The Venus Project Continued...
A Man with an Idea
Mr. Fresco's background includes industrial design and social engineering, as well as being a forerunner in the field of Human Factors. Mr. Fresco has worked as both designer and inventor in a wide range of fields spanning from biomedical innovations to totally integrated social systems.
Born on March 13, 1916, Jacque Fresco grew up in the minority neighborhood of Bensonhurst in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Precocious as a child, Fresco's interests did not pertain to the topics presented to him at school. Unwilling, or unable, to conform to the setting of formal education, he sought a self-directed education throughout his later teen years. Fresco spent many days of his youth at the local library. At this early time, Fresco had a talent for acting and this won him the first prize at a prominent drama competition. Fresco also exercised his abilities in painting and sketching. Atop the roof of his home at 67th and 20th Ave., Fresco spent time with his fellow comrades discussing Darwin, Einstein, science, and the future.
The Venus Project reflects the culmination of Mr. Fresco's life work: the integration of the best of science and technology into a comprehensive plan for a new society based on human and environmental concern. It is a global vision of hope for the future of humankind in our technological age. The Venus Project is an organization depicting, as well as professing, the culmination of Fresco's life work and serves as a foundation that represents his vision of a future without poverty, crime, war, corruption, or waste. It was founded in 1980 and took its name in 1994. It is located in central Florida near west Lake Okeechobee about fifty miles northeast of Fort Myers. On its 21.5-acre lot, there are ten buildings designed by Fresco, which showcase limited versions of Fresco's architectural designs. It is partly a research center for Fresco and Roxanne Meadows, and partly an educational center for supporters of the project. They produce videos and literature depicting and explaining the future vision and the goals to actualize it. Among these goals, the salient are to produce a major motion picture portraying the future world the project promotes; constructing a theme park with the intention of exhibiting technologies and the ideas of the Venus Project; and constructing an experimental city in an attempt to test Fresco's hypotheses. Its ultimate aim is to improve society by moving towards a global, sustainable, technological social design that is termed a "resource-based economy"
What is a Recourse Based Economy?
To transcend these limitations, The Venus Project proposes we work toward a worldwide, resource-based economy, a holistic social and economic system in which the planetary resources are held as the common heritage of all the earth's inhabitants. The current practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant, counter-productive, and falls far short of meeting humanity's needs.
Simply stated, within a Resource Based Economy we will utilize existing resources - rather than money - to provide an equitable method of distribution in the most humane and efficient manner. It is a system in which all goods and services are available to everyone without the use of money, credits, barter, or any other form of debt or servitude.
To better understand a resource-based economy, consider this. If all the money in the world disappeared overnight, as long as topsoil, factories, personnel and other resources were left intact, we could build anything we needed to fulfill most human needs. It is not money that people require, but rather free access to most of their needs without worrying about financial security or having to appeal to a government bureaucracy. In a resource-based economy of abundance, money will become irrelevant.
We have arrived at a time when new innovations in science and technology can easily provide abundance to all of the world's people. It is no longer necessary to perpetuate the conscious withdrawal of efficiency by planned obsolescence, perpetuated by our old and outworn profit system. If we are genuinely concerned about the environment and our fellow human beings, if we really want to end territorial disputes, war, crime, poverty and hunger, we must consciously reconsider the social processes that led us to a world where these factors are common. Like it or not, it is our social processes - political practices, belief systems, profit-based economy, our culture-driven behavioral norms - that lead to and support hunger, war, disease and environmental damage.
The aim of this new social design is to encourage an incentive system no longer directed toward the shallow and self-centered goals of wealth, property, and power. These new incentives would encourage people toward self-fulfillment and creativity, both materially and spiritually.
When the new value system is in place, when enough people realize the above mentioned, both people who now are in ‘normal jobs’, but also those who are in politics and those who run large corporations, the abandonment of money will be a reality. Then, with the profit motive gone, technology can be developed without the hindrances that patents and greed used to be for unlimited development.
When we can concentrate on developing the best technology for everyone in every circumstance, and we can truly let technology replace 99% of today’s jobs. Jobs that now are ‘kept open’, since replacing them with technology would be devastating for the economy. Today, millions of people still work in factories doing work that easily could have been replaced by machines, robots and technology. There are already a whole lot of machines and technology in place, but again and again, I see people ‘closing the lid’ on cardboard boxes and other meaningless repetitive tasks easily replaceable by technology.
And back to the ‘ore digging’ metaphor. I am pretty sure that this field is also one where technology and machines could do much more work than it does today, replacing the need for human personnel in mines. Besides, when we truly make products to last, and human values have changed, we won’t consume as much, and we will be able to recycle 100% of all ‘waste’, maybe extracting enough of what raw materials we need, not needing to dig much more holes in the planet. In other words, technology teamed with the new human values, will make the need for constantly new stuff much much less, and thus the need to constantly dig up new resources.
And to me, being a part of a world where we all try to maximize human and environmental potential and protection, rather than profit, and where we work to develop technology to serve these ends is very interesting and fulfilling.
It would also be a true investment in humanity and the planet. An investment where we strive to take care of the environment, build up the soil, educate all humans and build a sustainable world. A world we all can truly enjoy for the rest of our lives and for all coming generations.
Getting There?
The Venus Project is in the process of introducing a set of values and procedures that may enable us to achieve social nucleation. Our project will provide the designs and blueprints for a prototype community to test the validity of our proposals; we will strive to achieve a relevant orientation by which people may adapt intellectually and emotionally to our new technological age. We feel that anything short of overall social design would be inappropriate and ineffective.
Since we begin in a monetary-based society, the means for raising funds to construct this experimental community can be accomplished in several different ways. One is through the production of a major motion picture depicting the advantages of this new social system for all of the world's people. Another possibility is the building of a theme park where visitors would actually experience some of the many benefits of The Venus Project's proposals. Books, videos, blueprints, models, a movie script, and the 21-acre research and development center have already been completed.
Any funds raised by these proposed projects, along with contributions, publications, videos, seminars, lectures, and grants, will be used to help initiate and construct the first experimental city.
Our proposals are submitted to the general public and to all educational institutions. We invite your participation. If enough people find the proposals acceptable and join with us in this new advocacy, we could form the nucleus of an organization to more forcefully implement the aims of The Venus Project.
During the great depression of 1929 when banks failed and people were laid off, things seemed hopeless. Those conditions brought about new organizations to address the many problems--everything from Mankind United, Socialism, Communism, Technocracy, and The World Federalist. They produced social awareness on a large scale. These conditions are sometimes referred to as bio-social pressures or the march of events.
At present, people are not well enough informed to devise a relevant and workable social system through rational methods. The Venus Project will not be installed by today's political leaders who are not appointed to change things but to keep things as they are. It is only through the failure of existing social institutions and political incompetence that people will seek other possible social alternatives. They are mainly motivated only by severe conditions that threaten their safety and existence.
No nation today is about to give up its sovereignty for a social arrangement that has never been tried. Therefore it will take a social breakdown to stimulate the search for alternative social designs. This has been the case throughout human history.
The Breakdown
The Venus Project cannot be put into practice on a global scale until the economic systems of the world fail to provide for the needs of people.
What will bring about the collapse of the world's monetary systems is the infusion of automation and the outsourcing of jobs. This includes not only assembly line workers but also doctors, engineers, architects, and the like. As workers and professionals lose their purchasing power, the industries that depend on them can no longer function. This will bring an end to the monetary system. It is not a question of owners giving up their industries so much as the fact that people will not have the purchasing power to sustain this system. Even the motion picture industry is generating computerized people who will replace many TV announcers and personalities.
This breakdown is already well underway on a global scale.
While these drastic conditions will help produce the motivation for social change, no individual or organization has laid out what changes are necessary and how to bring them about. Our current system is not working. Unless people are aware of, or knowledgeable about what is needed, they will continue to repeat the same mistakes--war, recession, boom and bust, hunger, poverty, and much unnecessary human suffering.
The aims of The Venus Project cannot be achieved until people become aware of its proposals and aims. To introduce to the world this new social direction, the best vehicle is a major motion picture. It will present simply and understandably the advantages to all nations of participating in a resource-based economy. This film will be both entertaining and educational. It would present the limitless possibilities of an evolving society which surpasses politics, poverty, money, and war.
A major film could reach the largest number of people the world over in the shortest possible time. We feel it is necessary to produce this motion picture in advance of the social breakdown to help prepare people for this transition and present them with a direction to work toward. There is a lot of work to be done. We hope enough people will become aware of the proposals of The Venus Project before social collapse, so that this new social design may be implemented.
Another way to visualize and accelerate an understanding of this bold new vision is with a TV series.
Therefore, our main objective is education through the media. If enough people learn about this direction, accept these proposals, and wish to organize to bring it about, we will then work toward the building of a first experimental city. The Venus Project has designs and blueprints for a prototype community.
Cities of Tomorrow
It would be far easier and would require less energy to build new, efficient cities than to attempt to update and solve the problems of the old ones. The Venus Project proposes a city that would use the most sophisticated available resources and construction techniques. Its geometrically elegant and efficient circular arrangement will be designed to operate with the minimum expenditure of energy using the cleanest technology available in harmony with nature to obtain the highest possible standard of living for everyone.
The outer perimeters of the circular city will provide recreational facilities such as golfing, bike paths, and riding or hiking trails. There will be a circular waterway surrounding the agricultural belt, which will be supplied with indigenous plants that will remove contaminants and harmful bacteria from the water. The agricultural belt, with its transparent, enclosed buildings will be used to grow a wide variety of plants in a controlled environment without the use of pesticides. There will be eight sectors to provide and store clean, renewable energy through the use of wind generators, heat concentrating systems, and photovoltaic. In addition, roadways, walkways, and bicycle paths will be specially designed to collect and store radiant energy from the sun, which will then be used for heating or cooling through a process similar to the "Peltier Effect." Along the edges of the roadways will be removable sections or gratings to permit new installations and upgrades without damaging the roads each time a new installation is made.
The residential belt will be beautifully landscaped featuring lakes and winding streams, and homes will be biomorphous with graceful contours influenced by nature to blend in with the landscape. A wide variety of innovative architectural designs will reflect the diversity and the preferences of the occupants. The exterior surfaces of these homes will be thermally activated so that the warmer it gets on the outside, the cooler it can become on the inside at a rate that is regulated by the occupant. The buildings will be prefabricated with a new type of foam-reinforced material that is strong and light-weight. Their heat-reflective external surface will be relatively maintenance-free, impervious to weather, and fire resistant. Insects will be repelled by sonic and other electronic means. With this type of construction there will be minimal damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires.
Adjacent to the residential district will be the dining areas where one can find a wide selection of food, much of which will be organically grown. Next will be the apartments, design centers, and research labs. The eight domes surrounding the central dome will house the library, science, art, music, research, exhibition, entertainment, and conference centers. There will also be "access centers" where one will have access to a wide variety of products such as cameras, waterskies, recording equipment, boats, etc. in a manner similar to the public library. The only requirements necessary to obtain these items would be to familiarize oneself with the necessary information for the products' safe and proper use.
One of the major reasons for this energy efficient new social design is to allocate enough resources to meet the needs of all people so that there will always be more than enough equipment available at any time. The central dome, or "theme center", will house the core of the cybernetic system, educational facilities, shopping centers, and computerized communications networking systems, health-care, and child-care facilities.
Bibliography The Resource Based Economy. Many Authors. Web. 3/25/2012.
http://www.theresourcebasedeconomy.com/
Jacque Fresco. The Venus Project. The Venus Project. Web. 3/25/2012.
http://www.thevenusproject.com/en/jacque-fresco
The Venus Project. Worldtrans. Jacque Fresco. Web. 3/25/2012
http://www.worldtrans.org/venus/venus.html
Jacque Fresco. FAQ. The Venus Project. Web. 3/25/2012.
http://thevenusproject.com/the-venus-project/faq
Mr. Fresco's background includes industrial design and social engineering, as well as being a forerunner in the field of Human Factors. Mr. Fresco has worked as both designer and inventor in a wide range of fields spanning from biomedical innovations to totally integrated social systems.
Born on March 13, 1916, Jacque Fresco grew up in the minority neighborhood of Bensonhurst in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Precocious as a child, Fresco's interests did not pertain to the topics presented to him at school. Unwilling, or unable, to conform to the setting of formal education, he sought a self-directed education throughout his later teen years. Fresco spent many days of his youth at the local library. At this early time, Fresco had a talent for acting and this won him the first prize at a prominent drama competition. Fresco also exercised his abilities in painting and sketching. Atop the roof of his home at 67th and 20th Ave., Fresco spent time with his fellow comrades discussing Darwin, Einstein, science, and the future.
The Venus Project reflects the culmination of Mr. Fresco's life work: the integration of the best of science and technology into a comprehensive plan for a new society based on human and environmental concern. It is a global vision of hope for the future of humankind in our technological age. The Venus Project is an organization depicting, as well as professing, the culmination of Fresco's life work and serves as a foundation that represents his vision of a future without poverty, crime, war, corruption, or waste. It was founded in 1980 and took its name in 1994. It is located in central Florida near west Lake Okeechobee about fifty miles northeast of Fort Myers. On its 21.5-acre lot, there are ten buildings designed by Fresco, which showcase limited versions of Fresco's architectural designs. It is partly a research center for Fresco and Roxanne Meadows, and partly an educational center for supporters of the project. They produce videos and literature depicting and explaining the future vision and the goals to actualize it. Among these goals, the salient are to produce a major motion picture portraying the future world the project promotes; constructing a theme park with the intention of exhibiting technologies and the ideas of the Venus Project; and constructing an experimental city in an attempt to test Fresco's hypotheses. Its ultimate aim is to improve society by moving towards a global, sustainable, technological social design that is termed a "resource-based economy"
What is a Recourse Based Economy?
To transcend these limitations, The Venus Project proposes we work toward a worldwide, resource-based economy, a holistic social and economic system in which the planetary resources are held as the common heritage of all the earth's inhabitants. The current practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant, counter-productive, and falls far short of meeting humanity's needs.
Simply stated, within a Resource Based Economy we will utilize existing resources - rather than money - to provide an equitable method of distribution in the most humane and efficient manner. It is a system in which all goods and services are available to everyone without the use of money, credits, barter, or any other form of debt or servitude.
To better understand a resource-based economy, consider this. If all the money in the world disappeared overnight, as long as topsoil, factories, personnel and other resources were left intact, we could build anything we needed to fulfill most human needs. It is not money that people require, but rather free access to most of their needs without worrying about financial security or having to appeal to a government bureaucracy. In a resource-based economy of abundance, money will become irrelevant.
We have arrived at a time when new innovations in science and technology can easily provide abundance to all of the world's people. It is no longer necessary to perpetuate the conscious withdrawal of efficiency by planned obsolescence, perpetuated by our old and outworn profit system. If we are genuinely concerned about the environment and our fellow human beings, if we really want to end territorial disputes, war, crime, poverty and hunger, we must consciously reconsider the social processes that led us to a world where these factors are common. Like it or not, it is our social processes - political practices, belief systems, profit-based economy, our culture-driven behavioral norms - that lead to and support hunger, war, disease and environmental damage.
The aim of this new social design is to encourage an incentive system no longer directed toward the shallow and self-centered goals of wealth, property, and power. These new incentives would encourage people toward self-fulfillment and creativity, both materially and spiritually.
When the new value system is in place, when enough people realize the above mentioned, both people who now are in ‘normal jobs’, but also those who are in politics and those who run large corporations, the abandonment of money will be a reality. Then, with the profit motive gone, technology can be developed without the hindrances that patents and greed used to be for unlimited development.
When we can concentrate on developing the best technology for everyone in every circumstance, and we can truly let technology replace 99% of today’s jobs. Jobs that now are ‘kept open’, since replacing them with technology would be devastating for the economy. Today, millions of people still work in factories doing work that easily could have been replaced by machines, robots and technology. There are already a whole lot of machines and technology in place, but again and again, I see people ‘closing the lid’ on cardboard boxes and other meaningless repetitive tasks easily replaceable by technology.
And back to the ‘ore digging’ metaphor. I am pretty sure that this field is also one where technology and machines could do much more work than it does today, replacing the need for human personnel in mines. Besides, when we truly make products to last, and human values have changed, we won’t consume as much, and we will be able to recycle 100% of all ‘waste’, maybe extracting enough of what raw materials we need, not needing to dig much more holes in the planet. In other words, technology teamed with the new human values, will make the need for constantly new stuff much much less, and thus the need to constantly dig up new resources.
And to me, being a part of a world where we all try to maximize human and environmental potential and protection, rather than profit, and where we work to develop technology to serve these ends is very interesting and fulfilling.
It would also be a true investment in humanity and the planet. An investment where we strive to take care of the environment, build up the soil, educate all humans and build a sustainable world. A world we all can truly enjoy for the rest of our lives and for all coming generations.
Getting There?
The Venus Project is in the process of introducing a set of values and procedures that may enable us to achieve social nucleation. Our project will provide the designs and blueprints for a prototype community to test the validity of our proposals; we will strive to achieve a relevant orientation by which people may adapt intellectually and emotionally to our new technological age. We feel that anything short of overall social design would be inappropriate and ineffective.
Since we begin in a monetary-based society, the means for raising funds to construct this experimental community can be accomplished in several different ways. One is through the production of a major motion picture depicting the advantages of this new social system for all of the world's people. Another possibility is the building of a theme park where visitors would actually experience some of the many benefits of The Venus Project's proposals. Books, videos, blueprints, models, a movie script, and the 21-acre research and development center have already been completed.
Any funds raised by these proposed projects, along with contributions, publications, videos, seminars, lectures, and grants, will be used to help initiate and construct the first experimental city.
Our proposals are submitted to the general public and to all educational institutions. We invite your participation. If enough people find the proposals acceptable and join with us in this new advocacy, we could form the nucleus of an organization to more forcefully implement the aims of The Venus Project.
During the great depression of 1929 when banks failed and people were laid off, things seemed hopeless. Those conditions brought about new organizations to address the many problems--everything from Mankind United, Socialism, Communism, Technocracy, and The World Federalist. They produced social awareness on a large scale. These conditions are sometimes referred to as bio-social pressures or the march of events.
At present, people are not well enough informed to devise a relevant and workable social system through rational methods. The Venus Project will not be installed by today's political leaders who are not appointed to change things but to keep things as they are. It is only through the failure of existing social institutions and political incompetence that people will seek other possible social alternatives. They are mainly motivated only by severe conditions that threaten their safety and existence.
No nation today is about to give up its sovereignty for a social arrangement that has never been tried. Therefore it will take a social breakdown to stimulate the search for alternative social designs. This has been the case throughout human history.
The Breakdown
The Venus Project cannot be put into practice on a global scale until the economic systems of the world fail to provide for the needs of people.
What will bring about the collapse of the world's monetary systems is the infusion of automation and the outsourcing of jobs. This includes not only assembly line workers but also doctors, engineers, architects, and the like. As workers and professionals lose their purchasing power, the industries that depend on them can no longer function. This will bring an end to the monetary system. It is not a question of owners giving up their industries so much as the fact that people will not have the purchasing power to sustain this system. Even the motion picture industry is generating computerized people who will replace many TV announcers and personalities.
This breakdown is already well underway on a global scale.
While these drastic conditions will help produce the motivation for social change, no individual or organization has laid out what changes are necessary and how to bring them about. Our current system is not working. Unless people are aware of, or knowledgeable about what is needed, they will continue to repeat the same mistakes--war, recession, boom and bust, hunger, poverty, and much unnecessary human suffering.
The aims of The Venus Project cannot be achieved until people become aware of its proposals and aims. To introduce to the world this new social direction, the best vehicle is a major motion picture. It will present simply and understandably the advantages to all nations of participating in a resource-based economy. This film will be both entertaining and educational. It would present the limitless possibilities of an evolving society which surpasses politics, poverty, money, and war.
A major film could reach the largest number of people the world over in the shortest possible time. We feel it is necessary to produce this motion picture in advance of the social breakdown to help prepare people for this transition and present them with a direction to work toward. There is a lot of work to be done. We hope enough people will become aware of the proposals of The Venus Project before social collapse, so that this new social design may be implemented.
Another way to visualize and accelerate an understanding of this bold new vision is with a TV series.
Therefore, our main objective is education through the media. If enough people learn about this direction, accept these proposals, and wish to organize to bring it about, we will then work toward the building of a first experimental city. The Venus Project has designs and blueprints for a prototype community.
Cities of Tomorrow
It would be far easier and would require less energy to build new, efficient cities than to attempt to update and solve the problems of the old ones. The Venus Project proposes a city that would use the most sophisticated available resources and construction techniques. Its geometrically elegant and efficient circular arrangement will be designed to operate with the minimum expenditure of energy using the cleanest technology available in harmony with nature to obtain the highest possible standard of living for everyone.
The outer perimeters of the circular city will provide recreational facilities such as golfing, bike paths, and riding or hiking trails. There will be a circular waterway surrounding the agricultural belt, which will be supplied with indigenous plants that will remove contaminants and harmful bacteria from the water. The agricultural belt, with its transparent, enclosed buildings will be used to grow a wide variety of plants in a controlled environment without the use of pesticides. There will be eight sectors to provide and store clean, renewable energy through the use of wind generators, heat concentrating systems, and photovoltaic. In addition, roadways, walkways, and bicycle paths will be specially designed to collect and store radiant energy from the sun, which will then be used for heating or cooling through a process similar to the "Peltier Effect." Along the edges of the roadways will be removable sections or gratings to permit new installations and upgrades without damaging the roads each time a new installation is made.
The residential belt will be beautifully landscaped featuring lakes and winding streams, and homes will be biomorphous with graceful contours influenced by nature to blend in with the landscape. A wide variety of innovative architectural designs will reflect the diversity and the preferences of the occupants. The exterior surfaces of these homes will be thermally activated so that the warmer it gets on the outside, the cooler it can become on the inside at a rate that is regulated by the occupant. The buildings will be prefabricated with a new type of foam-reinforced material that is strong and light-weight. Their heat-reflective external surface will be relatively maintenance-free, impervious to weather, and fire resistant. Insects will be repelled by sonic and other electronic means. With this type of construction there will be minimal damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires.
Adjacent to the residential district will be the dining areas where one can find a wide selection of food, much of which will be organically grown. Next will be the apartments, design centers, and research labs. The eight domes surrounding the central dome will house the library, science, art, music, research, exhibition, entertainment, and conference centers. There will also be "access centers" where one will have access to a wide variety of products such as cameras, waterskies, recording equipment, boats, etc. in a manner similar to the public library. The only requirements necessary to obtain these items would be to familiarize oneself with the necessary information for the products' safe and proper use.
One of the major reasons for this energy efficient new social design is to allocate enough resources to meet the needs of all people so that there will always be more than enough equipment available at any time. The central dome, or "theme center", will house the core of the cybernetic system, educational facilities, shopping centers, and computerized communications networking systems, health-care, and child-care facilities.
Bibliography The Resource Based Economy. Many Authors. Web. 3/25/2012.
http://www.theresourcebasedeconomy.com/
Jacque Fresco. The Venus Project. The Venus Project. Web. 3/25/2012.
http://www.thevenusproject.com/en/jacque-fresco
The Venus Project. Worldtrans. Jacque Fresco. Web. 3/25/2012
http://www.worldtrans.org/venus/venus.html
Jacque Fresco. FAQ. The Venus Project. Web. 3/25/2012.
http://thevenusproject.com/the-venus-project/faq
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