Chapter 5: History Lesson 2 - The Island

One Hundred and Ten years ago, as time is measured in this world, a scientist/inventor named Nikola Tesla saw the tensions in the world, saw that society was doomed without intervention. This was the start of the an age of war that would be hot and cold for a century or more.

Tesla initiated a protocol of a secret society he was affiliated and arranged a meeting with the leaders of the Freemasons, the Templars, The Illuminati, the Carbonari and many others. Invited were the leading scientists, sociologists, religious leaders, freethinkers and economists from all over the civilised, and parts of the less than civilised world. This meeting was to discuss and formulate an action to rectify the worlds coming problems. Nikola was able to convince these real leaders of the world that the planet was destined to hundreds of years of wars and possible destruction from war, famine, population over growth, uncontrolled technological growth or complete economic failure and the apocalypse that will come from any of these events.

The group couldn't see a solution at the time, but knew that inaction would lead to destruction in one format or another. They came to a plan. They would create a cabal, using secret societies, religion, business, governments and so on as a front and slowly take over the world. Total control was impossible but effective control could be obtained, over time. This solution wasn't a silver bullet, it would be a long, hard slog. Politics, economics, social change would have to be carefully balanced to hopefully save the world and society from destruction. The world that came out the other end would not be what it was now. The world would have to be made more industrious, would have to be made smaller in terms of communication, would have to become sociologically diverse and less parochial.

An island, that was not charted, was found and populated. Communications links were established to the rest of the world using Tesla's new radio communication devices. The island would be the main research and administrative headquarters. The satellite societies would ensure that it would remain hidden. Pirates and smugglers were covertly co-opted to supply food, equipment and other necessities, including new colonists and scientists.

"The Island" was founded and initially flourished. World war started 20 years after the founding of the Island and progress slowed initially as control couldn't be exerted on the countries at war. Breakthroughs made during the war were quickly "acquired", improved and developed on the Island. for the 20 or so years after the war, the world plunged into a global depression allowing the economic components of the Island community to establish control over some of the largest firms. These firms were allowed to flounder initially and then were allowed to flourish under new control.

Another war started when a dictatorial upstart decided he belonged to a master race and needed to control the world. 5 years of bitter war and the development of an atomic bomb passed before control could be re-established. From this point on war, somewhere, was always raging. This allowed the Island to take effective control of the world by controlling and taking control of the worlds infrastructure.

During the second world war, computers were invented by several countries. Unknown to them, they were very primitive compared to the ones the Island had been using for decades. Computer technology was allowed to flourish. Unknown to all developers was that these computers were actually 10 to 100 times more powerful than they appeared. Using extensions of the Tesla communicators, moved beyond mere radio spectrum and into quantum layers, all computers were infiltrated by the Island and used to help their research. The initial computer program used to extended and expanded by Alan Turing and Marvin Minsky into a true Non-Corporeal Sentiency. This sentiency, named Nikola after the founder, spread throughout the world and distributed computing was established many years before the rest of the world.

How was advancement achieved so quickly? It is a known truism that the more people involved in advancement the slower that advancement is. Established leaders in a field are the most resistant to change. Human nature slows things down. The groups involved in the advancement on the Island were kept small, publishing only when other opinions were needed, and involving not just scientists but social and common views. Sometimes people can't see the forest from the trees and a more unbiased, alternative view will help development.