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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".
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Comment by Ezra Ho on April 1, 2010 at 3:16pm
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Yes, that was the function of money in a time when people needed to put in time and effort in order to create a product or provide a service. But when cybernated automation provides all goods and services, there is no need to put a price tag on anything because no human labour was involved and that is the state of technology right now. The only reason we are not using it is because if that happened, millions would be unemployed. And when people don't have purchasing power, our money-driven society collapses. So it's a self-feeding mechanism.
Yes, this may sound utopian, and rightly so, you probably have not heard of such a concept applied to society. However, I don't believe that there is a final frontier. Even in such a society, there would still be progress taking place. New problems will still be created and solved.
I urge you to take a look at Zeitgeist Addendum so that you will have a clearer understanding of this idea.
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Comment by Turil Cronburg on April 1, 2010 at 4:48pm
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I think I saw the Zeitgeist Addendum. I've definitely seen a version of the wh*** movie. (I was frustrated by some of the claims that seem blatantly inaccurate, though.) And I'd been to the Venus Project website before, but didn't find anything that really kept me there. I suppose I'm so deep into my own work that I tend to only have time to invest in things that seem to directly connect to what I'm doing. If it's not obvious to me, I tend to let it go, otherwise I'd get extremely overwhelmed! :-) But I'm taking another look at it now. Thanks.
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Koshy, I also do not think that TVP can be realised within the next 10 years, considering this information is still relatively obscure within the mainstream. However, what I do know is that based on what I've read of social movements that want to promote human progress, TVP is the only one which offers a complete redesign of our broken social and economic system. First of all, there needs to be an awakening in developed countries so that TVP can take the step of building the first city.
Turil, it's great that you have watched it. May I know what are some of the claims which trouble you? Perhaps I can explain it in a way that you will be able to understand it.
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Ezra, I suppose the biggest problem I had with it was that when I went looking for dialogue about the movie, I couldn't find any. I followed a lot of different paths, but never found any open discussion about the ideas presented in the film from the filmmakers. If you know of such a dialogue, or just some more background information about the ideas in the film, I'd love to hear about it... The specific science that I checked into was the astronomy stuff referenced in the Christmas story segment, with the Solstice and the position of the stars/sun
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At this point, The Zeitgeist Movement isn't really associated with the first Zeitgeist film. Why focus on the darkness when we can look to the light?
You can refer to this page for 3 lectures by Peter Josephs, the director of the Zeitgeist films, about The Venus Project and why we need to move in this direction.
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Comment by Davide De Franceschi on April 3, 2010 at 11:20pm
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@Ezra Forest: You think a reward is needed only because you've grown up knowing that. If you didn't know capitalism, probably you wouldn't care about these types of rewards, and your aknowledgment would be more than enough. For all these types of questions on RBE you can see he FAQ at The Venus Project website ;)
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Comment by Alberto Cottica on April 4, 2010 at 12:09am
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Ezra businesses may be out to make money, but people are not after money per se. They want money because it'll buy them the things they want. In a resource-based economy you'd be still competing to get what you want, because most resources are limited. You'd pay for it in joules or eyeball time, fine, but how does that take away the competition?
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What is your definition of a RBE? In TVP's RBE, resources are limited only as far as technology's ability to create new substitutes or finding a way around that limitation. At the same time, cybernated automation would allow us to have anything we want. Simultaneously, it must be understood that in a RBE, society would not be filled with insecure, self-centered and materialistic consumers like we have today. With that in mind, it is likely that the level of resource utilisation in a RBE would be much lower than at present.
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As Turil said, you just put into words what I had in mind.
I just have one question that has not been adressed by TVP, nor by you. What about cultures and roots? If we have this world without the concept of money or countries, without borders, all cultures will merge, won't it? All languages and traditions will merge, won't they? (after a lapse of time, that is) Don't you think this sounds a little like globalization (in a non-monetary fashion) ? How sad ! In your vision, will people find a way to hold on to their traditions, their different cultures?
Also, do you think people are ready for a change like this? Look at the USA, filled with all kind of hate-groups... Seriously, the Ku Klux Klan still exists ! (Which, by the way, baffles me) In certain states, schools teach the Book of Genesis and, at the same time, the theory of evolution (which has been proven by genetics, but they still consider it a theory...). How can this idea be accepted by narrow-minded people like this ?
(Actually, that was two questions !)
Anyway, I'd like to hear your thoughts about this.
+1 VISION
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@Alberto: indeed, the very first necessary thing of a RBE is to have enough resources to give everyone anything they want, how much they want :) and it would be possible if money wasn't there :) earth is very rich...
@Mia: I don't know if cultures would remain, maybe a little, maybe not, maybe new ones will form. But I think that hunger, poverty, wars are all much much more sad than losing cultures :) and you would avoid these in an RBE... I think it's worth it :)
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