The Venus Project

[Buddy]

I recently read up about this project. The first thing that struck me was the erasure of individual autonomy, or the chance thereof, a la what Shane mentions here:

[...] If he [man] understands the nature of powers he can attain, it will be clear to him that they cannot be given; these powers must be developed by effort.
[...]
The idea of a conscious sheep is this: suppose a man is made conscious by someone else; he will be an instrument in the hands of others. One's own efforts are necessary, because otherwise, even if a man is made conscious, he will not be able to use it. It is in the very nature of things that consciousness and will cannot be given. If someone could give them to you, it would not be an advantage. This is the reason why one must buy everything, nothing is given free. The most difficult thing is to learn how to pay. But if it could be explained in a few words, there would be no need to go to school. One has to pay not only for consciousness but for everything. Not the smallest idea can become one's own until one has paid for it.

I'm not a big fan of sustainability solutions that must be adopted all at once or not at all. In the zeitgeist faq, I found no option for 'opting out' for anyone who reasons or feels a mistake or two has been made. In fact, computers supposedly would make all decisions:

Given the mathematically defined attributes, as based on all available information at the time, along with the state of technology at the time, the parameters for social operation in the industrial complex become self evident, with decisions arrived at by way of computation, not human opinion. ?This is where computer intelligence becomes an important tool for social governance, for only the computation ability/programming of computers can access and strategically regulate such processes efficiently, and in real time.
_http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/faq

In short, seems to me that two ideas currently seeming to have the most value are 1) local solutions that can snowball and 2) educating people about pathology. Education, because I agree with this:

Ultimately, human civilization is determined, if not defined, by one factor - and that is pathology in positions of power. Solve that - and you just might find that humanity can self-govern quite successfully and in a mutually beneficial way. But - to solve that, one must educate the masses - against the will of pathology in power - without addressing that factor, nothing will change - human history is overflowing with evidence of this simple, yet horrific, fact.

 

[SMM]

I recently read up about this project. The first thing that struck me was the erasure of individual autonomy, or the chance thereof, a la what Shane mentions here:

[...] If he [man] understands the nature of powers he can attain, it will be clear to him that they cannot be given; these powers must be developed by effort.
[...]
The idea of a conscious sheep is this: suppose a man is made conscious by someone else; he will be an instrument in the hands of others. One's own efforts are necessary, because otherwise, even if a man is made conscious, he will not be able to use it. It is in the very nature of things that consciousness and will cannot be given. If someone could give them to you, it would not be an advantage. This is the reason why one must buy everything, nothing is given free. The most difficult thing is to learn how to pay. But if it could be explained in a few words, there would be no need to go to school. One has to pay not only for consciousness but for everything. Not the smallest idea can become one's own until one has paid for it.

I'm not a big fan of sustainability solutions that must be adopted all at once or not at all. In the zeitgeist faq, I found no option for 'opting out' for anyone who reasons or feels a mistake or two has been made. In fact, computers supposedly would make all decisions:

Given the mathematically defined attributes, as based on all available information at the time, along with the state of technology at the time, the parameters for social operation in the industrial complex become self evident, with decisions arrived at by way of computation, not human opinion. ?This is where computer intelligence becomes an important tool for social governance, for only the computation ability/programming of computers can access and strategically regulate such processes efficiently, and in real time.
_http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/faq

In short, seems to me that two ideas currently seeming to have the most value are 1) local solutions that can snowball and 2) educating people about pathology. Education, because I agree with this:

Ultimately, human civilization is determined, if not defined, by one factor - and that is pathology in positions of power. Solve that - and you just might find that humanity can self-govern quite successfully and in a mutually beneficial way. But - to solve that, one must educate the masses - against the will of pathology in power - without addressing that factor, nothing will change - human history is overflowing with evidence of this simple, yet horrific, fact.

I knew of the Venus Project from aeons ago. I remember going to the Zeitgeist screening with a few people I knew a few years back, & recommending the book In Search of the Miraculous to them. The blank look I received from their faces...

In watching Jacque Fresco talk about Project Venus, pathology isn't addressed for the whatever reason, the obvious one aside - but the use of people's emotions to get them on board was evident - & self-growth/self-change wasn't really addressed.
When he stated that genetics had nothing to do with the matter, I scratched my head. Yeah the environment plays a major role... his proposal does sound like Huxley's 'Brave New World'.