the conditions for and support of the Bodies that innovate– those costs. Therefore, all property, both physical and intellectual, created by any Cult Body belongs to the Cult membership, managed by the Sages. The added benefit of this paradigm is balance– no Water or Rock Body might exercise undo influence over other Bodies, the River, or the Cult itself through their monopoly of markets or innovation.
Citizens:
Citizens represent Love on Earth, gathered first together as a Sphere, and growing to become a Community. Members with affiliations based on common activities / interests are known as Assembly Spheres; those, instead, based on interpersonal relationships, such as a group of tight-nit friends or literal family, known as Family Spheres. Any number of members (more than one) who wish to live by the principles of Love, might join together as a Sphere, a virtual / physical connection with each other. Any Sphere with a sufficient membership may apply to the River and request the Sages create and maintain a permanent, physical Community for them. Communities are the only Cult Body requiring a physical location, as this provides Citizens a safe, enclosed, physical space to simulate the vulnerable state of the Concert Hall’s Complete Information. Although Orphan Spheres– Spheres not part of a Community– are lightly regulated so far as they practice the principles of Love, Communities and their Spheres are bound by these principles. Through our neural-democracy, laws are established by the Citizens to self-govern the day-to-day expression of their Community’s Primary Organizing Pillar.
A Community is overseen and managed by the River, with ownership in common among the citizenry inside the Community– in many ways, a Community functions as a commune or kibbutz. A Civilian (outside a Community) may own property etc., but as a Citizen (inside a Community), individual ownership, as a functional concept, does not exist. Instead, the concept of occupation replaces ownership– one “owns” what one occupies, be that a residence, vehicle, set of clothes, etc. Furthermore, if one is not capable of occupying a thing, it cannot “belong” to them– in Communities, there are no second homes, closets filled with designer gowns, or garages full of automotive “toys.” With no Power, Communities have no incentive for extravagance, no structure of status– beyond the aesthetic quality of fine craftsmanship, “bling” is otherwise a meaningless concept. All Community property serves its intrinsic purpose, transcending any social signal of success or failure.
NUC adopts this “occupation” concept as a guideline for the purpose of balancing the resources of a Community with the needs of its citizenry– items that are both necessary and desirable. There’s a spectrum of use-cases for different things that fall in and out of exclusive versus inclusive practical use. For instance, a vehicle is at one end, easily shared among many; but a toothbrush, at the other, and should not be shared. But, clothing or a bedroom? Those can be gray areas. A bedroom can be shared, but, depending on circumstances– chronic snoring, for instance– the room might better be left as a single occupancy (this, to some degree, might also apply to a home). A fancy scarf or specialized equipment (a firefighter suit) may also be shared among consenting members, but underwear is a great example of why “occupation” is not set rule but a guideline for each Community to solve for itself. With the guidance and support of the River, Communities– when deciding on how to distribute resources– walk a fine line between the idealized and the practical, but they do it on their own terms.
Regardless of social or marital ties, all Communities create a space for each member, such as a small apartment, tiny home, or room to reflect the nature of the Spiral. It is vital to have a place to store personal items, for example: the handmade gifts of Return; favorite outfits, like those given to Designers for Dancing Day; or pieces of artwork, created by the member, or given to the member. Personal items reflect the nature of a Signature-Frequency Set’s memory, its accumulated history. Equally important is a space to seclude one’s self in mediation and retreat, and therefore must include a place to rest, like a bed. These “Spirals” are private and might only be violated by an Active Sage(s) with a Cult mandate to search the space for specific items as part of a case (investigation). Otherwise, visitors– even spouses or other close family members– must be invited into the Spiral. Community Spirals symbolize our ability to have a safe space of seclusion and solitude, especially in a facsimile of the Concert Hall, where social vulnerability is required.
The total number of Citizens in a Community generally follows Dunbar’s number, between 50–250 persons, with the optimal number being around 150. Adhering to Dunbar’s number ensures the citizenry’s self-knowledge– how humans have banded together throughout time without being overburdened by more intimate ties than our brains were wired for. Numbers lower than this make the expression of a neural-democracy dubious. A neural-democracy’s function requires a paradigm of numerous, intimate connections, just as a variety of neurons in the brain are physically connected through synapses. Scaling a neural-democracy beyond Dunbar’s number creates difficulties for cohabiting members, both known and unknown, that require solutions, and therefore must be generally resisted without considerable countermeasures. Instead of a Community of 400 members, it is better split into, at minimum, 2 Communities. However, should those members be sufficiently close in relationships / activities, instead of keeping them bound in one Community– as they might wish to do– they assemble a handful of Communities as a single, emergent, bound Body– a “small,” tight-nit Neighborhood of Communities, considered small as the Neighborhood level is designated for thousands, not hundreds of members. When organizing Water-Body members into groups, it is always better to have smaller numbers rather than larger to facilitate intimacy.
An example of a known problem with human structures beyond Dunbar’s number is the phenomenon of prestige-biased learning, embodied by the “celebrity influencer”– a person whose status as a “celebrity” is rooted solely in the fact that many people “follow” them on social media, often just to watch the benign minutia of the celebrity’s life. The risk isn’t that these people exist for such reasons, but that their potential outsized effect on their followers’ voting preferences has the potential to warp results, typically for no appreciable reason other than this parasocial relationship– a follower’s feeling of knowing a celebrity as a trusted friend, despite the fact that the celebrity doesn’t know of their follower’s individual existence.
For instance, let’s say, Amber, a celebrity influencer, is really excited about solar panels, and drones on-and-on about how everyone in the world should install them– which, on the face of it, sounds beneficial. Tribes and Communities alike hear her message and install solar panels. However, in Whistling Hills Community, suffering limited resources and even less sun exposure (lots of windy, rainy days straining a dilapidated water system), Amber inadvertently motivates charismatic Mica to persuade enough of his fellow Citizens to pass a misguided law fitting new homes with useless solar panels instead of useful water-filtration systems. Amber’s advice provides no value for Whistling Hills’ unique situation, having spurred on a counterproductive movement by Mica and his cohort to vote for the panels, merely because Amber commented on something she wholeheartedly believes in.
The irony of modern culture is, that as the number of neighbors increases, the social connectivity decreases– people tend to silo their views among like-minded neighbors, making it difficult for the society, as a functional structure, to recognize and address extremist ideas among its population. On the other hand, while the effects of “influencer” culture cannot be fully mitigated, with a pool of close-nit voters (adhering to Dunbar’s number), members of Whistling Hills may potentially recognize the errant position of Mica and his friends, thus reasoning with them to reconsider supporting those panels. For such reasons as the “celebrity influencer,” Dunbar’s number works as a protective guardrail for the electorate– when a follower forgoes personal preferences to support an influencer’s position, they compromise their neural-democracy’s effectiveness.
Just as all Signature-Frequency Sets in the Concert Hall are directly connected with each other in a single environment, the primary characteristic of Community citizenship is one’s physical location. Anyone physically inside a Community is either a temporary (Civilian) or permanent (Citizen) member of that Body. This distinction is implicit to the function of the Body’s neural-democracy– the only votes that count in a Community are those of its Citizens. Residents who remain long-term in a single Community have an outsized impact on shaping its laws, whereas those who migrate between Rock and / or Water Bodies have less impact. Although members are free to come and go, Communities are designed and intended to be more permanent, allowing for much deeper connections between members– the primary aspect of the Concert Hall.
Just as the process of Complete Information is required to enter the Concert Hall in the beyond-life, consent by the Community is required for any outside member (excluding Active Sages performing their duties) to enter any Water Body. Anyone who physically leaves, temporarily or permanently, is no longer considered a Citizen of the Body but is considered a Civilian of their Community Sphere. Additionally, once one is a member of any Community Sphere, they are a tacit member (Civilian) of all Water Bodies, having proven their desire and capacity for Love. The exception to this is when a specific Body rejects, by vote of that Body, the member’s privilege to enter. This, of course, would have no effect on entering other Water Bodies who’ve not carried out such a vote of denial.
River Sages:
What’s worse, an army crossing the battlefield without a leader, or, as the war rages, squabbling four-star generals arguing over who’s in-charge? The cliché born of Cesar’s Gallic victories was “divide and conquer,” while President Lincoln famously pointed out the perils of a “house divided.” The historical argument in favor of a single voice to lead the people through perilous times is long– right or wrong, decisions must be decisive, the leader’s confidence, unwavering. Most successful corporations have some version of this, but how can a cult with no actual cult leader– no general to command the troops– effectively operate? Our neural-democracy frees us from the stochastic effectiveness of a leader’s whims, be they constructive or destructive. From our novel form of governance emerges the mind of a new leader– the People’s voice in action.
As a single Body comprised of transitory experts, the River’s sole function is to balance Love (Water) and Power (Rocks), with the administration of the Novel Universe Cult falling to our clergy– the River Sages. Sages not only manage the daily operations of the Cult, but also address potential internal corruption and conflict– both an emergent “mind,” but also an “immune system,” geared for the protection and regulation of the Cult. Metaphorically, the River underlies NUC’s “brain,” like the ever-working unconscious mind, constructing and proposing information to the conscious mind– the Cult’s membership. Evaluating and reacting to the River’s efforts, NUC expressed itself as the voice of Saint TJ.
The position of Sage is considered a lifelong appointment, but can be effectively lost through “retirement.” No longer considered Sages other than rhetorically, Retired Sages (RS) are members who have either been removed from the clergy for cause, for personal reasons, or simply because they no longer wish to participate. Retired Sages may return to their duties only through a River ISD and confirmation by the Cult’s membership.
All functional aspects of the Cult’s administration are broken down into “cases,” discrete items or tasks to be accomplished by Active Sages (AS). Cases are assigned to an AS based on relevant expertise, and may be handled either individually, or in concert with other Sages. Cases range widely in scope, timing, and repetition– some are simple, some complex, some are hard, others easy, some happen over-and-over, some only once. A relatively simple tasks might be answering messages on behalf of NUC, or approving a transfer of supplies from one Cult Body to another; more complicated cases are things like negotiating contracts with outside organizations, or resolving disputes between NUC Bodies. The only limit to the number of Sages assigned to any single case, or cases assigned to any single Sage, simultaneously, is a function of the Sage(s) involved and difficulty of the case(s).
Active Sages are not intended to be direct representatives of individuals / institutions involved in a case, such as a US Congressperson directly representing their constituency, but rather, indirect representatives, such as a court’s impartial jury representing the will of the People. For instance, Sage Noa, belonging to the Whistling Hills Community should not be an AS for any cases related to Whistling Hills Community, however, he may be asked for his input. Although it may be impossible to find a Sage with absolutely no tangential connections to a given case, Sages with primary or secondary interests should be excluded, like Noa’s brother, Sage Mica from Dancing River Community. It is preferable for an AS to be the one with the least conflicts of interest, but it is also understood that sometimes the best AS will be the one with more entanglements than another.
Active Sages are those Sages currently engaged in a case(s), and do not participate in the Cult’s administration throughout the duration of the case, unless circumstances warrant, such as an insufficient number of Inactive Sages (IS) for the River’s neural-democracy to adequately function. In such circumstances, Active Sages will be temporarily “inactivated” for the sole purpose of performing the duties of an IS. Inactive Sages, Sages “on call,” function as administrators, and are all expected to participate in their duties as administrators, in other words, weigh in on all the River’s neural-democratic votes. This segregation allows one portion of the River (IS) to act like the right hemisphere of the brain, or “stage,” able to comprehend the “bigger picture” with the distance and perspective to direct the River; while the other (AS), as the left hemisphere, or “spotlight,” able to act decisively with the capacity and focus to complete the job at hand. Any given Sage will serve either role as they are activated or inactivated.
As it is Power’s inclination to control its environment, special consideration is given to the River in order that the Sages are not corrupted by Power’s biases, and a balance between Sage categories is maintained. Whatever threat Power might pose unchallenged, it cannot, however, be totally siloed away, and in the Novel Universe Cult, will always be valued for its unique contributions. To this end, Sages are categorized based upon affiliation, and each category fitted to some proportion of the River’s total, active body. “Power Sages” are those Freemen River Sages who belong mostly or totally to Rock Bodies, whereas “Love Sages,” the same, only as Citizen River Sages. “Mixing Sages” are those River Sages who belong to a balance of both Water and Rock Bodies simultaneously, whereas “Wandering Sages” are River Sage Wanderers who do not belong to a single Body other than their River Body(s).
Whenever possible, Wandering and Mixing Sages constitute a majority of the River’s total population of Active and Inactive Sages. Whatever proportion of the River remains is ideally split evenly between Love and Power Sages. When this cannot be done precisely, the smaller portion will be filled by Power Sages, thus limiting Power’s potential to unduly influence the River. While maintaining the rights of individual Sages to flexibly affiliate between Love and Power, temporary retirement may be used to maintain the River’s proper proportions by adding or removing Mixing, Wandering, Love, or Power Sages as needed, and such Sages do not require reconfirmation to return to their duties.
To easily identify these foundational categories of affiliation, both a season and color are assigned with each category: Power, blue winter; Mixing, green spring; Love, red summer; and Wanderers, brown autumn. This color motif extends to the membership of the Cult, who are encouraged to use such styles in any tattoos, art, or other visual media the members may produce.
Instead of a leader, CEO, or even a fixed governing council, the Novel Universe Cult uses scientific principles based on neural networks to simulate the function of a brain– a single mind emerging from its countless parts. In order to create the River’s singular voice in realtime– the instincts and drive of that battlefield general in-charge– NUC uses technology in tandem with our neural-democracy to nimbly aggregate and quickly unify the multitude of Inactive Sages. This unified operation of IS members is imbued with full administrative powers, covering things like: the creation of an ISD, ability to enshrine / disband all NUC Bodies, Sage nominations, Sage assignment to or removal from cases, oversight of cases, conditions of a case’s success, the hourly pay for services rendered while working a case, and so on.
Joining our professional clergy requires training and evaluation. Once qualified, an Ionotropic Sage Declaration nominates the member for the Cult’s consideration. After the ISD’s time-frame successfully closes, the final step is for the Cult to vote, neural-democratically, and confirm the member as a River Sage. The total number of Sages in the Cult has more to do with the technical qualifications and contributions of individuals, rather than some predetermined need to fill a number of “job openings.” In comparison to other institutions, religious or secular, NUC may appear to have more “cooks in the kitchen” than is necessary, but that is because of our unique way of activating and inactivating our clergy, and the important role each state of activation independently plays in the River’s overall function. Financially compensated for their expert services, the clergy is designed to fulfill the wide variety of administrative responsibilities associated with any institution, including, but not limited to, logistical, welfare, and policing of policy.
As the Cult’s professional clergy, River Sages are paid both a yearly salary and hourly rate. Salaries reflect such things as: experience in their field of expertise, seniority as a Sage, and value of their ongoing participation in the River. The hourly wages Sages earn are standardized to the job at hand, and not reflective of the involved Sage(s). These wages are based on two factors: the urgency / difficulty of a particular case, and level / availability of expertise required for the case. For example, an critical case requiring a PhD with a specialized, rare skill set has a rate higher than a case with no time limit, requiring nothing more than basic algebra and common sense. As with all aspects of NUC, in general, these amounts are, within NUC, of public record. Salaries are typically not intended to function as one’s primary income. However, Sages who spend a majority of their work-life as an AS may expect that the combination of these dual incomes constitutes a living wage.
In a singular governing body with an all-encompassing scope of authority, there’s a propensity for cliques to form among participants, corruption to erode the effectiveness of its operations, and general malfeasance to arise from every corner of the institution– with all the apples in the same barrel, rot spreads quickly. To keep this in check, and protect the River’s health by preventing these conditions from taking root, a team of Inspectors General (IG) is temporarily convened with the unlimited authority to investigate the River.
Two types of IG teams exist. One, a Case Inspectors General team is constituted by NUC’s membership, voicing a desire, through the passage of law, for a specific subject (case / mission) to be looked into– for example, the suspected corrupted use of an ISD to disband a particular Tribe, or nepotism associated with certain converts. And two, a Health Inspector’s General team is randomly assigned in its timing, nature, and subject(s). An example assignment might be an audit of the most recently delegated cases to see if there is any inappropriate bias present.
IG members cannot be Sages or direct family members (spouses, siblings, parents, children) of the Sages under audit, as this would be a conflict of interest. Instead, IG members are randomly chosen from Wanderers, Freemen, Citizens, and Civilians. Ideally, the cohort is a mixture of those with valuable, relevant life experience with the issue at hand, and those with no such background. At the conclusion of an investigation, all information from the IG’s findings is made public to the Cult, and reforms submitted directly as issues (not proposals) to be immediately voted on. This process is intended for the transparent, direct, ongoing regulation of the River by the Cult’s membership.
First, read our philosophy to better understand our Creed.