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Chapter 17: Heels, Faces, and the Turning Thereof
Five minutes later, Edric and Phyr are headed through the office’s rear exit, into the heart of the building. They hold crystal tumblers with 18-year-old Scotch and water. A long, narrow hall branches off to the left and right at intervals, then comes to an end at a glass elevator. Edric touches a panel on the wall, and the door opens silently.
Inside, heading down, Edric says, “I’m really excited to show you this,” and sips his whisky. In seconds, they are dropping through a six-floor underground office complex that looks half a magical library.
“What is that,” Phyr asks.
“Information Division,” Edric says. “These guys know where everything is, what’s being done with it, and what to do next.”
“Are those computers?”
“No, but kinda. Magic equivalent, I guess. They also do phone things, and calendar things, and lots of other things. But sure, I guess they’re like computers.”
“You… should really see what computers can do in 2018.”
“Is that what year it is? Outside?”
Phyr nods, then starts as the elevator falls down through about fifteen feet of stone and proceeds through another section, this one a prison. The glass shaft now passes through an empty space crossed by bridges radiating out from a central panopticon; the outer rim of the cylinder is all cells and hallways. “Jesus,” Phyr says, “Quite the dungeon.” Edric nods, but says nothing as he sips his Scotch. Farther down yet, they pass into a natural cavern about the size of a football stadium, all manner of lights and activity below. Sounds of mechanical work and roaring water are greatly muffled, but not eliminated, by the glass elevator shaft. Underground rapids roll and tumble away to the West, jaggy islands of rock between them where workers operate stationary machines and large vehicles.
Edric walks Phyr through the operation, shouting over the machinery and the thundering water about this and that. Phyr sees a lot of gear dedicated to hydroelectrics, as well as electro-mana transformers - like the ones in his old blasters, to turn electrical energy into magical energy. It looks like several dozen experiments are ongoing, all dedicated to finding the optimal gear ratio and conversion factor for a given flow rate. Phyr looks at one in particular: like a turbine in a sleek housing, riddled with readouts and dials on one side. He thinks hard about the implications of such a device, during a war in which mana potions are a hotly-contested commodity. He estimates that one of the larger machines - about the size of a water wheel for a mill in one of those old-timey books - could produce at least two 100MP potions per day, vastly more productive than the mana condensers that tap into the ambient flow of the ethereal stream.
“So whenever your home’s batteries are topped up, you just switch it over to mana production,” Edric concludes excitedly. “I’ve got my technomancers working on a controller to automatically switch between charging batteries and bottling potions - we can solve the problem, but doing so in a cost-effective way is the hard part, since it also has to run on the same power source. But we’re close! And pretty soon we’ll be able to roll out a retrofit for all the units in place throughout Altilluvia.”
Phyr nods thoughtfully, and they continue down one of many signed and well-lit tunnels branching off from the large cavern. “So what’s your endgame here,” he asks once they’re away from the deafening roar of the main chamber.
“Glad you asked,” Edric says. “Phase One is complete: we got one of these babies - we just call ‘em water wheels - on every suitable property in the province. Phase Two is automation: making the switchover from electric to mana automatically, depending on what’s needed. Phase Three is a worldwide rollout, we’re still working on the details there. Phase Four - don’t worry about that for now. But Phase Five is a post-money economy.”
“Does that mean… an economy without money?”
“Exactly,” Edric says with a wink. “The existence of money is a sign of scarcity: money’s scarce, and the stuff you buy with it is scarce. Everyone’s supposed to make as much money as they can, and then connect the dots on their own. And that’s stupid.” Phyr gives an inquisitive look, and Edric continues. “If there’s actually enough to go around, then there’s no need for money, there’s just the matter of distribution. So, step one is to make sure there’s enough to go around, and then you gradually phase out money, until everything just kinda runs on its own.”
“But how does it do that, if people aren’t working for money? What keeps people working?”
“When we’re ramping up, it’s for access: working for me means you never have to worry about money again. Yes, I pay my employees a wage, but it’s enough that they can definitely take care of their needs and save for the future. But once I’ve got everything sorted, the wage won’t be necessary. People will join up because working for me means everything’s free. Money will be taken completely out of the picture.”
Phyr chews this over for a moment as they walk. The noise of the cavern is now a dull echo behind them, and a sharp white light beckons to them from down the tunnel ahead, lit dimly by lights running along the edges of the tunnel’s floor. “So what if everyone wants, like, a house made of diamonds, or whatever? Won’t you have problems like that, still?”
“At first,” Edric says with a shrug. “But remember: magic. So if diamonds suddenly come into vogue - I mean, that’s way beyond most people’s radar, these days. They’re mostly happy just to have a roof over their head and food in the pantry, and then they mostly do what their parents did - which, it turns out, is a pretty decent first approximation of how to run a society. But let’s say they start getting a taste for the ‘finer things,’ and they set their sights on diamonds. All I have to do is start advertising for the, uh, ‘diamanteries,’ or whatever we call ‘em. Diamonds are only fancy anyway because the DeCiders cartel says they are. So the first release valve is their artificial scarcity, and the advertising will enable them to meet any demand beyond that.”
“Why would anyone even run a cartel,” Phyr asks, “If there’s no money in it?”
“Ahh, now you’re thinking,” Edric exclaims. “Why, indeed? At first, it’ll be the status. But that’ll go smooth after a while, especially with a nudge from advertising about This Year’s Hottest Jobs and such, and soon it’ll only be people who actually want to do jobs that are applying for ‘em.”
“Then why does anyone want to work at all? Why not just laze around, and let everyone else take care of it, until society collapses?”
Edric gives Phyr a sidelong look in the semi-dark, and asks, “What would you do? If you could just go get food from the store for free, or go out to restaurants for free, and all your utilities and other living expenses were free - what would you do?”
“I dunno, play video games?”
“And what happens when you get bored with that? Or just want something else between marathon gaming sessions?”
“I… guess I would probably still be a doctor.”
“You’re a doctor,” Edric asks, astonished. Phyr gives him a sour look, and he immediately backpedals: “No offense, I just mean - dude, kids like us don’t grow up to be doctors an’ shit. Our idea of a fun time was to walk along the train tracks and explore abandoned buildings. So, like, good on ya. Really, man.”
Now Phyr looks askance at Edric; then, after a moment, he shrugs it off. “So you’re just going to give everything to everyone for free,” he says, “And advertise whatever you need to make up the difference. Is that the big idea?”
“More or less,” Edric says. He stops walking, with plenty of dark tunnel to go.
“So what’s this up ahead, then,” Phyr asks.
“Ahh, it’s nothing,” Edric says. “Just some more showing off. You know, boring details on the road to economic world domination. Let’s head back.”
Phyr nods to Edric, and they turn around to return to the elevator.
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