Essay:The Venus Project

What is 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. This plan involves the construction of new cities that are much different than the cities of today, namely:


 * Making the necessities of life available to all people without a price tag (food, water, housing, electricity, healthcare, goods, etc)
 * Utilizing automation wherever possible to eliminate drudgery
 * Maximizing energy efficiency and making use of renewables
 * Building transportation systems into the city system and would be available to everyone
 * Modifying the characteristics of the city to increase the outcome of positive human behavior
 * And much more

Jacque’s Background
Jacque Fresco is the primary founder and source of knowledge behind The Venus Project. If you understand Jacque’s background I think you’ll have an easier time getting a grasp on how The Venus Project came to be. I’ll begin that now.

Jacque Fresco was born in 1916 in New York City.

At school he refused to pledge allegiance to the flag. He was sent to the principal’s office. The principal asked Jacque why he didn’t want to pledge allegiance. Jacque explained that America owed everything it had to the contributions of other nations. He said he would rather pledge allegiance to the Earth and everyone on it. Jacque’s mother arrived at school in tears. The principal explained that he was going to buy Jacque a microscope and books and allow him to educate himself, separate from the rest of the class. A few years later the principal died and Jacque lost his special privileges so he decided to skip out of school.

Jacque’s first job — while still in high school in New York — was a part-time designer of modernistic plastic window displays.

At 19 (during the Great Depression), he hitched-hiked to California “to get into the aircraft industry”. With a bunch of futuristic drawings of saucer-like aircraft as his credentials, he landed a job in the design department of Douglas Aircraft.

In his 20’s, Jacque went on an expedition to study the folkways of the Polynesians. After spending time living with the natives of the islands (namely Tahiti and Tuomotu) he found that human behavior is not a fixed concept. Behavior is drastically different depending on your upbringing and what the regional notion of what “normal” is.

Jacque met with Albert Einstein and discussed philosophy and science. (year unknown)

In 1948 at the age of 32, Jacque co-created the Trend Home. It was displayed at stage 8 of Warner Bros. Studio in Hollywood for three months. In the same year he created Scientific Research Laboratories in Los Angeles, CA. He held seminars and taught technical drawing and at the same time conducted research and worked on projects as a freelance inventor and scientific consultant.

In 1955 Jacque moved to Miami, FL. He built miniature models and scenes for the film Project Moonbase. He worked as a psychological consultant. He attended a Ku Klux Klan meeting at a local branch and over time managed to dissolve the branch. That’s a really interesting story. Video links here if you’re interested (~10 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLwsDgj2kj8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK1rCG1oyP4

In 1961 Jacque collaborated with two other people on a project known as the “Sandwich House”. In the late 60’s Jacque founded the organization Sociocyberneering, which would later become The Venus Project. The reason they changed the name was because the word “cyber” was unfamiliar to people at the time and “The Venus Project” was a lot simpler (plus they lived in Venus, FL). In 1969 he co-authored the book Looking Forward. In 1974 Jacque was interviewed by Larry King where he displayed architectural drawings and pointed out some of the shortcomings of our culture.

In the 80’s and 90’s Jacque and his partners constructed the research center consisting of ten dome-shaped buildings. During this period “Resource-Based Economy” was coined.

In 2002, Jacque published the book The Best That Money Can’t Buy.

In 2006, William Gazecki produced a documentary about Jacque Fresco, entitled Future by Design.

In 2007, The Venus Project published the essay Designing the Future, written by Jacque Fresco, and released a short documentary of the same name.

In 2008, Peter Joseph featured Fresco in the film Zeitgeist Addendum where his ideas of the future were given as possible alternatives.

In 2010, Fresco made a world tour with Meadows, performing twenty-six seminars in twenty countries around the world, in order to promote and disseminate The Venus Project.

In 2011, Zeitgeist: Moving Forward was released in theaters, featuring Fresco.

On March 12, 2016, the day before his hundredth birthday, a public event was held in Fort Myers attended by over six hundred people. On November 19 of the same year, an exhibition was inaugurated at the Baker museum in Naples entitled "Jacque Fresco, 100 Years of Vision”.

On May 18, 2017 Jacque passed away at 101. He had Parkinson’s disease. Roxanne Meadows continues to run and operate The Venus Project.

Here’s a thorough list of Jacque’s professional background and technical achievements.

https://www.thevenusproject.com/the-venus-project/jacque-fresco/

The Venus Project
Here is an overview of The Venus Project for anyone who’s not familiar. I got all of this from their website.

The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. Our proposition is not an attempt to predict what will be done, only what could be done. We call 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.

The Venus Project is a veritable blueprint for the genesis of a new world civilization, one that is based on human concern and environmental reclamation. Our conclusions are based on years of study and experimental research by many people from various scientific disciplines.

Experience tells us that human behavior can be directed, 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.

The first phase of The Venus Project’s long-term plans has already been completed. A 21-acre Center in Venus, Florida with 10 experimental buildings and a lush landscape to help present the proposals of The Venus Project have been constructed.

Phase Two includes the production of documentaries to help introduce this direction to the world. Two major documentaries have already been completed: Paradise or Oblivion and The Choice is Ours.

The Venus Project has begun development of its third phase: the Center for Resource Management. This facility will showcase The Venus Project’s vision and will act as a stepping stone towards the development of our proposed network of cities.

The fourth phase of The Venus Project’s goals includes the construction of a research city. This new experimental research city would be devoted to working towards the aims and goals of The Venus Project. These goals are listed on The Venus Project’s website.

Overall
I’ve done a lot of copy-pasting from online sources, trying to condense down the material as best I can. I want you to know that Jacque’s technical background is vast; he has designed aircraft, medical devices, housing systems, x-ray units, anti-icing systems, and extruded products. He’s an educator that has authored books, produced videos, given countless lectures and radio broadcasts. And he has spent a great deal of time studying human behavior to determine what factors lead to certain behaviors.

The Venus Project is a real project and it is still active. There are (I think) a handful of full-time volunteers that work onsite at The Venus Project compound and a much longer list of volunteers from around the world that work towards various aims of the project; media and content creation, communication, transcription, engineering, software development, educational, etc. They are still giving weekly tours which I myself have been on. I highly recommend seeing the project in person and asking all of the difficult questions. It also doesn’t hurt to check out the FAQ as a lot of the same questions are asked (and answered) repeatedly. Also they can be contacted by email or even by phone.

https://www.thevenusproject.com/faqs/

For full disclosure, I am a Venus Project volunteer and long time supporter. That being said, I don't want to waste my time or energy supporting quackery, theft, pyramid schemes or the like. If there is truly some negative behavior going on at The Venus Project, I would want to know about it.