I have become enthralled by the stories of those recruited to live in the Habitats. Many of their underlying themes are similar: hopes for a better life and full participation in a shared experiment to create a strong and cohesive community. Alex has already told me the story of how she and Kevin came to discover and chose to live here, but when I asked her for the stories of those she was around, she refused, insisting she could only speak to her own experiences.

She did send me to the Archives, a project conceived and created by Liaison Public Relations, commonly known as LPR, encouraging us, even now, to record videos describing our lives for future generations. After all, "history can never completely be known unless our individual voices are also known."

When a person decides to record something for the archives, they can talk about anything, and most of us do. It's safe to do so; our files remain private to ourselves until well after we die, and even then, nothing is publicly available for a hundred years unless we've already shared it.

When LPR created the project, they wanted to make it easy for people to share their experiences. Anyone participating was given access to prompts and questions, most focusing on their lives before they moved down, the decisions surrounding their choice, what they thought about coming to live in an underground city and how their lives turned out. Some recorded multiple sessions, others none at all.

In every archive I've viewed, it's obvious each person carried themselves down here, complete in their complexity. They carried hopes and dreams alongside their fears, stresses, biases and traumas. Some trauma was individual, but most was collective. No matter the type of trauma, the intensity it carries in an individual is unique and needs to be acknowledged as such.

Ted Nguyen was among the first children born in the habitats. We know him for his contribution to the Nguyen-Nguyen Principle, which has led us to discover hyperspace travel. His parents and grandparents were among those who built this habitat, living as part of the camp in Shively, West Virginia, where the workers and their families were housed as members of a community. Ted's parents, Suong and Thao Nguyen, were part of the exodus of families who fled their country at the end of the Vietnam War when the city of Saigon fell. They left to avoid being killed for their support of what became the losing side. Suong and Thao met as children in a refugee camp set up for the thousands like them. Subsequently, they and their families immigrated to the United States. (1)

The war in Vietnam lasted twenty years, serving as a proxy between economic and ideological opponents across continents. Each contributed money, weapons and humans, primarily those their government identified as male. The war led to over a million deaths and the destruction of over 24 thousand square kilometers of land, much of it fertile, through excessive bombing and chemicals released over jungles. And so, many ordinary people fled. Some fled immediately out of fear for their lives. Others left later, as the rule of the despots failed to bring them anything but poverty. (2)

I have to admit, the concept not just of someone killing another human being but treating the act as a necessity where the senseless death and pain brought to individuals is given no heed repulses me. Yet, as I peruse history on the surface, it seems it was "a feature, not a bug", as the old saying goes. The acts of war and violence seemed to follow the evolution of humankind, with the first acts of interpersonal violence being discovered as occurring well over 400 thousand years ago. As technology developed, so too did the capacity for violence, which continually escalated as humanity hurtled toward the Catastrophe. As time progressed, more and more people were severely injured or killed, and even more were displaced from the land of their birth. It was a downward spiral of the worst kind. (3)

Over the millennia of humanity's evolution, aspects of our societal upbringing have become instinctive in some respects. Not just our autonomic reactions, which continuously keep us alive without conscious thought, but the reactions we assimilate from those around us and pass down to future generations. As our ancestors evolved into more civilized societies, the reasons for many of those responses faded, leaving us with inbred biases no longer relevant to our species' success. Especially now, well over a hundred years after the Catastrophe. (4)

We who live in the habitats acknowledge and treat each individual as someone of equal worth and value. A person's position in our community doesn't depend on their looks, who they love, how they dress or identify, or the number of units they can access. No one lives in poverty or luxury; everyone lives comfortably. We do not require protection from others. We no longer need a forceful person to lead us and reject those traits leading us toward unthinking compliance.

It was different on the surface before the Catastrophe. It's easy to see why someone would do anything to stay in power when doing so disproportionately benefits them, especially when the inequities built into the very fabric of society bend their way. This is particularly true when viewed through the long lens of a historical perspective. I admit it's easier to miss when it's slowly happening around you.

To stay in power, Trump lied over and over again, starting with a small and easily exposed lie, "My inauguration was bigger than Obama's," seeing who parroted the line and who chose to break free. Moving from lie to lie, exploiting those believers, even when it caused harm to others. As the lies built, so did the harm, even moving to affect those who believed and acted upon the lies. "It's going to disappear." "It's fake news." Eventually, the lies became laced with undernotes of actively harming those he directed, using coded language to tell them to intimidate, hurt and kill those he labeled "vermin." (5)

It turns out it was easy to persuade the surface population to hate. To turn them from seeing who perpetuated the inequities and instead hate those they were told are "other," not human, not worth their consideration or forbearance. It's easy to push individuals into volatile situations when they are perpetually stressed and tired and are convinced someone else will take the little they have. (6)

Aggressiveness is a trait initially consistent with our individual need to survive. Protection was extended to one's mate and offspring and finally transformed into protecting the tribe. After a while, aggression moved from defense to offense, from hunting for food to fighting other tribes for resources. Physical resources weren't the only reasons to encourage aggression. Instead, males were encouraged to fight for base concepts, such as who would rule and subjugate the other. Aggression became built into their entertainment: wrestling matches amongst the ancient Egyptians and the slaughtering of humans in Roman arenas. Not only can aggressiveness be linked to actual participation in these competitions, but it also stimulates the same within those who are spectators. Not satisfied with actual physical clashes, electronic games became available, many continuing with aggressive themes such as combative sports or the outright killing of digital figures, including figures meant to be human, further removing them from the actuality while continuing to enhance this trait beyond what any could deem necessary. (7)

In retrospect, the spiral of violence throughout humankind's history is evident. My admittedly non-scholarly reading of history made abundantly clear that the old quote, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes," continues to ring true. In this case, the rhyming tended to show itself as an increase in the amount and intensity of violence, which continued through to the Catastrophe. (8)

Other inbred traits are also problematic. Instead of considering each other as equals, it became accepted that some were better than others and should rule for no other reason than their birth or ability to win in a competition, be it a puzzle or a war. This was also when expectations based on physical and sexual characteristics required conformity to the societal expectations of exhibited traits by a designated gender.

The more time passed, the deeper those thought patterns dug into the entire species. Some were eager to unquestioningly support one who promised a dictatorship, actively ignoring or denying similar situations in history. Their attitude was one of selfishness, wanting for themselves, regardless of what it meant for others.

There was an inherent bias in the then United States against immigrants, which was strange because the entire country was created by those who had emigrated from elsewhere. But with each wave of immigrants seeking a better life, voices from earlier waves were raised against them, each citing differences in religion, fears of making less money or losing work because of those who would do it for less. Those already established embraced conspiracy theories such as fears of disease. Add in skin color and facial features marking them as different from many of the immigrants who had come before, and the plight of the refugees from Vietnam rapidly brought out all the ugly symptoms of xenophobia into the open. (9)

Many of our ancestors had forgotten we all have a right to exist. Those entering with or without permission from the government were still called and treated as if they were illegal and should be confined or placed in involuntary servitude for simply trying for a better life. It was an ugly face to show those less fortunate. I have always wondered what happened on the surface after the Catastrophe, between those who left the worst areas and those they met in areas still able to sustain lives.

Once the Charter was in place and it was time to establish the habitats, the Foundation began to recruit. They found those who would build the actual cities and were willing to establish a society conducive to the Charter. Their first recruits came from those with construction skills and knowledge and those willing to work hard for a better life for themselves and their families. Many had known the derision caused by systemic, cultural or even personal bias and were motivated to live where everyone was treated equally and equitably. Eventually, the aim was for every worker and their families to live in the habitat itself.

The Foundation recruited from all races and cultures without regard to gender or age, based on behavioral observations and interviews. Families were recruited together, with the caveat at least one member would be willing to work in the construction zone, and the others would support the community in the town where they all resided. In effect, each of these working communities also became their own social experiment: how would individuals from different cultures work together as a community of equals and bring the concepts of the Charter into actual reality? Would it differ between cultures? Or would similar structures arise?

These first communities created under the Charter eventually provided the basis of the society we live in today. Concepts such as Stores, a centralized ordering hub, and the Canteen, later renamed the Eatery, arose from these camps in much the same way across the planet.

Until the first residents moved down permanently in 1990, everyone involved in constructing a habitat lived in an area a few hours from the construction site. This particular story refers to NAHE, but the broad strokes could be that of any of the twenty habitats under construction worldwide.

For each community associated with a habitat, the Foundation provided teachers for children and adults. Still, aside from providing the necessary and requested supplies, it allowed the families to form communities without interference. The only time the Foundation intervened was when someone transgressed physically, at which point they were removed from the camp and the project.

Those recruited then seemed to have had enough of strife and hatred and chose to live quietly and in cooperation with each other. They embraced the Charter and, in each instance, chose to live as a unified tribe under the guiding principle that all voices should be heard. The broad contours of the social experiment became the basis for the government of the habitats.

By the time Suong and Thao's families arrived in Shively, the habitats had been fully excavated, formed and lined with reinforced, specially treated concrete and steel designed to withstand catastrophic earthquakes and direct explosive hits. The basic construction for many sections was completed, and the Central Platform, the only way to move through the habitat, was also operational. Lifts, elevators and the base floor structure continued to be built.

The video begins: