The Layaqua of Pioneer Pool is a gargantuan, genial nation, ruled by The Grand Layaq Council with an iron fist, and renowned for its state-planned economy, keen interest in outer space, and free-roaming dinosaurs. The compassionate, cynical, cheerful population of 11.056 billion Layaqs are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Industry, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of The Lane Pools. The average income tax rate is 97.3%.

The frighteningly efficient Layaq economy, worth a remarkable 5,037 trillion Layaq Flimnyas a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, fairly diversified black market in Information Technology, Tourism, Retail, and Soda Sales. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an amazing 455,651 Layaq Flimnyas, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Town nameplates frequently raise giggles from passing tourists, vitriolic divorce proceedings have become prime-time television, hiding wrinkles with make-up is illegal, and droves of former desperados are applying to join the border police. Crime is totally unknown. Pioneer Pool's national animal is the Swimming Instructor, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Life Guardiasm.

Pioneer Pool is ranked 5,431^st in the world and 94^th in Europe for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 544.38 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.