Chapter 30:
Now that magic and magical ministries were known, some non-magical governments had ideas. Brazil's President Fernando Cardoso had joined the Technology Alliance voluntarily during the brief cold war between it and MACUSA. In late 1998, he started giving speeches on what he called dependency theory,
"Resources flow from a periphery of poor and exploited states, which includes Brazil, to a core of wealthy states. Some would instead express their belief in modernization theory stating that each society has stages of development to go through and are best helped by the wealthy states helping the poor states join economic integration.
Brazil rejects this view. It and many other poor countries have unique attributes to be reinforced, not homogenized. We learned that in the world of magical societies, Brazil again has unique attributes. It contains a mixture of cultures of origin, bringing about a unique magical society. Its school for magic is about 1000 years old and is a center for learning for students of magic throughout South America.
Brazil, magical and non-magical together, should develop Brazil's unique advantages. Solidarity should be offered to the rest of South America, so that together we can bring about our own destiny, not homogenized with the rest of the world."
Khan addressed the world, "There have been perhaps some assumptions that need to be clarified as to what United Earth means. We work together, we help each other, we do not fight each other. We each seek how we can help the rest of humanity, while making use of what United Earth provides.
It does not mean that we all have to live the same way. I agree with my friend Fernando Cardoso that there are different ways to become and to be a developed society. United Earth wants to learn from Brazil's unique cultures, magical and non-magical, and adapt them in other places that might benefit. If there are some things that we have learned in other places, then as well Brazil can learn from them instead of needing to reinvent a much more advanced equivalent to the wheel.
United Earth is at your disposal to help where it can and to coordinate the knowledge of experiments in advancing societies using technology and magic. I am personally looking forwards to seeing advanced societies develop from the many traditions of Brazil and other places. United Earth is not standing in your way, but are there to assist you and to learn from you.
United means peace, divided often leads to war, sometimes decades later. Let us remain united and learn together how to manage this great advance in societies on Earth."
United Earth sought out ancient tribal communities in Brazil and very publicly showed how they were being protected against development of their lands. Examples of sustainable rainforest development, using magical and non-magical methods were constantly and widely publicized. It was explained that even the rainforest itself was not a natural environment but was carefully tended to over thousands of years by its inhabitants.
Brazil's President Cardoso followed overwhelming public opinion in cooperating with preventing development of native lands.
In the background to Brazil's complaints was that there was significant inflation in their local currency, but they weren't prepared to change over to the United Earth Credit, since they were worried it would cause an economic crash. Their balance of trade was not favorable and they needed to catch up to the most advanced technology and magic around the world. Their local plant and mineral products were not enough to carry the economy of Brazil, they needed their manufacturing to be competitive.
United Earth sent significant help to redesign their factories and retrain their workers. They also advised how local laws could facilitate these improvements. United Earth also helped them multiply their food production.
A United Earth public relations campaign included sending letters of thanks to various groups in Brazil, for new discoveries in the rain forest of useful materials, and the protection of those rainforests. All sorts of we appreciate Brazil in our United Earth signs started appearing world-wide.
United Earth also added a policy that past research that was still being used, in particular, the thousands of years of perfecting the rain forest deserved United Earth payments for research and development.
Eventually the public opinion in Brazil, both magical and non-magical, pushed the consensus of staying in United Earth, but also in asking for specific changes instead of just accepting global trends.
We had another planning meeting.
Daphne Malfoy said, "I think we used a Hufflepuff method to solve the Brazil issue. Is Q going to be upset?"
Q removed her from the room and brought her to Earth orbit. Air, temperature and gravity were similar to that of the room she had been in. He wore a United Earth uniform and asked, "Why did you come up with the name Ice Princess?"
Daphne had no visible reaction to suddenly looking over the planet Earth from orbit and answered, "My occlumency abilities often make it appear that I have no emotions. Especially when I didn't want to talk to someone I would be unaffected by their attempts to gain my attention. At my school, Hogwarts, some people called me behind my back, the Ice Princess or Ice Queen. Choosing that title is actually a bit of humor on my part."
Q snapped his finger and said, "Now you have complete protection of your mind from any source. I gave the same before to Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco.
When I said I wanted to see a Slytherin approach. That does not mean that every tactic needs to be a stereotypical Slytherin one. Actually, your approach to Brazil was Slytherin in nature. You decided carefully and chose a strategy that seemed most likely to you to succeed. Appealing to a sense of community was a tactic, not a true ideal that you were following."
Daphne said, "Your end goal seems difficult. To get to a goal of human evolution we need to survive many challenges. I tend to be the voice of caution, as do my husband and father-in-law, worrying more about what can go wrong than what can go right."
Q answered, "Which is a core attribute of Slytherin. What would you like to know?"
Daphne thought quickly and said, "To understand how to lead a society in a direction we want while not losing control over it."
Q snapped his fingers and Daphne had memories of several popular theories from up to 1998, of psychology, sociology, economics, and history, all relating to societies. "You know some basics now. You should keep reading and challenging your assumptions and comparing your results to your plans."
She appeared back in the original meeting room at the same moment she left and said, "I just had a visit from Q. He said what we did was actually Slytherin, using community as a tactic rather than believing in it as a goal. He also instantly gave me some knowledge of some non-magical theories of society. He also made my occlumency absolute."
Khan saluted and said, "Ice Princess, I am sure your knowledge and abilities will be invaluable in the days ahead.
Our next long term project is space. There was a Star Trek quote associated with Kirk, for some of us our least favorite character from that canon. It starts with, Space: the final frontier.
As we know from Q, space isn't the final frontier. Understanding and manipulating the nature of reality itself lies beyond that, at which time our distant descendants can join the Q.
Within the general frontier of space, first lies Earth's orbit, which has been reached for decades. Next will be the Solar System. Then travel beyond the speed of light, a dream considered impossible by our knowledge of physics, but one that we know to be possible since the Star Trek canon is real for us. After that are various improvements that are just as drastic but more difficult to separate into separate stages."
Hermione said, "We know that we get contacted when we test a warp engine going faster than light. We should be ready for contact before pressing that start button."
Tracey Davis recently married Jonathan Pike. She said, "I would like to sketch out the starship controls. The NX-01 bridge isn't ergonomic enough, while Captain Pike's bridge has some really good ideas. Canon shows two views, the simple one in the Original series, and the more elaborate one in Star Trek Strange New Worlds."
Draco asked Khan, "Can you remind us again why we don't like Kirk?"
Khan said, "When he encountered my canon self, he could have had me jailed for the crime of losing a war. Instead he placed our group on a planet, said some nonsense about Australia and flew away. He never checked if it was a stable planet, didn't leave us with a spaceship, and then when the star system shifted we endured terrible conditions, killing many of us. He could have left us with a sub-space radio or had someone check in on us every so often. Maybe not himself, since he was too busy breaking the timeline with his constant time travel."
Harry Potter said, "We've got some more immediate things to decide this year. The International Space Station. We already delayed it a while. We need to decide how to launch each part and how much magic to have onboard. I think we should have gravity and decent food."
Jonathan Pike said, "Absolutely. Are we not wizards? We have momentum-reversing spells and all sorts of variants of that. Surely we can devise normal gravity as an enchantment. I bet Professor Flitwick could invent it."
Harry Potter said, "I was just visiting the Weasley's Joke Shop. They are selling anti-gravity hats. That is only three steps away from Star Trek style gravity plating."
I added, "Space luxury, befitting our wizarding status. Life in space as comfortable as in a manor house. Let us make space stations that are impressive."
Draco said, "We shouldn't delay the International Space Station though. It is a symbol of United Earth. Perhaps launch the thing already, since it is partially built on the ground, and then later build another luxury station. Otherwise all we have is the Mir in orbit."
Hermione added, "The Mir should not be decommissioned. There are probably experiments we can do with that station after it is replaced."
Tracey Pike added, "Since the ISS is designed as a zero-g station, might as well make use of it for zero-g manufacturing and science experiments. We'll also need to understand how long the charmed gravity plates will last. The ISS will help us to be ready for zero-g at times. Also we can practice extra-vehicular operations with the ISS. The Mir is more or less worn out and isn't as easy to modify as the ISS which can be easily customized."
United Earth's Space Research Department decided how to launch the space station segments. They briefed President Khan Singh on their plan. The rest of the planning group were watching from a hidden location. They could send him messages on his mirror tablet if needed.
Space Research and Development Chairman Ace Castillo reported, "Without magic, the main constraint of space launching was the need to launch the weight of the rocket machinery plus the fuel, along with the payload. With magic there is no need. While we are working on charmed lifting platforms, we have an expedient to use until that is reliable. We have a manned platform providing lift capacity with spell-casters on board. We always bring more than needed, so if they become magically exhausted, the platform doesn't fall. All they need to do is provide a steady lift.
The speed of travel is kept low to avoid having to deal with atmospheric friction. Later we will solve this issue. We go at about 1000 kilometers per hour through the atmosphere. A computer lets the spell-casters know precisely which way to guide the platform to reach the planned orbit. Once orbit has been achieved, and the crew has a chance to rest, the crewed portion of the platform detaches and has a similar trip back to Earth.
The ISS segments already built were each designed to fit in a chemical rocket stage designed without the use of magic. In orbit, they are assembled. With magic, crews can be in temporary shelters before taking up residence in the space station, once it is made habitable.
We plan a steady expansion of the ISS, building and launching segments throughout the world. Since we are not using chemical rockets, we can launch from locations near to their assembly."
We noticed that the plans looked a lot like the opening credits sequence of Star Trek Enterprise. That probably was due to the Star Trek Canon effect.