An organization as large as the Scouts should probably have some
explicit functions beyond training and personal preparation.  My
theory is that it's acceptable to impinge on some traditional state
functions because we are trying to divert some of the psychic focus
traditionally rendered to the state.  Here are some possibilities: <p>

<ul>

<li>Disaster relief/emergency services</li>
<li>Search and rescue</li>
<li>Exploration, survey, etc</li>
<li>Community Watch/Anti-piracy patrol</li>
<li>Ecological restoration/preservation</li>
<li>Uplift advocacy</li>

</ul>

The more I think about it, the more potential I think there is in
having Ecological Restoration as a high-profile scout function.
Restoring Craterrock and Sundown would be a very long-term project
capable of absorbing effort from a lot of people.  Yes, resources too,
but any realistic plan for focusing one third of the psychic energy of
the Linked Worlds is going to be expensive.  (And we have access to
resources.)  Keeping such projects in the public eye should be a
straightforward publicity exercise.<p>

Ciernan was worrying the other day about how you structure the Scouts
to achieve the level of focus we need.  I'm not fixating on that
question because I know you've been thinking about it; but I am
thinking that one way to generate focus would be to take point on a
string of extremely high-profile projects that could otherwise be in
the government arena, but aren't yet. <p>

If you wanted to go for more big game in this arena, you could think
about things like jumpgate construction, planetary survey in the
dust nebula, building more domes on Vircus, etc.  I haven't done any
serious thinking on timetables for these things (though I get the
impression that jumpgate construction, for example, is a decades-length
project), but it seems possible to me that a 1000-year or 1500-year
plan could be implemented as a cornerstone of the Scout Service. <p>

-Hippocrates

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