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The Venus Project is an organization that promotes and advocates American futurist Jacque Fresco's visions of the future with the aim to improve society by moving towards a global sustainable social design that they call a "resource based economy". A resource based economy incorporates sustainable cities and values, energy efficiency, collective farms, natural resource management and advanced automation, focusing on the benefits they claim it will bring to humanity as a whole.

The name of the organization originates from Venus, Florida, where its 21-acre (8.5-hectare) research center is located, near Lake Okeechobee. Within the center are ten buildings, designed by Fresco, which showcase the architecture of the project. Future by Design, a film about the life and work of Jacque Fresco, was produced in 2006.

It works alongside the Zeitgeist Movement, which functions as the activist arm of the Venus Project, allowing members to communicate and work on projects within the movement.

History

The Venus Project was started around 1975 by Jacque Fresco and by former portrait artist Roxanne Meadows in Venus, Florida, U.S. Its research center is a 21-acre (85,000 m) property with various domed buildings of his design, where they work on books and films to demonstrate their concepts and ideas. Fresco has produced an extensive range of scale models based on his designs.

The Venus Project is a two-part business: a non-profit company called "Future by Design" and a for-profit company called "Venus Project Inc./Global Cybervisions Inc."

The Venus Project was founded on the idea that poverty is caused by the stifling of progress in technology, which itself is caused by the present world's profit-driven economic system. The progression of technology, if it were carried on independent of its profitability, Fresco theorizes, would make more resources available to more people thereby reducing corruption and greed, and instead make people more likely to help each other.</ref> Fresco advocates against a money-based economy in favor of what he refers to as a resource based economy.

Theory

According to Fresco, poverty, crime, corruption and war are the result of scarcity created by the present world's profit-based economic system. He theorizes that the profit motive also stifles the progress of socially beneficial technology. Fresco claims that the progression of technology, if it were carried on independently of its profitability, would make more resources available to more people by producing an abundance of products and materials. This new-found abundance of resources would, according to Fresco, reduce the human tendency toward individualism, corruption, and greed, and instead rely on people helping each other. Fresco believes it is now possible to achieve a society in which people would live "longer, healthier, and more meaningful lives." Fresco believes the monetary system and the processes associated with it, such as labour and competition, damages society and holds people back from their true potentials. He states his ideas would maximally benefit the greatest number of people. He claims some of his ideas stem from his formative years during the Great Depression. Fresco believes the current global economic system will have to see a major crisis before people start to lose the confidence in the monetary system and start looking for other directions. Fundamental to the project is what Fresco calls a "resource based economy". A resource based economy utilizes existing resources - rather than money - to provide an equitable method of distribution in the most humane and efficient manner. It is a system in which all goods and services are available to everyone without the use of money, credits, barter, or any other form of debt or servitude.

Resource based economy

A resource based economy would replace the need for the current monetary economy, which is "scarcity-oriented" or "scarcity-based". Fresco argues that the world is rich in natural resources and energy and that — with modern technology and judicious efficiency — the needs of the global population can be met with abundance, while at the same time removing the current limitations of what is deemed possible due to notions of economic viability.

Fresco provides an example of this confusion in the following quote:

"At the beginning of World War II the U.S. had a mere 600 or so first-class fighting aircraft. We rapidly overcame this short supply by turning out more than 90,000 planes a year. The question at the start of World War II was: Do we have enough funds to produce the required implements of war? The answer was No, we did not have enough money, nor did we have enough gold; but we did have more than enough resources. It was the available resources that enabled the US to achieve the high production and efficiency required to win the war. Unfortunately this is only considered in times of war."

Fresco states that for this to work, all of the Earth's resources must be held as the common heritage of all people and not just a select few; and the practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant and counter-productive to the survival of human civilization.

One of the key points in Fresco’s solution is that without the conditions created in a monetary system, vast amounts of resources would not be wasted unproductively . Instead Fresco’s contention is that without the waste of resources on ends that would become irrelevant there would be no scarcity of necessary products such as food and education (environmentalism) .

Apart from the Venus Project, other projects have later started up with the intent of promoting a resource based economy or similar. These include the so-called Resource Based Economy Foundation, the New Z-Land Project, and the Atlas Initiative Group. Neither of these seem to be affiliated with the Venus Project or Jacque Fresco.

The Zeitgeist Movement

The Venus Project was featured prominently in the 2008 documentary film Zeitgeist: Addendum, as a possible solution to the global problems explained in the first film and first half of the second film. The film premiered at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles, California on October 2, 2008, winning their highest award, and it was released online for free on Google video on October 4, 2008. Following the movie, an organization called The Zeitgeist Movement was established to promote the aims of the Zeitgeist films. In 2011, an addition film Zeitgeist: Moving Forward was also released.

Publications

Books

• Keyes, Ken; Fresco, Jacque (1969). Looking Forward. South Brunswick Township, New Jersey: Alfred Smith Barnes. ISBN 0498067521. OCLC 21606. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (1977). Introduction to Sociocyberneering. Sociocyberneering, Inc. OCLC 6036204. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (1978). Cities in Transition. Sociocyberneering, Inc. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (1978). The Determinants of Behavior. Sociocyberneering, Inc. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (1979). Structural Systems and Systems of Structure. Sociocyberneering, Inc. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (1995). The Venus Project: The Redesign of Culture. Venus, Fla.: Global Cyber-Visions. ISBN 0964880601. OCLC 33896367. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (2002). The Best that Money Can’t Buy: Beyond Politics, Poverty & War. Venus, Fla.: Global Cyber-Visions. ISBN 0964880679. OCLC 49931422. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Maynard, Elliott; Fresco, Jacque (2003). Transforming the Global Biosphere: Twelve Futuristic Strategies. Sedona, Ariz.: Arcos Cielos Research Center. ISBN 0972171312. OCLC 78763038. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (2007). Designing the Future. Venus, Fla.: The Venus Project, Inc. OCLC 568770383. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)

Films

• Welcome to the Future (2001)
• Cities in the Sea (2002)
• Self-erecting Structures (2002)
• Future by Design (2006)

See also

• Technocracy Movement
• Post scarcity

References

1. Durrani, Noni (2007-10-15). The Future: Jacque Fresco On The Future Forbes.com. Retrieved on 2008-12-02.
2. ^ Future by Design at IMDb
3. Browse
4. Venus Project Inc - Venus, Florida (FL) | Company Profile
5. Breaking News, Artivist Film Festival website.
6. ^ "IMDb Profile". Imdb.com. Retrieved 2009-03-26. Cite error: The named reference "ZeitgeistAddMovie" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
7. "Zeitgeist Addendum". WorldCat. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
8. "What is The Venus Project". The Venus Project. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
9. "THE FUTURE AND BEYOND".
10. "Red Ice Radio - Jacque Fresco & Roxanne Meadows - Pt 1 - The Venus Project". youtube.com. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
11. "Frequently Asked Questions From Over 25 Years". thevenusproject.com. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
12. "Resource Based Economy". Venus Project. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
13. ^ "Jacque Fresco on Larry King Live (Full - 1974)". Retrieved 2011-01-28.
14. http://www.rbefoundation.com/ - retrieved on 15/02/2011
15. http://thenzp.com/ - retrieved on 15/02/2011
16. http://atlasinitiativegroup.org/acp/acp.html - retrieved on 15/02/2011
17. "Zeitgeist: Addendum". Video. Google. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
18. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network's Market Watch, Press release.

• Great Expectations: A Journey through the History of Visionary Architecture (2007)

External links

• The Venus Project – Official website
• Future By Design – film about Jacque Fresco with virtual images of The Venus Project visions
• Zeitgeist Movement Lecture – Peter Joseph's July 25, 2009 lecture in London, UK

• Organizations based in Florida
• Utopian movements
• Zeitgeist