A confused person, presumably a woman, appears. She seems to be twenty-something, and is wearing a tight-fitted turtleneck sweater and a skirt. Notably they don't have shoes on.

"Uh. This doesn't seem to be my living room? I'll note that I'm quite confused of what's happening here? Where are we?"

There's a glance around the living room but the new person seems to be focused mostly on the other person in the room.

"It's called Revolution! Extremely big city! Welcome... welcome." The living room is disproportionately large, with a window looking out at an adjacent skyscraper covering nearly the entire wall. There's a couch looking out the window, together with a small table and some plastic chairs in another part of the living room.

"Well. This is here. How... are you liking it?"

"Is Revolution located on Earth? Is it common for people to visit by appearing in living rooms here?"

"Oh and I'm Viola. Sorry for the intrusion and thanks for the welcome!"

"And well. Wow. That is a big window. It seems comfortable here? Oh that's a big skyscraper over there. Is the whole city built this tall?"

"Revolution isn't on Earth, no. Welcome to thomassia... alien."

"People don't appear in living rooms here! Viola. But yes, it's comfortable here. Really everything is. The whole city isn't built quite this tall, but this is what most of it looks like. It's why there's so many tourists. Or people moving here to work in finance. Actually."

She runs over to a sliding switch on the wall, with a black bead. She slides it over, and the windows of the skyscraper opposite hers turn black.

Viola's going to sit on the couch if there's no gesturing to not do that.

"Oh that's really interesting. And I guess it is true I'm an alien now."

"You can just turn the neighboring buildings windows dark? Or is this some sort of filter on this window?"

"What do you do here in Revolution? Do you work here or are you a tourist?"

"It's not their windows doing it. Basically, we have windows that are polarized one way by default. So when I polarize my window horizontally, that means that all the light from their windows gets blocked because it can't pass 2 filters of opposite polarization, but I can still see out because there's just one layer of polarization in front of me."

"And I'm here trying to find out if I should work here. I'm sort of halfway inbetween? My actual job is a hospital support worker. I'm thinking about maybe moving here, as well."

"Okay that is pretty interesting."

"Where did you work and/or live before? How does Revolution compare?"

(She'd ask more about the hospital support work but is not quite sure if that'd be polite at this point.)

"Actually do you mind entertaining my questions? I could look or take a recommendation where to go ask more questions if you'd prefer to get me out of your hair."

"Well, I lived in some midsize town named Curie or something, they're all the same. Revolution is a lot bigger, but I also slightly miss being so close to nature in my hometown. And it feels a bit too hectic, sometimes?"

"And I'm happy to answer your questions! I don't think there's anyone really more qualified. Are you hungry for anything? I won't have dinner for a while, but maybe you want something anyway?"

Viola seems actively relieved to hear that the person she's speaking to is happy to answer questions.

"Oh okay! I live, and my living room is located, in a suburb close to some smaller forest areas. I've actually never lived too far from nature. And I can imagine a city like this would could hectic. I usually prefer cities to towns due to better presence of various subcultures and hobby groups."

"I don't really need food right now, but I could take a drink of like coffee, tea, or any sort of non-alcoholic beverage."

"What does the finance industry do here? Is it like banking or investing or something else?"

"Do you like working as a hospital support worker? Have you been doing it for long?"

"Well, I'll get some tea going, then." Cynthia walks over to a microwave placed on a small counter not too far from the kitchen table, putting in a blue and green mug with a bubble pattern, before walking over to a cupboard and finding a long, thin glass tube filled with tea leaves, taking it from a rack with many other varieties of tea next to it.

"The finance industry just buys and sells elements and important compounds, mostly. Like, the pure lithium, carbon, iron, copper, and uranium markets have an unbelievable amount of liquidity and speculation behind them. And of course the plastic, steel, and everything else markets, as well. That would be called investing; we don't really need banking. Everyone has an account with your Supreme Vault perps, so you don't really need a bank for a loan or anything else."

"I love being a hospital support worker! I'll soon have done it for 2 years. But it's something I know I've wanted my whole life, so I've kinda done mini-apprenticeships for my mom much longer than that. You know, hugging patients and holding their hands and comforting them."

"Yay! Thank you."

"What's a Supreme Vault and perps? Is it a local solution to Revolution or something global? They give out loans too? A single bank solution does sound pretty interesting. I think in Earth we had some theory that said that you need a bunch to avoid complacency leading to lack of innovation."

"That sounds fulfilling and nice! I'm glad you have work you enjoy doing." Delivered with a bright smile.

"It's kind of hard for me to imagine having had a career path for my whole life. I guess in any case it would most likely change again if I have to stay here or decide to stay here."

"The Supreme Vault is basically the only company running a blockchain with asset custody, and they pay the lowest interest on any kind of investment. Perps are perpetual bonds; they're guarantees from the Supreme Vault that they'll pay money in the future for all eternity. Basic income is funded by the government buying perps from the Supreme Vault whenever anyone's born. You can just sell your perps on the bond market anytime you want a loan, so there isn't really a need for anyone else to offer their own loans."

"It sounds like banks run horizontally integrated companies, if you need a bunch to avoid complacency? It sounds kind of weird that the same company has custody of assets and finances innovation."

"I mean, it doesn't take many years or kids to realize what kind of things they enjoy doing. It sounds weird that you wouldn't have had a dream job, at least, for most of your life."

"Okay that does sound sensible. Interesting concept to have a bond with payback for all of eternity but I guess that might force the system to have a time discounting function that consistently applies?"

"Hm yeah on Earth banks do asset custody and financial innovation. Altough some of the more innovative financial companies don't do that much asset custody. And also some of the more innovative companies are doing blockchain stuff, altough much of it still somewhat lacks credibility and is also riddled by scams and market manipulation. But I can definitely see it being applied as backbone of some financial system if you have solved those problems."

Now there is a contemplative look. Some gazing to the ceiling. "Hm. I have had a bunch of dream jobs, which have in order been something like: a politician, a social studies researcher, a programmer, a corporate executive and then being a philosopher. I guess often my actual path has been shaped by realism; I have a hard time staying still (both literally e.g. sitting on lectures is hard, and figuratively e.g. I often have a new idea on what I want to do) enough for university degrees, which are necessary for the research careers. I also do not really enjoy the rigid structure of Earths Academia and scientific world. Also I have a pretty hefty preference for economic safety and we don't have basic income where I'm from. Altough we do have social support programs if one is really doing badly but it has a lot of bureucratics because you're not supposed to enjoy living on it."

"Currently I am actually trying to complete my current university degree in Computer Science that is about halfway done, but what I've been mostly doing for the last ~5 years has been programming jobs that pay decently."

"Well, I'm sure you could live fine on basic income? You'd have to sign up with proof-of-identity, though. You might be able to convince someone to finance your research as part of a Revolutionary Research Fund; that's how researchers and philosophers get paid, here. But if you can code, there are many, many opportunities for you. Not sure if any will really be needed." The lights of the microwave flash a few times; Cynthia walks over and takes out the mug, letting the tea leaves she grabbed steep inside it, as she turns to Viola.

"Oh. I'm pretty significantly positively surprised if it's possible for an uh alien to just sign up for citizenship and basic income. I guess in any case one of the first things I'd like to do, after things like mandatory paperwork, would be to read some news and some (layperson understandable) books on like: The history of society here, the local values, current state of social science, psychology, philosophy, and probably computer science as well."

"And I probably wouldn't mind coding either. In my world it just felt like it was hard to find opportunities to code where they apply to the problems of the world I considered most burning."

"I guess I would like to ask some questions about values. I'd be interested in hearing what your society usually thinks and if you happen to disagree, if you're willing to share. I'll just dump some questions, feel free to also leave any unanswered if they're uncomfortable or for any reason.:

1. I guess since you have basic income there is presumably some concept of basic rights or something that equivalently leads to it being just that people are provided some things just for existing. What is basic income calculated to cover here. Can you live in a medium cost of living area, or do you need to live somewhere cheap if living off of that? Can you afford furniture, medical needs, food, electricity and other things that would be considered basic necessities off of it?

2. Who are eligible for basic income / basic rights? Is it just humans? Do you have other sentient species or sentient artificial intelligence here?

3. What are animal rights here? Are animals farmed for food in conditions that are uh. Not nice.

4. Is there environmental regulation for industry here? Or are you going to end up with uhh. A mess. Like Earth was going to according to environmental science.

5. How is governance handled here? Do you vote for leaders or select them by some different process?

"

"Basic income isn't calculated to cover anything, actually. It's just however much we can raise through 0 deadweight-loss taxes. We have other taxes, they just don't go into basic income; it feels kind of icky in terms of principle."

"Humans are the only ones eligible for basic income. We don't actually have any kind of animal rights, but we kind of self-enforce wireheading of all of our livestock, for example. Maybe we should start having official animal rights legislation? But making new global laws like that is so much work..."

"Animals are farmed for food in nasty conditions! But as mentioned, it's near-impossible to buy non-wireheaded animal products. Unless you choose to raise animals yourself because you want to eat your pets, for some reason."

"The environmental regulation is the land value tax! Essentially, if some polity chooses to make its land a garbage dump, then anyone bringing garbage there must pay them. And you get a bunch of experts calculating how much land is needed, and how big a buffer, and zoning-via-taxation so that you don't ruin things for local residents."

"We also have, theoretically, the air pollution reductions auction, although air pollution is near-zero already so it basically doesn't exist."

"Governance is by vote, yes. Although most cities have infinitesimally small Discretionary Funds, so we barely have normal governments-spending-tax-money-through-their-budgets style governance. We use the High Consensus Vote system instead."

"That's an interesting way to do it. I guess if that works then you don't need to do 'icky' solutions. Altough if this kind of ickiness is devalued by your society I guess then it means you value economic efficiency and optimality a bunch?"

"Wireheading animals seems like a preferable solution to my Earths which was the same without. I'm unsure if it's preferably to free animals but happiness, satisfaction and utility of free animals is a question I'm in general unsure on."

"What sort of process is needed for global laws, what sort of global laws do you have right now?"

 "That sounds reasonable. How does the system handle situations where a garbage dump has a risk or a constant effect of polluting things like groundwater?"

"How did you end up with near-zero air pollution?"

"What's the High Consensus Vote system? And if it's a form of direct democracy who and how are the proposals made?"

"Yes, very much so. There's a deep beauty in efficient and optimal answers to everything."

"Yep, most of us are fine with wireheading. Although there's still something discomfiting about eating meat, not enough to not make it delicious, though."

"Well, technically speaking, there aren't global laws. But we basically consider the Basic Income Law, the 2 Principles of Criminal Law, the Solvency Freedom of Movement Law, Mutual Enforcement of Exile Law and Solidarity on the Sea Law to be global laws. So I meant getting a law as widely enforced as those, that's what I mean by a global law."

"Well, the experts in question make the land value tax that much higher to accommodate for that negative externality? I can't really be more specific."

"We stopped burning fossil fuels for energy, for anything. What's left comes from tire dust and certain industrial processes, mostly."

"High Consensus Votes are referenda for things that will lower your basic income by a certain amount. Your mayor, or someone else, often a business leader, comes with a proposal, and say the price of some service. If enough people vote yes on lowering their basic income enough that they'd be able to pay for that service, then that service becomes free, and everyone's basic incomes go down by enough to pay for that service. Understand me?"

"Hm. I'd probably say optimality is beautiful as a tool, in the same manner as an optimal tool can be beautiful. In Earth computer scientists actually often quoted one of the pioneers of the field stating 'Premature optimization is the root of all evil.'. But of course an enjoyer of optimality can always just state that premature optimization, by the definition of premature, is suboptimal."

"I guess it being slightly discomfiting but delicious is an interesting equilibria to arrive at. I always found it more than slightly discomfiting (partially due to the lack of applied solutions to animal suffering on earth), but not too delicious so I stopped eating it once it was easy enough."

"Okay that definitely is a small list of global laws. Do you have any wars? Or large multi-polity crime organizations?"

"I guess stopping burning fossil fuels solves that. Did you just decide to do it with a consensus or how did it happen? Without a policy I'd expect fossil fuel prices to get so cheap once like 95% of the usage is stopped that it'd be hard to stop everyone from using them."

"I do understand but I guess some questions open up. Are businesses allowed to profit from free basic service? Are they allowed to advertise a service aggressively before a High Consesus Vote? I guess in general do you regulate advertising in any way?"

"What you said about premature optimization was such a beautiful way of putting it, hah."

"Well, if the animals are suffering, of course it'd be discomfiting."

"We haven't had wars since our liberal revolution 200 or so years ago. It had a really awesome story, actually. And we don't have large criminal organizations, either!"

"Well, we didn't need a consensus, really. We just needed really cheap nuclear energy. And people started really disliking fossil fuels, so basically every polity had high-consensus votes to pay the extra to make use of nuclear energy instead of fossil. In addition, reusing fission byproducts in thermal generators made it so there wasn't too much of a cost difference."

"Businesses are allowed to profit! A High Consensus Vote really only means they're paid by the government for what everyone was already paying for anyway. They are allowed to advertise. We just call the mayor and tell him to boycott a company that gets too annoying in their advertising before the High Consensus Votes."

Cynthia walks over to the cup of tea, returning to put it into Viola's hand. It's a very sweet and flavorful green tea, with a faint aftertaste of lemons.

Viola sips her tea, and smiles again. "Oh, this is great tea. Thank you!"

"And alright. It seems everything has worked really well here. I kind of want to take a walk around the city to explore. Do you have any places that you'd recommend as must see?" 

"I mean, the Hinterland Parks aren't an overly-long subway ride? I think those are a great way to start. Follow me down, please."

Cynthia walks over to the elevator, before opening it to reveal it's incredibly spacious. It races down, before opening into an underground parking garage. Cynthia walks past all the vehicles, before opening a door that reveals an entrance to the subway system. She walks on ahead, finally ending up on the station, where a train arrives not even a minute later. The seats on the train are maybe 25% wider than a normal Earth train would be, with an incredibly soft and breathable mesh covering, and Cynthia and everyone is using all of the extra space for their legs. The train's acceleration is incredibly smooth and perfectly quiet.

Viola looks pretty impressed for the whole trip to the subway.

"Wait, what there's an elevator to the subway system directly from the apartments?"

"And the subway car is spacious and quiet? I really like the public transport of my home city but this is pretty next level."

"It's the power of putting everything in one place. There aren't a lot of apartments with tunnels leading into the subways, but if you're already this close, why not tunnel the rest of the way? People take their private tunnel to the subway, instead of the normal subway entrances. So there's less crowding at the normal entrances."

It takes maybe 15 or so minutes, with the train only making incredibly brief, 12 second stops, even skipping over a couple of stations, before the two of them end up at their destination. Cynthia starts heading out of the station, revealing a huge park that stretches on for miles upon miles. There are a few incredibly tall apartment buildings placed near the side of the park they're on, before revealing a vast landscape of beautiful forests, mountains, and even some of the coastline.

"I guess that makes sense. Again. How does the train know which stations to skip over?"

"This is pretty huge for a city park. And some convenient geography to have both mountains and coast available here."

Viola tries to see if there are paths, people walking, animals, or any other objects that would be noticeable among the natural looking environment.

"Do wild animals live here?"