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On this week’s episode, Alek talks with Saso Luznar of The Venus Project.
The Venus Project is an organization that proposes a feasible plan of action for social change, one that works towards a peaceful and sustainable global civilization. It outlines an alternative to strive toward where human rights are no longer paper proclamations but a way of life.
We operate out of a 21.5-acre Research Center located in Venus, Florida.
When one considers the enormity of the challenges facing society today, we can safely conclude that the time is long overdue for us to re-examine our values and to reflect upon and evaluate some of the underlying issues and assumptions we have as a society. This self-analysis calls into question the very nature of what it means to be human, what it means to be a member of a “civilization,” and what choices we can make today to ensure a prosperous future for all the world’s people.
At present we are left with very few alternatives. The answers of yesterday are no longer relevant. Either we continue as we have been with our outmoded social customs and habits of thought, in which case our future will be threatened, or we can apply a more appropriate set of values that are relevant to an emergent society.
Experience tells us that human behavior can be modified, either toward constructive or destructive activity. This is what The Venus Project is all about – directing our technology and resources toward the positive, for the maximum benefit of people and planet, and seeking out new ways of thinking and living that emphasize and celebrate the vast potential of the human spirit. We have the tools at hand to design and build a future that is worthy of the human potential. The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. What follows is not an attempt to predict what will be done, only what could be done. The responsibility for our future is in our hands, and depends on the decisions that we make today. The greatest resource that is available today is our own ingenuity.
While social reformers and think tanks formulate strategies that treat only superficial symptoms, without touching the basic social operation, The Venus Project approaches these problems somewhat differently. We feel we cannot eliminate these problems within the framework of the present political and monetary establishment. It would take too many years to accomplish any significant change. Most likely they would be watered down and thinned out to such an extent that the changes would be indistinguishable.
The Venus Project advocates an alternative vision for a sustainable new world civilization unlike any social system that has gone before. Although this description is highly condensed, it is based upon years of study and experimental research by many, many people from many scientific disciplines.
We propose a fresh, holistic approach – one that is dedicated to human and environmental concerns. It is an attainable vision of a bright and better future, one that is appropriate to the times in which we live, and both practical and feasible for a positive future for all the world’s people.
The Venus Project calls for a straightforward approach to the redesign of a culture, in which the age-old inadequacies of war, poverty, hunger, debt, environmental degradation and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable, but totally unacceptable.
One of the basic premises of The Venus Project is that we work towards having all of the Earth’s resources as the common heritage of all the world’s people. Anything less will simply result in a continuation of the same catalog of problems inherent in the present system.
Throughout history, change has been slow. Successive groups of incompetent leaders have replaced those that preceded them, but the underlying social and economic problems remain because the basic value systems have gone unaltered. The problems we are faced with today cannot be solved politically or financially because they are highly technical in nature. There may not even be enough money available to pay for the required changes, but there are more than enough resources. This is why The Venus Project advocates the transition from a monetary-based society to the eventual realization of a resource-based global economy.
We realize to make the transition from our present culture, which is politically incompetent, scarcity-oriented and obsolete, to this new, more humane society will require a quantum leap in both thought and action.
And in this little world of theirs, do rainbows come out of every cup of non caffeinated, sugar free, organically grown coffee every morning?
Does one need to get a lobotomy to be a part of this wonderous undertaking of civil and mental domination?
Really? Wanting change is worthy of a lobotomy according to you?
It’s better to utterly destroy the future of our children than wanting change?
It’s better to be a slave of money than it is to use your brain apparently.
These ideas are not only feasible, they are necessary for the survival of our race.
Or do you really believe the fairy tales your government is forcing upon you?
Stop listening to the rich, they only want to stay in power and dominate the “lower class” people, as they view, not only you, but ALL 99% of the world.
Which is why this will only happen in a dictatorship. Or maybe you believe that the rich psychopaths will see the light give up their pole position and become humane? Wake up.
So in order to knock someone out of power a dictator has to take their place? There is nothing to suggest that this is how it has to happen.
Rainbows come from the specter of colors which is visible when sunlight cross water. If you managed to get this result with coffee, I suggest you to present your experience to science.
Lobotomy makes you vulnerable mental domination. What you say is a non-sense.
Have a nice day.
you gotta think more of yourself without being an A… It is called confidence
Jon’s comments are why the Venus project will be so difficult to get off the ground.I agree totally with the idea of a sustainable system based on human and world resources but Jon and so many people like him will never let it happen because they are frightened by change and lack the imagination and foresight that this world so desperately needs. We are controlled by the few and they will do everything in their power to keep it that way. Jon is a prime example of why we need change.
You just have to not be stupid and learn to think for urself
And this is why humans are unable to evolve within their current state of mind.
And Anon if you guys really want to change this world, start by destroying the stock markets and banks.
If people lose their addiction, they may open their eyes.
Yes you will be targeted by the 1%, but at least you won’t be alone anymore.
Venus Project promotes peaceful change, international cooperation and implication, education, building a safe environment city by city, using the technology wise, if we build a robot we build something we build it to last as much as possible with minimum resources, we do not promote to destroy markets, but we will have no need for consumerism in the city, you can have acces to everything you want as long as you use it like a library book. We must inform the 1 % to the the fact that this is the best future for their kids, for all humanity, for everyone on the planet. We need to take a stand, leave profit aside and build our best future we can think of, this is the Venus project, even the 1% will live better in this kind of cities, less corruption, less fights for money, there is no stress as how to make more money or how to keep it, yow just live and there is how to make a real contribution to humanity, how to grow yourself and help others ! Humans can change their conditioning, but the more you know the more you need to know about Venus Project so that you can understand the different mindset, it takes a lot of time to understand it just because its so different but you i guaranty you don’t need rocket science or lobotomy for it, its not that hard . Venus project does’t promote any lobotomy, where did you got that from? that is sick. NO, there is no ridiculous lobotomy. If someone want to be a part of the movement learn about us, we have a lot of videos, instructions online, forums, lot of people that will help you in the proces, just ask on the official website or groups, so that you don’t say stupid or uninformed assumptions,(like lobotomy), simplest way is just to spread the word, inform others, (after you learn a lot) about the solutions proposed by the Venus Project, about scientific methods, watch documentaries, there are a lot of ways for you to help but that just depends of your skills and will.
The 18 “Aims and Goals of the Venus Project” can only be accomplished by a unified society. Self-centred or Selfish individuals destroy true community. When we attended your questions and answers session it seemed obvious that The Venus Project is Jacque Fresco’s concept of a new future and although h denied that there is a Creator of the Universe he made himself the God or Sat Guru of the Venus Project and in many words “have figured it all out so you have no need to consider other viewpoints or even possibilities. Nothing anyone said that night was open for discussion. This appears to be pure arrogance. Peace on Earth cannot come about through selfishness no matter how high one’s IQ”
There are many progressive groups working toward “co-creating” a new world.
I didn’t see fresco saying that he is the creator, a god, a guru, this is not a religion and no a cult, this is all about the solutions found to have clean air, food, houses, free education, less consumption of resources, less selfish or greed, actually he stays away from that as much as possible, he likes to tell people to not belive him and just take it as it is, but to test his ideea, he hates the ideea of building a statue for him, he doesn’t care about it, and simply doesn’t suport it, i see him telling people that the venus project is not a fixed ideea its not a utopia, it will be changed by people and it will be better as technology, or other science, the second city will be even better than the first one, and so on, everyone is really open for discussion, and that is the point, but you must ask specific question if you want a specific answer, if you are searching for bad in something you might find it, i think that the venus project it was created by him, he worked on this twice as my age, i think he figure out a lot, i didn’t hear him say all, nobody can do that, but the big picture is there, the biggest problems are asked and soved already. I didn’t build the research center, did you? It was Jacque, Roxanne, give the man a little credit, he doesn’t say that he invented this like its all his, all because he will give you all the sources of his ideas and how he did that so that you might make your own, he will give you if you ask him, all the books, you may consider other viewpoints, i don’t think that is a problem but you must be specific about it, challange us with other view points, that is what we do, we try to see different viewpoints and see advantage and disadvantage, Venus Project is not perfect and never will be, but will be better than today society for many reasons, if someone is not accepting your viewpoint you be open mind and ask them why, and why, there are lot of things about Venus Project so don’t expect to get it quick it took me more than 3-4 years to get to this point and i must say its nothing compared to other supporters.We just respect Fresco for his efforts and i find it as a man who brought most of contributions in this movement, nobody is praying to him…but i have respect for the man because all his life was dedicated to make the world a better place. If you have a question, ask, try the Point of Contact, P.O.C. team, Roxanne, is better to ask someone prepared, and even find some lectures that speaks about that viewpoint, check the Q&A ,you might find that question answered. Be specific, i personally find it as one of the key issues of communication today. Be specific next time, try to learn more and then ask a SPECIFIC question. If you ask if the earth is flat or it is round even if its a specific question expect that nobody will give you any attention. Learn then ask what you don’t understand so we don’t waste each other time, and i am sure everyone will be pleased to answer you.There is no selfishness in this i must have a job and feed my family today, we do it volunteer we have no gain and time is the most precious thing. Learn then ask, you have a reading list, documentaries, everything at your disposal, you may ask this: related to this view point what can i read, learn, and find out? that is not hard. And after everyone will be pleased to help you understand what you didn’t understand or to express your different view point, try to know also your sources for your viewpoint, this way you can know if one view point id true, i belive the earth is flat because i see it like this every day, i may know why that is not true, but i think there is no better way to test that than learning Astronomy so i might guide you to learn that, and show you the stars and other planets.
Good stuff. Resource based economy, index worldwide resources for use and distribution. Minimize waste, recycle materials, efficient use of existing technologies to support the global population. Reverse impact of the industrial revolution, wars, poverty, religion, presecution, natural disasters, fossil fuels, corruption, etc.
And Anon if you guys really want to change this world, start by destroying the stock markets and banks.
If people lose their addiction, they may open their eyes.
Yes you will be targeted by the 1%, but at least you won’t be alone anymore.
THIS!
That is wrong, change must be a slow proces, to quick like in 29 with the fall of the stock markets and you will have many people comit suicide, there is a study made in sociology and besides the 1 % its not that dependent on the sock markets… this is not a solution, and nor a solution to continue because you damage the entire world. We must enter a transitional period where both sistem exist and as cities grow in number and we educate people we move to the other sistem . It must be a slow process, change is hard if its forced, quick and we take from people but it can be fun as giving a phone to a kid, we want to give to people, we dont want to take nothing from them.
How does toppling the banks and stock markets help us? If the 1% are the true power then they would have control Over the people that run the banks the stock markets the government’s. Those people are disposable to them, easily replaced pawns. Just pawns living a much better lifestyle then you or I. Historically we as a people get screwed when we look for a stabilizing force amidst chaos I.e. Hitler stepping in during the economic crisis Germany was going through. We ask for a King to unify us and we get the freaking Devil…or UN. Many people believe that a strong central goverment led to the downfall of the US. If that’s the case then wouldn’t we just be setting ourselves up for a much worse evil by increasing the already chaotic economic and political landscape that we see evolving today? I could be wrong here but by exposing the subjects given the LEAST or no media coverage (which anon has been doing)/maybe the way to go and see what pattern emerges. Those topics not covered are where your resources should go.
I find this project to be interesting a nice dream but unfortunately deeply unrealistic, flawed and missleaded from the very core. The human nature and instincts witch we had evolved over millenias in order to survive are standing against this project.
The main failing of this dream is the ideology that people are inherently good. They are not! The notion of good and evil is only a human ideological and abstract concept. Worse: the notion of what is good and what is evil is perpetually changing. All of us we are good and evil, depends only from what angle you look at things. We are governed by our nature, our instincts and our needs. We have the same life cicle like any other life form, at the basics we do the same things like a pack of wolves or monkeys. And from our nature comes the failments of this project:
First of all we are all having the instinct to gather things to be greedy, in times past the instinct assured that we will survive when resources and prey was scarce. People do not want to live having only what they need now, people always want to have more than what they need, they want to have what they estimate that will need in the future and a lot of extra just in case, they want also things what they think that somedays might be need or usefull. People are even wanting things who are unusefull . . . just because they be shiny, or fashionably or interesting. People want to be rich, to have more than they will ever need. And preferably with the minimum of effort. People are all the time buying stuff what they do not need, because they feel the need to gather.
Conflicts always are existing betwen people, watch a primitive tribe or watherver herd or pack of whatever animals. Verry good people do sometimes very bad things, because we feel, we love and we get hurt. How many murders are made in a rush of furry over something stupid, how many are done from jealousy or from feeling hurt or betrayed. Then a harm done demands vengeance or justice. Who gives justice? Is it a good idea for people to make their own justice? To carry feuds even over generations?
All pack animals desire a leader and mantain a hierarchy, and that goes hand in hand with the need of safety, survival and PROSPERITY. Some are wanting to folow some are wanting to lead and some are wanting to master. Why do you think that we have religion why do most people pray to a shepherd/father/lord? And why do you think that everytime there is a vacuum of power somhere that vacuum is filled fast?
People are not equal, one is smarter, one is stronger, one is more resistant. We do not want to be equal, we want to be better to best others and better ourselves. That is the why we have sports for example. And always the competition for reproduction: it is how evolution works.
And as a species we have the colective need to grow and to expand. It’s the way how life exist and had endured on this planet. Expand, grow so that when a disaster happens and many die somewhere some will still live.
We can never dream to live in harmony with nature and in the same time to denny our nature. Ideology, our invented ethics might be nice but whatever we do we are always flowing what is natural for us . . . If not, we are perpetually at conflict with ourselves, we create aberations (like the inquisition). How could one who is at conflict with himself live in harmony with others?
And all that without even discussing the mental diseases, the personality disorders like for example narcissism, any form of drugs and dependency, traumas . . . or going even further as sociopathy or pedophilia.
Our very nature is what makes this nice dream broken at the very core. To get to live like that we should be a hive species, not a pack species. To put computers to rule us . . . will mean to create an overlording authority, an authority which will need to be enforced. Would not that be like jumping from the frying pan in the fire?
Maybe some day if our minds would be linked to eachother like computers in a network. If we would develop a common consciousness . . . then such project can be feasibile. In conclusion we would have to evolve technologicaly or biologicaly maybe even in order to survive. Because at the present time our nature that rised us is also our doom. As we are devouring our planet and resources soon we will reach the point where we have to evolve or die. Or maybe that point has been already reached . . .
There is no human nature, there is human behavior and behavior is shaped by the environment. This is why TVP advocates for a RBE because these behaviors you speak of are reinforced and structurally built into the monetary system. It is the monetary system which creates incentives for greed and corruption, not human nature.
A city is not unrealistic, 1000 years ago you might find it unrealistic to build a skyscraper but today whit all the information it is very possible, it was sad that flying a 300 tone aircraft is unrealistic, but now you have Boeing aircraft, Venus project promotes an inteligent city with high skilled educated people in it motivated to change the world, its not that unrealistic, we have the people, we have the tech, we have the will, we need support from many people,look at this as an experiment, as NASA, we can put an international effort into it to change the way we do things. If you don’t understand how is possible don’t say its unrealistic, just say i don’t realize how its possible and try to find a specific reason for it, human nature is not something that dictates our values, our cultural behavior, yes you might call human nature when you are afraid of spiders, of heights, but even that is conditioned sometimes, one spider bites you when you are little and you remember and have that emotional reaction, you can adapt to spiders or height by increasing the exposure until you play with them, there are experiments made on this, you can train not to respond to violence, or to reject violence, you can learn and understand people behavior and you will see that you wont get mad on them, you might just feel bad for them, and you might why you where mad in the firs place. There is no instinct for greed, its the conditioning from childhood, when your mother gave you a toy and then you lost it or damage it she punished you, she told you this is yours,only yours, i gave a lot of money on it, and then it gave you another one and you share it with others,not that easy to do that now, and they lost it and you remember the pain from your mother, she punished you and you repeat that with them, when you grow older trust me if you don’t educate yourself you will do the same to your kids, its just bad parenting, and the monetary sistem is full of this incentive, you can’t share to much, information is power, if i have an ideea i must make a patent, so that i can make money, oh the patent is expensive,oh my ideea will be stolen, fuck that in the Venus project, imagine the research made without boundaries and the progres speed… when you have all you need, you share to help others as others helped you… if you train kids to colaborate, you condition them to give, to help, to be curious about the world its a wander that they can do, Fresco was influenced by his grandfather, who told him that he doesn’t care about a country, but he cares about all people, this mindset influenced him all life. Do you think is in human nature to want a car? or its in human nature to travel, both are wrong, i meet someone that didn’t get 20 miles distance from their house almost all their life and they are happy! back in time it was very different. In that place a long ago, was a social norm for girls to stay all day home and now she is old an happy, in her eyes its succes, what makes you happy its different in different places, in different cultures, in different homes. That is very wrong in my value sistem to stay all in one place, i think to understand life you must explore it. The culture influence us in ways you can’t imagine. From birth to death, the single way to realise its influences is to be exposed to many different cultures, from tribes to the most educated countries.
Its not easy to do it, if you may, this is the closest relationship of man with nature and his potential regarding “its human nature” you will find in your life.
Does anyone know whether Elon Musk is into this? He’s the kinda guy who would probably help get it started ASAP.
Mr Jay Jay you are more than welcome to denounce greed & help stand up to the 1%. The IDEA is that the 99% be not only awakened but also UNITED for the common goal. The strategic goal of the 1% can only be to keep the other 99% divided with these ideas of republican/democrat,black/white,Jewish/Muslim,man/women,country music/rap music,etc…Even the idea that a society cant progress without greed, or waste, or social classes which create a slave class to serve the ruling class. Essentially if we (the 99%)did turn to renewable energies & using all environmentally friendly materials such as hemp for example; we would be doing our planet & species a great service. Obviously there are obstacles & nothing is perfect out the door; I guess if you see the current state of society as perfect without obstacles then you would see no need for change either way right….Sorry so long….we (includes you) are already targeted by the 1%; however its harder to target the 99% as a collective then as individuals sir….Enjoy the rainbows
Oh wow, I can’t believe we are actually that close to it. I’ve had this idea in my head for years, and this is the first time I have come across this Venus project thing. It is totally possible, and I have been thinking about it for a long time, although on smaller scale than their plan.
I know how hard it is with all the brain washed morons out there.
However, I always had the way to get people on board and accept the idea, the thing I could never figure out was how to get rid of the money when its not just the actual coins and notes that feul this society, there are alot of those natural resources needed that are in the hands of that 1% that arnt likely to give them up to easy. Plus you will never be able to change those who have a natural thirst for power.
Personally I think having hope in our future is a good thing. Even if you find this future unrealistic…you must agree that it would be beneficial to try it. We must welcome change before our future will improve. If this future seems unrealistic to you…maybe your view of realism needs to change before our future can.The founder of The Venus Project has always been ahead of his time…he was designing a better world way before people even admitted that there was a problem. Hes a genius with a vision to help…that doesnt sound bad to me at all.
Aka – communism. Great in theory, but in reality, not so much. Humans are naturally greedy amongst other things. Without a leader to promote law and order it would become, I believe, Anarchy. Good luck though, I hope it works out.
true communism was never achieved by Mao or Lenin as Marx envisioned. we didn’t have the technology then to remove scarcity, thus money, greed, self preservation, competition, elitism, class stratification etc could not be addressed to achieve true equality for its people. there’s no such thing as human nature. we are not born evil, bigots, greedy, prejudiced, self-serving sobs… those are learned behaviors from the moment we are born from the environment we are raised from.. we learn through experience, from people around us and we interact with, from indoctrination through the media, school, religion etc.
if we remove the root cause of our world problems (monetary/debt/profit/servitude system) and upgrade our environment to start living the highest standard of living for all life on earth and start rehabilitation of our planet (and people)… abberant behaviors will phase out.
star
The 18 “Aims and Goals of the Venus Project” can only be accomplished by a unified society. Self-centred or Selfish individuals destroy true community. When we attended your questions and answers session it seemed obvious that The Venus Project is “your” concept of a new future and although you deny that there is a Creator of the Universe you have made yourself the God or Sat Guru of the Venus Project and in many words “have figured it all out” so you have no need to consider other viewpoints or even possibilities. Nothing anyone said that night was open for discussion. This appears to be pure arrogance. Peace on Earth cannot come about through selfishness no matter how high one’s IQ
I see again this comment, there is more than 18 aims an goals of the Venus project and its false to think that you can build a city and educate people for it only with an unified society, Venus project is not a world, is just a tiny super efficient city and can be part of the world, we can build city by city if it works and people are happy with it, and we expect everyone to live better in them. Self-centred or selfish individuals destroy true community, first of all, what is a selfish individual? it is that you want to live better, to have clean air, clean oceans, to have more time for yourself? that is a form of selfishness? or you think there are people who just like to have everything for themselves? there are just very few ill people who truly want that. You might not want money, you want acces to what money gives you, transportation, little pleasures of life, education, and more. In the City of the Venus project there is very little need for that. for selfish behavior, if you act selfish you might find yourself alone because you can’t buy people to be fake-friends with you. Its hard to imagine all the ways money influence us. In that situation you will learn, will accumulate orher things, knowledge and you will try to help other, you will give other things much more valuable. I really don’t think you attended any q&a session because you keep posting the same message like a spam to desinform people about TVP, there is a thing called every time to separate people and i recognise it when you say thing like us, and them and us, yours and mine, or something like that, if you attended some lectures and watched some documentaries you will se that people supporting the Venus project are much against that “us and them” language, i am sorry for your religion beliefs, i kind of get it now, because Venus project doesn’t support any god you say all venus project is wrong, well this is the ignorance of the religion, this is separate reading list from me and i bet you won’t read all Richard Dawkins books, or Carl Sagan, or other view points, i was religious, i read the bible and the coran and i try to learn about hinduism right now, but i still find Richard Dawkins books more relevant to reality. see some lectures about critical thinking on youtube, it will give you some better perspective . If you read that and don’t understand some of his books i can recomend many others. Venus project is talking about specific things, real things, like having something to eat that is healthy, a safe place, you can believe watever you want, but don’t impose on others, this are irelevant to reality, god won’t give you elecricity in the home, god won’t give you nothing more than a feeling, sorry to say to you that, if you want to research about the creator of the universe, if you find a way to prove to all that there is a god using a scientific method, i will run on the streets its a miracle, spin on a dime, and won’t argue that ever again, but for now lets say we have no real proof for that and unless you disturb others with your beliefs like a fundamentalist now you can believe whatever you want. Religion its no use in the Venus project, because you don’t need to pray for almost nothing, learn to do it yourself, if you wish a cure for cancer, learn to research cancer, to find a cure, if you pray you don’t do a thing just makes you feel better, not someone ill and that is selfish. What is better? society that does stuff and don’t waste time on superstitions, or a society that is all superstitious and kill itself for it… there must be a balance at least more like the first one. Read that books and tell me about it ! if you still dont like like we can speak about it, i don’t mind…
And if you really don’t like it just stay in your old expired sistem, and just admit i don’t feel capable to live in that world, but don’t say its a selfish sistem because its not, its the opposite of it!
Great interview, Alek!
Great idea for the future, I’m down. I choose to ignore the ignorant and do what’s good for others which is in turn good for myself, too.
This project is very hard to be fulfilled.