The Three Bodies of NUC

In order to create the most accurate facsimile of the Novel Universe Model on Earth, the Cult is split into three facets: the Water (Love), the Rocks of the riverbed (Power), and the River itself, a balancing of the two frameworks’ mixture. Our metaphorical facets are made up of literal Rock or Water Bodies – organizational structures based on a common set of “pillars” that represent “matter” – or, in the case of the River, sites – organizational structures based on a set of administrative duties that represent “energy.” A pillar is an organizing concept, a Body’s priorities and goals, including its form of governance. Although each Water “Community” or Rock “Tribe” venerates their Primary Organizing Pillar (POP) in their own way, all are united under the River’s oversight and support, the way energy’s strict rule-set underpins the motion of matter’s evolving interactions. Novelty requires baseline standards to assemble emergent complexity – in order to build a thing, one must have reliable relationships among its parts (option space).

Like emergent levels of biology – atoms coalescing as cells, cells grouping into organs, and finally, organs becoming organism – each Cult Body functions as one level of complexity built upon its constituent parts. For Bodies of Power (Rocks), members make up a Clade, Clades constitute a Tribe, Tribes assemble a League, and Leagues network as an Alliance. For Bodies of Love (Water), members make up a Sphere, Spheres collect as a Community, Communities coalesce as a City, and Cities form a Federation.

No matter the level of complexity, every Cult Body is united by their Primary Organizing Pillar. For instance, a Clade’s POP might be designing precision gears. Alongside other Clades involved in other engine-related pursuits, this gear Clade joins a Tribe whose POP is developing car engines. The engine Tribe is part of a League whose POP is creating racing cars, which belongs to an Alliance with a POP focused on motorsport competition – a wonderful way to extract novelty for its members. Like the emergent complexity of assembled biology, “division of labor” focuses the interests and preferences of our membership from the granular ground floor (Clades / Spheres) to the heights of high-concepts (Alliances / Federations). Furthermore, like any Cult member who may belong to multiple Bodies, any Body may join multiple higher-order Bodies. For instance, the gear Clade is not limited to contributing their innovations solely to the engine Tribe – they may also belong to other Tribes with other common pursuits, such as a robotics Tribe. Although Community Spheres are necessarily limited in their affiliations to their Community, even Communities themselves are encouraged to join any number of Cities, and Cities to Federations.

Technology is not strictly required for any aspect of the Cult, but as an organization with the future in mind, wherever possible, computer applications are designed to enhance a Community’s neural-democracy, a Tribe’s marketplace, and management of the River’s duties. To enhance portability and seamless communication among Bodies, our tech both maintains as many basic programming elements in common as possible, while also being tailor-made to assist each Body’s veneration of their chosen Primary Organizing Pillar, or the secure activities of the River Sages.

Through either a political structure based on neural-democracy, hierarchy, or anarchy, Bodies work with the River to determine their own laws, rules, and procedures bottom-up. For the most part, the cells of living tissue follow their own set of rules, with their own drives and community goals. They have a limited understanding of their emergent organ’s purpose, but even less so, the motivations of the larger organism to which they all belong. Similarly, what binds NUC Bodies (laws, rules, regulations, etc.) are formed at the most granular level possible, with fewer restrictions on or definitions of “unacceptable behavior” as Bodies emerge in complexity. Instead of a strong, overbearing, top-down “Law of the Land,” the bulk of what an individual member must accept as religious / social adherence arises from within their, two immediate emergent levels – Clade / Sphere and Tribe / Community. Therefore, our members have the best chance at affecting the creation and definition of such mandates – the more involved a person is with a thing, the more one cares for it, and the more one is willing to ensure its success.

Without self-determination, the expression of authentic preference becomes impossible. The Novel Universe Cult relies on our two spiritual frameworks (Love and Power) to guide our membership in crafting the girders of their own social cohesion. NUC is not a monolith, and our great value is our variety of Bodies – how members choose to express the Novel Universe Model through their Body’s Primary Organizing Pillar. The laws / rules / policy / procedures / etc. any Body might create will address a range of issues, from the moral implications of gender, cohabitation, and use of psychedelics, to more functional ones, like ownership, cultural expectations, and methods of enforcement. In this way, each Body is a diverse, adaptable, living experiment, gauged to enhance humanity’s spiritual journey, both at the individual and societal level.

For NUC, the theory of morphic resonance – how bodies form a common language of form and behavior through a process of communal trial-and-error – rests at the heart of our bottom-up political structure, further implying that when individual Cult Bodies find similar patterns of success with some common goal, the remaining Bodies will, as well, adopt the new behavior in a natural, spontaneous manner. Forcing everyone to adopt “best practices,” just because they seem to work for most, isn’t how NUC or nature operates. We don’t rely on some committee of experts or panel of politicians. We rely on morphic resonance’s “common sense” to spread good ideas, because widespread, authentic adoption of successful solutions enhances long-term stability, allowing for lower-level predictability to assembly higher-level forms of diversity and complexity – the foundations of novelty.

Water (Love):

Water metaphorically embodies the Concert Hall and Love’s concept of Complete Information. This means Citizens attempt to limit barriers to communication and accountability – fostering the return of emotional and informational Ripples to their source. For Citizens to access any degree of their Ripples’ details – how their interactions truly affect each other – a radically different type of social contract is practiced by the Water Bodies. Punishment is replaced by accountability. No longer is justice and retribution the goal, but empathy and communication, the priority. Outside the actual Concert Hall, the process of Complete Information is impossible, and in this Novel Universe, must be simulated to the best of the citizenry’s abilities. In doing so, a new kind of society arises, one based on intentional, vulnerable participation – on what is often difficult, but what is true (Love). While the process may include Community Sages in more difficult circumstances, Citizens are encouraged to share their Ripples directly, a skill not easily realized, but one that is fundamental to the cohesive nature of the Water.

A neural-democracy, actively practiced by its citizenry, constitutes a Water Body’s “mind,” its Higher-Order Conductor. To the degree possible, Citizens resist the manipulation of money, status of hierarchy, violence of ownership – all those structures associated with Power. Established through our neural-democracy to symbolize the Concert Hall’s occupants, Water-based laws attempt to maximize transparency, and equalize access to health, safety, and resource, ensuring an environment conducive to the intentionally vulnerable participation (Love) of its membership – the foundational conditions for the return of those Ripples. Bodies in habitual or egregious violation of this standard are subject to disillusionment, as directed by the River.

Members with affiliations based on their pillars’ common interests are known as Assembly Spheres; whereas a group of tight-knit friends or literal family, based on interpersonal relationships, are known as Family Spheres. Any number of members (more than one) who wish to live by the principles of Love under a shared Primary Organizing Pillar might join together as a Sphere, a virtual or physical connection with each other based upon an agreed charter, approved by the River. Any Sphere, or collection of Spheres with a sufficient number of members, may unify under a common POP, request the River creates and maintains a permanent, physical Community for them, and participates with their Sages in the founding of their Community’s Constitution, a detailed governing document with neural-democracy at its core. Consent and complete adherence to this Constitution is required for anyone wishing to reside within the Community’s boarders for any length of time. 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. Through a neural-democracy, Spheres and Communities establish laws to self-govern the day-to-day expression of their Primary Organizing Pillar. Though these laws tightly bind Citizens, Orphan Spheres – Spheres not part of a Community – are lightly regulated, so far as they practice neural-democracy and adhere to their charter and POP.

The total number of Citizens in a Community is based on Dunbar’s number, between 50–250 persons, with the optimal count being around 150. This is an ideal cognitive limit to the number of stable social relationships one might maintain, highlighting the natural constraints on the size and complexity of our social networks, impacting how we interact, establish various levels of intimacy, and even organize ourselves to perform common tasks or goals. Adhering to Dunbar’s number, ensures the citizenry’s self-knowledge – how humans have instinctually banded together throughout time, as our brains are not wired for an excessive number of intimate ties.

Directly scaling a neural-democracy beyond Dunbar’s number creates difficulties for cohabiting members, that must be generally resisted without considerable countermeasures. Instead of a Community of 500 members, it is better split into, at minimum, two Communities. A minimum of two Communities can be considered by the River Sages to be designated a “City,” the next level of organization around a POP when a group of members gets too large, both in the number of Citizens and scope of their POP’s goals and priorities. When organizing members into Water Bodies, smaller numbers with a more narrow focus of their POP better facilitate intimacy – a core characteristic of Love. On the other hand, amounts lower than Dunbar’s number make the expression of a neural-democracy dubious, as a neural-democracy requires numerous connections to function, just as many synapses connect a variety of neurons to create a single brain.

Without adherence to Dunbar’s number, social decision-making structures are subject to issues like prestige-biased learning, where an outside “celebrity” has an outsized effect on voters’ behavior. In groups of unlimited size, people tend to silo their views among the like-minded, obscuring trends among its population, whether productive or counterproductive. As member concerns develop, it can be difficult to recognize and address these “hidden” issues by the wider electorate before they create tension and fissures among the citizenry. Within Communities of appropriate size, the expression of authentic, inside membership preference is key to a useful neural-democracy. When the people in a Community interact on a regular basis, they come to understand each other as the experts on their Community’s wants and needs, and better share those developing concerns before they take root and create division. When they don’t, the Community splinters, either lurching back-and-forth between extremes, or paralyzing in place. Either way, the ability to find common ground is compromised, resulting in unnecessary suffering, as the Community’s true preferences are obscured by outside influence.

Communities are supported, overseen, and managed by the River, with “ownership” in-common among the citizenry inside the Communities – in many ways, each Community functions like a commune, or kibbutz. All NUC property is owned by the Cult and managed by the River. Once a Community has passed a new law, the River will lend support, financial or otherwise, to see the law enacted to the best abilities of the River and Community.

A Civilian (outside a Community) may own property etc., but as a Citizen (inside a Community), a member lives an entirely different life, where individual ownership is replaced with the concept of occupation. If one is not capable of occupying a thing, it cannot “belong” to them – in Communities, there are no owned yet unoccupied homes. Without Power, Communities have no incentive for extravagance, no structure of status. Beyond the aesthetic quality of fine craftsmanship, all Community property serves its intrinsic Community purpose, transcending any social signal of individual success or failure.

The Novel Universe Cult adopts this “occupation” concept as a guideline for the purpose of balancing the resources of a Community with the needs of its citizenry – supplying items that are both useful 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. A bedroom, or a piece of protective equipment, may or may not be shared, depending on the circumstance of need. 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, ultimately, on their own terms.

Regardless of social or marital ties, all Communities create individual “Spirals,” a space for every member, such as a small apartment, tiny home, or secured room, to reflect the nature of the Signature-Frequency Set’s ability to be in its own solitary space. Orphan Spheres are also encouraged to create Spirals, either physically, virtually, or both. It is vital to have a place to store personal items, as they reflect the nature of a Signature-Frequency Set’s memory and accumulating history. Equally important is for a Community Spiral to allow one the seclusion of mediation and retreat. Therefore, these spaces are private and might only be violated by an Active Sage(s) with a Cult mandate to search for specific items as part of a River case, like an investigation of theft or fraud. Otherwise, visitors – even spouses or other close family members – must be invited before entering someone’s Spiral. Community Spirals symbolize our right and capacity for solitude, especially in a facsimile of the Concert Hall, where social vulnerability is not only required, but must also be intentional. Vulnerability without intention is not Love, but Power.

A Body of Love’s name should reflect, very directly, how the interactions of members support the Body’s POP. The scheme is meant to describe the active effect the Body’s environment has on the interactions of its occupants, as it is with the Concert Hall. The title of a Sphere, Community, City, etc. should usually be an active verb preceding a noun, such as the Roaming Band Sphere, or Ribbon-Dancing River Community. Simply put, the Body’s name is a refection of the Concert Hall’s function.

Rocks (Power):

A Rock metaphorically embodies an independent Spiral within the Marketplace, like a literal rock in a riverbed, and reflects Power’s concept of Information Control. This means members construct structures for novelty extraction, and exploit their commodities through trading networks, or “marketplaces.” Each Rock Body who chooses not to use a neural-democracy as its Higher-Order Conductor, selects a form of Power – the Tower is a governance of hierarchy, such as an absolute dictatorship; the square, anarchy, such as a pure democracy. Libertarian, authoritarian, secrecy, illumination, equality, inequality – there’s no inherent limit to how a Rock Body is constructed, only that its founding documents are approved by the River. Rocks, and Power in general, are not necessarily “evil” or “good,” but either or both, depending on one’s perspective. So long as the Body’s laws are clearly spelled out for their members and visitors, do not interfere with any other Body, and are strictly enforced according to the founding documents, the Body is free to define what can or cannot happen within its physical / virtual boarders. Is suicide wrong? What about physical combat to determine who’s on the right side of a dispute? Should there be strict laws for everything, nothing, or somewhere in-between? In general, Rock-based laws are crafted to maximize the quantity and quality of valuable novelty for profit. Bodies in habitual or egregious violation of their founding documents are subject to disillusionment, as directed by the River.

Clades are the initial Rock Bodies, a loose group of Freemen virtually / physically formed around a Primary Organizing Pillar with a limited formal charter approved by their River Sage(s). Members with affiliations based on their pillars’ common interests are known as Assembly Clades; whereas a group of tight-knit friends or literal family, based on interpersonal relationships, are known as Family Clades. With a minimum of two members for Clades and twelve for Tribes, there is no maximum number for either. Should a Clade coalesce in purpose and membership around a common POP, they may work by themselves or with other Clades through the River to become a Tribe with a formal relationship to the River. For the purpose of governing its members, River Sages assist the founding members to form a Tribal Contract. Unless otherwise stated in the Contract, each member wishing to join the Tribe may independently negotiate the terms of their adherence to / benefits from this Tribal Contract with the Body’s Power structure, be that a leader, council, form of democracy, etc. Although Orphan Clades – Clades not part of a Tribe – are lightly regulated so far as they adhere to their own governing rules and principles of Power, Tribal Clades are bound by their Tribal laws and principles, based on their POP.

With assistance from the River, Tribes are encouraged to create a settlement, permanent or otherwise, but not required to do so, in such cases, known as “Roaming” Tribes. Like Communities, “Settlement” Tribes are further required to provide each Freeman a “Spiral” – a secure space to store personal items, as well as, retreat in mediation, consumption, and rest. These spaces symbolize the Signature-Frequency Set’s absolute Information Control. Tribal Spirals are private spaces that might only be violated by an Active Sage(s) with a Cult mandate to search the space for specific items as part of a River case. Rock Bodies are barred from passing laws that might violate the sanctity of or access to a member’s Spiral. With this in mind, any punishment / corrective action deemed appropriate for a Freeman that includes temporary isolation will be carried out in the member’s Spiral. Visitors – even spouses or other close family members – must be invited into the Spiral. Tribal Spirals honor our right to a safe space, especially in a facsimile of the Marketplace, where the security of seclusion is the foundational principle of Power’s informational network of trade.

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. This relationship insulates the Water Bodies, symbolizing the Concert Hall’s seclusion behind the barrier of Complete Information – a process of accountability that enables access to the Hall. While Rock Bodies protect their Water Bodies from threats, they 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, while the Sages assign the Water’s affiliated Rocks the processes of patenting, marketing, producing, and selling those panels for profit to interests outside NUC.

As the Cult underpins all aspects of innovation among its Bodies, including labor, resources, skill, and technology, all property, both physical and intellectual, created by any Cult Body belongs to the Cult membership, managed by the Sages, and shared within the Cult according to the River’s need to balance NUC’s Bodies. Despite the profit motive as a fundamental, religious tenet of Power’s Marketplace, Rock Bodies, themselves, cannot exist as individual, for-profit entities without violating various governments’ definition of a legitimate religion. Therefore, each Rock Body’s marketplace has a formal relationship with the Novel Universe Corporation (NU Corp), itself a for-profit, affiliated entity administered and staffed by River Sages, specially appointed by and answerable to the Cult. NU Corp’s sole purpose is to legally manage all profit-seeking activities of Rock Bodies, while its Sages provide both support and oversight with these activities as needed, filling roles such as intermediaries, advisors, attorneys, arbiters, etc.

Rock Bodies are designed to effectively extract novelty for each member through the Body’s Primary Organizing Pillar, while maintaining the potential to make real-world profits for the individual / Body with entities outside the Cult. Rock Bodies are barred from profit-seeking activities among themselves, as this would inevitably lead to an imbalance between those more or less successful Bodies. However, they may engage in such activities among the Body’s individual entities, according to their founding documents.

All costs associated with the innovation and production of goods and services for profit by any Cult Body are reimbursed to the non-profit Cult through NU Corp, with net profits remaining with the for-profit Corporation. These profits are turned over to those Rock Bodies directly involved in the economic activity, who subsequently distribute them among their membership according to their founding documents. The River Sages reallocate all Cult tithing, donations, and other Cult income for the benefit of the Cult as a whole. Furthermore, if a Community has either an incentive or drive for profit-seeking activities, it is no longer a Community but a Tribe. Click here for a detailed example of how this works.

Reflecting the Rock Body’s POP, the preferable naming format includes the Body’s form of Power, and some object or concept owned by something, for instance Emperor Sheldon’s Motorcycle Tower, or The Martial Arts Square of Hip-hop Masters. This scheme is designed to reflect Power’s defining characteristic: the consumption of novelty by some individual or group, in other words, the absolute freedom absolute control affords the entity. Simply put, the name is a refection of the Marketplace’s function.

River (Mixture):

The River metaphorically embodies the Novel Universe’s Mixture of Love and Power. Members are both subject to the dynamic nature of the Mixture, but also, responsible for balancing their frameworks – either on a personal level, as a Wanderer, or a societal level, as a River Sage. Bodies of the River consist of various virtual and physical sites to support their members’ ongoing attempts to balance the frameworks, whereas the size of each site primarily corresponds to the number and nature of the Bodies overseen by the site.

The purpose of the River is the sustainable support of and balance between the Water and Rocks. The River’s ultimate authority is the Cult’s membership, while simultaneously, the River rests supreme control over its individual parts: each Cult Body and member. This circular-authority loop ensures that no person(s) might subvert the will of the People, while no institution extends beyond the People’s reach. Saint TJ embodies this as the Cult’s singular voice, derived, not from an individual, but from the entirety of our membership – one complex mind (Higher-Order Conductor) emerging from a multitude of interdependent parts (Lower-Order Bodies).

The default state of all Cult members is as a Wanderer, symbolizing the Novel Universe Cult’s tenet that we’re all our own universe, and might seclude ourselves within our Spiral at any point in the beyond-life. Should a member belong to a Body of Water or Rocks, that state supersedes their status as a Wanderer. In such cases, the member may identify with any Water or Rock Body they belong to, and are encouraged to limit that identification to one at a time. Citizens, however, only identify with the Community they currently occupy.

The River’s ultimate goal for any Wanderer is the development of a preference for Love and / or Power, eventually finding a home (Cult Body) in either or both. However, for as long as the Wanderer does not or can not, the River’s goal is to assist the member in balancing Love and Power. As a ward of the River, each Wanderer is attached to a River site, and, with Sage assistance, may transfer sites as might be practical. In the case that a wanderer finds a Cult Body to join, they remain part of the River site they were initially attached to. In this way, all members have a permanent place, and should they detach from all other Body, they will always have a home. They may also expect to be assisted by the River in their primary struggle between Love and Power, all Cult-related aspects, and life in general – after all, unlike Freemen, Citizens, or Civilians, the Sages and fellow Wanderers of their site might be the Wanderer’s only semblance of a Cult “family” structure.

The primary duty of the Novel Universe Cult’s clergy (River Sages) is to balance Water and Rock Bodies, either by working on River cases or site-based missions. Cases are particular tasks designed to maintain balance between Water and Rock Bodies, whereas site-related missions function to support those cases in general, and the overall administration of the Cult. “Overseers” are Sages who coordinate the implementation of their site’s missions. The number of Overseers for any mission is based on the mission’s complexity and scope.

Missions might include permanent operations, such as those common among legal or city-planning centers: logistics, infrastructure, adherence to law, etc. They may also include a variety of temporary functions: safe harbors for the displaced, hubs for particularly complex investigations, neutral gaming sites for competitions, etc. Any River Sage can propose new missions for any site. This is preferably done as an Issue, but in time-sensitive cases, an Ionotropic Sage Declaration may be warranted.

As is the nature of life itself, members of the River – Wanderers and River Sages – ideally exist in an ephemeral state. Therefore, the status of a River Sage is transient, only considered a full member of the River while actively engaged in the duties of the River. This isn’t like a doctor, mother, or priest, whose identities are wrapped up in their civic roles. They are also not like a police officer, who perpetually considers themselves an agent of the law and mechanism of its enforcement, even when off-duty. An “off-duty” Sage only serves the River in an ad hoc, indirect, administrative capacity, with neither the special social distinction nor authority of an “on-duty” Sage. The “off-duty” Sage is not recognized by the membership as a Sage, but as the Wanderer, Freeman, Citizen, or Civilian that they are – the status of Sage is not an identity, but an active role of responsibility to the Cult. The job of a Sage is an important one, but still, just a job, and certainly not the “top job.”

River sites exist primarily to provide variable support and resources for its Wanderers, but full support and resources for the Sages, as they perform their duties. Each site is maintained by volunteering Wanderers attached to the site, as well as assigned members of the Rock and Water Bodies overseen by the site. As virtual or literal residents of River sites, Wanderers are prioritized for desired work assignments, with the Water and Rock Bodies under the sites’ jurisdictions responsible for staffing the sites’ remaining daily needs. Like all Cult property, River sites are functionally owned by the Cult. Akin to the US Federal Government’s Supremacy Clause, the River may, through our neural-democratic process involving the Cult, acquire, alter, or liquidate any Cult Body’s property for the sole purpose of maintaining balance between the Rock and Water Bodies as a whole. Depending on circumstances, the process may or may not involve the Novel Universe Corporation.

Violence, as defined by the Cult, is the application of force to create an outcome. Sanctioned, state-sponsored violence is what separates an institutionalized governing body from its governed. The ultimate, physical violence of execution, for instance, represents the ultimate authority – a nation – while being separated from income (fired from a job) represents a much lower level of financial violence – a corporation. Whatever the level, whatever the form of violence, it is the capacity for an institution’s acceptable use of force that defines its authority. With this in mind, River sites are intentionally given a military theme to leave no doubt that the River is the supreme, physical actor of the Cult, and no Cult Body may exist with a greater capacity to exercise the violence of force than the River itself. If it were any other way, the River could not carry out its primary function to enforce the membership’s ongoing definition of what balance looks like between our neo-segregated Bodies.

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, the reason 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 Body might exercise undo influence over other Bodies, the River, or the Cult itself through their monopoly of markets or innovation.

It is the purpose of a Clade, Sphere, Tribe, Community, etc. to practice rituals created to venerate their chosen pillars of the Novel Universe under the guidance and assistance of the River. The River’s ultimate mission is to segregate, yet bridge, the cultures of Love and Power in order to unite the Cult’s membership, setting an example to the world of a healthier, neo-segregated, live-and-let-live society. River sites oversee their corresponding levels of Water / Rock Bodies: Camp (Sphere / Clade); Post (Community / Tribe); Fort (City / League); and Base (Federation / Alliance).

The preferable naming format of a River site is the type of site followed by a noun – a single, unique, man-made object or natural feature common among the Bodies for which the site exists – for instance Camp Roadhouse, or Fort Woodland. This scheme is designed to reflect the Novel Universe’s defining characteristic: all forms, both man-made and natural, are created by the interaction between Power and Love, in other words, their singular combination. Simply put, the name is a refection of the Mixture’s function.