As previously stated, this blog is not primarily for questions, but rather answers. Some questions have their place, though, and this post is for the questions. Do you have more questions? Post them as comments to this post. If you have answers, post them as new posts. Thank you.
When I first heard about the concept I couldn’t stop thinking about it. What can RBE be like? What will it be like??? WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE???!!!
A thousand questions started to roll around in my head and wouldn’t stop. It was an intriguing concept. Would it be possible to create a world WITHOUT MONEY and with ABUNDANCE FOR EVERYONE? Yes, they said. We don’t need money per se. We are all blinded to believe we need it, but it is really what the money buys that we need. Housing, food, clothing, transportation, etc. etc. But we are so ingrained in thinking about the world in terms of money that it is very difficult to imagine the world without it. According to Jacque Fresco there is enough resources on this planet to provide everything for everyone. The clue is that we don’t need to OWN everything, we only need ACCESS to it. If you had access to everything you could ever want, would you need to OWN it? I wouldn’t, for sure. If we could utilize technology to be our “slaves” and do all the boring “dirty work” for us, we would be faceing a totally new kind of freedom. But…what would it be like? After having read Jacques Fresco’s book “The best money can’t buy”, seen both Zeitgeist movies, studied The Venus Project webpage and the Zeitgeist webpage I was totally convinced that this could be the new direction for society. But I had more questions than answers.
Questions:
- What would we do when we didn’t have to work that much anymore?
- How can everything be automated?
- Can a restaurant be automated?
- What about “the human touch”?
- How would we spend our days?
- Will technology “take over”?
- Will we be lazy?
- Can computers make “all decisions”?
- What decisions will we make?
- Will there be brands anymore? Like Coca Cola?
- What about clothing? Will we have fashion?
- What about cinemas?
- What about music?
- How do we decide who gets what?
- Like who gets the house with a view?
- Or by the water?
- What about inheritance?
- What about professions?
RBE is not without problems and challenges. We are so used to thinking that if you have money you are entitled to luxury and choosing where and how you want to live. In other words, the money is our decision maker. The one who has managed to build up a fortune, either through inheritance, or through achievement, is entitled to choose before the ones who don’t have the money. We are so used to think in terms of property and ownership. Not just in terms of land and money, but also intellectual property. If we make something we have the “rights” to it. I am a musician, photographer and filmmaker my self, so I know the feeling.
How can we think “no property” and “no ownership”? We have to practice. Start to write imagined stories from the new world. Start to think not in terms of “yours” and “mine”, but rather “ours”.
Actually, even today we are only “renting” everything we think we “own”. No matter how much we have paid for something it will brake down or go back to society some day after we die. Unless it is inherited in the bloodline indefinitely. We simply can’t bring it with us wherever we might go after this world. Still, most things we don’t keep until we die anyway. We either sell it or throw it away. The food you eat goes right out again. Rented. The computer you write on brakes down and you have to throw it away. Rented. You sell the car you have and buy a new one. You can call the difference the rent. The point is that nothing is “mine” for eternity. We buy and sell and throw away. You could say that we only borrow it from each other anyway, except that we pay for it.
Okay, so in an RBE we will have access to everything we might need. Without money. I imagine that there would still be a “market place”, except that no one puts anything out there for profit, but rather for the sake of sharing it with the world.
by RBE
15 Dec 2009 at 07:25
For The Directivist the answers to these questions are simple The Promethean Workers Association’s model of RBE Directivist society answers these
questions in the following manner.
•What would we do when we didn’t have to work that much anymore? Productivity is defined in a monetary system as how many profits you can make for the dictator
of course in a RBE based economic system productivity is no longer defined in this manner. Thusly productivity is gauged on the basis of your social
contribution to society. Your contribution could be new ideas, philosophy, art, culture, etc.
•How can everything be automated? Production and Distribution should be automated for sure but you still need Technical experts elected by the people.
•Can a restaurant be automated? Yes actually it can be automated something similar to an Automate but computerized chefs would be anyone who likes to cook
working with machines to help speed up the process but still keep it natural. At first it would be low tech but over time it would get more improved and automated
The restaurant of the future would probably double up as a community gathering center and a pub or other place of social gathering. It wouldn’t cost anything either.
•What about “the human touch”? The one thing you can’t cybernate is human warmth, human comfort and of course love. These are the most natural things that
make being human well what it is with LOVE we are not human. We cannot cybernate child bearing and genetically engineer babies yet Jacques Fresco has said
in the future it would happen with cybernated nurseries in his book Looking Forward. Of course as they would say no one would be forced but evetually a
a new social division would emerge between people born naturally and people who were genetically tailored to be perfect. War not on the basis of money
would soon consume a RBE Society like that a war for genetic superiority.
•How would we spend our days? Nurturing human curiosity; learning and attending one of many Socratic learning centers where criticial thought and analysis
is the basis of all learning and degree’s are certificates that show a persons contribution to a philosophy not how much they can read and memorize.
•Will technology “take over”? Only if we have 100% Cybernation if we still have elected Technical Experts to oversee everything then even if all technology
failed one day we would have real people ready to take over and get things moving once again. Disaster management for example would still require people organizing
disaster preparedness.
•Will we be lazy? Not if our new Resource Based Economy is built on the basis of higher knowledge and knowing the self. If the center of our society is
built on mastering ourselves and improving individuals people will strive to nurture themselves and develop their insight as part of their natural human
curiosity. To bring about a society that works at the deep philosophical questions that have yet to be answered. Such as I think therefore i am so why am i?
and why do i think i am? How do i know i am beyond all doubt? How do i know i’m not just a dream beyond all doubt? What is real? how do you define real?
•Can computers make “all decisions”? NO! Computers can only crunch the numbers for us and run programs if we have self aware sentient AI and we give it all the
power to make decisions we’ve just created a super elite Machnonated Oligarchy. The most efficient Autotocracy ever in effect you have a MECHNOCRACY!
Venus Projects model is just that a Cybernated Bureacracy. People should always be there to oversee what the machines are doing otherwise what you have is a
system similar to Communism the only difference is that Machines and not People would be The Central Committee who centrally plan everything. In essence any
system which relies on central economic planning whether by cybernation, central committees, or corportocracy is flawed.
•What decisions will we make? Well the Venus Project would tell you we’d make no decisions in regards to what cybernated systems do. We Directivists on the
otherhand would tell you we would use Direct Propotional Democratic Voting to let machines calculate the proportional totals of what goods are demanded and
produce them accordingly. Of course machines would not automatically run the programs based on the numbers we’d still have Technical Teams elected to crunch
in the numbers from one cybernated system to another. This is not to say they would physically type it in but rather transfer the data over and run the program
this way someone could always be keeping an eye on whats going on. Technical Teams wouldn’t even have to be at the center they were elected to 24/7 they could carry
around laptops with them and paging systems to let them know when there’s a problem that require’s maintenance. Aside from that they could work on projects as
often as they wanted and even have apprentices to assist them in projects such as upgrading existing systems.
•Will there be brands anymore? Like Coca Cola? Brand name is basically ownership of a name. In a Resource Based Economy Coke brand would no longer be the
private property of individuals. Rather it would become common heritage of all people and the formula would be improved even to where its basically less bad
for your health. Maybe even eventually based on formulas for existing healthy type soda’s you’d find at a healthfood store.
•What about clothing? Will we have fashion? The designing of fashion would be open source sorta like this website. You’d design it virtually with holographic
technology so you can see how it looks and then upload it to the net.
•What about cinemas? We’d have many less things like building for banks, or stores so we’d have allot more room for movie theaters obviously we’d upgrade them
to more digital based technology as opposed to the projector style. On the otherhand some cinemas using the old style would be maintainned for those who like
the old feel of movies. Since many more cinemas would exist that means many more movie choices and the drink and food stand could be completely automated.
the only staff you’d need is a couple of members of the technical team. They could even hang out and watch movies most of the day until their was a problem.
•What about music? well not sure if this exactly answers your question but we’d obtain music virtually whenever we want it. A shared commons library of all
music ever recorded that you could access from anywhere with a digital radio unit. The Airwaves would become common heritage as well so anyone who wanted to
could have their own radio show now whether or not people would tune in is another story that would be their choice to make.
•How do we decide who gets what? Distribution Centers would distribute what ever people wanted this process itself should be 100% automated with automated delivery
trucks to bring you what you’ve ordered. If you wanted something you’d simply order it through the net or you could call the center if the network was down
for whatever reason. In a worst case scenario such as a natural disaster the technical teams themselves could begin organizing volunteers to start driving
the trucks and get things moving again. In that scenario the teams would be working to get things turned back on as soon as possible it’d be the only time
people would be needed. Just like when any natural disaster happens people come together to assist those in need and its what would happen in this society
if a disaster hits and the power grid or cybernated systems go offline.
•Like who gets the house with a view? •Or by the water? It depends on how many people want the house with a view but i’m thinking every house would have a view. Thing is what you
want a view of will change. If you want the ultimate waterfront property a city on the water would be good, or perhaps you prefer a house under water. The choice
would be yours to make eventually we’d have enough house’s with a view of whatever suits you. You’d choose from an available directory of locations and then
move in. You don’t need to be limited to one house either you could live one place in the winter and another place in the summer.
•What about inheritance? What would a person be inheriting? certainly not money, a house or a car. But if you mean like a family heirloom such as an engagement
ring thats been in the family for ages, or some other personal item with sentiment value why wouldn’t those still be passed down?
•What about professions? Depends on the profession obviously lawyers wouldn’t exist anymore, neither would store clerk many of the old professions would be
phased out and replaced by Technical experts although they’d be elected. Further all profession trainning would be on the job basically through apprenticeship
programs. You’d train for your job by getting hands on experience. Schooling for any profession would begin with apprenticeship trainning and then
research time and discussion time. Discussions would take place in Socratic centers of learning where Critical Thought and Development of new ideas and
perspectivea. Education for social non profession social service jobs would be turned into a sort of social degree that would denote your level of study
and social contribution in a particular field.
some subjects in school now would dissapear or be merged into others. For example we’d have no use for a seperate field in economics or political science both
of those fields would end up being merged under philosophy. Religious studies would also eventually go under Philosophy and be looked at in the future as
social viewpoints and perspectives on philosophical questions such as life and death. Not that there wouldn’t be spiritual people anymore its just spiritualism
would become a more personal thing a life style choice that you would choose to fit you. Education itself would take the Agnostic view point and so would science
it would even look at the Scientific Materialism and Dogmatic Atheism which dominates today as its own distinct view and philosophy.
Well hopefully that answers many of your questions about a Resource Based Economy. Namaste!