TEDxOjai x = Independently organized TED event
Today, we live in most troubled times.
All the nations of the world seem to be undergoing some degree of change.
In order to avoid the problems
that we have had for years:
unemployment
military conflict, territorial disputes
the only way to resolve those problems
appears to be based upon a return to a set of values
that will enable us to survive.
In order to do that
I believe we have to declare all the Earth's resources
as the common heritage of all the world's people
and to outgrow the monetary system
to make things available to people.
All the necessities of life must be made available.
If we fail to do that, there will be territorial disputes continuously.
If few nations control most of the world's resources
you're going to have territorial disputes.
The problem is: Can we build a sustainable world
without the necessity of armies, navies, prisons, police?
I believe that if people have access
to the necessities of life
meaning a relevant education, a decent home life
healthy foods available, clean air, clean water and clean technology
those are the necessary ingredients
to make it possible for global sustainability.
If we fail to do that
I think we'll have a continuation
of the same problems we've had for centuries:
war, depression, recession, boom!
We have to agree upon a set of values
that will take care of everyone without any dominant group.
Even the wealthiest people today
would live better in a Resource-Based Economy.
We do not have enough money to house, build hospitals
and take care of most human problems
but we do have more than enough resources.
That is why we emphasize a resource-based, global economy.
If people have free access to the necessities of life
crime would almost diminish to zero.
In other words, instead of designing things to wear out and break down
to promote more people purchasing things
keeping the old system alive, we have to evolve to a newer system
that is free of the conditions that produce aberrant behavior.
We also have to evolve a language that's not subject to interpretation
because when you speak to people today, they hear what you say
but it goes into their heads and comes out in relation to their background.
We need a more precise system
perhaps a system used by engineers in conversation.
When engineers talk to each other, it's not subject to interpretation.
When chemists talk to each other, it's not subject to interpretation.
We will become problem solvers.
All people will become creative
because we now know what it is that enables a person
to become imaginative and creative.
This is not inherited. It's learned.
We now have the methods
for helping people to become broader in their viewpoint
and brought up to expect change.
There are no fixed systems in the future.
All systems undergo continuous modification.
This includes language, social customs...
The design of cities and our social systems must be updated
to fit the circumstances of the environment and resources.
If we design our cities to meet human needs
you won't have most of the problems that are prevalent today.
In the central dome, you have child care
schools, dental care and medical care.
We work out 1/8th of the city system and then we reproduce it
instead of having architects design each building
which is a tremendous waste of energy and talent.
We can build a beautiful environment.
Rather than parks, immerse the city in lovely gardens
so everything surrounding the housing in the cities
would be very desirable.
Anything people may need is available
in these outside access domes:
culturing materials, musical instruments, somewhat like a public library.
Anything that they need is available without a price tag.
That would mean, we must achieve a level of production
that's so high, that scarcity no longer exists.
Once you overcome scarcity, most of the problems
[like] hypertension, will be gone.
Most families have quarrels over scarcity.
Surrounding the central dome, you have the research centers that do work
that's relevant to the sustainability of the entire community.
As we move away from that, we come to the residential district.
There are streams, waterfalls and lakes throughout the area.
As we move to the next sector, we come to apartments.
Everything is built in to the central towers.
I feel that in the future, people will move away from individual houses
and live in larger complexes.
Instead of building cities, we do a survey of the climate, the people
the arable land, and base our designs upon the carrying capacity
of the envrionment or the Earth's resources.
Anything less than that will not work.
Without technology, none of this can be accomplished.
We have to automate all repetitive and boring jobs
so that we don't use people in that area.
People working with computers can resolve most of the problems.
War is the supreme failure of nations
to bridge their difference in values.
I would imagine that in the near future
we will have a better methodology of bridging the difference between nations
and inviting cooperation rather than competition.
During the Great Depression, the '29 crash
there were automobiles in car lots, radios
and there were all kinds of things in store windows
but the public didn't have the purchasing power.
It appears if we go on the way we're going
and automating more and more industries
the public will not have the purchasing power.
They will be replaced by production machines
which make it impossible for a monetary system to survive.
I'm trying to anticipate the future
and design things to work out well for all the world's people.
Consider these things because these are the transitional times.
What I say about global survival
I mean the oceans, the land:
Everything has to become the common heritage of all the world's nations.
I feel that eventually
we'll surrender our notion of individual nations
and merge together in one gigantic cooperative venture
namely the preservation of the environment and human life.
This is what we hope to accomplish in a Resource-Based Economy.