Is it centralized? A Resource Based Economy

Please check out the original source at V-Radio:
http://v-radio.org/
The Zeitgeist Movement advocates the Venus Project, which is simply a name used to describe the work and ideas of Jacque Fresco. The emphasis, rather than on Fresco, or worrying about names, labels, and fallible individuals, is on the overarching observations and hence criticisms of the monetary system as a whole, rather than any local, ecological, or timely concern.

Unlike many still valuable causes, the emphasis here is on the system itself, as the predominant source and underlying root cause of many and most of the world's increasingly crippling problems, from technological retardation, waste and unchecked pollution, to wholesale starvation. Furthermore, money and power are inextricably linked, and as Harvard professor Niall Ferguson stated, it functioned as portable power, the accumulation of wealth ran directly with the accumulation of power, and as I would add, this fact has historically permitted an ouroborus effect, in which both compliment one another and permit the other's perpetuation.

Rather than declaring money to be evil, this is rather about a rational acknowledgment of its historical contingency, and emphasizing transitioning into a new paradigm that is able to function without it. This is the economic equivalent of the evolution of computation, in which vacuum tubes were continually shrunk down until, finally, they encountered a brick wall, and a paradigm shift occurred by moving on to transistors.

Something called a Resource Based Economy is proposed, and part of this is what is often referred to as a 'central database' component of what we currently know as 'governance'. This is NOT to be mistaken with political ideologies. It refers to something very much like the internet, except with a level of artificial intelligence. Like Wolfram Alpha, this is an engineered artifact that uses language understanding and directed algorithmic computation. We propose a 'system's approach' in which this computational knowledge base, accessible via the internet, is connected with all known technical processes, operations and resources, achieved via an Earth wide autonomic sensor system that generates industrial feedback: a principle used in your computer, inkjet printer, and central nervous system. It is now employed in Hewlett Packard's 'CeNSE' technology (Central Nervous System for the Earth).

This is hence NOT a political ideology, but a scientific proposition applying the intimate combination of system's engineering and cybernation. It is also crucial to point out that the cybernation of domestic infrastructure, including the transport, energy, telecommunications and financial sectors of current, first world nations has been accelerating for decades.

Decrying this proposal as 'totalitarian' by associating the word centralized with the historical political ideology of Communism is not relevant, no more relevant than using the same argument when reviewing the blueprints of a load-bearing structure with a central core, or, more aptly, the system's engineering used in various sanitation, irrigation, telecommunications systems, and so on.

The irony of this concern is the fact that the evolution of the monetary system has lead to increasing centralization of power, and the development of monopolies, cartels, oligopoly, and eventual 'plutonomy', aside from the plain fact that almost all systems of current government incorporate a considerable degree of centralization throughout them, and of course understanding that in science the only 'tyranny' and 'dictatorship' is, for instance, of natural laws like gravity. Hence the language of tyranny is childish, and moot.

Perhaps the most important points to drive home here is that this proposed system is based upon scientific reference and applications, and a true economic law of parsimony rather than the contrived Rube Goldberg Machine of our current socioeconomic system, particular that of the monetary system itself, and the plain and simple fact that this centralized, interactive database component, rather than being tyrannical in any way, shape or form, would in fact act as a conduit for true inclusive participation. It would hence act as an interactive interface between you and the technical operations of society, generating a true, modern democratic phenomenon, a lateral relationship rather than a top-down dictatorial one.

If you are still unsure what I mean when I say 'applying the scientific method to society as a whole' I will put it to you in the most direct terms. System's engineers already do this with bringing water, electricity, and communications to people's homes. We are talking about upgrading to our current level of technical capability.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• resource based economy
• venus project
• zeitgeist movement
• politics
• democracy
• science
• scientific method
• participation
• peter joseph
• jacque fresco
• technology
• systems
• system's approach
• sustainability
• pollution
• economics
• monetary
• paradigm
• earth
• human
• positive direction
• future
• centralization
• central database
• doug mallette
• roxanne meadows

[127miles]

Yesterday was my little sisters first day at school. When our family went to pick her up she asked " daddy, why do I have to get up so early for school?" my dad said" because it's the only way you'll have time to learn, that the way it going to be for the rest of your life" I said" that's horrible" eeryone in the car laughed. It sickens me that we are forced to do things we don't want to like get up at 6 for 50 years only to enjoy the money when your old.

[Neanderthalcouzin]

@127miles Well said, I agree. I said the same thing as your little sister when I went to school. Of course I was also told it was necessary training for a job later....getting up and working behind a desk, etc, or a factory, or whatever it would be.

My dad once said *we work harder to watch more TV* as a comment on how we end up working jobs we dont like, only to sedate ourselves whenever we have the free time.

[NAIVADA]

excellent informative video, but the music......... sorry to say but its very distrubing

[EasternMerchant]

@axe863 "One of the main reasons why economic problems are solvable is because human being engage in "messy calculation." "

If what you say is true, then the only hope mankind on this earth has, is to evolve our value system to a point that satisfies everyone including the planet as a whole, and Science & Technology should only serve a role to Discover & Recommend, not Dictate.

[axe863]

@EasternMerchant The reason most people protest that kind of question is the same reason most scientists do. My disbelief in your system doesn't require a solution. When a physicist says that there isn't any evidence that X was "intelligently designed" and simply states "I don't know what naturalistic process caused this" ... it doesn't strengthen the I.D. position or weaken the physicist's position.

[EasternMerchant]

@axe863 now, alot of people shy away from this question when I ask it, but please don't go silent on me when I do ask this question.

Here it is:

What is YOUR Solution to the Socio/Economic Problems of the world?

[axe863]

@EasternMerchant One of the main reasons why economic problems are solvable is because human being engage in "messy calculation."

[axe863]

@EasternMerchant I didnt say anything about it possessing all of the psychological flaws of human beings. I merely said that putting an A.I. entity in charge of G.R.M is very risky because it is no longer a mindless machine but a sentient life-form. I would view it as being as dangerous as if a single human being was in charge of the RBE.

[EasternMerchant]

@axe863 I believe you have mathematically described "Free Will" HAH! So, you are saying that if we miraculously discover an algorithm to model human ingenuity, it will be flawed with biases as humans and thus we have accomplished nothing but to create a synthetic sentient lifeform with all the inherent psychological flaws which will lead to flawed value systems once more?

[axe863]

@EasternMerchant There are anomalies yet to be defined ... RBE of the gaps argument? Lets see a demonstration.. Btw if you do create AI capable of stopping an optimization problem that has a halting problem.. you have created a system that is able to disobey its commands. I find it quite terrifying to imagine a global resource management system in the hands of such a conscious entity.

[axe863]

@EasternMerchant Ive read a significant portion of their book and it makes errors in statistical analysis that a 1st year statistician would cringe at. The fudging of data by excluding countries, measures of social health, data sources that don't fit the narrative, the omission of of higher explanatory variables, the inclusion of extreme outliers etc..A valid scientific approach would be to run a full multiple regression and correct for bias and inefficiencies in the estimators

[axe863]

@EasternMerchant Someone has never heard of Godelian incompleteness.