resource based economy

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Peter Joseph is a musician, filmmaker, and social activist best known as the man behind the Zeitgeist film trilogy and the founder of the Zeitgeist movement. Peter’s films have become a counter-culture phenomenon on the internet and have had millions of views.  He has not shied away from controversy and has dared to push a strong vision for the future. Eventually, his audience turned into a global movement aimed at replacing capitalism with a radically new social system based on a Resource-Based Economy (RBE). And so I was very happy to have Peter Joseph on my Singularity 1-on-1 podcast in order to discuss and debate his past work, his vision of our future, and his proposed solutions.

During our 75 minute conversation with Peter we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he sees himself as a social critic and an optimist; his goals and motivation; Zeitgeist – the meaning, the movies, and the movement; the major projects Peter is currently working on – e.g. the Global Redesign Institute; the schism between the Zeitgeist movement and the Venus Project; my take on the film trilogy and Peter’s logic for structuring his argument the way he did; the measure and meaning of progress; the natural world and being in sync with it; RBE, Capitalism, sustainability, and central planning; the role of Artificial Intelligence within the Zeitgeist vision of the future; Peter’s take on the technological singularity…

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation, or become a patron on Patreon.

 

Who is Peter Joseph?

Peter Joseph (B. 1979, Winston-Salem, NC, USA) is an American Musician, Filmmaker, Author, and Social Activist; best known worldwide as the creator of the award-winning “Zeitgeist Film Series” and founder of the “The Zeitgeist Movement”, a social sustainability advocacy group which currently operates across the world. He also founded and curates the Annual Zeitgeist Media Festival for the arts and is on the Advisory Board/Steering Committee for “Project-Peace on Earth”.

Apart from ongoing feature film projects, Joseph launched a free, TV-style web series called Culture in Decline in July of 2012, which has been translated into over 25 languages & has received critical acclaim and scored millions of online views. A pioneer in free, open-distribution media, Joseph’s work supports non-profit, unrestricted syndication via free online viewing and free downloads. He conducts such work via his production company: Gentle Machine Productions LLC.

Joseph has lectured around the world, including in the UK, Canada, America, Brazil & Israel, on the subjects of cultural/social sustainability, the importance of critical thought, and the social role of the arts and scientific literacy. He was a featured speaker at the 2011 Leaders Causing Leaders Conference and his work has been profiled in the New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Marker, Free Speech TV, The Young Turks, Hollywood Today, and many other media outlets. He has participated in multiple TEDx Events, has worked with The Global Summit, and is also a frequent social critic on the news network Russia Today.

As far as activism, apart from The Zeitgeist Movement, he identifies, in part, with emerging counter-culture organizations, such as Occupy Wall St., and has spoken at official OWS gathers in Los Angeles and New York City, along with smaller ones as well. His films have been mentioned in conjunction with Occupy in many contexts, including  “Film for Actions” editorial: The Top 10 Films that Explain Why the Occupy Movement Exists, along with “A Movie Guide to Occupy Wall Street” by Laurene Williams.

Joseph is also an active musician and performs around Los Angeles, CA where he currently resides. In short, Joseph’s broad focus is on media-related expressions with the intent of affecting society in a positive way.

 

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• Jacque Fresco on Singularity 1 on 1: Apply the Methods of Science to the Social System!

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Jacque Fresco is a futurist, inventor, social engineer, visionary, and technician, best known for the Venus Project.

In his Future By Design documentary about Fresco’s life and ideas, Emmy-winning filmmaker William Gazecki called the 97-year-old Jacque “a modern-day Da Vinci.” Others have called him “a new Buckminster Fuller.”

Now, I have to admit that I really like Jacque as a person – he just seems to have a unique combination of wisdom, life experience, a sense of humor, and personal humility. I also admire his multi-disciplinary accomplishments and his seemingly never-ending enthusiasm and scientific curiosity. This, however, doesn’t mean that I agree with him on everything that he says or proposes, and you would see a few of those moments during our 72-minute interview. At any rate, the best thing you can do is to watch the interview in full, read Jacque’s book –  The Best That Money Can’t Buy, and judge for yourself.

During my conversation with Jacque Fresco we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how he sees himself; scarcity and money as the root of all evil; the Venus Project; the need for unambiguous language; why he claims that most people are “unsane”; whether philosophers are bullshitters; the clash of civilizations and the nation-state; education and the scientific method; the modern culture of bread and spectacles; resource-based economy; Ray Kurzweil, artificial intelligence and the technological singularity; the Zeitgeist movement; Ayn Rand and objectivism; death and cryonics…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this conversation with Jacque is:

“Study the meaning of science and apply its methods to the social system!”

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation, or become a patron on Patreon.

 

Paradise or Oblivion:

This video presentation advocates a new socio-economic system, which is updated to present-day knowledge, featuring the life-long work of Social Engineer, Futurist, Inventor and Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco, which he calls a Resource-Based Economy. This documentary details the root causes of the systemic value disorders and detrimental symptoms caused by our current established system. The film details the need to outgrow the dated and inefficient methods of politics, law, business, or any other “establishment” notions of human affairs, and use the methods of science, combined with high technology, to provide for the needs of all the world’s people. It is not based on the opinions of the political and financial elite or on illusionary so-called democracies, but on maintaining a dynamic equilibrium with the planet that could ultimately provide abundance for all people.

Paradise or Oblivion, by The Venus Project, introduces the viewer to a more appropriate value system that would be required to enable this caring and holistic approach to benefit human civilization. This alternative surpasses the need for a monetary-based, controlled, and scarcity-oriented environment, which we find ourselves in today.

This is NOT the “major motion picture” that The Venus Project is working towards but rather is a short documentary to introduce the aims and proposals to new people.

 

Who is Jacque Fresco?

Jacque Fresco has been envisioning the future for almost a century. An industrial designer and social engineer, he is a forerunner in the field of Human Factors Engineering, has worked as both innovator and inventor in a wide range of fields spanning aerospace, medicine, architecture, automotive design, psychology and much more. He is the founder of the Venus Project (formerly Sociocyberneering, Inc.), a twenty-five-acre research facility in Venus, Florida — the function of which is to prepare approaches and solutions to major problems that confront the world today. The Venus Project represents the culmination of Fresco’s life work: the integration of the best of science and technology into a comprehensive plan for a society based on human and environmental concern.

Fresco’s talents can only be described as prolific. His accomplishments include a tenure as a design consultant for Rotor Craft Helicopter Company, service in the Army Design and Development Unit at Wright Field, a position as Research Engineer for Raymond De-Icer Corp and helped create Revel Plastics Corporation. He was a technical consultant to the motion picture industry, and also worked on the film The Magic Eye, which won the Robert J. Flaherty Award for a creative film documentary.  He also has taught industrial design at the Art Center School in Los Angeles. He has authored seven books and has written and published numerous articles throughout the world. In addition, he has successfully produced and filmed four educational videos about the future that are distributed to high schools, colleges, and libraries worldwide.

Mr. Fresco has been a guest lecturer at many institutions of higher learning. Fresco has been featured on countless television shows throughout the world and his world lecture tour in 2010 where he traveled to over 19 countries and gave over 25 lectures was a tremendous success. Academy Award Nominated and Emmy Winning filmmaker, William Gazecki in 1998 produced a major documentary, titled Future By Design, on Mr. Fresco’s life, designs and philosophy. In 2008, the world-renowned film, Zeitgeist Addendum, by Peter Joseph showcased the work of Jacque Fresco. This film was a huge Internet phenomenon receiving 50,000,000 views within its first year. A sequel to this documentary, Zeitgeist Moving Forward, was released in 2011 featuring Mr. Fresco, his work, and direction for the future. The film Future My Love, produced by Maja Borg in 2012, prominently features the work of Jacque Fresco.  Roxanne Meadows, in 2012 produced the film Paradise or Oblivion which is about the aims and directions of The Venus Project and Jacque Fresco.

Jacque Fresco is the founder of The Venus Project, which reflects the culmination of his life’s work: the integration of the best of science and technology into a comprehensive plan for a new society based on human and environmental concerns. It is a global vision of hope for the future of humankind in our technological age. Television and magazine coverage on The Venus Project has been worldwide. www.TheVenusProject.com