By Ross Cheeseright | November 11, 2017

Introduction

Today, there have been a lot news posts and articles regarding a ‘Doomsday’ warning that was signed by 15,000 scientists. In their letter, they highlight several factors that show just how damaged the planet is.

The doomsday report maintains that if humanity continues as it is, we may alter the world to a point where it is no longer able to sustain life in the manner we know – This stark and harrowing warning has many Asgardian citizens saying: “We need to fix the planet, first.”

The problem

Some people have this idea in their heads that people looking to go to space are simply trying to ‘escape earth’ or to ‘look down on it from our position of relative safety’ but, this couldn’t be more wrong.

One of the biggest problems facing humanity today is… well… Humanity. Our populations are continuing to grow and we’re simply running out of room. We’re still consuming and we’re requiring a lot of natural resources to do it.

Amidst all that consumption, we need ways to power our cities and we need to drain the world’s fresh water sources to make sure that we have, plenty to drink and we need to shred all the forests for farmland to make sure that we have food to eat.

Being environmentally friendly is definitely a good way to be. It helps us to protect our environment. Switching to clean and renewable energy will ensure that we aren’t polluting and using up our resources. If everyone switched to a vegetarian diet, we’d be doing our bodies and the planet a huge favour and of course people should do everything they can to recycle and ensure that the wold is free from pollution.

But no matter what we do and how environmentally friendly we become our population will continue to increase and our consumption will continue to increase, and we’ll continue to make waste and pollute the world with our cities and bodies.

It’s simply not practical to ask people to stop having babies and become ‘one’ with nature overnight. We need to attack this problem from multiple angles.

Some companies are looking at clean energy. Some companies are looking at renewables. Countries are looking at reducing their pollution and ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions. Countries are looking at how waste can be more effectively managed. Some companies are looking at ways of making packaging less harmful to the environment. Countries and companies are looking at ways that we can be more responsible with water and – Like us – some countries and companies are looking at space for answers.

Space Solves one of our problems

Going to space will help us to solve the biggest problem of all – Population growth and consumption.

1. If we can populate other planets we’ll have a lot more room for our people.
2. If we can build ‘space cities’ or other orbital habitats, we’ll have more room.
3. If we start to mine asteroids for resources, we’ll be sparing our own (including fresh water.)
4. By ‘spreading out’ our population, we’ll dramatically reduce the impact on the planet.
5. By ‘terraforming’ other planets (such as the various plans for Mars) we’ll be able to grow many more acres of forests and house many more animals (or plants) for consumption.
6. Many of the technologies that come as a result of space research can help humanity.

Having the capability to go into space and settle other planets would be one of the best things that we could possibly do for the future of humanity and that is exactly where our primary focus should be.

Asgardia’s Goals

Asgardia has a focus on space. Its primary goals are.

1. Launch a Satellite into space (done)
2. Create a ‘network’ of Satellites in space
3. Create habitable platforms called Arks in space
4. Create ‘habitats’ on the moon.
5. Make space accessible for all
6. Challenge existing space legislation
7. Invest in space start-ups and new technology
8. Establish a nation that gains recognition from the UN
9. Unite humanity.
10. Protect the earth from threats from outer space (such as solar flares and rogue asteroids.)

None of these goals have a direct focus on solving the problem of earth, and as I state earlier, the problem needs to be tackled from multiple angles by multiple people. Simply saying “We need to live like druids now.” Isn’t going to fix anything.

We need a long term solution.

Our contribution to the problem will be related to our goals – and that means solutions that can be found through space exploration and settlement.

Does this mean that we don’t care about Earth?

Quite the opposite – Most Asgardians care a great deal about the planet and we should do what we can to help protect it. While we shouldn’t divert all our resources from ‘space’ into solving the immediate problems on earth, we should be environmentally conscious.

As a large population of people, we have a duty to ensure that we aren’t contributing to the problem.

Rather than diverting our resources, this can be supported through a range of environmentally conscious choices and policies.

1. Asgardia should, where possible, use ‘clean’ and renewable energy.
2. Asgardia should ensure that we have a robust environmental policy that supports environmentally sound practices (such as recycling and preservation of warter.)
3. Asgardia’s citizens should make every effort to be environmentally conscious so that we can lessen our impact on the world.
4. Asgardia should ensure that it doesn’t undertake any business or operations with businesses or persons that are operating in a way that is detrimental to the environment.
5. Asgardia should only source products and services from environmentally sound suppliers.

What can YOU do as a citizen of Asgardia to help?

There are a lot of things that you can do, personally, to help the environment in the short term.

1. Make sure that, whenever possible, you walk or ride a bike anywhere you can – in modern society, sometimes it’s necessary to drive but if you can avoid it, then you should. Every car that’s not on the road makes a difference, and with hundreds of thousands of Citizens, we could make a big difference.
2. Recycle as much as you can – there are huge problems with plastic finding its way to the ocean and natural resources being used up all the time – but by putting your trash into the right bin you can be reducing global pollution.
3. Picking items with the least possible packaging instantly helps to reduce waste.
4. Make your own compost by putting organic material into a compost bin. Doing this ensures that your waste isn’t going into some landfill somewhere and it will turn into a natural fertilizer that can be used for gardening or farming!
5. Be conscious of your water consumption – fix leaky taps, turn off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth try to be conservative when possible. Take showers instead of baths and so on.
6. Think carefully about what lighting you use, Compact Fluorescent lightbulbs last 10 times longer and use two-thirds less energy than conventional lightbulbs for example.
7. Turn off lights and unplug unused appliances. Make sure that you shut your computer down when not in use. Turn off your router when you go to bed. These might seem like small changes, but when millions of people do it, the impact is huge.

Conclusion.

No, Asgardia is not going to stop what we’re doing and divert all our attention into the planet to fix the environmental issues.

No, this doesn’t mean that we don’t care. The problem needs to be tackled on multiple fronts and we’re working on one of the most important ones.

No, this doesn’t mean that we don’t care of that we’re going to sit idly by and do nothing. We can be environmentally conscious and do what we can as a global community to prevent the problems from getting worse.

About the Author
Ross Cheeseright is a Parliamentary Candidate , Asgardia Enthusiast and Volunteer for Civic Asgardia. His work has been featured several times and he has been interviewed by several national newspapers about his work in Asgardia. If you’d like to see more of his work, check out his blog .

To my fellow Citizens of Asgardia,

With the successful launch of Asgardia-1, today is a truly historic moment for our nation. Today is the day that we will raise the standard of Asgardia high into the air and say to the world “We are here, and we are here to stay.” We are here not to imitate, but to innovate and to look to the stars for a brighter future for humanity.

Asgardia is the prototype for a nation of the future that seeks to challenge the pre-defined notion of what a nation is in a digital age where you can be more connected with someone thousands of miles away than someone who lives next door.

Asgardia is a nation that seeks to challenge the laws about space and to ensure access to all. Not just those powerful, established nations but to emerging nations and for the nations of the future which, like ours, might exist in the digital space.

To us, the Citizens, it also represents hope that by coming together and leaving our old conflicts behind us we’ll be able to find some peace and harmony in the world and imagine what wonders we would be capable of if more people came together this way.

Celebrations will be the theme of the next few days and I too shall revel in the good spirits; however, we must not forget that this is one single step on the path and there is much work to do and, so I say to all Asgardian Citizens – Now is the time to focus your efforts on our nation let’s use this momentum to create a movement that will see our nation become a reality.

Yours Sincerely,

Ross Cheeseright
Parliamentary Candidate

In Asgardia, we are part of a democracy; This means that the power is in the hands of the people through their right to vote.

Citizens vote for a representative that will hear their views and champion their cause. These representatives form something called a ‘Parliament’ and those elected representatives are called “Members of Parliaments” or MPs.

The ‘Parliamentary’ system can be traced far back into Ancient times when we were still tribal communities. These communities had councils whose decisions were scrutinised by village elders. And in ancient Athens male citizens over the age of 30 were freely allowed to participate in discussions and debates.

Today, in whatever form we find it in, the general idea of a parliament is to make sure that the citizens have a say in how the country is being run and that the ruling body or government is held accountable. It ensures that no one-person is in charge or above the law.

What is a Minister?

To understand the work of a member of Parliament and to understand why they’re important, we first need to briefly examine Asgardia’s Governmental structure.

In Asgardia, our leader is the Head of the Nation, Dr, Igor Ashurbeyli and he will select 12 Cabinet Ministers who will be responsible for coordinating the work of each Ministry.

A Ministry will have oversight of certain national functions. For example, the Ministry of Finance might be responsible for national budgets and spending. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs might be responsible for our international relations and dealing with matters of citizenship.

These ministers will make proposals, draft budgets and create new laws which will then be passed to Parliament for debate and review.

What is a Member of Parliament?

A member of parliament is someone that has been chosen by the citizens to represent their needs and to challenge the governments work and their main tasks revolve around:

1. Debating Issues
2. Making Laws
   1. Scrutinise proposed bills
   2. Request research.
   3. Raise the concerns of their supporters
   4. Debate & Propose changes.
   5. Amend the bill
   6. Vote on the bill
3. Looking at how the taxes are spent
   1. Scrutinising their use
   2. Proposing better options
   3. Raising the views and concerns of their supporters
4. Challenge the government’s work
   1. Debate the government’s work
   2. Raise concerns of the citizens
   3. Form committees to scrutinise the government
   4. Create reports with findings

A member of Parliament represents you

The primary focus of your elected members of parliament is to ensure that your voice is heard and that the views of the people are represented and acted upon and most of the time, you will be able to contact your representative directly by email, phone or other means.

In some established parliaments, it’s also possible to arrange to visit your MP in person to discuss your concerns with them, or to lobby them directly in their governmental headquarters, though something like this in a decentralised nation like Asgardia probably won’t be possible.

Participation & Communication are Vital.

When it comes to making new laws, deciding spending or establishing policy, the members of Parliament will be on hand to make sure that what the Government wants to do doesn’t go against the will of the people.

If you have not contacted your representative to explain your needs and feelings, then when laws and proposals are up for debate and scrutiny, they might not be able to represent you well.

Knowing who your representatives and contacting them are key to exercising your democratic powers.

About the author

I am a dedicated Citizen of Asgardia and I am currently campaigning to become a member of Parliament. If you wish to help me turn this dream into a reality, visit my Campaign Profile on Asgardia.Space: https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/

I have had another great question, this time from Asgardian Tierial and it addresses some great points about the future of Citizens in Asgardia.

The question:
“Good evening I have a few questions for you Ross please forgive my book of a message. You already have my vote, once I read threw your aspirations I completely agree with you on the matter for VR. I have always wanted to help make a safe VR ever since I saw the anime dot hack when I was twelve, and still want to but I have veered away from being able to get the requisite skills it would take to help you. I have spent my life so far in the military police  and private security sectors and I do not know where or how to start getting involved in making VR, my question is would you be able/ willing to help me find where to start? And my second question is for you as an PM for us citizens that don't have much to offer to the development of our great kingdom, do you think there will be a social gap between our groups of people who research and develop and those who just work? Here recently I keep asking myself what can I do to help further Asgardia, our kingdom meets all my ideals and dreams but I feel like I would be out of place or underclassed in an intellectually way since all I know is military police and security in a broad since if the term. ”

My Answer:
There are some great questions here, Tierial. First, let me thank you for your support in my campaign for parliament, it really means a lot to me to have the backing of hard-working and invested Asgardian Citizens such as yourself. I’m going to take some time here to write an in-depth response to your question, so I apologise in advance for the volume of it 😊

Getting Involved In VR.

In a previous question asked by ‘The Fabulous Pineapple’ I discuss the reasons why I am pushing VR for Asgardia and how I believe that it’s a really important technology that could provide us with a lot of benefits as a nation.

Asgardia needs to select things that it will ‘specialise in’ – things that it will invest in and become a global leader in.

Asteroid mining, space access, space investment, space law; These are the areas that Asgardia will naturally become specialised in, but I believe that for our decentralised nation, Virtual Reality is another future technology that we can ‘hang our hat on’ and become an ‘industry leader in’.

To become industry leaders, it will be important that our Asgardian Citizens are trained and educated in the development, application, and use of Virtual Reality.

So, to answer your question: I would, absolutely, be more than willing to help you get started with your journey into Virtual Reality. It is my hope that I will be able to share everything I learn and to collaborate with those that know more than I do to create training material for Asgardian Citizens who want to learn to develop VR.

I am by no means a skilled professional in Virtual Reality yet – but it is my aim to become one in time and I am more than happy to share what I know with my fellow citizens.

The Future of Asgardian Citizens.

This is a great question that shows a good level of thought about the future of the project.

A lot of the communication that comes ‘from the top’ speaks of ‘Space Start-ups’ and ‘innovators’ and ‘space professionals’. There is talk of how there is a $1million fund set aside for investment into these ventures, but there is little discussion about how important our ‘day-to-day’ citizens are and what Asgardia will be giving back to them.

In your question, you ask, “Will there be a social gap between our groups.” I honestly think that will not be the case. Asgardia might have set its sights on some good ways to do business and good ways to innovate and to reach towards its goals, but we’re about to elect a small army of 150 people who will be looking out for the needs of our Citizens.

The Asgardian Citizens are a hugely important part of our nation and while a small percentage of our citizens might become space start-ups, most of our citizens believe in Asgardia, they believe in the ideals and they believe in better . They will be looking to be a part of something that could offer them a brighter future and the chance to work with like-minded people.

The citizens directly contribute to the success of the nation, through their activity and in the future, though their donations and business ventures – Without Citizens, Asgardia would cease to exist as a nation and it certainly wouldn’t enter the UN.

Therefore, the elections are a vitally important part of the process so that we can elect those people with the passion, drive and capabilities to secure our future.

What can I do for Asgardia?

As a ‘normal’ Citizen of Asgardia, it’s easy to feel that you’re being ‘left behind’ when there is all this talk of space and innovation and that you don’t have anything that you can contribute to this cause.

But you would be dead wrong .

The Citizens of Asgardia are the most important resource that our nation has and there are a lot of things that you can do to help out the nation beyond creating a new kind of rocket-engine or figuring out how to bake bread in zero gravity.

Asgardia needs activity, it needs growth and it needs the passion of it’s people if it wants to survive. It needs people out there ‘on the street’.

I wrote a post a couple of days ago that I think you might enjoy reading. It addresses the question ‘What can you do for Asgardia.’

If you would like to support me, please visit my campaign page: https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/

Earlier, Asgardian “The Fabulous Pineapple” asked a great question regarding my push for Virtual Reality. One of the things that I like most about Asgardia is that we have people that are willing to question things and to think logically and to look to the future of our nation.

I wanted to share my answer to this question with you all as it’s relates to a fundamental thing that I want to achieve that I think will have a huge benefit to Asgardia.

The question he asked was:

I like what you have to say, but how much will you rely on virtual reality? I think that virtual reality has immense benefits for every area of society, but a headset and a competent rig can cost $1600. In a few years, virtual reality might be affordable.

It sounds like you intend to create a virtual universe similar to the Oasis in Ready Player One. As cool as I find this, is this a realistic goal? Setting up a government in real life is hard enough, but the use of computers adds the challenges of glitches and poor code. In addition to this, a project similar to what you've proposed would be unrealistically expensive. Taking into account the aforementioned issues, how do you plan on building a virtual society, and when?

My big question is, when will this happen? If this is a long-term goal and you're not 100% committed yet, then I don't expect anything more than a confirmation that this an idea that is still in its early stages.

I love the VR idea, but I don't see it being realistic for at least another decade. That being said, you've still got my vote.

My answer:

Hello Fabulous Pineapple – this is a Fabulous question, allow me to break it down a little and give it my full attention. I’ll apologize in advance for the wall of text, but I just love a good discussion!

The Cost of VR.

Virtual Reality hardware is expensive, but it’s getting cheaper all the time. Many modern smartphones are VR compliant and you can get 60-fps 101-degree experience for $100. I fully see the cost of VR coming down as time goes on. In fact, China is creating a ‘VR Town’ called ‘Guizhou’ located in mid-western China.

A town dedicated to the production and development of VR will help to see the cost go down even further.

The Oasis

Ernest Cline’s ‘Ready Player One’ is an incredibly well-written journey into a future with Virtual Reality at its core and like many science-fiction books that came before it makes plausible predictions based on what’s happening in the world.

I don’t have any personal plans to make ‘the oasis’ from ready player one, but I do believe that’s where the world is headed. Virtual Realities that exist on block-chain technologies and with the right conditions, Asgardia could be alongside them.

Is it a Realistic Goal?

Asgardia has ambitions for the future. We’re constantly working towards something that many people say isn’t realistic. To launch a satellite. To create an orbital network. To create orbital habitats and to have a space-fleet that defends the planet from outer-space threats.

Asgardia is about the future and it’s about investing in the future – there are technologies out right now such as AltSpaces that allow people to come together and socialize and collaborate in a virtual space and I don’t think that creating our own ‘virtual world’ is at all unrealistic.

Will it be expensive

Creating a good virtual world where we can go, train, learn, socialize, model things in virtual labs, watch a movie together will definitely not be cheap. It will take time, development, investment and it will require funds to maintain it, run the servers and provide some level of support to the ‘users’.

However; it’s a small price to pay compared to launching a rocket into space or buying up a piece of land and developing it into a society that will house hundreds of thousands of people.

In addition to that, it has the potential to make money through virtual tourism. If people would be able to use our servers and visit ‘virtual’ Asgardia or buy virtual art-work or come here to play our virtual games or see what life would be like in a future Asgardia or train at our virtual universities… we could actually generate income for our nation.

Computers add challenges.

Computers add challenges, but they solve many more challenges than they add. We wouldn’t be able to be having this conversation without a computer. Our Government and our nation are Digital – Adding a virtual layer on top of that will actually help .

A virtual world would help us to collaborate, it would help us to come together as a nation, it would help the parliament to work together and discuss issues, it would give us a place for people to come together and work together, a place to learn and a place to train by undertaking various simulations.

Train drivers use virtual Reality. Surgeons use virtual reality. Air-traffic controllers use virtual reality. Tank drivers use virtual reality.

I feel that as the technology develops, it’ll become increasingly valuable to our digital nation to become a virtual nation.

Is this a long-term goal?

I can’t make Virtual Reality a reality on my own. I can only push the agenda. It’s something that I’m personally committed to and something that I study. I know what’s coming for Virtual Reality and I know that it will benefit Asgardia.

I agree with your assessment, I think that VR will probably take another decade to fully mature – but I’d rather that Asgardia starts adopting and investing in the technology now and helping to develop it and guide it than picks it up in 10 years’ time.

Asgardia needs to make choices now about what it invests in. Asgardia and its citizens have the chance to be at the forefront of many future technologies. Asgardia could become one of the top nations for a space-related industry, science, and access. It could become one of the eminent authorities in space-law.

And, if people embrace VR, we could also become an authority in virtual reality technologies – something that shares huge synergies with a decentralised nation and really embraces the culture of Asgardia – No borders, a place where everyone can live, a place where people from all over the world can come together to achieve common goals.

What’s my plan?

I appreciate that VR won’t happen overnight and my initial goal is to show people the benefits of Virtual Reality.

1. I aim to create a ‘proof of concept’ called      ‘Asgard Island’ which will be a multi-user virtual-reality island where people can visit and hang out with their friends, chat, explore the island and watch movies together. This proof of concept will be built for smartphones that are Daydream / gearVR compatible.  I expect that this proof of concept will be completed this time next year.
2. I aim to produce research and commission studies into Virtual Reality so that I can show their benefits. I don’t      expect people to accept what I’m saying based on blind faith, I want to show people that it’s viable. These studies and research papers will be done throughout the year.
3. I will seek support from the ministry and from other MP’s to allow resources to be allocated to the use of and development of virtual reality. I can’t provide any time-scales on this because parliament isn’t formed yet and I don’t fully know what the processes will be.
4. I will aim to employ Asgardians with the requisite skills to begin to develop Virtual Reality solutions to come of our common problems. If all goes well, I will begin putting together a      plan for this in roughly 2 years and seeing what funding is available for this project.

Once we start to create VR solutions to common problems, if they prove to be a success, then we can further review the development of a VR world for Asgardians.

We need to start thinking about the future and what niches we want to be in as a nation, and my answer for that is VR for all the reasons that I have outlined.

My first priority, however, is the establishment of our Government, Parliament and the formation of our legal systems, financial systems, business systems and immediate citizen needs.

I am currently running for Parliament for District 1, if you would like to support my campaign and help me turn Asgardia from a collection of ideas into a reality, please visit my campaign page: https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/

By Ross Cheeseright, Parliamentary Candidate | October 30, 2017

I have had a lot of discussions with people about what they can do, as citizens, to help Asgardia grow and realize its goals and I thought it would be a good idea to write an article to share some of those ideas.

There are a lot of things going on in Asgardia right now. There is the election of local leaders and of members of parliament, the formation of the government, the satellite launch and a whole lot more.

It’s easy, as a citizen of Asgardia, to feel like you’re watching it happen from the sidelines and that you’re just an observer. People want to get involved and they want to take part, but they don’t have the time or the resources to dedicate themselves to joining the government.

However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The Citizens of Asgardia are at the heart of the project. They’re the most important element of Asgardia. A nation without people is nothing.

Vote

Asgardia needs your attention in the elections. There are parliamentary candidates who want to work for you and who want to build up the 'Asgardia' we all dream of, but they’re struggling because not enough people are voting.

With your vote, you can shape the future of Asgardia. There are lots of different candidates with lots of different views on how to make Asgardia the best it can be – voting for the one that best represents your views would be a great way to support the development of the nation.

Visit the voting page for more information.

Spread the word

What was it that attracted you to join Asgardia? For me, it was the inclusive and forward-thinking nature of the project. The fact that scientists and people are trying to create something independent and open really appeals to me and I make sure to try and include my friends in this process.

Getting more people to join Asgardia would represent a huge boon to the nation. It would allow us to get more work done in less time and it would allow us to create a better global network. Spreading the word and helping people to understand the project is a great way to help the nation.

Participate

So much is going on in Asgardia. Elections, competitions, projects, discussions and general social fun. Getting involved will help the community of Asgardia thrive and grow. It will help to keep everyone interested and active. It will help people to forge new friendships and come together and bond.

Be passionate

Take pride in being an Asgardian. Passionately advocate for the Nation and help to generate that positive energy. Asgardia is a nation with noble goals and some patriotism for the nation will go a long way to helping build a positive image and an inclusive community of people. I’m not suggesting blind faith – but a positive attitude can go a long way.

Help new Asgardians

As we get new people coming in to test the waters and see what our community is about, they’ll need people to guide them. There is a lot of information out there on our website and our forums and it’s not always easy to find. And getting up to speed with the current state of the nation isn’t always easy.

However, the veteran Asgardians in the community can help here. They can provide information about what’s going on and even links to sources so that people can find out things for themselves. A great first impression for our new Asgardian citizens will do a lot of good.

Start a business

Asgardia is open to business! They want to fund start-up businesses, especially those that have an interest in space-related industry. What better way to support Asgardia than to take advantage of its $1 million in start-up funding fund?

Starting a business in the Asgardian ecosystem would be a great way to support the nation, helping to put Asgardia on the map as one of the forward-thinking nations and helping the nation to become profitable and sustainable.

Send an email to projects@asgardia.space to get more information on starting a business.

Donate

If you simply don’t have time, but you’d love to support the growth of the nation, Asgardia now allows its citizens to donate their hard-earned money. The money generated by the donations will go towards helping to fund future projects and as some special thanks, you also get some digital rewards for your efforts, including a 6-month subscription to ROOM: The Space Journal worth$56.

To learn more, or make a donation to Asgardia, visit the donation page on Asgardia.space

A quick note from the author:
I am currently running for Parliament. If you want to help create a movement that will see Asgardia become a reality, support me and together we can raise the standard of our nation.

Introduction

Hello my fellow Asgardians, I am Ross Cheeseright, 34 years old and geographically located in the South of England. I am a businessman running a small digital marketing company, a family man raising a young family and a student undertaking a degree in software engineering.

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about myself and my race to become a member of the Asgardian Parliament.

Mission Statement

This is a vitally important time for Asgardia and the results of this election will shape the months and years that are to come. It is of paramount importance that the people we elect now are those that have the drive and the passion to get down to work and build the nation that we all dream of.

It is my mission to become elected as a member of parliament and carry the standard of the citizens of Asgardia and to put in the work and effort that is required to build the nation, establish the laws and make sure that everyone is informed every step of the way.

I ask that all Asgardians who believe as I do and who feel as I feel, to support me so that we can work together to turn Asgardia from a dream into a reality.

Previous Work for Asgardia

I believe that our words must become actions and our actions must produce results and I have put my money and time where my mouth is.

1. I have been running in the Local Leadership elections.
2. I have been interviewed by two national newspapers regarding Asgardia
3. I have been featured on the editor’s choice of Asgardia.space multiple times
4. I write a blog that outlined regular updates on my progress and regular news updates
5. I am establishing a not for profit business within Asgardia that aims to raise funds for Asgardia and funding for research projects.
6. I am leading a small team of reporters working as a volunteer for civic.asgardia’s communications department.
7. I am building a proof of concept ‘virtual reality’ simulation called “Asgardia Island.” Which I am to be a multi-use island to prove the benefits of VR for Asgardia.

How I will serve Asgardia’s Citizens.

1. As much as possible, I will be completely transparent. I will openly share details of my work, struggles, triumphs, budget spending, Salary and non-sensitive communications.
2. I will hold regular meetings and live-streams so that I can create a truly ‘two-way’ dialog with my supporters. Unlike governmental representatives of today, I will aspire to be a model of the future taking your views and concerns in real-time.
3. I will push a strong digital agenda that focusses on utilizing the strengths of Virtual Reality to enable us to better collaborate, train, share ideas, run simulations, and bond.
4. I will make sure that we don’t lose focus on ‘everyday’ Asgardian Citizens – There is a lot of focus on the next innovators and space start-ups, but there are much more people in Asgardia that just want to be a part of something noble, fair and driven to the future.
5. I will work to build the community and strengthen the public image of Asgardia. There are a lot of people out there who still don’t understand who we are and what we do.
6. I will undertake every effort to start finding those people that want to work to build up Asgardia and empower them with whatever support, tools and funding that is at our disposal.

Why am I pushing Virtual Reality Technology?

Virtual Reality is an emerging technology that gives people amazing capabilities and opportunities that they might not otherwise have access to. I plan to leverage this technology to ‘Centralize’ Asgardia for the following reasons:

1. The International community insists that we have a ‘defined territory’ and a ‘permanent population’ but there is no more land available on Earth, it’s all been claimed by other powers. With Virtual Reality, we’ll be able to create a world that all Asgardians will have access to and will be able to have a virtual home upon and symbolically and technically prove that we’re a people who exist within a defined territory.
2. With Virtual Reality, Asgardia will be able to create schools, training facilities, entertainment, theatres, art, gather together to hold concerts, enjoy live stand-up performances. It will give our people a place to gather and live.
3. Virtual Reality will provide a source of income – By creating a virtual world, we will have something to offer to the international community. People will be able to visit our virtual world to undertake ‘long distance study’ at our universities, to visit our art installations, to play our games, to buy our services and all this will help to generate income for our people and our nation.
4. A Virtual World is a good ‘test’ for us as a population. By using a virtual world we’ll start to be able to understand what life is going to be like living together, without having to spend billions on floating platforms or buying land. We can test government, legal practices, trace and simulate a whole host of other activities of daily living.

I am still only just learning about how to create a virtual reality, but I know that there are a lot of skilled people out there that I can organize to bring this technology to benefit us.

How can you support me?

If you wish to help me to create a strong and stable Asgardia, visit my Campaign Profile on Asgardia.Space: https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/

Fellow Asgardians,

There have been some developments in the past few days and the minimum running age for parliament has been dropped from 40 to 18 and so, without further delay, I would like to take this opportunity to officially announce my candidacy for Parliament.

I would ask all of those who believe in Asgardia and all of those who feel as I do to lend me your support so that together, we can work on changing Asgardia from a dream into a reality.

You can see the full details of my campaign and vote for me on the following link:

https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/

Let us create a movement that will ensure the success of our nation!

Yours sincerely,

Ross Cheeseright
Parliamentary Candidate.

I have seen a lot of discussion about this recently and I have seen people discussing it in-depth and I also know that this will be a polarizing issue for many Asgardians, but I would like to address it none-the-less and give you my perspective on it.

Asgardian Earth Settlements.

The argument in question is “Should Asgardia make settling on earth a priority?” the ‘yes’ camp suggest that Asgardians should buy up land on Earth and start to colonise it and move Asgardians around the world to settle in this “Asgardian Country” on earth. The concept itself has had many suggestions from taking up space somewhere in ‘international waters’ to creating landmasses – such as is seen in Dubai.

Why can’t we do this?

There are a lot of reasons that we won’t be able to do this, and I feel that I could write a blog entry for each one, but for now, I will summarise the reasons in a list.

1. Land is incredibly rare and expensive.
2. Almost all land in the world is owned, Asgardia would struggle to take it and declare independence.
3. We would need a huge mass of land to house 100,000 – 300,000+ people.
4. It would take years to build a city from scratch. Building a modern metropolis would take 25+ years of production.
5. We lack the current organisation or infrastructure to build a city. We don’t have a parliament, we don’t have laws, we don’t know if we have the specialists required or enough people willing to construct it.
6. It would cost a fortune to build – Saudi Arabia have recently pledged 500 billion dollars to build a modern city (and it already owns the land.)
7. We wouldn’t be able to protect it from outside threats.
8. It would make Asgardia more of a threat to current populations
9. It does not mirror the ideals of Asgardia the dream is space and to protect the planet, not to settle on it.
10. The logistics of getting people to move to a new country is just staggering. Who’s going to pay for the relocation costs? Who’s going to decide where people live? Who’s going to decide what jobs people do?

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Once you actually start looking into the details of what would be required to create a brand-new settlement on earth, the ‘todo’ list starts to become staggering. Finding and contracting companies, managing the budget, purchasing the construction materials, paying the labour, handling environmental studies, making sure we won’t affect wildlife. I can’t state enough just how much effort would go into this venture.

Most cities today have been built up from small settlements over a long period of time and the more modern cities – such as those being built in china and the proposed Neom from Saudi Arabia – are backed by huge wealthy and established governments.

So what’s the alternative?

The alternatives to trying to centralise our community into a nation on earth are to embrace the concept of a decentralised digital nation.

We live in a time when people are increasingly connected. A time where people can instantaneously collaborate and communicate from anywhere on the planet. Technology is giving us the tools we need to quietly and effortlessly step over the domains imposed on earth.

Using a ‘digital first’ solution for Asgardia and having people embrace this as a ‘digital nation’ would have many benefits.

1. It’s becoming increasingly affordable to use digital technologies.
2. Smartphones are helping to boost the connected population of the world.
3. The Internet allows us to access knowledge and information freely.
4. Asgardia has already positioned itself as a digital nation.
5. Asgardia is already working across borders with people from all over the world.
6. Our currency, SOLAR will be a blockchain based crypto currency.
7. Once we have our network of satellites in space, we’ll have full control over our information giving us true independence.
8. Each citizen in our nation can enjoy the status quo of living in their own country – including working, healthcare, edication (and so on)
9. Everyone can stay where they are, there won’t be any upheaval.
10. Logistically, it is a lot easier to manage a digital nation than it is a physical nation as each person’s host nation is already catering for their physical needs.
11. A digital nation is more inclusive, if we made a physical nation people might not be able to afford to move to live there, some people might not want to move to live there. A digital nation ensures access to everyone.

A Virtual Nation.

My ideal solution would be to take the digital nation one step further and create a Virtual Nation . I have spoken at length in my previous blogs about the benefits a virtual nation could bring to Asgardia. It would allow people to come together, to collaborate, co-operate and on a much more personal level than the current digital tools we have.

It would allow us to create and share works of art using virtual-reality painting tools. It would allow us to create universities, training simulations, cinemas to go and watch movies with our friends – it would give us access to a lot of things that we take for granted in the physical space.

It would provide people with a symbolic ‘space’ in the virtual Asgardia that they could call home and invite friends over to, even just to sit and talk with their colleagues would be a novelty.

And it would allow us to enjoy these things at a fraction of the cost of a physical land-mass.

Furthermore, it’s in keeping with Asgardia’s vision. A Virtual nation could, in the future, be hosted on Asgardia’s orbital network, Allowing us to symbolically ‘live’ in our own territory in space. Much as the current “Asgardia-1” is going to symbolize our ‘territory’.

About the Author

I an active Asgardian Citizen currently volunteering as a communications specialist for civic Asgardia. I have been featured on the editor’s picks several times, interviewed by several international newspapers about my work in Asgardia and I am currently running for parliament. If you’d like to see more of my posts, you can add me on Asgardia.space as a friend, or check my blog feed .

On October 12, 2017 we celebrated Founding Day. One of the featured offerings on founding day was the infographic that looked back at some of the things that Asgardia had achieved and some of the things that were in progress and in my founding-day address I said that it had been a great year but there was still “A lot to do” and that we needed to make this a “great year for Asgardia.”

It came to mind that on traditional ‘new year’ events, it’s a time for reflections and resolutions and while it’s become a bit of a running joke that people don’t follow through with their resolutions, I think that it’s a helpful exercise.

And so for the next year ahead of us, there are my Asgardian Resolutions:

1. Start an Asgardian not-for-profit business.
2. Run for a position in Parliament.
3. Continue with my plans to learn and develop Virtual Reality.
4. Continue to volunteer for Civic Asgardia

My resolution is to continue to work to make Asgardia a success and for it to be taken seriously. I want to organise people and inspire them to continue working. I don’t want our prototype space nation to fizzle out and I certainly don’t want someone to beat us to our goals.

What about you? If you have any reflections or resolutions, why not leave them in the comments section below.

I am currently running as a strategist, please take a couple of minutes to look at my candidate profile and lend me your support.

Press Conference in Moscow - Rundown

Today, on the Anniversary of Asgardia’s founding, the Head of our Nation, Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli held a press conference in Moscow. The spirit of the conference was to address the primary outcomes of the first year and a look to the future of our nation to see what activity we might expect to see on the horizon. While this conference did raise some questions about the future, it certainly painted a picture of continued progress, productivity and an undeniable air of legitimacy. The future certainly looks exciting for the nation of Asgardia.

This document contains my rundown of some of the points that really stood out. If you’d like to review the press conference, you can watch it here .

Government & Elections

One of the hot topics facing the future of Asgardia will be our elections, there will be 150 parliamentary positions that will be divided up based on the language principle, rather than geography. The language figures are based on languages that people have selected on their national profiles.

1. It was confirmed that today was the official start of the election period following a re-design of the Asgardia.space website.
2. Asgardia does not recognize earthly borders and so the elections for parliament will be based on language and the split of parliamentary places will be as follows:
   1. English was the top language and there will be 68 places on parliament.
   2. Chinese was second with 23 places.
   3. Turkish was third with 16 places.
   4. Spanish came in fourth and will hold 15 places.
   5. Italian: 5
   6. French: 4
   7. Russian: 4
   8. Arabic: 4
   9. Portuguese: 3
   10. German: 3
   11. Farsi: 2
   12. Japanese: 1
   13. Other: 2
3. The Parliamentary Elections are due to come to a conclusion by March 2018
4. All Asgardians are asked to take Pride and Participation in the Parliamentary elections.
5. There are plans to launch the Post Office of Asgardia, stamps are expected to be available from December this year.
6. Once Parliament is elected, in the following months the members of the Court, Chamber of accounts and supreme council will also be elected.
7. Head of Nation affirms that we’re building a serious nation, not a fake nation or a vide-game and that we’re trying to move fast, but not so fast that we outstrip the law and establishment of laws which could harm our entry to the UN.

Currency & Finance

It seems that plans and progress on this front are really starting to pick up as Asgardia reaches some pretty important milestones.

1. Asgardia has been formally registered as an NGO in Vienna.
2. Asgardians are asked to provide charitable support.
3. The compensation of all functionaries will be done through Asgardia NGO starting next year.
4. Functionaries will not exceed 1% of the total number of citizens.
5. The budget will be published on the website.
6. In a serious victory for Asgardia, SOLAR (SOL) was registered formally on October 05 2017 by Europe and is classified as intellectual property.
7. More details on the cryptocurrency are due to be released once the central bank has been formed.
8. SOLAR is said to be ‘tied to the mass of the moon.’

Business & Jobs

Asgardia affirms its commitment to the business of investment in startups with a capital fund of 1 million Euros to fund startups.

1. Asgardia, the country of space start-ups will seed capital of 1 million euros which can increase to an unlimited amount due to the sale of shares to Asgardian Citizens and investors. More details will be released once the ministry of finance has been formed.

Space & Exploration

Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli shared some of his visions for the future of Asgardia as we work towards becoming the first space nation.

1. It was suggested that we could be looking at creating an orbital network of satellites in the next 5-7 years and that ideally, the head of the nation wishes that in his lifetime, he will be able to go to the moon or spend some time on an orbital Ark.
2. Asgardia-1 is due to launch and a press conference is scheduled to be held in Washington following the subsequent (successful) launch of the Satellite.
3. The 3 localities of Asgardia are said to be our Earthly locality such as spaceport, programming and flight centre, the next is the orbital network and the third would be moon-based settlements. At the moment there are no plans to go further, but the head of the nation said that those younger people may “visit mars.”

Security & Defence

Asgardia reaffirms it’s mission to peacefully protect humanity from external threats.

1. Asgardia will have no security / military presence on earth.
2. Asgardia’s primary objective would be to defend the earth from threats.
3. Asgardia will look to provide a space-fleet that will be based in orbit.
4. The Fleet will not be designed to engage in conflicts on earth.
5. The Asgardian Fleet will defend all humanity, regardless of earthly divides, from space threats such as asteroids and other threats.

I am currently running as a strategist and I could use your support!

Please take a couple of minutes to look at my candidate profile and lend me your support

Hello there Fellow Asgardians, in this blog I want to outline some of the things that I have been working on in the Asgardian domain and my progress so far. If you would like to support me, please feel free to check out my campaign profile and vote for me.

The Asgardian Development Society Concept.

I have been working on a concept called the Asgardian Development Society. The purpose of the project is to start gathering together members of the community who genuinely want to put their time and energy into making Asgardia a reality. The focus for the project would be on addressing matters that the citizens themselves could address without the intervention of the Asgardian administration such as collaboration on projects, improving the public perception of Asgardians and drawing attention to important petitions.

Setting up Shop in Asgardia

I have recently been exploring the process of setting up a business within Asgardia. The idea would be to create and sell a product to Asgardians, a portion of the proceeds being paid to Asgardia in ‘Taxes’ The main purpose of the business is to test the process and bring to light any issues that might arise so that the process can be improved for future businesses.

Requesting Expanded Tools to enable self-organization.

I am working on a proposal to send to the administration to expand the capabilities of the website so that we can start to form self-organizing groups – this would be a vital step for the development of Asgardia. The following is the first draft of my proposal:

Running for Strategist

My campaign for Strategist is starting to pick up steam and I now have a quarter of the votes that I need. The principal issue of getting votes is getting exposure. The early runners who started their campaigns when Asgardia was full of hype and energy did very well, however, the activity within the community has started dipping a little, which is to be expected.

I imagine that once the Parliamentary elections start up, there will be another surge of activity in Asgardia as people start to take more of an interest once more.

My plan, for now, is to keep pushing and working on getting my message out to people and hoping that my vision resonates with them.

Today marked another of Lena’s Live Streams where she speaks on issues that are brought up by the Asgardian nationals. In this article, we’ll be giving a run-down of the live-feed and summarising some of the more interesting points that were made.

Asgardia’s latest live-stream paints a very ‘down to earth’ picture of Asgardia’s near future as a nation that’s working with the best interests of humanity in mind but is very much constrained to work within the confines of reality and notions of a ‘floating utopia’ in earth orbit were quickly dispelled.

Rather than a structure in the Arctic or on a deserted island, Asgardia’s current form is that of a virtual nation using modern technology and looking for ways to invest in the future of humanity. Through the establishment of the nation, Asgardia will have a platform to offer funding, infrastructure and legal systems that will encourage people to look to the stars and develop new technology and businesses that make it easier than ever before.

It seems that Asgardia is looking to be a driving force behind the development of Space and that moving to live in space is simply something that will happen in time as a result of the core goals and business aims of the nation.

This might not sit well with some people that have a more fantastical view of what Asgardia is. I have had many discussions recently with people that are putting all their hopes and visions onto Asgardia and creating a really unrealistic vision without thinking of where the money or the technology will come form.

Below are the highlights from the live stream. I have summarised/paraphrased them and put them into broad categories to keep it to the point. However, the video and the full transcript will be out soon.

IDs & Passports.

There was quite a lot of discussion regarding the ID’s and passports, here are some of the highlights:

1. All the ‘golden 100,000’ (which is anyone that accepted the constitution before decree 9 was issued.) will be eligible for an Asgardian ID and Passport.
2. People applying for citizenship after this date will need to wait until Parliament is formed before they can become eligible.
3. It will take several months to prepare the documents as a matter of practicality.
4. People must present themselves in person to attain their ID. They must physically meet a representative from Asgardia at least once before attaining an ID or passport.
5. No ‘first documents’ documents will be issued electronically or by post.
6. Asgardia is looking for the best way to manage this and to make it as accessible as possible.
7. For people that are not able to present themselves in person, they will be looked at on a case-by-case basis.
8. Experts are being consulted to make sure that this is as official as possible.

Embassies & Consulates

1. There will be 6 embassies around the world, but there will be more consulates.
2. The location of the consulates will not be based on population but rather based on local infrastructure, practicality, ease of access, current holdings.
   1. No current plans to establish an embassy in Istanbul/Turkey, but it hasn’t been ruled out as an option yet, either.
3. It’s too early to go into detail now but more information is expected to be released towards the end of the year.
4. It’s possible that they will have Temporary locations that periodically pop-up offering a ‘drop-in’ service.
5. More details will follow in the coming months, especially once the Ministry of Foreign affairs is established.

Law & Order

1. The Constitution is the basis for the law of the nation.
2. Once Parliament is formed, they will begin to develop laws.
3. Laws will need to be passed and accepted.
4. Changes to the law must be done by way of petition.
5. Asgardia is open to various forms of government, such as the Estonian model and are considering the different ‘best practices’ that are being used around the world.

Business & Jobs.

1. Asgardia is prepared to invest and co-invest in start-ups that are aligned with the project such as Science, technology, software, engineering but is also welcomes any start-up business proposal.
2. Asgardia’s ‘business’ focus will be on start-ups and has partnered (or formed a close relationship with) a venture capitalist company called Seraphim who are a specialist investor in start-ups that have an interest in space.
3. Asgardia will have access to an expert community that will be reviewing and advising if it’s worth investing into a start-up
4. Asgardia.com will soon be releasing more information on the topic.
5. Asgardia.com will provide ways to apply for startup funding.
6. Asgardia’s infrastructure and future space-infrastructure will be built by hired professionals that have a proven experience in the field.
7. Asgardia is not currently hiring people from within the nation , however, they welcome people from the nation to apply to volunteer their time/resources if they want to help the project grow. They must clearly state their experience and details of how they would like to volunteer when they apply.
8. Asgardia will be deriving a revenue from business tax (once it’s jurisdiction is established.), from returns on its investments into start-up businesses and from the business that it plans to establish.
9. Asgardia encourages people to start submitting their business plans and proposals from today stating “It’s time now to start making proposals.”
10. Asgardia does not currently consider space-mining or investment in space-mining as a core part of its business plans.

Currency & Finance

1. Asgardia will be using a currency known as SOLAR.
2. SOLAR is a cryptocurrency that is being developed using blockchain technology in conjunction with IT experts and Mathematicians.
3. Asgardia will be following a capitalist model.
4. Asgardia is using blockchain technology which is transparent and highly secure making it nigh-on incorruptible which they hope will eliminate corruption and fraudulent use of the nation’s resources.

Space Exploration

1. Asgard-1 is ready to go. We are waiting the launch date which is currently scheduled for the 10 ^th of November, however, it’s not unusual for these dates to change based on the launch provider’s judgment.
2. Asgard-1 will hitch a ride up to space with an unmanned supply rocket that is taking supplies to the international space station. Once the drop has been made, the rocket will fly higher on its scientific mission and deploy the satellite.
3. The satellite has the onboard data storage and several sensors that are designed to monitor radiation with a view to finding the effects of space radiation on our data storage.
4. After some time, the Satellite will be pulled in by Earth’s gravity and will burn up in the atmosphere.
5. Asgard-2 is still in the very early planning phase, but the general idea behind A-2 will be to test data handling and data transfer.

Health & Education.

1. There are currently no programs defined to offer health or education to Asgardian nationals (though I know from personal experience that there are MOOCs being developed.)

Application to the UN.

1. There are no ‘set requirements’ to be met to be appointed as a nation. There are no formal criteria.
2. Paperwork is being prepared and contact is being initiated with other countries and international institutions.
3. Extended documents are being prepared to start working with them, but we have not formally asked to be accepted as a nation.

Support me.

I am currently running as a strategist and I could use your support! Please take a couple of minutes to look at my candidate profile and lend me your support if you agree 😊

Through the application of technology, it’s possible to help Asgardia grow, make money and come together as a nation. One of the purposes behind Nerdblog is to share details of progress that I am making towards building software and virtual worlds for Asgardia.

This is a cross-post from my blog, www.nerdblog.co.uk

Please support my Campaign for Strategist here: https://asgardia.space/en/blog/candidate/784722-8774-virtual-space-for-our-nation/

While my skills are currently quite modest, within the next few weeks, I will be returning to university to commence the second year of my software engineering degree. During the next year, I fully expect my capabilities to advance quite significantly as I build upon my knowledge.

However; ins spite of my current skills, I am still happy to share details of my current progress.

Calendar App.

Asgardia has its own date system, so one of the things that I have been working on recently is an application that will allow us to view the Asgard date/time. Presently, I have been working with my colleague to crack the code that converts the ‘standard’ date into the ‘Asgardian’ date.

This has been a very useful exercise as it’s gotten me used to work with Android Studio – software that’s specially designed for Android app development.

Demo of date conversion.	Demo of ‘Swipe’   interface to switch between Asgard date & Standard Date.

Naturally, this is just a proof of concept and there is still a lot to learn about the tool, but it was a small victory to get the base logic down that handles the conversion of the dates and plugging all that into the Android UI.

There are several features that we’d like to add in the future to expand the functionality.

1. App will respond to Asgardian holidays.
2. Year Day will show a special screen.
3. Google Calendar integration.
4. Thought of the Day.

Throughout the year, it is my intention to update the app with some more interesting functionality and a more interesting UI so that it might be a worthy offering for Asgardians to have on their phone.

As a lot of Asgardia is going to need to be crowd funded, I am mooting the idea of a small charge for the app to help raise money to support Asgardia and fund further development of other applications, naturally – it’ll be a while before we get to a point where that becomes a serious discussion.

Preparation for Virtual Asgardian Worlds.

One of the big platforms for me is the application of Virtual Reality to create a ‘digital space’ for Asgardia. A Virtual world where we can exist, share thoughts, ideas and knowledge to solve the problems that Asgardia is facing. To make this a reality, I need to expand my skills beyond what I’m learning on the Software Engineering Degree.

Lots of Virtual Reality development shares more skills with a Game Developer / Game Designer / 3D modelling artist than it does with a Software Engineer.

To support my learning, I have started to learn about the fascinating world of ‘Game Development’ by undertaking a course on Udemy and also familiarising myself with the tools of the trade. While I am doing a lot of my self-study in Unity, recently, I have been getting to grips with a new Game Engine from Amazon called Lumberyard. I have got all the tools set up and I spent some time exploring the starter pack that they recently created to showcase what their engine was capable of.

See the Lumberyard play-test here.

This tool has a really user-friendly interface that allows you to interact with objects in your game world in ‘real time’. I am a very visual person so I love editors that can show me how the changes I make are reflected. It makes development a lot more visceral, almost like I’m reaching in and molding it with my own hands.

Lumberyard also comes with a host of content out of the box intended to give developers a taste of what they can do with the engine and in the coming months, I will be turning my hand to creating a proof of concept called ‘Asgard Island’ which will be a fully virtual world that will allow multiple users to visit.

See the Lumberyard 'edit mode' here.

As with Asgard, there is still a lot of work to do before there are any tangible results that will inspire confidence in the project, but with will and the backing of the community, I am certain that we can start to develop something amazing for our nation.

In this series, I’m going to be talking about Virtual Reality, its applications and why I believe that it could help Asgardia to achieve its goals. I’ll be using the term ‘virtual’ and ‘augmented’ interchangeably.

This is a cross-post from my blog: https://nerdblog.co.uk/?p=3456

I am currently running for the position of strategist please support my campaign .

I have already written a report at length regarding how Virtual Reality will change distance learning, so if you’re interested, I encourage you to go and read that report some time, too.

Today’s ‘let’s talk’ is going to address the concept of a ‘Virtual World’ and why I think it’s important to the future of Asgardia.

What is a Virtual World?

A virtual world is a digital environment that has been generated using game development tools such as Unity or the Unreal Engine. It is primarily made up of 3D models and artwork and it forms the basis for the ‘land mass’. It can be designed in any way imaginable. Using one of these game engines, it’s possible to apply simulated physics to the world, too so that objects within the world behave like they do in real life.

Why do we need a virtual world?

Unity

Asgardia is made up of a very widespread population. We have people from 217 countries all operating on different time-zones and speaking different languages. Now, it’s very difficult for people to come together and feel like a unified population.

The Internet dramatically changed how bonds are formed between people, the internet has given us some brilliant tools for communication and collaboration across vast distances. It’s now possible to have friendships with people that you’ve never met.

The Virtual World will take this one step further, it will allow people to communicate directly and share experiences together. It will give these bonds a sense of tangibility that wasn’t possible before. Further to that, it will enable things such as the emulation of touch and the stimulation of lights and sound.

This technology will help Asgardians come together to start to form even more meaningful social bonds and truly start to unite as a people.

Defined Territory

The Internet and Virtual reality is making it harder than ever to define things by the traditional sense. One of the key requirements for independence is that we must have a clearly defined territory. Now – practically speaking, this isn’t possible in the ‘real world’ as we have no land available to settle on.

Having a Virtual World where every citizen of Asgardia can have a ‘home’ and can reside in might help us to show the international community that we’re more than just a wide-spread decentralised group of people.

Virtual Asgardia would allow us to offer up that ‘clearly defined’ territory, at least in principle – and it would allow us to do it in a peaceful and technological way that wouldn’t infringe on the sovereign rights and territories of the international community.

Simulation of a possible future.

Having our own virtual world with space that we occupy will allow us to see, in principle, what life will be like for Asgardia. It will allow us to test how things will work in our community in practice. With people coming from all over the world it will create a huge influx of cultures and we don’t yet know what it will be like to merge all those cultures and ideas.

Our virtual world will give us a chance to test how compatible we are as people, and how willing we are to change and adopt new cultures and ideas without having to spend billions of dollars creating Arks first.

It will also enable us to test how well our government works in principle, how well certain elements of our legal system will work and it will generally give us a taste for ‘life’ as an Asgardian.

A perpetual ‘hub’.

As we move into space and we settle on platforms, the moon, mars or other celestial bodies, our people are going to be further and further apart and we will still have the same issues of ‘decentralisation’ that we have now. If technology continues to advance at the current rate, it’s possible that people from all around our globe on Arks and space platforms and those still on Earth will be able to stay connected through the Virtual World to continue to share ideas, meet up, collaborate and bond.

It’s a lot to think about, and in future blogs in this series I will be going into more detail about ‘Virtual Asgardia’ and why it could be a huge boon to our project.

As a science fiction author, I was naturally excited by the prospect of becoming involved in this exciting project. Becoming a citizen of the first democratic space nation brings many of my imaginings to (virtual at present) reality. In this time of appalling inequality - money, ethnicity, gender, age, education, you name it - humanity needs something like Arcadia to inspire them.

Eschewing political systems mired in bigotry, hatred and out-dated ideals is not the answer to the Earth's current problems. By establishing a brand new system which offers an alternative (if only in principle) and perhaps in the future, a voice, to ameliorate the powers of unfeeling, unthinking politicians can only be a step forward for human rights, and a one giant leap towards forming a truly human society.

To me, Arcadia promises a nation of humans who are not identified by aspects of their circumstances, location, colour or gender, but by who they are. Although embryonic at present, as technology evolves, and the movement gathers pace, the vision expressed by its founders will draw ever closer.

As one of your newest members, Arcadia, I welcome you into my life.

As a drug and alcohol recovery worker I believe that as a nation this is a serious issue and recovery from drugs and alcohol need to be one of our primary concerns. I would like to suggest that as a nation we begin with this goal in mine and would therefore like to nominate myself as recovery health advisor to Asgardia.

Hello Fellow Asgardians,

It’s official, the head of state Mr. Igor Ashurbeyli has just signed off on Decree number nine. In the decree he states:

“By this Decree, I hereby:

Announce that the fi­rst Constitution of Asgardia has been accepted, and order it to be immediately published on the website www.asgardia.space in accordance with Chapter 10, Article 46 of the Constitution.”

Source: https://asgardia.space/storage/page/publication/attach/a0/69/a069a8940b7af40e8bc9b539a408df3307cf925d443d51d5cb2e91542e39190f.pdf

This shows that we’re progressing one step at a time along the path that was laid out. I hope that the march of progress will show doubters that Asgardia is serious about its goals and that under Mr. Ashubryli’s leadership, we’ll continue to make progress. As I have said in previous articles and interviews, results are the best way to convince people of our project.

The next vital step for Asgardia is the formation of the government and the election of the local leaders. There is still a lot of work to do and there are still a lot of elements that need to be worked out. How everything will fit together and function in practice will doubtlessly take time and discussion and I, for one, look forward to the challenge.

Good luck to us all.

I am running for the position of Strategist, please view my Campaign Page and lend me your support.

This is a cross-post from my blog, Nerdblog. View the original here: https://nerdblog.co.uk/congratulations-decree-n9-has-just-been-issued/

The campaign is starting to pick up steam and I'm almost 20% on my goal to becoming a strategist. I thought that it would be a good idea to share a little more information on my campaign in the hopes of convincing more voters to throw their support behind me. Please feel free to like, share and discuss this post if you want to help me out.

Vote for Me.

Core Goals: Unity, Virtual space.

One of Asgardia’s truly noble goals is to unify people under one goal and one banner. But this is very difficult as people from Asgardia come from all over the world and it’s very difficult to get together. I want to push for virtual technology to create virtual space where Asgardians can truly come together, bond, collaborate, share knowledge and share experience.

This is a lengthy post, but I encourage you to read it and understand why I am worth your vote.

Who am I?

My name is Ross Cheeseright, I’m 33 years old I worked for several years as a data analyst before moving on to study Software Engineering. I am currently a second-year student and run a small digital marketing that specializes in getting small businesses online. I have been passionate about Asgardia the moment I heard about it and I have a strong desire to turn a lot of talk into a lot of action.

Why Virtual Reality?

Virtual Reality is an emerging technology that gives people amazing capabilities and opportunities that they might not otherwise have access to. I plan to leverage this technology to ‘Centralize’ Asgardia for the following reasons:

1. The International community insists that we have a ‘defined territory’ and a ‘permanent population’ but there is no more land available on Earth, it’s all been claimed by other powers. With Virtual Reality we’ll be able to create a world that all Asgardians will have access to and will be able to have a virtual home upon and symbolically and technically prove that we’re a people who exist within a defined territory.
2. With Virtual Reality, Asgardia will be able to create schools, training facilities, entertainment, theatres, art, gather together to hold concerts, enjoy live stand-up performances. It will give our people a place to gather and live.
3. Virtual Reality will provide a source of income – By creating a virtual world, we will have something to offer to the international community. People will be able to visit our virtual world to undertake ‘long distance study’ at our universities, to visit our art installations, to play our games, to buy our services and all this will help to generate income for our people and our nation.
4. A Virtual World is a good ‘test’ for us as a population. By using a virtual world we’ll start to be able to understand what life is going to be like living together, without having to spend billions on floating platforms or buying land. We can test government, legal practices, trace and simulate a whole host of other activities of daily living.

I am still only just learning about how to create virtual reality, but I know that there are a lot of skilled people out there that I can organize to bring this technology to benefit us.

What else?

I believe in action, I don’t just want to sit around talking and philosophising about what Asgardia could be. I want to act so that people around us start to take us seriously. At the moment I am doing this by

1. Running for Strategist so that I can start to organize people and create projects.
2. Raising awareness of Asgardia so that we get more members.
3. Writing a blog on the topic of Asgardia ( www.nerdblog.co.uk )
4. Creating a community site that will help spread word of Asgardia and the good work that we do.
5. Doing my civic duty by voting, raising awareness of voting and participating in discussions.

What are my goals if you get elected?

There is a lot of work to do to get Asgardia on it’s feet, and I am prepared to give a lot of my time and dedication to the nation. These are my immediate goals if I get elected.

1. Centralize my community – Start bringing people together and sorting them out into ‘Citizens’ and ‘Activists’. Citizens are those that want to be a part of Asgardia and Activists are those that want to volunteer their time and help Asgardia grow.
2. Take stock – Find out details about what resources we have available and at our disposal.
3. Start Fundraising – If we want to do things, we’re going to need resources. Fundraising and supporting local businesses will be central to this.
4. Start building Asgardia’s reputation – We need to take control of the narrative, we’ll be using digital marketing techniques to spread word of Asgardia and have people start taking us seriously.
5. Work with other local leaders and Set up a committee for the application and development of VR / AR technologies.
6. Be completely transparent in my activities, results, work and communications so that people can freely scrutinise my activities.

So if you want action as I do, and if you want Asgardia to be taken seriously as I do, then lend me your support and we shall make people take note.

Vote for Me.

Hello Fellow Asgardians,

It is good to see that the voting has been concluded on the temporary symbols of our nation. These images represent more than just a flag or an anthem, they show that we’re moving forward, they show that there are hundreds of thousands of people that say “We want humanity to be better.” – and it’s under this message and these symbols that we’re going to unite and make that a reality.

So congratulations to all those that voted and congratulations to those artists that took the time out to share their craft to create some really wonderful designs. It will be interesting to see what the final flag, anthem and coat of arms look like -- but for now I think that these are damn fine representations for our cause.

You can see the official post here: https://asgardia.space/en/page/chronicles/list-of-conest-winners

Regards,

Ross Cheeseright
I am running for Strategist, please support me on my Campaign Page .