Poll: The Venus Project

[sexbutler]

So there's this guy in Florida named Jacque Fresco who's put together a theory for a completely new social system that he calls a 'resource based economy'. Check out the website.

http://www.thevenusproject.com/

The basics of it is that essentially all work can be done by, and limitless goods and services produced by machines. In this scenario, there's no need for money to allocate resources since everyone can have anything they want. Everyone's free to live any life they want, there's no needless busy work, no poverty, no inequality, and complete freedom.

 

[DaphneRose]

Beautiful.

But also, maybe, a little boring. I can't help but wonder if humanity wouldn't eventually stagnate and become purely hedonistic. A lack of conflict would kill But maybe I'm being a negative nancy. Regardless, those pictures look wonderful. I wouldn't mind living there, myself.

 

[Zhukov]

Anything that relies on people not being self-serving is not going anywhere.

Also... no work? What? So who builds all that stuff? And who maintains the machines?

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Um...I'm a little confused.

So anyone can have anything they want? How the hell do we make that happen? We'd need unlimited resources, even if we DID automate everything. Plus, who maintains the machines? Other machines? Because the problem with THAT is pretty damn obvious.

Besides, this whole thing sounds a lot like communism. Now, communism always SOUNDS great, but history has proven that it doesn't work. Taking away motivation to work only leads to stagnation, which is the opposite of progress. So even if we COULD make it happen (ignoring all the problems listed above) the outcome wouldn't necessarily be whats best for us.

 

[Dags90]

Also... no work? What? So who builds all that stuff? And who maintains the machines?

You don't have to work, it's essentially a rip off of the Star Trek Federation's social structure. Menial, repetitive tasks are relegated to machines and people work with what they find interesting.

It's a nice thought, but I'd settle for a few less million people dying diarrhea related deaths every year.

 

[crimsonshrouds]

A. nice thought
B. Not Practical
C. Never going to happen.

Humans have a hard time coexisting in apartments sometimes.
humans have a nasty habit of unable to put aside difference for just peace and equality.

 

[Zhukov]

Also... no work? What? So who builds all that stuff? And who maintains the machines?

You don't have to work, it's essentially a rip off of the Star Trek Federation's social structure. Menial, repetitive tasks are relegated to machines and people work with what they find interesting.

A high-tech society requires a lot of menial labour. That means a lot of machines. Who maintains those machines?

You'd have to hope that an awful lot of people find mechanics or AI programming interesting.

 

[infohippie]

This is exactly what we should be working toward. A world where you don't have to do any work unless you want to, where wealth is meaningless. Sounds like a paradise to me.
Read the Culture novels by Iain M Banks to see what this could ultimately be like.

 

[emeraldrafael]

So robots do all our work?

And what about when the resources run out? what hten?

 

[Twilight_guy]

Except a plan for a perfect world means a world with unlimited resources. Our world does not have unlimited resources. Therefore people struggle over resources. This lead to evolution and also to many world problems. It sound like ideological claptrap.

 

[Custard_Angel]

Sounds... bad...

Like somebody has pieced an ideology together from facts while discounting hundreds of others...

 

[sexbutler]

Yeah, these are the problems most people ask about. But if you read all the stuff on the website, Jacque has really thought this through and it only comes down to whether people will accept this sort of society and whether they'll contribute.

Eg.

Anything that relies on people not being self-serving is not going anywhere.

Also... no work? What? So who builds all that stuff? And who maintains the machines?

Look at all the volunteer work people do. Absolute self-interest is really a product of our individualistic society. And think about it, if you didn't have to work, what would you do? And don't say play games all day, you'd get 6 months in and either kill yourself from boredom or go outside and do something constructive.

So anyone can have anything they want? How the hell do we make that happen? We'd need unlimited resources, even if we DID automate everything. Plus, who maintains the machines? Other machines? Because the problem with THAT is pretty damn obvious.

Besides, this whole thing sounds a lot like communism. Now, communism always SOUNDS great, but history has proven that it doesn't work. Taking away motivation to work only leads to stagnation, which is the opposite of progress. So even if we COULD make it happen (ignoring all the problems listed above) the outcome wouldn't necessarily be whats best for us.

Look at it this way, the global packaging industry produces enough goods to provide for the entire world population if they aren't buying a new iPhone every 3 months. Add in renewable energy and recycling and we have more than enough resources. And there's no more shitty work to do. There'd basically be doctors, teachers, scientists, artists and engineers. I'm an engineer, and if I didn't have to do engineering stuff, I'd still do engineering stuff.

A. nice thought
B. Not Practical
C. Never going to happen.

Humans have a hard time coexisting in apartments sometimes.
humans have a nasty habit of unable to put aside difference for just peace and equality.

Fair enough. But if you look at socially conflicted countries, they are almost always poor or unequal. Eliminate poverty, people don't fight over resources. Eliminate inequality and people don't fight over ideology.

There's no silver bullet reason why this idea would fail.

 

[FalloutJack]

I see no proper reason why this cannot happen. And the will of the human is not a proper reason in this case.

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

From a cursory reading of the about page [http://www.thevenusproject.com/en/the-venus-project-introduction/about], the Venus project is very vague about its intents, so it could be as easily mere recruiting propaganda to an unrevealed cause as it is towards a community of ideals.

Sadly, the website's Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [http://www.thevenusproject.com/en/the-venus-project-introduction/faq].

I, too, would like to see a post scarcity economy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_scarcity], but there are plenty of people whose lifestyles and positions of great power would be threatened by such a change, and who will use all their property and power to prevent it. This is why, for example, the standard of living for the impoverished in the United States is beneath the minimum basics that the Geneva Convention outlines for the treatment of political refugees (indeed those who are supposed to be the worst off in the world) and yet we are only making token efforts to change this situation. Indeed, our government puts more energy into keeping appearances and hiding destitution than preventing it in the first place.

Post scarcity can happen, but it would take the overthrow of the current system, and that would involve a great enough amount of suffering that multitudes would rather risk complete social upheaval than continue to endure. And no-one wants that level of suckage.

Of course, this is what I got just by glancing through their About and FAQ. They might be the real deal after all. I doubt it, though.

238U.

 

[Nouw]

What I read about this (1 year ago) was not a utopia but a new form of city.

I am indifferent to the politics about this but not the concept of a city in the ocean intrigues me greatly.

 

[Sparkytheyetti]

Their will always be work. Their will always be monotony. I would love to see a world united under one flag. It will never happen. Human emotion and mentality are too potent to ever control. Where religion, politics, class systems, will prevent this for thousands of years. If we make it that far.

 

[zehydra]

Their will always be work. Their will always be monotony. I would love to see a world united under one flag. It will never happen. Human emotion and mentality are too potent to ever control. Where religion, politics, class systems, will prevent this for thousands of years. If we make it that far.

A world united under one flag is a world forced to have one culture, to be ruled by one governing class.

The only way Earth can be united is by some form of oppression, in one way or another.

 

[zehydra]

Lol I'm glad OP added the "Brave New World" option.

That's exactly the direction this thing sounds like, and Brave New World society is a terrible idea. People WANT to be free.

 

[Vandy]

The guys proximity to Disney has really effected his vision because it looks like EPCOT Center.
plus...
[link]d3e8b1a2f2a41118e09774f5cf79f23a342b7444[/link]

 

[sexbutler]

Lol I'm glad OP added the "Brave New World" option.

That's exactly the direction this thing sounds like, and Brave New World society is a terrible idea. People WANT to be free.

People do want to be free, and they have the right to. Is the Brave New World any more fucked up than the one we're in? Is it any worse? Is it any more oppressive? Instead of World Controllers we have Rupert Murdoch. Instead of hedonism we have neo-liberalism. At least the Brave New World tries to make us happy, it's better than the one we're in.