Conrad Hopman has lived in New Caledonia since 1971. He was fired from island's largest mining company, the SLN, in 1979, where he had worked as a computer expert, for having done his best to have its Ordinosaur mainframes replaced by micro computers. He had also suggested too insistently that that company should destroy the island's unique natural cover less ruthlessly, and do more with the island's great mineral wealth than ship it out as ore and ingots.

Working for the South Pacific Commission from 1980 to 1986 gave him a good knowledge of the Pacific region. He then spent most of his time working on two projects which had interested it since the early 1960s.

One of these projects was the use of ocean resources for the desalination of very large quantities of water, production of food, fertilizer and clean energy (electricity or hydrogen) and the extraction of metals, natural gas and other materials from the ocean floor.

The other was The Immediate Economy. His interest in non-monetary economies led him to make friends with the Kanaks, New Caledonia's original inhabitants. Their traditional customary economies, mutual gifting and recognition rights allowed them to live in good harmony with each other and their natural environment. That harmony did not prevent them from waging small tribal wars - often sporting events to relieve the tedium of their mild climate, avidly watched by all concerned - and followed by cannibalism of any deceased warriors. This corresponded to their extraordinary symbiosis with nature in which creatures also kill and consume each other - but never more than is necessary to maintain natural balances. Conrad recognized the sovereignty of the Kanak people on his land and villa there in 1991.

Conrad is Dutch - but not very much. His parents motored from Holland to India in 1935 - they were interested in the Eastern religions, art and adventure. He was born in Srinagar, Kashmir in 1936. He wrote his first computer program (IBM650 SOAP) in 1959 while studying civil engineering at the ETH (Swiss Federal Polytechnic, Zürich) and continued to work with computers in the USA, 1964-65 (coding coolie of IBM360 range software), the RACS teleprocessing system (1966), and seismic work in Libya (1967-68).

His familiarity with teleprocessing and commercial and banking packages convinced him in 1969 that it is possible to have economies that have prices, but no money that is supposed to have intrinsic value. His dissertation entitled "The Immediate Economy" proves that such an economy is juster and more efficient than existing monetary economies.

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