Jacque Fresco
Jacque Fresco (right) with Roxanne Meadows
Born	(1916-03-13) March 13, 1916 (age 108)
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Futurist and Social Engineer
Website	http://www.thevenusproject.com/

Jacque Fresco (born March 13, 1916), is an American self-educated architectural designer, industrial designer, social engineer, self-proclaimed inventor and futurist, prudential adviser, and the creator of The Venus Project.^[1][2] Fresco has worked as both designer and inventor in a wide range of fields spanning biomedical innovations and integrated social systems. He believes his ideas would maximally benefit the greatest number of people and he states some of his influence stems from his formative years during the Great Depression.^[3]

The Venus Project was started in the mid-1970s by Fresco and his partner, Roxanne Meadows. The film Future by Design was produced in 2006 describing his life and work. The film Zeitgeist Orientation Presentation was released to Google video in 2009 (narrated by Peter Joseph). The Zeitgeist Movement is regarded as the activist arm of The Venus Project, and the Zeitgeist Orientation Presentation is considered by many to be the most complete depiction of the Venus Project to date. Fresco writes and lectures extensively on subjects ranging from the holistic design of sustainable cities, energy efficiency, natural resource management and advanced automation, focusing on the benefits it will bring to society.^[4]

Early life and career

Born on March 13, 1916, Fresco started his professional career as design consultant for Rotor Craft Helicopter Company.^{[citation needed]}

Mr. Fresco worked as an aircraft engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.^[5]

He worked for the Raymond De-Icer Corporation based in Los Angeles, California as a research engineer.^[3][4]

He worked for many companies and in many fields such as technical consultant and technical advisor to the motion picture industry,^{[citation needed]} industrial design instructor at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.^{[citation needed]} In Los Angeles, he was a colleague and work associate of psychologist Donald Powell Wilson.^[3][4]

In 1942, Fresco started, with Lou Glaser, the Revell Plastics Company (now Revell-Monogram),^{[citation needed]} manufacturing a broad range of plastic and die-cast models of cars, aircraft, vehicles and ships.

The Venus Project

The Venus Project was started around 1975 by Fresco^[1] and by former portrait artist Roxanne Meadows in Venus, Florida, USA. Its research center is a 21-acre (85,000 m²) property with various domed buildings of his design, where they work on books and films to demonstrate their concepts and ideas. Fresco has produced an extensive range of scale models based on his designs.^[3] The Venus Project was incorporated in 1995. The Venus Project originated as a plot of land in Florida which was purchased after liquidating a previous company by the name of sociocyberneering inc, The Venus Project is a two-part business, a non-profit company called 'Future by Design'^[6] and a for-profit company called 'Venus Project Inc./Global Cybervisions Inc.'^[7]

Venus project was founded on the idea that poverty is caused by the stifling of progress in technology, which itself is caused by the present world's profit-driven economic system.^[8] The progression of technology, if it were carried on independent of its profitability, Fresco theorizes, would make more resources available to more people thereby reducing corruption and greed, and instead make people more likely to help each other.^[9][10][11] Fresco advocates against a money-based economy in favor of what he refers to as a resource based economy.^[12]

In a 2008 interview with Fresco and Meadows, Fresco stated that a 'lack of credentials' has made it difficult for him to gain influence in academic circles. He adds that when universities do invite him to speak, they often don't give him enough time to explain his views. ^{[citation needed]}

The Zeitgeist Movement

The Venus Project is featured prominently in the 2008 documentary film Zeitgeist: Addendum, as a possible solution to the global problems explained in the first film and first half of the second film.^[10] The film premiered at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles, California on October 2, 2008, winning their highest award, and it was released online for free on Google video^[13] on October 4, 2008.^[14] Following the movie, the Zeitgeist Movement was established to aid the transition from a monetary or quid pro quo (e.g., barter) based economy to a resource-based economy. In 2009, The Zeitgeist Orientation Presentation was released to Google video, becoming the most complete online depiction of the Venus Project, in accordance with The Zeitgeist Movement.

Resource-based economy

A major theme of Fresco's is the concept of a resource-based economy (or RBE) that replaces the need for the current monetary economy, which is "scarcity-oriented" or "scarcity-based". Fresco argues that the world is rich in natural resources and energy and that — with modern technology and judicious efficiency — the needs of the global population can be met with abundance, while at the same time removing the current limitations of what is deemed possible due to notions of economic viability.

Fresco provides an example of this confusion in the following quote:

"At the beginning of World War II the U.S. had a mere 600 or so first-class fighting aircraft. We rapidly overcame this short supply by turning out more than 90,000 planes a year. The question at the start of World War II was: Do we have enough funds to produce the required implements of war? The answer was No, we did not have enough money, nor did we have enough gold; but we did have more than enough resources. It was the available resources that enabled the US to achieve the high production and efficiency required to win the war. Unfortunately this is only considered in times of war."^[15]

Fresco states that for this to work, all of the Earth's resources must be held as the common heritage of all people and not just a select few; and the practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant and counter-productive to the survival of human civilization.

One of the key points in Fresco’s solution is that without the conditions created in a monetary system, vast amounts of resources would not be wasted unproductively ^[16]. Instead Fresco’s contention is that without the waste of resources on ends that would become irrelevant there would be no scarcity of necessary products such as food and education (environmentalism) ^[16].

Apart from The Venus Project, other projects have later started up with the intent of promoting a resource based economy or similar. These include the so-called Resource Based Economy Foundation^[17], The New Z-Land Project^[18], and The Atlas Initiative Group^[19]. Neither of these seem to be affiliated with The Venus Project or Jacque Fresco.

Selected bibliography

• Keyes, Ken; Fresco, Jacque (1969). Looking Forward. South Brunswick Township, New Jersey: Alfred Smith Barnes. ISBN 0498067521. OCLC 21606. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (1977). Introduction to Sociocyberneering. Sociocyberneering, Inc. OCLC 6036204. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (1978). Cities in Transition. Sociocyberneering, Inc. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (1978). The Determinants of Behavior. Sociocyberneering, Inc. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (1979). Structural Systems and Systems of Structure. Sociocyberneering, Inc. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (1995). The Venus Project: The Redesign of Culture. Venus, Fla.: Global Cyber-Visions. ISBN 0964880601. OCLC 33896367. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (2002). The Best that Money Can’t Buy: Beyond Politics, Poverty & War. Venus, Fla.: Global Cyber-Visions. ISBN 0964880679. OCLC 49931422. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Maynard, Elliott; Fresco, Jacque (2003). Transforming the Global Biosphere: Twelve Futuristic Strategies. Sedona, Ariz.: Arcos Cielos Research Center. ISBN 0972171312. OCLC 78763038. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Fresco, Jacque (2007). Designing the Future. Venus, Fla.: The Venus Project, Inc. OCLC 568770383. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)

Films

• The Venus Project: The Redesign of a Culture (1994)
• Welcome to the Future (2001)
• Cities in the Sea (2002)
• Self-erecting Structures (2002)
• Future by Design (2006)
• Great Expectations (2007)
• Zeitgeist: Addendum (2008)
• Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011)

See also

• Autodidacticism
• Buckminster Fuller
• Jacques Loeb
• Herbert Marcuse
• B. F. Skinner
• Futurism
• Design science revolution

References

External links

• Audio of Jacque Fresco lecture at City University, London, 3rd October 2009
• Jacque Fresco Official YouTube Page
• Future by Design a film about Jacque Fresco directed by William Gazecki.
• The Future: Jacque Fresco On The Future. Jacque Fresco interviewed by Noni Durrani 10.15.07
• The Venus Project Official website (film clips from the website can be viewed here).
• "Zeitgeist: Addendum". Video. Google. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
• Interview in Meta Magazine

Template:Persondata