"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
An Irrelevant Problem in a Resource-based Economy
In 2020, I envision myself living in a self-sustained, technologically advanced city in a global resource-based economy (RBE). Politics and the notion of nationalism of the present have been long abolished, eradicating the present-day problems of corruption, crime, poverty and war. In its place, a global RBE, where decisions are arrived at through the integration of the world's knowledge databases, enables Humanity to use its amazing capabilities to solely advance the human and environmental well-being; a far-cry from today, where decisions are usually made to benefit vested interests or based on erroneous opinions, limited by lack of information.
With scarcity forever abolished through the careful management of the world's resources as the common heritage of all the world's peoples, the use of money has been phased out, freeing Mankind from employment. Consequently, professions that deal with finance such as bankers, lawyers etc will be come obsolete. Likewise, following the trends of the last 100 years, automation will almost completely displace human labour from having to provide goods and services to society. As such, Mankind has the unprecedented opportunity to pursue any intellectual, scientific or artistic endeavour. At the same time, the engineered consumer society has faded away since the need to generate perpetual profit via constant consumption has been made obsolete. Henceforth, all products will be made with the best possible materials with the most advanced methods. Any planned or unplanned obsolescence designed in products to fuel cyclical consumption will be remembered as a distorted concept in human history that simply wastes resources.
Energy shortages will be an archaic concept since a RBE utilising the fullest potential of our technological progress. Without the need to withhold efficiency and promote scarcity to generate profits, Humanity will be able to tap the unlimited energy sources available in the biosphere via solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal energy systems. With an abundance of energy, automation of food and clean water production would solve all scarcity problems, giving all peoples access to the necessities of life. The crisis that Alchemy envisions would be irrelevant in such a RBE.
In such a society, people would be able to transcend the dominant value systems of childish competition, self-centeredness, inferiority complexes and the various neurosis that promotes a conflict-filled society. Education would not be designed to train subservient and narrow-minded consumers. Instead, the RBE culture would be geared towards the achievement of one's fullest potential in the fullest sense of the word, not paying lip-service to the idea. We would have a culture that promotes unity between all peoples, a genuiniely civic-minded global society.
Following my passions, I see myself as a teacher in the RBE, though not in the conventional sense as we use it today. I would not be teaching for a salary, but because I enjoy teaching and it allows me to actively participate in the elevating of the social consciousness. Children of a RBE would not be taught in the manner public schooling does, but they would be given the necessary tools to pursue whichever fields of knowledge interests them. No more will the present notion of duality or us-against-them be promoted, among others. Education in a RBE will give students a nuanced and open-minded view of the world and provide them with the opportunity to become multi-disciplinarians in order to solve social problems rather than specialised for mundane employment.
While this vision of the future sounds highly idealistic, even utopian, at present, we have all the tools and resources to create such a world. Through far from 'perfect' (for perfection never exists due to constant progress), it offers a better way of solving solving the massive social problems we face. As Jacque Fresco stated, "The only limitations of the future of Mankind are those we impose upon ourselves".
With scarcity forever abolished through the careful management of the world's resources as the common heritage of all the world's peoples, the use of money has been phased out, freeing Mankind from employment. Consequently, professions that deal with finance such as bankers, lawyers etc will be come obsolete. Likewise, following the trends of the last 100 years, automation will almost completely displace human labour from having to provide goods and services to society. As such, Mankind has the unprecedented opportunity to pursue any intellectual, scientific or artistic endeavour. At the same time, the engineered consumer society has faded away since the need to generate perpetual profit via constant consumption has been made obsolete. Henceforth, all products will be made with the best possible materials with the most advanced methods. Any planned or unplanned obsolescence designed in products to fuel cyclical consumption will be remembered as a distorted concept in human history that simply wastes resources.
Energy shortages will be an archaic concept since a RBE utilising the fullest potential of our technological progress. Without the need to withhold efficiency and promote scarcity to generate profits, Humanity will be able to tap the unlimited energy sources available in the biosphere via solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal energy systems. With an abundance of energy, automation of food and clean water production would solve all scarcity problems, giving all peoples access to the necessities of life. The crisis that Alchemy envisions would be irrelevant in such a RBE.
In such a society, people would be able to transcend the dominant value systems of childish competition, self-centeredness, inferiority complexes and the various neurosis that promotes a conflict-filled society. Education would not be designed to train subservient and narrow-minded consumers. Instead, the RBE culture would be geared towards the achievement of one's fullest potential in the fullest sense of the word, not paying lip-service to the idea. We would have a culture that promotes unity between all peoples, a genuiniely civic-minded global society.
Following my passions, I see myself as a teacher in the RBE, though not in the conventional sense as we use it today. I would not be teaching for a salary, but because I enjoy teaching and it allows me to actively participate in the elevating of the social consciousness. Children of a RBE would not be taught in the manner public schooling does, but they would be given the necessary tools to pursue whichever fields of knowledge interests them. No more will the present notion of duality or us-against-them be promoted, among others. Education in a RBE will give students a nuanced and open-minded view of the world and provide them with the opportunity to become multi-disciplinarians in order to solve social problems rather than specialised for mundane employment.
While this vision of the future sounds highly idealistic, even utopian, at present, we have all the tools and resources to create such a world. Through far from 'perfect' (for perfection never exists due to constant progress), it offers a better way of solving solving the massive social problems we face. As Jacque Fresco stated, "The only limitations of the future of Mankind are those we impose upon ourselves".
Views: 256
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Comment by Leo Bi on March 26, 2010 at 8:15am
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I think there is a mechanism underneath all of this that will be the interest for you. Resource based economy will always be around, because even when you remove luxury items, there are still raw resources required to sustain human life. Its the consumer-based economy that you want to look at.
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Comment by Ezra Ho on March 26, 2010 at 8:17am
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I think you are missing the point. In order to solve most of our current social problems generated through this sick profit seeking mechanism, a RBE aims to REPLACE our current consumer-based economy.
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Comment by Ezra Forest Welsh on March 26, 2010 at 8:49am
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Wow, this was quite a interesting read, I am looking forward to what else you have to post. With this vision of the future you bring up several interesting things, but I don't think that humans will ever be able to go with out money. Currency and employment are two very interesting things.
What this game(If I may break the 4th wall) is founded on is a simple concept. Giving people simple goals to aim for is the key to having them be successful. Money and products can be looked at in the same way. Money, for a simple example, is like Gamer Score on a 360 (except with an actual use). Jobs are like the games, and products are what I with I could spend my Gamer Score on.
Simply put that with out value on every thing, people won't want it or care bout it. An apartment is judged by three things location, affordability and functionality. Apartment complexes have more or less the same lay out, the only variances are their prices, houses that are rented have unique feels that appeal to a person. Houses for rent also run a higher price tag. Let's we where to say eliminate currency, houses would be pointless, they would no longer be a reward for those who had high enough income to rent, let alone own one.
May be not the best example, but what I am trying to get at is, without monetary gain, we will need a substitute for it, something that says we are better than some one else, or that makes us feel good about ourselves.
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gotcha! my misunderstanding. How will you achieve this?
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I understand it's pretty difficult to question the validity of our monetary system. After all, it's been with us for our entire lives, not to mention for hundreds of years. This is as radical as it can get. First of all, you got to realise that the monetary incentive often produces more aberrant behaviour than socially-positive ones. When we look at the environmental and social destruction that seems to be ubiquitous with Third World countries, it's likely that some corporation looking to make a profit was behind it. To make a long story short, to solve our social problems, we got to remove the fundamental source, which is the profit motive, rooted in a monetary system.
Then people usually say, "Then what will motivate people?". We are only motivated by money because that is our only mechanism for survival in this system. Looking at the history of human progress, the great scientific advancements of the last few centuries did not come about because those pioneers wanted to make a buck. People like Curie, Newton, Einstein and Tesla, made their massive contributions to society because they were passionate about their fields of interests. Imagine what the world could be if the majority of society were similarly motivated, instead of having a work-play mentality, looking at studying as a form of drudgery. This kind of behaviour is simply promoted by today's consumer culture, again promoted by profit-seeking corporations. (See Adam Curtis's doc**entary, Century of the Self, if you are interested in the rise of the consumer culture).
If anyone is interested in this concept of progress and would like to find out more, I urge you to invest a little of your time to watch Zeitgeist Addendum, which can be watched at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912
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I agree with you, that the current economic system has given humanity its benefits, I mean look at what our society has achieved with technology it has been incredible. But it is starting to see its limit, just like in previous systems like simple bartering has come and gone.
The Resource based economy is something i am familiar with through the venus project, my question to you is how will you empower this evolution of us.
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Right, the present system has been useful throughout history. But right now, it's obsolete and our society should realise it's time to transcend it.
With what I know and what I can do, based on my current situation in society (caught up in a military draft), all I can really do is make people aware of this direction. When I'm done in the sick military establishment, I'll be able to invest more time and effort in promoting this direction. Unlike conventional social movements, the understanding behind TVP is usually considered fringe because it challenges an established social institution and it's associated structures. And people are afraid of change.
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just taking the leap of faith to share a new idea with people takes tremendous courage especially in highly regimented cultures like the army. + Courage!! WHOOP WHOOP... your sharing will make a massive difference.
oh... i can only award 1 point.. ugh ... well courage is what you get.
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Comment by Turil Cronburg on April 1, 2010 at 2:07pm
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That is indeed my own vision of what i expect the future to evolve into. Thank you for putting my vision into words! :-)
Also, working alongside this vision is a way to understand and map resources that I've come up with based on developmental theories, biology, physics, and math. Here's a simple version of that map.
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Turil, have you watched Zeitgeist Addendum? Or are you familiar with The Venus Project?
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