What Would an Intelligent Civilization Do?

An invitation to try this thought experiment

What if we could build a new civilization from scratch – with all our current knowledge and technologies, but none of our inherited constraints? A thought experiment with no answers. Just a question, and an open field.

Let’s have a thought experiment. Imagine the Earth has just been cloned into a new virgin world. This New Earth is pristine – as it was in the early days of humanity. You and I have been sent to the New Earth with the mission to create a new civilization from scratch, to prepare this new world for the future migration of humanity there. We have access to all the knowledge humanity has discovered so far and to all the technologies they’ve built. We’re like project managers having all Humans as potential team members and full access to anything needed to do our job. For the raw materials and natural resources, we must use first what’s in the New Earth, but if needed, we can get what’s needed from the Old Earth.

One question drives our mission:
Starting from a blank slate, with nothing inherited and nothing off-limits, given the current state of our knowledge and technologies, what would an intelligent civilization do?

So. Where do we start?…