A STORY OF TOMO UNION
Version 1.40
(C) Copyright TAO (tao@myself.com)
1995.6 - 1997.4
Acknowledgements
Preface
A STORY OF TOMO UNION
THE REAL STORY
A STORY PLUS
THE HISTORY
Send questions and comments to Tao
Acknowledgments
First I would like to thank all of you who read this story and passed it
along to friends. Some of you are friends, coworkers in office, people
around, but for most of you, we have only communicated on the Internet,
someday I look forward to meeting you in person.
Special thanks to those of you who gave your honest opinions. I have been
very much encouraged by reading your comments. I can feel a flow of energy
which is becoming stronger and stronger. I believe this energy is going to
make our lives better.
Preface
Everyone talks about the Internet. Everyone knows that the Internet will
change our lives much more than it has done so far. But how? when? in what
way? Now please read this story, believe me, a historical moment is coming.
So please make a cup of coffee, take a deep breath, be relaxed, ready? go!
A STORY OF TOMO
UNION
Chapter 1 Hank
Let me tell you a story about a very nice guy called Hank.
Hank likes traveling. One day he comes to Japan, and soon he falls in love
with this beautiful country. He decides to begin his new life here. His
first idea is to open an English language school, because he loves language
learning and teaching, loves communicating with people.
There are a lot of English language schools in this country. English
teaching is a big business and quite a lot of people have been successful in
this field. But Hank decides, he is going to teach English to make friends.
Chapter 2 Boards
Many people come when Hank opens his school.
Hank is very happy. He introduces himself, then he says,
"Thank you very much for coming. I'm totally new here, I don't know your
language, I don't know your culture, but I love this country. I believe we
can learn to get along with each other and become good friends."
"Here I am a teacher, this is how I make a living. But I'm not sure, that if
I choose something to teach, you are all willing to pay to learn. So let us
do it this way, I'll tell you the topics of the lessons, and you only choose
those lessons that you are interested in, that you think, are useful to you,
and you pay 10 dollars for each lessson you actually take."
Hank puts several computers into the classroom, connects them into a
network. First, He creates a board "People" on the network. Under it, He
creates boards for every students using their names. Every student owns his
board. When one enters the school, he may write messages on his board to
introduce himself. He may also put on other messages.
The second board is "Classes", where Hank can tell his students his class
schedules in advance. For example, if Hank is going to give a lesson, he may
put a message on the "Classes" board like this:
"From: Hank
To: All
Sub: English conversation class
Fee: $10
We will have an English conversation class at 18:00, Dec. 8th.
Anyone is welcome, please give me a reply no later than Dec. 6th."
Some of the students also have their own computers. They remote-login from
their home to check on Hank's class schedules. They find this really useful
and convenient.
Chapter 3 Friends
Hank's lessons are not perfect, but his students like his lessons, because
Hank is very friendly, what he teaches is practical, and he teaches them in
a simple, precise way.
Hank encourages his students to talk about their own opinions, to ask
questions, either in class or by email. He tells them that this is the best
way to master a foreign language, to communicate with people.
"You may ask questions whatever you really want to know. Remember that you
are not only my students, more importantly, you are also my friends. You may
ask whatever questions, that as a friend you think are appropriate, to ask.
Maybe I can't give satisfactory answers, but it's always good for you to
ask."
"You may also write down your opinions, and put them on your board. You are
the owner of your board."
Hank also asks his students a lot of questions. They exchange ideas about
life, family, jobs. They talk about music, sports, and their favorite foods
and beers. They become very good friends. Hank begins to play baseball
games, have parties, and go to Rock'n Roll concerts with his students.
Hank changes the board name from "Classes" to "Events", so that anyone who
wants to organize an event can put a message on it to let everybody else
know.
"You can charge those who come to your event," Hank tells his students, "Or
you may also choose not to charge at all."
Hank's school gradually becomes popular, so popular that some other English
teachers come to ask Hank, to let them teach English here, and Hank accepts
their requests.
The idea is simple, just put a message on the "Events" board, if the teacher
can somehow manage to get 5 students to his class, then he can get 50
dollars for one hour, which is quite decent.
Hank finds that his position in his school is changing. The students are no
longer students, they are just "members", everyone can be a student in
someone else's class (event), and he or she can also have his/her own event
as an event organizer. For example, Hank is a teacher in his English class,
but sometimes he attends his students' Japanese class as a learner of
Japanese.
Hank now call his school a "House". He becomes the president of the House.
Hank creates a board named "President". Now anyone who wants to put a
message on "Events" has to send his message to "President" first, so Hank
can check the schedule, classroom vacancy, etc., then copy the message to
the "Events" board.
Chapter 4 Pounds
Hank wants to know how satisfied his students are with the classes. He
introduces "Pound". After a class, every student is required to give a
number between 0 and 10. 10 pounds means that he is very satisfied with the
class, 0 means that he is totally disappointed.
The teacher also needs to give pounds to the students in his class. If he is
very satisfied with the performance of someone in his class, then he should
give 10 pounds to that student.
A perfect example would be that, after a lesson with 5 students, the teacher
gets 50 pounds while each student gets 10.
Pounds are recorded in a "Pounds" file on each member's board. This proves
to be very useful. Everyone take a look at it, then know whose classes
(events) are more popular than others. This produces, to some degree, a
competition inside the house. Hank thinks it's a good competition.
Chapter 5 Dollars
Soon Hank's house becomes bigger and bigger. Now it has 100 members. Hank
has 15 classes a week, on average each class has 5 students, and earns him
15 * 5 * 10 * 4.5 (weeks) = 3,375 dollars a month, an amount which makes him
possible to make a quite good living.
Hank is not very good at economics. Also he thinks, money is something that
may cause problems in his house. He tries to make the system as simple as
possible. He creates a "Dollars" files on each member's board. The event
organizer, who collects money from event participants, must report here how
much and from whom, he has collected so that other people in the house can
check the report.
Chapter 6 TOMO UNION
Hank's house becomes very successful. In fact so many people come to the
house that one day one of Hank's friends suggests creating another house. He
says he would like to be the president of the new house. Hank agrees.
Actually, the way Hank manages his house is so simple, that many members who
has been successful in their events begin to have their own houses.
Soon there are many houses.
Hank is very happy. He connects all housese into one network. Hank and his
friends now call this network TOMO UNION. TOMO is a Japanese word meaning
"friend". TOMO UNION is a place for friends to gather together to have
events, improve friendship.
All houses share some boards, which are global boards. Hank creates a global
board "Union". It's the union president's responsibility to maintain this
board. Hank becomes the first president of TOMO UNION.
Other boards are local boards. It's the house president's responsibility to
maintain local boards. He may also add other local boards if necessary.
Also, Hank gives every member an ID, so everyone is uniquely identified on
the network. Every house also has it's own ID.
A member of a house can be a guest member in another house. In this case,
the first house is his host house. He may also change his host house, but he
must get permission from both his old host house and the new one. If a
member moves from one house to another, his ID remains unchanged.
Chapter 7 Choice
TOMO UNION becomes bigger and bigger. One day Hank and his friends carry out
a census, and find out that TOMO UNION members are buying 10,000 computers
every month.
There is a "Computer" house in TOMO UNION. Many computer experts gather in
this house, they collect information about every computer product on the
market, then compare them in terms of speed, performance, price, etc. They
make a list of all products, all TOMO UNION members take part in an online
vote. Finally 10 products are chosen as Best Buys.
TOMO UNION signs contracts with the manufacturers of these products. If a
TOMO UNION member buy these products, he gets a 10% discount, 5% goes to the
himself, 5% goes to TOMO UNION.
Hank and his friends simplify the procedure. They issue every member a TOMO
UNION credit card. Those products chosen as best buys are marked: CHOSEN AS
BEST BY TOMO UNION. When a TOMO UNION member goes shopping, if he chooses
something with this mark and pays with the credit card, then the discount is
performed automatically.
This is not only for computers, they introduce the same system for other
products, TVs, cars, everything of mass-production.
TOMO UNION collects a large amount of money, and extends a worldwide
network.
Chapter 8 Manufacturing
Computer manufacturers have been putting a lot of money into sales,
marketing of their products. However one day, a company finds, that if they
can make a product really good, good enough to become a "CHOSEN AS BEST BY
TOMO UNION", they can obtain a good market share with little sales and
marketing. So they concentrate on product development and manufacturing.
This drastically reduces the cost of their products.
At the same time, many people lose their jobs, they come to TOMO UNION.
Hank is very glad. He says,
"Welcome to TOMO UNION. We know that you have a lot of problems. Please
gather at the house which deals with the problem that you are most concerned
about, make discussions and work out a plan to solve the problem."
"You don't have to worry about money. TOMO UNION has already got enough
money. If your plan is something really good for all of us, we will not
hesitate to invest in your plan."
TOMO UNION starts its own manufacturing, to make products which its members
really need.
For example, TOMO UNION builds a lot of public facilities, like sports
clubs, so members can use these facilities at a very low price. Each sports
club is run by a house. Members of the house become TOMO UNION workers.
This is very similar to a business company, but the purpose is to provide
something that TOMO UNION members really need, it doesn't seek financial
profits. The president of the house takes full responsibility to run the
house.
Chapter 9 A democratic system
TOMO UNION becomes so big, that Hank and his friends encounter a lot of
difficulties running it, therefore a democratic system is introduced.
They open two parliament houses. All important issues concerning the whole
network are discussed here.
They are "the House of the representatives" and "the Senate". For the House,
each member is counted as 1 vote; for the Senate, a member's vote is
equivalent to his total "pounds".
If a bill gets approval from more than 99 percent of the votes, at both the
House and the Senate, then it becomes a law on the network.
Now the president of TOMO UNION is also elected by an online vote.
However, TOMO UNION is a network of friends. In case a member violates a
law, the most severe punishment that TOMO UNION will give is to dismiss him
from TOMO UNION. If it's a house, the house will be disconnected from the
network.
Chapter 10 Paradise
TOMO UNION makes a lot of investment, obtains success in every industrial
fields, increases its influence. It extends to other country, the poorer the
area is, the stronger support it get from people. TOMO UNION collects a lot
of money, they begin to build SHINKANSEN and new housing for the poor in
Africa, etc.
Prices of all commercial products are reduced drastically due to TOMO
UNION's worker houses.
When designers try to design something, they don't even take money into
consideration. They consider human society as a whole, design everything
based on people's real need and their happiness.
Environment will become better. Since there will be no poverty, there will
be no war, even borders between countries find no reason to exist.
Hank finds this is very similar to what is described by many religions. TOMO
UNION is also a religion. It's a religion of friends, a religion of human
beings.
Chapter 11 A new world
In the reality, if someone gets 10 dollars, there has to be someone who pays
10 dollars.
In TOMO UNION's new world, people are no longer judged by how much money
they make, instead, they are evaluated by pounds.
As Hank says,
"Having 10 pounds means that you have given one of your friends an hour of
happiness. If you have 10,000 pounds, then you have given 1,000 person *
hour's happiness to people around you."
In the long, long human history so far, we have had a competition for
survival and comfort. While competitions are still necessary, it's possible
for us to find a better way to get along with eath other.
Chapter 12 Stories
Many people read the story and think it's interesting. They pass it to their
friends.
Some people give their comments, some people try to rewrite it to make their
own versions of story. Soon there are many stories.
Hank creates a web page on the Internet. He creates a board "People". Under
it, He creates boards for every story-teller using their names, so they can
put on their stories.
Thousands of people interested in this story take part in an online vote to
determine the best story. The best story is put on many public medias, like
newspapers, books, magazines. Hank's web page becomes one of the most
popular pages.
Some language teachers begin their schools as described in the story and
become successful.
More and more people read the story. Millions of people become members of
TOMO UNION. TOMO UNION becomes one of the hottest topics in the world.
A big company begin to provide free Internet access service for everyone. A
lot of people make their donations to this project. Other free services and
facilities are provided. More and more people join TOMO UNION. Everything
mass-produced become free. People come to realize the true meaning of our
life. Our global community reaches a new civilization.
THE REAL STORY
This is what actually happening now. Up to today, these
people are interested in this story. Some of them left comments.
If you think it's interesting please leave your name and email address here.
Comments are welcome but not necessary.
A STORY PLUS
Chapter 15 Speak with our own voice
A Microsoft salesman tells everybody that their Internet Explorer is the
best in the market. But one day, he changes his job. Now he works for
Netscape. So now he keeps telling people that Netscape Navigator is better
than any others.
The world is full of this kind of information. We can notice that these
messages are from the platforms, from the organizations, the machines that
we created, that we are working for, not from ourselves.
But now the Internet gives us a chance to speak with our own voice. We have
our own home pages. We have our own boards. When we say something, we are
speaking to the world. No one can force us to say anything we don't want to
say. No one can stop us from telling people what we really want to say.
Whatever we say, we have to remember, we are the most important resource of
information in the world. Because if we don't give our true, original
messages, how can we expect those from others?
And when we write something, also remember that we are speaking to the
world. Our friends will be listening to us. Our kids will be listening to
us. People who we love, people who love us will be listening to us. Our
messages will be saved, so even hundreds of years later, people will read
our messages, know what kind of person we are, know what we are doing, know
why we are doing what we are doing.
Chapter 16 Listen without prejudice
The Internet is expanding rapidly. There comes out tons of information
everyday. Many people are making use of it, find information, communicate,
have fun. Companies and engineers are trying to put a lot of new stuff on
it, so people can have sounds, watch videos on the Internet.
However, the Internet has quite different meaning for me. I'm from China, an
underdeveloped country, most of our folks still don't have access to the
Internet. This is also true in many other parts of the world. But I still
can hear voices from them, this world still faces a lot of problems. We
still have poverties. We still have crimes, violences, wars and conflicts.
We have limited natural resources. We have environmental problems. We have
homeless everywhere. It's an information age, it's also an age with a lot of
problems.It's enjoyable when I see well-designed web pages on the Internet,
but I just can forget the most important problems this world is facing. The
Internet is not just for fun, I believe it's a useful tool to solve our
problems.
We have to listen without prejudice. If the Internet is a network for all
mankind, how can we ignore voices from these people in trouble just because
they don't have a home page on the Internet?
Chapter 17 Software
I'm a computer engineer. My current job is customer support on such
softwares as Windows NT, NetWare. I have to admit that they are very good
software products. It seems to me that this world is full of business
companies fighting to each other, while Microsoft programmers is trying to
arm their clients with the most powerful weapons.
However, is there anyone trying to develop a software for ourselves? Is
there any software for our mother nature, is there any software for those
cute animals. Have you ever considered designing a software for this
beautiful little planet?
Looking back in the past years, we know software is getting more and more
important. Software will change our life more and more than it used to do.
What kind of life would you like to have? Do you have a vision for this
world's future?
This story is also a software. I think now it's time for us to design a
software for the whole mankind, a software not only for us, but also for
animals, for all the living creatures, for this earth.
I don't know how difficult a job it will be, but let's start with writing
down our ideas, and put them together on the Internet.
Chapter 18 God
Personally I have no religions. Yet here I want to talk a little bit about
God.
Now I realize both God and the Devil are inside ourselves and we get
messages from them every moment. Sometimes God wins, sometimes the Devil
wins. This struggle seems never ending.
My definition of God is, when I receive a message from inside me, if I think
it's from God, I will put it on my board, so I can read them everyday, and I
would be happy telling them to other people.
I'm writing this story, I believe it's a message from God.
Maybe Mr. Bill Gates believes that God is with his Microsoft while Netscape
guys think God will help them win the war, but God just stay behind
laughing, "I don't mind which will win, but the Internet will certainly bind
all people in the world together. And my message will directly reach your
heart, the world will be filled with peace and harmony."
God may be weak. But if everybody on this earth put the messages from God,
that is, his believes on his board. Then the Internet will connect them
together, and God's power will be stronger than ever.
Chapter 19 The Devil
We've got so many machines in this world. Maybe now we have the most
powerful one - computers.
The devil is inside the computer, with his fascinating voice, he tells Wong:
"Let me help you. You just click this button, and this. And that will bring
you a lot of money. I'll do the rest work for you."
It seems true, because the computer is getting more and more powerful. Wong
followed his words and succeed. Then the Devil says again, "I'll make you
stronger, we can hire more programmers, we'll use more powerful machines,
we'll defeat any rivals, and finally we will control the whole world."
Wong feels that something is going wrong, because these machines begin to
take too much of his time, energy and that's not what he expected at the
beginning. But Wong has no choice, because he fears, that if he quits, he
will be destroyed by his rivals.
Now the Devil laughs behind, because he also tells the same message to other
people. He makes them do fighting and killing and he enjoys watching them to
do so. He sees computer as the most effective tool to reach his goal.
Chapter 20 Kids
Originally I'm from China, but I've been living in Japan for 7 years, and
now I'm writing this story in English, try to communicate with you, I don't
know where you live. Sometimes I get confused, because there are so many
differences, things are happening so fast.
When I write this story, I try to forget everything around, that way I can
get close to the truth, the real myself. This is partly through my
experience of learning languages. Because the more you can "forget" your
native language, the more you can learn a new language.
Therefore, I think kids can accept my story more naturally, because they are
purer, simpler, don't know very much about the concepts and contexts we are
aware of.
Sometimes I get very tired of thinking. But imagine my kids will be living
in a world like this, and ask me for explanations of all these conflicts,
crimes, wars. I feel that I will be ashamed if we don't do something now.
Maybe what we have is already enough for us, instead of creating more
powerful machines, we should find answer from inside ourselves.
In reality, we have Bill Gates and Michael Jordan. I think both of them are
heroes of our time. Bill Gates has more dollars than any others, while maybe
Michael Jordan has more pounds.
I don't know whether you want your kids to become another Bill Gates or,
Michael Jordan. But the simple fact is, this world is big enough for
thousands of Michael Jordan, but not enough space for 2 Bill Gates.
Chapter 21 Dollars and pounds
Wherever we live, whatever we do, we meet people everyday. We go to work for
dollars, we go to meet friends for pounds. In most cases, our purposes are a
mixture of both. We can notice that pound is getting more and more important
in our lives.
Don't think TOMO UNION is something far from here. We already have dollars
and pounds in our daily lives. Dollar represents the system in which we
think if we get something, someone else will lose. Now with the Internet, we
can understand our human natures better. I believe now it's time for us to
work out a system in which we can do something that benefit all of us.
That's Pound.
Sometimes I try to see life in different ways. I think that seeking
happiness is the basic purpose of my life. When I was 30, I was working for
an American company. I earned 600 times as much as I earned at 21. But I
don't think I was 600 times happier.
So maybe I should see my life different way. What is life? I am 32 years
old, 365 days in a year, 24 hours per day. If I live a day happily, I have
240 pounds, I'd like to thank someone, maybe the one who spend the time
together with me. Maybe the artist whose music makes me happy. Or maybe I
watched an NBA game so I should give the pounds to the players. Maybe
someone who make me understand something. Maybe I also should give pounds to
myself. Thanks God, I have the ability to feel, to touch, to make love, the
ability to think, to judge, to explore myself.
Thanks God, life does mean something, it's more than a stream of 0-1.
Chapter 22 Our earth is a living creature
Our earth is a living creature. She is like a baby trying to stand up, but
each part of her body, doesn't work with other parts very well. Now, she is
growing up, the Internet will serve as her nerve.
Chapter 23 Energy
I don't read many books these days. One book that moved me very much is "THE
CELESTINE PROPHECY" by James Redfield. I read the Japanese version, I think
the author is a great guy. Maybe I don't understand his whole ideas, but my
emotion is so strong after reading his book.
According to his theory, the communication between people can be explained
as the communication of these people's energy field. This is very true. In
real life, if not considering money, we always tend to look for someone who
can give us more energy.
In TOMO UNION, there will still be a competition between us. It's a energy
level competition. If you want friends, or open your house, you have to find
energy resource of your own, and give it to other people, you have to keep
raising your energy level. In real life, there are unhappy rich people,
there are happy poor people, this can be easily explained by this energy
theory.
And in TOMO UNION, the competition is more direct, or pure. You will have
more freedom. Not taking money into consideration, you can concentrate much
on what you do. People will pay more attention to themselves. People will
pay more attention to their families, friends. There will be more artists,
there will be a new renaissance. There will be more atheletes, world records
will be broken again and again.
When the energy level of the whole mankind rise up, we will reach a new
civilization.
OTHERS
Chapter 24 Upgrade and Distribution
Thank you for reading this story.
If you think this is a story worth reading, please also tell your friends.
You can also put this story onto any media, like books, magazines, disks, or
your favourite BBS.
You may even make modifications to this story, so as to make your own
version of story. Please send it back to me, I would like to be among the
first readers of your story.
Copyright is claimed here to prevent further claim of it.
Chapter 25 Disclaimer
Information contained in this story is provided without any warranty of any
kind, either expresse or implied. Under no circumstances may TOMO UNION and
Tao, the author of this story be liable for any damages, loss of profits, or
inconveniences caused by reading this story, whatsoever.
Tao reserves the right to revise this story and to make changes to any or
all parts of this story at any time, without obligation to notify any person
or entity of such revisions or changes.
Chapter 26 The history of this story
1995.6 Version 1.00J completed at Kojimachi
1995.10 Version 1.10J completed at Kajigaya
1995.10 Version 1.11 completed at Kajigaya
1995.11 Version 1.12 completed at Kajigaya
1995.12 Version 1.13 completed at Kajigaya
1995.12 Version 1.14 completed at Kajigaya
1996.1 Version 1.15 completed at Takatsu Toshokan
1996.8 Version 1.20 completed at Kajigaya
1996.8 Version 1.21 completed at Kajigaya
1996.11 Version 1.22 completed at Kajigaya
1996.12 Version 1.23 completed at Kajigaya
1997.1 Version 1.24 at Kajigaya
1997.2 Version 1.30 at Kajigaya
1997.2 Version 1.30J at Kajigaya
1997.2 Version 1.31J at Kajigaya
1997.2 Version 1.31 at Kajigaya
1997.3 Version 1.32 at Kajigaya
1997.3 Version 1.33 at Kikukawa
1997.4 Version 1.40J at Kajigaya
1997.4 Version 1.41J at Kajigaya
1997.4 Version 1.41 at Kikukawa