by Frederick Mann, December 1999
Acknowledgments
I found the term "freedom engineer" used by Linda Dixon at I'mpossible (see also this article about Dixon) and by Nicholas Hood (also "freedom engineering") at his website. Nicholas Hood's work has inspired my further development of the ideas and concepts of freedom engineering.
Freedom Engineering Essay Contest
A freedom engineering essay contest is hereby announced. Contestants are invited to write essays of 1,000 - 5,000 words on the topic of freedom engineering.
The first prize is $5,000.
Second prize is $2,500; third, $1,000. There are also 10 consolation prizes of $500 each.
The complete details of the first freedom engineering essay contest can be found here.
Introduction to Freedom Engineering
When engineers set out to build a bridge, they first design the bridge, then they acquire the necessary resources (consisting of people, equipment, and material), and then they build the bridge. In designing and building the bridge, they apply formulas. If they applied the proper formulas, the end result is a bridge that stands.
The same kind of approach can be used to "build freedom."
Consider the approach of "bridge activists" -- people who promote the cause of certain bridges being built. These people may not be trained bridge engineers. They may not know how to build a bridge. They operate on the basis of persuading others to build the bridges they think are necessary.
With the necessary training (personal development: learning bridge-building formulas, acquiring knowledge and skills, etc.), bridge activists could become bridge builders.
Freedom engineering is based on the idea that freedom activists can become freedom engineers who build freedom. If necessary, they start off by building their own personal freedom -- the equivalent of an aspirant bridge engineer acquiring the necessary training and skills to build bridges. Freedom engineers learn better formulas for building freedom, starting with their own personal freedom, and then advancing to building freedom for the rest of the world.
Part of the essence of freedom engineering is to continuously improve the formulas you apply to make progress. And an essential aspect of improving your formulas has to do with prediction. An engineer can predict the probability that a bridge built in accordance with certain formulas will stand or fall. Effective action is largely based on the ability to predict.
During November 1999, 12 Texas A&M University students ("Aggies") were killed when a huge, tall wooden log structure they built for a bonfire collapsed. This is a "tradition" that's been going on about 90 years. Every year, prior to a football game against the University of Texas, the Aggies build and ignite their bonfire. They don't use proper blueprints and don't have professional engineers in charge. They use notebooks with instructions (inadequate formulas).
To me it seems like one of the most absurdly stupid activities you could imagine. Consider the cost of the activity against the potential benefits. Consider the risks to life and limb. Has anyone ever predicted that the Aggie bonfire has been a disaster waiting to happen all these years? It'll be interesting to see whether they persist in their folly in the coming years.
The Aggies have been applying the formula: "Tradition says we must build the bonfire." Even if they were to apply good formulas for the actual building process, the overall formula remains absurdly stupid.
A second part of the essence of freedom engineering is the creation or addition of value. Engineers build a bridge because it adds value. A bridge makes it easier for people to get from point A to point B. The bridge adds value to their lives. What value does the Aggie bonfire add to anyone's life?
A third part of the essence of freedom engineering is how you define freedom. For several years, I was puzzled by why so many libertarians seem to spend so much time on trying to change the political system, while neglecting other ways of expanding their freedom. It made more sense to me when I examined Ayn Rand's definition of freedom: "There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else." (Anthem by Ayn Rand; Penguin Books, NY; 1992 - first published in 1938.) Directly and indirectly, Ayn Rand has been a major influence for most libertarians.
Definitions of Freedom
According to Linda Dixon:
"...Freedom... the by-product of purposeful thought and action... Create exactly what you choose, with lots of cash flow! Choose your freedom! DESIGN it! LIVE it!".
How we define freedom has a tremendous effect on the actions we take (or don't take) to expand our freedom (or not). For the purpose of freedom engineering I suggest: Freedom: The range of desirable, positive options available to you. The freer you are, the more you live your life as you want to live it, because you have more desirable, positive options available to you.
"Act so as to maximize your available options." -- Heinz Von Foerster (cyberneticist; writer on self-organizing systems)
According to Rose Wilder Lane: "Freedom means self-control; no more, no less."
See also, #TL05: HOW TO DISCOVER YOUR FREEDOM and #TL05A: THE NATURE OF FREEDOM.
The more control you can exercise over your life and affairs, the wider the range of desirable, positive options available to you, and the freer you are. The more you're subject to external control, the fewer desirable, positive options are available to you, and the less free you are.
The Essence of Freedom Engineering
Three cornerstone concepts comprise the essence of freedom engineering:
In prescriptive form, the essence of freedom engineering is:
Freedom engineering includes some concepts and formulas that may constitute breakthroughs for the expansion of freedom. The concept of freedom resources is one of these. There are vast freedom resources potentially available to us, but mostly unrecognized by freedom lovers. This is covered in more detail under Freedom Engineering FAQ and Key Freedom Factors. Even people for whom freedom isn't an important issue can be utilized as freedom resources. We even have formulas that enable us to easily persuade some enemies of freedom to help us expand freedom!
Another breakthrough of freedom engineering is that you don't have to promote freedom in self-sacrificial ways. You can make money promoting freedom. So you're far less subject to burnout. Freedom activists burning out constitute a huge loss to the freedom movement.
One of the great benefits of freedom engineering, because you focus on your personal freedom first, is that you can get to quickly enjoy the benefits of improved health, wealth, and freedom. You don't have to wait for the world around you to change.
The Freedom Engineering Network may serve as a catalyst for triggering all kinds of freedom-building projects and businesses.
Undoubtedly, one of the great breakthroughs of freedom engineering is my concept of the Liberty Money Machine -- an "automatic money machine" that brings in money with very little work required by the "operator."
Creating a Free World
To create a "free world," requires capable freedom engineers to do some freedom building. To become sufficiently capable, some need to do some building (growth work) on themselves. The first priority of a freedom engineer is personal growth and development, particularly in these areas:
Freedom engineering provides a wealth of formulas for all these areas. Notice that any improvements you make in these areas adds value to your life. The more value you add to your own life, the easier it becomes to add value to the rest of the world.
For some, the necessary starting point may be to increase their thinking skills to the point that they are capable of improving their health and wealth. (Improving your formulas requires thinking skills; so does clearing "anti-formulas" from your mind. An example of an anti-formula is the notion, "you can't predict the future." There are many aspects of the future you can predict with a known or estimated degree of certainty -- just ask the Las Vegas casino operators! You can also predict with a high degree of certainty that if you shoot yourself in the head, you'll die!)
The second priority of a freedom engineer is to help expand and improve "freedom institutions" and to build new "freedom institutions." An example of a Freedom Institution is e-gold. So is Build Freedom.
Basically, three functions are performed by freedom institutions:
Freedom institutions that perform function #3 make it easier for individuals to live free in an unfree world. Individuals can enjoy certain freedoms despite a lack of freedom for those around them, who may suffer from the consequences of an unfree political system.
The following organizations are further examples of freedom institutions -- I'm including their Alexa traffic rankings on 11/16/99 (the lower the number, the higher the traffic):
| WorldNetDaily | #1,167 |
| Neo-Tech | #15,883 |
| Build Freedom | #18,595 |
| Cato Institute | #19,329 |
| Free-Market.Net | #35,520 |
| Advocates for Self-Government | #36,080 |
| National Libertarian Party | #39,921 |
| Reason Magazine | #42,151 |
| The Spotlight | #116,607 |
These and similar organizations (explicitly or implicitly) use formulas to attract visitors to their websites.
Hoover Dam as Analogy
About 20 miles east of Las Vegas, Nevada is the Hoover Dam (sometimes called Boulder Dam). It's undoubtedly one of the world's greatest engineering marvels. It was built in the 1930s.
As a result of Hoover Dam, millions of people have been able to settle in Nevada, Arizona, and California, which would not have been possible without the dam. In addition to water, Hoover Dam provides hydroelectric power to millions of people.
Before Hoover Dam was built, the Colorado river flowed unevenly, to put it mildly. Farmers downstream suffered periodic droughts and floods. One season their crops perished for lack of water; the next, their farms were washed away by floods. The Hoover Dam tamed the Colorado, resulting in an even, year-round flow. So farmers can produce a great deal more food. Indirectly, millions of people can thank Hoover Dam for the food they eat!
Every freedom engineer is invited to visit Hoover Dam and to take the tour in the elevators and tunnels, and down to the electric turbines. Also check out "The Hoover Dam: Lonely Lands Made Fruitful." Grasping the life-expanding effects of Hoover Dam may make it easier to grasp the potential freedom-expanding effects of freedom institutions. Hoover Dam makes it possible for millions of people to live comfortably in an otherwise inhospitable world. Freedom institutions make it easier for people to live free in an unfree world.
Hoover Dam adds phenomenal value to the lives of millions of people. In similar ways, freedom institutions can add value to the lives of freedom lovers, as well as the world in general.
Internet and Other Freedom Institutions
As a result of the Internet, I can do practically all my freedom-promoting work at home in front of my computer. I no longer have to pay a printer to print my books and reports. I don't have to spend a fortune on printing and postage sending out direct mail solicitations. I don't have to sell products to customers, collect money from them, have a team of people on the phone answering their questions, pay data-processing people to key in their information, handle their complaints and refund requests, etc., etc.
As a result of the Internet, my life has become a great deal simpler. I can give away all my writings for free by having them on a website, because visitors come to read them and one of the potent Internet formulas is that visits can be converted into money.
The Internet adds tremendous value to my life, as well as to the lives of millions of others. Other freedom institutions can do the same.
With a few clicks on my keyboard I pay a company on the other side of the world for a service through my e-gold account. The transaction is instantaneous, private, and secure. E-gold adds value to my life.
A few days ago, I tested my debit card associated with Virtual Beneficiary Trust for the first time. In three successive transactions, I withdrew $1,500 from an ATM machine. Anywhere in the world, where there's an ATM, I can use my card to obtain local currency. Virtual Beneficiary Trust, as a Liberty Money Machine, combined with its interface to the ATM system, adds considerable value to my life.
In a similar way to Hoover Dam making it possible for me to live comfortably in the desert, with all the water, electricity, and food I need, the Internet and a number of other freedom institutions make it possible for me to live and conduct my affairs with a great deal of ease and freedom. Both Hoover Dam and a number of freedom institutions add a great deal of value to my life.
Elements of Freedom Engineering
The Freedom Engineering FAQ provides an overview of some important aspects of freedom engineering.
Example Applications of Freedom Formulas illustrate the application of freedom engineering formulas.
The Freedom Engineering Concept Glossary [unpublished article] is an attempt to provide descriptions and definitions of all the key concepts used in freedom engineering.
Key Freedom Factors discusses important freedom engineering issues.
The material on "Quintessential Questions" may provide some insights for freedom engineering.
The Freedom Engineering Forum is a new private forum that's just been created for discussing, implementing, and practicing freedom engineering. Anyone interested in any aspect of freedom engineering should join. You could discuss how to create your own liberty money machine and make it successful. Anyone with a freedom-promoting website interested in sharing and improving freedom formulas is welcome here. Those seeking to network and find like-minded people for joint projects are also welcome here.
The Freedom Engineering Network is basically a directory where you can list yourself and/or your business under up to five categories. You can enter your personal listing, as well as listing any number of businesses each under up to five categories. All listings are free of charge.
The Freedom Engineering Network is a way for people with similar interests to link up. It's also a way for any businesses owned/operated by freedom lovers to get more customers. One of the aims is to have freedom lovers do business with one another.
The intention is also that the Freedom Engineering Network will serve as a catalyst that triggers all kinds of freedom-building projects and businesses.
The Future of Freedom Engineering
The concepts "freedom engineer" and "freedom engineering" and the insights and actions they lead to could be an example of what C.H. Waddington describes in 'Tools for Thought': "A final type of game-result worth noticing is one which I have called 'hitting the jackpot' (or 'creating a new archetype'), and have discussed particularly in connection with evolution. It happens when, in an attempt to meet some fairly modest short-term goal, the player stumbles on a move which gives him enormously more return than he expected (or perhaps knows what to do with).
The terms "freedom engineer" and "freedom engineering" lend themselves to the marketing concept called "positioning." Marketing gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote the book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.
It's just possible that there will soon be dozens of freedom engineering websites and hundreds, if not thousands of individuals and businesses listed in the Freedom Engineering Network.
We may have the beginnings of a major "movement" here. See 'MOVEMENTS' by Tom Heuerman, Ph.D. with Diane Olson, Ph.D.
In general, freedom engineers should become more successful than those who don't apply freedom engineering formulas. Thus the "movement" is likely to grow more rapidly than other freedom initiatives. There's little doubt that some freedom engineers will find highly profitable ways to promote freedom that will make rapid expansion possible.
The freedom engineering movement could be accelerated through freedom engineering fiction, including science fiction.
"Something's up, young Hank, something's abroad, we're stirring in our long sleep. Something vast and new, as when Moses came down from the mountain, evolution is converging, the glory of man is beginning to force up a little green shoot through all the crap and crud of what's called reality." -- A. Rogers St. Johns, Tell No Man
Will freedom engineering take root, grow, and blossom -- producing bright flowers with new seeds that spread far and wide? We shall soon find out!
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