New Pangaea
In Voku, Umanu: humanity, as a whole.
New Pangaea is not a utopia, but an evolving agreement.
Today in the Pangaean calendar
- This week
- Next holiday
A working draft of civilization’s defaults: what if we redesigned how we live, learn, work, and govern ourselves from first principles? From housing and shared resources to language, calendars, and community governance, New Pangaea explores what we could build differently—starting within the world we already have.
Why I’m drafting this
At heart, I’m an idealist. I want a better world for myself, the people I love, and especially my son. At some point, I got tired of only wanting one.
We live in a world where so much human potential is spent simply trying to survive. People work jobs they don’t love just to afford the essentials. Brilliant ideas go unexplored, creativity goes unrealized, and decisions affecting millions are too often shaped by money, ideology, and misinformation rather than evidence and human well-being.
I believe life should be about more than earning the right to live. It should be about exploring, learning, creating, growing, and sharing meaningful experiences with the people around us.
New Pangaea is my attempt to imagine a society built around those priorities—where basic needs are guaranteed and people are free to pursue what gives their lives meaning.
I don’t know if it will ever become reality. But I think it’s worth designing, questioning, and improving together.
And I’d like to find out what’s possible.
| Today | In New Pangaea | Charter |
|---|---|---|
| Survival depends on a paycheck, so most people spend their lives in work they don’t love. | Food, housing, healthcare, and education are guaranteed. Work becomes a choice. | 1.3 |
| Ideas die because the people behind them can’t afford to pursue them, or can’t get seen. | Contribution is recognized with influence and opportunity, and all knowledge is open. | 1.4, 7.1 |
| Misinformation shapes decisions that affect everyone. | Anything that affects public policy has to be testable, challengeable, and decided in the open. | 1.6, 1.8 |
| Corporate and religious interests steer public life. | Belief stays free and personal. Shared resources and decisions answer to evidence. | 1.7 |
Why “New Pangaea”
About three hundred million years ago, nearly all of Earth’s land was a single continent: Pangaea, from the Greek for “all the Earth.” It was the last time the world was in one piece.
The land drifted apart, and long after, people began drawing borders of their own. New Pangaea is about bringing the world back together: not by moving continents, but by connecting people across every line we’ve drawn since.
The charter, in five lines
Read the full charterArticle 1.1
Kindness as compass
Every decision, interaction, and design is guided by kindness: how we treat each other, the natural world, and the technologies we build.
Article 1.6
Rational integrity
Belief is free. Public decisions aren’t. Anything that affects policy or well-being has to be testable, challengeable, and reviewed in the open.
Article 1.4
Contribution without currency
With the essentials guaranteed, work becomes an act of purpose rather than obligation. Contribution is recognized with gratitude, influence, and opportunity.
Article 1.9
Growth over tradition
Honor what the past teaches, but don’t preserve things just because they’re old. Progress is measured by its effect on well-being, not by novelty.
Article 8.3
Belonging is a right, not a reward
Justice starts with prevention and repair. Separation is rare, non-punitive, and always comes with a way back.
The Pangaean calendar
Thirteen months of twenty-eight days, counted like a clock. At midnight no hours have passed, so the day starts at 00:00. At the start of the year no months or days have passed, so it starts at 00-00.
- 13 × 28
- Thirteen identical months, plus one day outside them (two in leap years)
- 3 of 7
- Rest days in every week, at its start, middle, and end
- Forever
- How long a date stays on the same day of the week
Read it like a clock
- 00-00
- Nothing has passed yet. A new year begins.
- 00-01
- One day into the year.
- 01-00
- One full month into the year.
Every week
- 0Rest
- 1Work
- 2Work
- 3Rest
- 4Work
- 5Work
- 6Rest
Rest at the start, middle, and end of every week. Since a week’s last day meets the next week’s first, every week ends in a two-day weekend, with a free day midweek.
The whole year, and its holidays
00-00March 21
Dawning
Life and new beginnings. Seasonal holiday.
The first day of the year. People plant seeds, literal or figurative, for what they want to grow, and gather outdoors to say their intentions out loud.
- 365Reflection. A communal retrospective. Exhibits of memory, storytelling, and “year circles” to celebrate wins and name challenges. Councils report on the year, and a third of every council is chosen for the next.
- 366Foresight. Every fourth year. The day New Pangaea looks ahead and votes on the long-term goals councils will pursue.
The year begins on March 21, the day after the spring equinox. The equinox itself is Reflection Day, so the year closes as the season turns. Each quarter is exactly thirteen weeks, and the seasonal holidays land within a few days of the solstices and equinoxes.
Voku
A shared second language for everyone, built only from sounds most of the world’s languages already have. Native languages stay. Voku is the one everybody also speaks. Its full name, Umanu Voku, means humanity’s language.
Twenty-four letters, every one pronounced one way
- A“ah”as in father
- E“eh”as in bed
- I“ee”as in machine
- O“oh”as in note
- U“oo”as in food
- YYaas in yes
- WWaas in way
- LLaas in light
- RRaas in pero (tapped)
- MMaas in man
- NNaas in net
- BBaas in bat
- PPeas in pat
- DDaas in dog
- TTeas in top
- GGaas in go
- KKeas in cat
- HHeas in hat
- FFeas in fun
- VVaas in van
- XXeas in shut
- JJaas in vision
- SSeas in sun
- ZZaas in zoo
A E I O U,
Ya Wa La Ra Ma Na,
Ba Pe Da Te Ga Ke He,
Fe Va Xe Ja Se Za.
One root, five words
am-
The root for “love.” Learn a root once and the endings do the rest. The meaning stays the same; the last letter tells you what job the word is doing.
- amato loveVerb
- amelovingAdjective
- amoa loved oneThing
- amulove itselfIdea
- amiloved onesPlural
The ending tells you what a word is
| -a | Verbvoka (speak), nama (eat), ama (love) |
|---|---|
| -e | Adjectivenire (near), fare (far), ame (loving) |
| -o | Thingdomo (house), namo (food), kido (child) |
| -u | Ideatempu (time), kidu (childhood), paru (parenthood) |
| -i | Pluraldomi (houses), umi (people) |
| consonant | Connectorkon (with), tur (to), kas (because) |
| Capital | A name, or the start of a sentenceVoku is this language, voku is any language. |
“groka” ends in -a, so it’s a verb, an action.
Four sentences, taken apart
Patches
Most plans for a better society begin by waiting for this one to end. New Pangaea starts with patches. Think of a patch as a small town that grows its own food, makes its own energy, and runs its own affairs. Each one operates legally inside an existing country, as a cooperative, nonprofit, or ecological preserve, and shares what it grows, makes, and learns with every other patch.
The name is deliberate. A patch is how you mend something worth keeping. You don’t throw out the whole quilt; you repair the worn place, then the next one, until the repairs start holding it together. Each patch is a repair to a world that’s been worn thin but is still worth mending.
Let’s begin wherever we are, together.
What’s in a patch
- Homes
- Private, modular homes on their own plots, arranged around shared gardens and courtyards.
- Food
- Vertical farms, greenhouses, aquaponics, regenerative fields, and communal kitchens.
- Water and waste
- Rainwater capture, greywater reuse, composting and closed-loop sanitation.
- Energy
- Solar, wind, geothermal, and storage on a local smart grid.
- Movement
- Walking and bike paths, with autonomous electric shuttle loops.
- Health
- Prevention first: nutrition guidance, fitness spaces, and regular checkups, backed by an integrative clinic, mental health care, and first response.
- Learning and culture
- Project-based learning centers, libraries, studios, makerspaces, and fire circles.
- Research
- Labs and fabrication shops for sustainability, science, and engineering.
- Civic life
- Deliberative halls, decision archives, and a proposal system any resident can use.
The housing standard
Every resident gets a private bedroom. Homes are built to be expanded or split as the people in them change.
Plus a common room, a dine-in kitchen, laundry, and storage in every home. Beyond six, homes duplex.
| Residents | Bedrooms | Flex rooms | Baths |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ● | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | ●● | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | ●●● | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | ●●●● | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | ●●●●● | 3 | 3 |
| 6 | ●●●●●● | 3 | 3 |
Version 1.0
A living document
Everything here is a living document: drafts meant to be questioned, revised, and improved. If you have thoughts, I’d love to hear them.