While I like Fresco and I think he’s a talented architect and thinker, I think the reason why this whole thing seems so fuzzy and difficult to implement is that he hasn’t really planned anything at all. He’s made an abundance of sketches and 3D models envisioning the potential aesthetic and technical function of tomorrow’s society, but he hasn’t really clearly alluded to how the society will work. I understand he is only one man, but when you’re proposing a social change as big as this one, I think you really need to have a fairly clear and detailed picture as to what the social landscape that you are proposing is actually going to look like.

For example, saying that crime will disappear because there is no money, is simply not going to fly. There are many crimes such as murder (love, jealousy driven etc.), rape and child sex-abuse that have no ties to money but rather to the human mindset. If these crimes continue, which I greatly suspect they will do – with or without the presence of money – this will mean a law system will need to be in place. A law system means that enforcers are needed (you can’t possibly expect ordinary people to take murderers to prison/court etc); these again will be ‘police’ who will have the authority to take people in for a trial (meaning lawyers, judges etc.). Thus the need for control of wrong doers will lead to an authoritarian setup, which may unfortunately lead to the abuse of such powers, as it always has done. Albeit there will be potentially less opportunity in a world where rare resources and such incentives aren’t attainable for power holders, but these sorts of things need to be taken into account before you can even think about implementing such a large scale project. You can’t make such bold claims without lots of proof and detail; after all, you are trying to replace a society setup that has been in place for many centuries that has laws and regulations for everything we do based on how we could possibly abuse the system. I do not believe that without money humans will inherently stop causing conflict between each other (eg. love, jealousy can still drive people to do bad things).

Another problem is possession. I understand that Fresco is trying to eradicate the idea of owning something by making it so common that one need not worry about owning it – the “plenty more where that came from” type scenario. But with regards to art and hand-crafted things like wooden tables and so on, these things can’t be mass produced, and so inevitably people will have things that other people cannot have at the same time. This isn’t such a problem, it is the same as with our current society where people cannot always have what they want and they seem to deal with it, but this may bring about bartering. i.e. I’ll give you my painting for your wooden desk… This seems harmless enough. But what if this micro-trading system evolves? It’s reintroducing a ‘monetary’ system whereby you assign value to objects and trade accordingly. It will inevitably happen at some point.

This bartering system ties into drugs. Will drugs still be ‘illegal’? If so, you may get the development of an underground drug ring, where artefacts and no doubt sexual favours become the only viable ‘currency’, being perhaps the only two things that cannot be possessed like everything else in this new world. The adult industry will also perhaps be fuelled by this. As I am assuming that most people wouldn’t enter into the adult industry if not for the money incentives, in the new system, elements of today’s adult industry (I am referring to pornography and prostitution specifically) will perhaps become the currency for drugs (as we often here about today anyway). This black-market presence will also no doubt lead to other more heinous crimes such as murder, rape, child soliciting etc. Thus a new ‘resource’ will be born, one that is limited and potentially costly.

Another issue is resources. I like the idea of ‘everyone owns everything so there will be no fights’, but controls are still needed, monitoring of where resources are going so you don’t have some who tend to waste them on multiple fruitless ventures seems necessary. For example, scientists without money constraints may become a little careless. If they can just redo an experiment then why take as much care? I’ll make the analogy with today’s online gaming scene. The virtual world is unlimited, so you don’t care too much when you fail at something, because you can just do it again. I fear the same will happen in a world where resources are not weighted with value. Some sort of system needs to be in place to make sure people know how much they can use. Resources need to be appropriately rationed. I suspect a free-for-all system wont function. It could surely be done fairly, but it needs to be sorted.

Lastly – employment. Fresco seems to have concluded that people will work if given the opportunity to work on what they want. There are lazy people in this world. It’s a fact. Many of them do mundane jobs that this project wishes to replace with automation, fair enough, however what happens to these people? Do they suddenly want to become engineers, actors, athletes, scientists and artists? I say they sit at home and play video games. This society could spawn an abundance of ‘free loaders’ or more appropriately, people who just don’t do anything. Are we okay with that? Do we think everyone will be okay with that? How would one go about perhaps minimising this if we aren’t?

These are concepts that need to be addressed by Fresco or someone before this thing can even be considered. If we are to rebuild our world we need a detailed action plan. You need to consider the problems before you jump on how fun it all looks in the movie. This is why people look upon this idea and say it is idealistic and childish, because it has not been thought out in detail, it does currently seem like a bit of a fantasy. Law, work, drugs, small-scale trade, these are problems that I came up with in a single day after looking over this project and a few videos. I am sure there are more. And this is a problem. If anyone takes this project seriously then they need to create an action plan, not vague comments on how things will function. Details – a society is all about details, for that is where the big problems arise. I am not saying it isn’t possible, but if it comes to a point where the problems are all fairly similar to the one’s we have today (free loaders, crime, drugs, greed), then perhaps there is nothing to be gained from refacing our whole social system. I believe that is how the scientific (engineering) method should be implemented.

This could potentially be the largest project ever undertaken by man, our population is at its highest and implementation would be on the largest scale it has ever been. So if it wants to be successful, then it should be planned better than past systems such as communism etc. Currently I have not found evidence of such planning, I see the technical aspects which are all very impressive and seemingly quite possible given our current technical abilities (automation is common place these days etc), but what it really needs is a social system. The two things are as important as each other here but the later has been severely neglected and this simply will not do given the magnitude of the proposed change.

I understand the parallels between this proposed society and that of the age-old aborigine society in Australia (where I live), and other holistic societies from around the world, but even such societies as these have leaders or elders for guidance and governance. So perhaps lead can be taken from these societies in building a new society? I don’t have all the answers, but I do have a lot of questions that would sure need answering before I’d consider investing in this project. This is what my current intuition tells me.

I wish anyone on this planet to be rich, healthy, wealthy, happy and I wish the Venus Project one day comes to Albania. Here this project can be done successfully because the nature here offers anything and is wonderful place.

Best Regards

Dritan Saja

Tirane, Albania

Thank God I found the Zeitgeist movie, and clips and interviews from Jaque Fresco. It has again given hope to the world, and in particular to our youth who had been stupified by the insanity of the current system – almost to the point of apathetic inertia.

Might I ask if there are any plans to try harness a resource very very close to home; VIZ the human brain. I understand that we may only be using 10% of its capacity. If we could establish that this were the case (or not), then we could either 1)focus on tapping into the potential as a first step to crossing over from the monetery system. Were we able to achieve this – then surely all our most complex problems would be more likely solved 2)Put the notion to bed, and work with what we have – working successfully within the boundaries of our average intelligence.

Thank you
-Charli

Please answer me back..