Original author: Jonathan Bird. Isnt this utopia? Many people think that the Venus Project talks about utopia. A perfect, unattainable world. No. These cities can be built with what we already know today. Itll take approximately 10 years to transform Earth onto what most people would consider to be heaven. If youre having difficulty grasping that notion, take into consideration the following: the Arabs used to have tales of flying carpets, but theyd never tell you what would happen if you had to visit the toilet while youre on the flying carpet, or what would you do if its raining and youre freezing out there, on the carpet. Nowdays we have airplanes with air conditioning, toilets, Internet. In other words, even the flying carpet used to be considered too far to ever reach... nothing is ever too far to reach! The point is that we must learn to lay down our egos, and when we are asked do you think that man will ever reach the moon?, answer honestly: listen man, Im a truck driver, I dont know anything about propeller technology, rocketry, space travel... I really cant answer that question. I simply dont know. In the 1960s, many people, when asked that question, would simply say no... not even within a thousand years. Well, 9 years later, we reached the moon. In other words, people genuinely believe that they have the technical ability required to assess and evaluate everything, when they actually dont. When they hear about some new idea, they usually reject it instantly. If someone comes up with an idea for a wingless aircraft, they immediately say whats this? This doesnt have any wings! Itll never fly!. In the future, people might react very differently from that. When they see a wingless aircraft, theyll ask I see that this aircraft doesnt have any wings, how do you suggest to make it fly without any wings?, because thats a question thats required here. Not Ha! This doesnt have any wings, it simply wont fly! Therefore, the change that the Venus Project talks about isnt just a technological change. Many people believe the Venus Project is simply about futuristic cities, architecture, technology - its not. Its about a change in our whole way of thinking, a change in ourselves. One of the biggest problems with man is that he doesnt acknowledge the fact that hes always a victim of culture. If we take your grandmother to the beach, and shell witness all the girls in bikinis with their asses out, shell say they went too far!, which is true where she comes from, but not today. In other words, we are entering a new evolutionary phase in the history of humanity. A period of vast, fast changes, in technology, in social norms. In just 150 years we have gone from a chauvinistic, homophobic society, where children are enslaved in factories without any employees rights, to todays society. The world had changed beyond recognition. If we had asked people 150 years ago, whether we could ever reach the kind of society we have today, where people watch videos hosted on computers on the other side of the planet, from a wireless device thats smaller than a shoe sole, theyd say THAT was utopia. In fact, their idea of utopia back then, would have probably been something far more conservative. The point is that we have to learn to adapt to the changes we face, if we dont want to become that old man on the porch who misses the good old days and rejects everything on sight. The truth is, if you think about it... theres no such thing as a utopia. Nothing is perfect. The word perfect in itself is stupid. If we build the best and fastest computer we can build today, itll be the best and fastest computer today. In a year from now, itll be old and outdated, because computers will have become faster, smaller, lighter, and capable of doing more things. It is impossible to design the best camera ever. It is only possible to design the best camera we can have today. There is no best society, perfect society. People say: you speak of a perfect society, an ideal society. These expressions are meaningless. The cities we propose today will be looked upon as prisons by future generations. Theyll design their own cities. There are no utopias, and no limitations.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:48:12 +0000
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