The Greatest Visionary You Never Heard of: Jacque Fresco
By Steve Kinsman, 3rd Aug 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsTechnology
Jacque Fresco, a visionary futurist, has a workable vision for a new and transformed world.
Meet Jacque Fresco
Jacque Fresco was born March 13, 1916, in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, to Turkish immigrant parents. Growing up, he was bored in school, feeling that public education was less than challenging. In his teens he dropped out of school and began educating himself. When he witnessed the dire poverty of the Great depression, Fresco began thinking that there must be a better way to organize society so that scarcity and poverty would cease to exist.
Early career
Jacque Fresco traveled to Los Angeles in the 1930s and began his career as a structural designer in the aircraft industry. Drafted into the army in 1942, he was given technical design duties and was soon producing up to forty designs a day. His many ideas for advanced aircraft design earned him a reputation in the aircraft industry for being "a man twenty years ahead of his time."
After the war
After the war Fresco worked for many companies as a technical consultant, designer and advisor - to the motion picture industry, to the Art Center School in Hollywood, in medical device design and many other areas. By the 1970s he turned his attention almost exclusively to formulating ideas on how to create a better, more effective and more humane way to create society.
His vision
The Venus Project is based on Fresco's ideas for anew, transformed sustainable societal model that works for everybody. Here, in his own words, quoted from his web site, is the essence of his vision:
"All socioeconomic systems, regardless of political philosophy, religious beliefs, or social customs, ultimately depend upon natural resources, i.e., clean air and water, arable land and the necessary technology and personnel to maintain a high standard of living. Simply stated, a resource-based economy utilizes existing resources rather than money and provides an equitable method of distributing these resources in the most efficient manner for the entire population. It is a system in which all goods and services are available without the use of money, credits, barter, or any other form of debt or servitude.
"Earth is abundant with plentiful resources; today our practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant and counter-productive to our survival. Modern society has access to highly advanced technologies and can make available food, clothing, housing, medical care, a relevant educational system, and develop a limitless supply of renewable, non-contaminating energy such as geothermal, solar, wind, tidal, etc. It is now possible to have everyone enjoy a very high standard of living with all of the amenities that a prosperous civilization can provide. This can be accomplished through the intelligent and humane application of science and technology.
"To better understand the meaning of a resource-based economy consider this: if all the money in the world were destroyed, as long as topsoil, factories, and other resources were left intact,we could build anything we choose to build and fulfill any human need. It is not money that people need; rather it is free access to the necessities of life. In a resource-based economy, money would be irrelevant. all that would be required are the resources and the manufacturing and distribution of the products."
The Venus Project
Jacque Fresco, along with his partner Roxanne Meadows, created in the 1990's, The Venus Project, in central Florida. Here he has designed and built mockups for his cities of the future. I would encourage everyone who reads this to check out thevenusproject.com, to see precisely how Fresco's vision for a new future can be created.
Jacque Fresco is now 96 years old, and he travels all over the world, giving lectures, doing radio and television interviews, and conducting workshops. Please click on the brief video below to hear Jacques Fresco explain his vision.
Link: A World Without Money is Possible
Preview photo from wikimedia commons
All other photos from thevenusproject.com
Comments
4th Aug 2012 (#)
Wow, amazing. Thanks for introducing this man whose ideas should be shared. I look forward to learning more about the Venus Project.
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4th Aug 2012 (#)
I hope you go in and check out the site. It's full of great ideas and information about how a moneyless, sustainable economy can indeed work for us all. Thanks for commenting Mark.
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4th Aug 2012 (#)
this is another of your incredible pieces Steve..what a marvellous man was Jacque and I do hope the Venus Project can be accomplished...
wot would the banks say!!!!
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4th Aug 2012 (#)
The thing is, it can be done, and it could begin right now. Thanks for commenting, cnwriter.
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4th Aug 2012 (#)
Wow, Steve, thanks! What passion at his age to look ahead with hope and pointing at the right direction! Truly inspiring, just what is needed. When we get up every morning, we are filled more with fear than love for life! Thanks Steve for bringing such an inspiring person to our midst. And his clarity of thought is astounding and that shows his belief in what he wants the world to be - siva
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4th Aug 2012 (#)
Thank you so much Siva. I knew you would resonate to his ideas.
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4th Aug 2012 (#)
You are so right, I have not yet heard of this guy. Love the idea of it all. I just love when folks think outside the box. A great tribute to Jacque Fresco. Just a beautiful page and well written. The star is a given. Thank you for sharing.:)
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4th Aug 2012 (#)
Thank you so much Denise. Fresco's ideas, I believe, need to be spread far and wide.
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5th Aug 2012 (#)
Nice education Steve. Never knew about him
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5th Aug 2012 (#)
Thank you Madan.
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5th Aug 2012 (#)
Jacque Fresco is indeed a visionary futurist, I've heard of this genius before.
Thanks for introducing to Wikinut.
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5th Aug 2012 (#)
Thank you Rathnashikamani. I appreciate your comment.
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5th Aug 2012 (#)
An amazing man, Steve. I appreciate hearing about him. I wonder where he is now,
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6th Aug 2012 (#)
He lives in Florida, but he travels the world constantly giving lectures and workshops, and appearing on TV and radio
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6th Aug 2012 (#)
Very interesting article, it reminds me of a book I read once about the "Millennium Project."
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17th Aug 2012 (#)
Thanks for a fascinating article Steve. Fresco is clearly a very gifted man, but I wonder whether his equation for a better world is fundamentally flawed? He states "natural resources, i.e., clean air and water, arable land and the necessary technology and personnel to maintain a high standard of living." overlooks several problem areas ... ie the human consumption of finite resources (fed by personal and corporate greed); our capacity for destroying potentially fertile resources such as the seas (fuelled by more personal and corporate greed) and, above all, our propencity for procreation leading to the un-checked proliferation of the human species at the expense of other species and the environment in general.
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17th Aug 2012 (#)
Fresco addresses all your concerns, Lewis, in his writings on his web site, thevenusproject.com.
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17th Aug 2012 (#)
Thanks Steve: Pity he didn't, as far as I could make-out, touch on them in the video,
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18th Aug 2012 (#)
Go into the site again, There's more videos and a bunch of his writings there. also, you can go to Youtube and put his name in their search engine and many of his videos will come up.
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18th Aug 2012 (#)
OK Steve will do
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2nd Sep 2012 (#)
Wow, fascinating. Thanks for sharing this and what a compelling title--drew me right in. Bravo, Steve. :-)
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2nd Sep 2012 (#)
Thank you so much rama devi.
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