The Venus Project
Abundance for all through elimination of money?
Utopia or more?
The incredible project of a american architect,
who is convinced, he has found a way out of the economic- and financial crisis.
- Welcome to Newton
Recalling the news of the past years
two ever repeating core topics keep reccurring
on one hand the financial and economical crisis
poverty, unemployment, everybody running short on money
and the environmental crisis on the other.
How long will our planet keep enduring us?
We could ask ourselves:
Does it have to be like this,
are there alternatives and if so, which?
A american architect proposes a radical cut.
Since 40 years Jacque Fresco is working on an counter model
that shall provide abundance for all.
Of course, such promises must always be handled with care.
But as long as we do not have any alternatives to offer,
good ideas are always in demand.
Decide, if the architect's Venus Project would be one of those good ideas.
The Venus Project
is a plan for social change that is feasible.
It works towards a peaceful and sustainable global civilization
where human beings, technology and nature coexist.
For the initiator it outlines an alternative to strive for
where human rights are not only paper proclamations
but a way of life.
Jacque Fresco calls for a straightforward redesign of the culture
in which war, poverty, hunger, debt and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable
but totally unacceptable,
because its becoming increasingly obvious
that the problems we face today will continue in the future.
The Venus Project's research center
constructed by Fresco and Roxanne Meadows
is located in Venus, Florida.
Here the two try to understand the causes of the problems in society.
Where do these problems actually originate?
When money is used
to regulate and distribute resources for profit
people and nations will seek advantage at any cost.
They do this by maintaining a competitive edge
or through military intervention.
War represents the supreme failure of nations
to resolve their differences.
From a strictly pragmatic standpoint
it is the most inefficient waste of lives and resources ever conceived.
Over 100,000 companies feed at the Pentagon trough.
But the big money goes to a handful of huge corporations.
For those who profit by the military-industrial complex,
it is a windfall, money-making opportunity.
If the profit were taken out of wars
do you really believe we would have them?
(Jacque Fresco) If they draft you into the army to serve this country
you put up your life for this country
they should draft all the war industries:
every cannon maker, machine gun maker
automobiles, jeeps, warships - all drafted,
so they're on the same basis of pay as the army.
Then it's real. But if you make millions selling warships
and machine guns to the army, then it's corrupt.
If I had my way, if we had millions of men in the army
I'd send them to school to become problem solvers
how to get along with other nations.
That's what we have to do, not kill.
Soldiers are just killing machines; they're trained to kill.
Social and environmental problems remain insurmountable,
as long as only a few control the majority of the world's resources
and profit is more important than the welfare of the people.
Excessive profiteering leads to aberant behavior
which is widely spread today.
Some people assume
that we simply need more and better laws,
in order to solve our problems.
We have many laws, thousands and thousands,
they are just broken constantly.
You can predict the shape of the future and the values if you know
the trends of events in the ocean pollution, the scarcity of arable land.
If you watch that degrading system grow
I can predict the riots and killing and assassination.
Human behavior is really generated by the surrounding environment.
If there's a scarcity, say of water,
it is prized and its price is high.
Let's discuss scarcity as a system.
Suppose it rained gold for about 3 days, gold dust.
People would go out and shovel it in, fill their cellars, the attic,
every drawer in the house. They'd throw out their clothing.
If the rain kept up for a year so that gold was all over the place,
people would sweep it out of the house,
take their rings off, throw them away.
And so human behavior undergoes change to that condition.
There's only a policeman in front of something
that people have need for, and don't have access to,
so you put a guard there.
But if lemon trees, orange trees and apple trees, grew all over the place,
you couldn't sell it.
If you landed on an island that was so abundant with resources,
you had 10 people, there were a thousand fish for every person
if you wanted it, there were 10 times the amount
of breadfruit and bananas
money would not come into existence. Private property would not come into existence.
If the island was big enough:
there were 10 people, there were 8000 acres
no one would give a damn about staking out this particular area.
So, we'd better take care of the environment, we'd better take care of one another
and we'd better educate people to the highest possible levels of our ability
in order to have a society."
For Fresco Earth still has enough resources for everyone.
Our practice, to ration these with high prices,
is outdated and counter-productive to our survival.
Today we have the most advanced technologies available.
These could create a world
where everything is available in abundance,
without slavery and debt.
But how could that be possible?
There is not enough money on this planet
to provide housing and food for everyone -
and certainly not enough to achieve these ambitious goals.
At the same time there are more than enough resources
to satisfy the needs of all people -
they must only be managed intelligently.
Jacque Fresco envisions a solution that he calls
a Resource Based Economy.
It is a socio-economic system,
in which all goods and services are available to everyone
without the use of money barter, credit, debt or servitude of any kind.
An economic system
which is unlike any social system
that has gone before.
Fresco arrived at this direction
through 75 years of study and experimental research.
Jacque Fresco: "A Resource-Based Economy operates on the basis
of available resources and makes those resources
available to every human being on earth
free of charge, without a price tag.
We have today more than enough resources to build a far more advanced society.
I'm not talking about limited handouts so that people just get by.
I'm talking about a very advanced civilization.
We have the resources, we have the technology,
all we have to do is apply it.
A social system can be designed
so that all can live fully and constructively
if the powers of science and technology are directed
toward human and environmental concern.
and overcoming the artificial scarcities
of our debt-based monetary systems.
All people, regardless of political philosophy, social customs or religious differences
ultimately depend upon the same resources:
clean air and water
arable land
medical care
and a relevant education.
The human species is a single family and the world is home to everyone.
Neither nations nor people can co-exist
separately any longer.
Jacque Fresco: "No more separate nations,
so that anyone can go anywhere.
Before the states joined together,
they used to stake out their territory.
They used to fight, they had militias. They would fight:
"This is our territory!" "Oh no you're intruding!"
When all the states joined together,
the government worked out the lines of the states and they agreed.
That was the end of territorial disputes.
If you want the end of war,
you must declare the Earth common heritage."
Our entire infrastructure must be redesigned
and operated as coherent, integrated, total systems.
This means we must consider our entire global community as one unit
that includes everyone and plan accordingly.
Only in this way can we use our technology
to overcome resource shortages
provide universal abundance and protect the environment.
Therefore, a global survey is first needed
to assess exactly what we have.
This would inventory our physical resources, personnel
production centers and the needs of people.
This enables us to determine the amount of goods and services needed.
For instance, where is the arable land to grow crops?
How many people are in various locations
and what is the state of their health?
This would determine
where hospitals are built and how many.
The key to achieving abundance and a high standard of living for all
is to automate as much as possible in the shortest period of time.
Our problems and their solutions are technical, not political.
Most problems can be solved
when technology and the methods of science are used to serve all people,
not just a select few.
Jacque Fresco: "What is it that you want? You have to ask yourself.
I want to live in a world where I don't have to fear
that my children will go into another war
"Do you know how to build that kind of world?"
"No I don't."
How do you go about building?
You call upon the various divisions of science bring them together and say:
"These are the problems we'd like to solve."
A scientific government doesn't mean that scientists rule or control people.
It means they have better means
for building transportation systems better means for cleaning the air,
they have the best means for restoring the oceans that we know of to this day."
Computers can serve the needs of everyone
when cybernation is ultimately integrated into all aspects of this new and dynamic culture.
One can think of this as an electronic nervous system
extending into all areas of the social complex.
Their function would be to coordinate a balance between production and distribution
assuring there are no shortages or overruns.
It's all just talk unless there is a technical plan
to organize and use resources
to accomplish abundance for all.
What follows are some of the many approaches The Venus Project provides for the entire social spectrum.
Today, more than half our population lives in cities that are polluted
dangerous and waste energy.
Jacque Fresco(1974): "What we have to do is design a city as a living system
as an organism, as a university
that all the cities of the future will be university cities
that grow, that continue to exchange ideas.
The city will have a built-in transportation system so there are no accidents
and no unthought out areas of technology.
Medicine, botany, agriculture, the total system: one planning system.
It is actually better to build newer cities from the ground up than to restore and maintain old ones.
Fresco uses a systems approach to designing new cities. They're desirable and pleasant places to live.
The notion that intelligent overall planning
implies mass uniformity is absurd.
Cities would be uniform only to the degree
that they would require far less materials, save time and energy
and be flexible enough to allow for innovative changes
while preserving the local ecology.
Jacque Fresco: "If we design our cities
to meet human needs,
you don't have most of the problems that are prevalent today.
In the central dome you have childcare
schools, dental care, medical care.
In the production and design of the cities
we work out 1/8th of the city system and then we reproduce it
instead of having architects design each building and each structure
which is a tremendous waste of energy and talent."
When working on solving the housing problem for all the world's people
construction techniques would be vastly different from those employed today.
Extruded and self-erecting structures could revolutionize and speed up construction processes.
These lightweight, durable apartments could be produced as continuous extrusions
and then separated and positioned in place by the mega machines.
The outer shells of these efficient structures
serve as photovoltaic generators and heat concentrators.
In a Resource Based Economy
people may access whatever products they need
without the burden of having to purchase, maintain or insure their possessions.
In this way, there is much more to go around for everyone
and products are always available when needed.
Jacque Fresco: "Anything people may need
is available in these outside access domes:
sculpturing materials, musical instruments, somewhat like the public library.
They can go down and access a camera, a bicycle or a wristwatch.
Anything 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.
That will prevent almost all crime.
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 the research centers we come to the recreational area
which has tennis courts and all of the games that people require.
As we move away from that we come to the residential district;
there are streams, waterfalls, lakes throughout the area."
We could provide a wide range of unique homes and apartments
that can be relatively maintenance free, fireproof and virtually impervious to adverse weather conditions.
Jacque Fresco: "As we move to the next sector, we come to apartments.
The reason some people want to live in apartments is because you have drama groups,
you have gymnasiums, medical care, dental care; 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.
As we move outward we come to the indoor agriculture or hydroponic farms.
Then there is also outdoor agriculture."
The city would use the best of clean technology in harmony with nature,
such as wind
solar
geothermal, heat concentrators,
piezoelectric,
wave
temperature differentials
ocean thermal vents and much more.
A major development for generating energy in the future could be the construction of a land bridge
or tunnel across the Bering Strait.
These underwater structures convert a portion of the ocean currents
through turbines to generate clean sources of power.
By using these sources of energy
we could power the earth on clean energy
and enable all people to enjoy a very high standard of living for thousands of years to come.
There is no need for the use of polluting hydrocarbons any longer.
All transportation will be integrated into a worldwide transportation system.
Transportation within cities will be by transveyors.
City-to-city travel will be by monorail.
Maglev trains are utilized for long distance travel.
To enhance efficiency, this high-speed maglev train is equipped with removable sections which can be disengaged while the train is in motion.
Aircraft will display a wide range of configurations.
These VTOL aircraft (or Vertical Takeoff and Landing) are used to transport passengers and freight.
The priority is safety
rather than saving money or dealing with the lowest bidder.
This modular freighter consists of detachable sections
that can be rapidly loaded or unloaded.
The number of sections varies depending on the amount of freight to be delivered.
Ships can be floating manufacturing plants
that produce products while en route to their destinations.
of waterways,
canals and irrigation systems.
They could serve to minimize the threat of floods and droughts
while allowing for the migration of fish,
provide natural firebreaks emergency water sources, fish farms and recreation areas.
Imagine living in an extraordinary oceanic city helping to restore the ocean environment
while eliminating land-based population pressures.
These cities in the sea may serve as universities and research centers
where students study marine sciences.
They could be used for ocean farming, mariculture and mining
while maintaining a dynamic balance in the oceanographic environment.
Self-sufficient cities in the sea vary in design
depending on their location and function.
This undersea observation station
permits people to view marine life in its natural habitat
and study under ideal conditions.
They could be used for ocean farming, mariculture and mining
while maintaining a dynamic balance in the oceanographic environment.
Using technology in this way would make it possible for a global society
to achieve social advancement and worldwide reconstruction
in the shortest time possible.
the 96 y.o. architect is convinced.
For Fresco it is up to us to create a world,
in which war and suffering will only be sad memories:
In a Resource Based Economy
where research and technology are used
to protect the environment and the wellbeing of all people.
Transcript: TZMGermany
Translation back into English: Riesling TZM, LTI Germany