Jacque Fresco

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Jacque Fresco with Roxanne Meadows
Jacque Fresco with Roxanne Meadows

Jacque Fresco (born March 13, 1916) is an industrial engineer, architectural designer, social engineer and futurist based in Florida. His optimistic view and desire to create solutions that maximally benefit the greatest number of people stem from his formative years during the Great Depression. To this day he 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.

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[edit] Resource based economy

A major theme of his is the concept of a 'resource-based economy' that replaces the need for the scarcity-oriented monetary economy we have now. The idea is that the world is rich in natural resources and energy and that with modern technology and judicial 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.

Circular city
Circular city
Automated construction
Automated construction

He gives this example to help explain the idea: "At the beginning of World War II the US 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."

He states that for this to work all 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 counterproductive to our survival.

[edit] Earlier work

In 1942 he started the Revell Plastics Company (now Revell-Monogram) with Lou Glaser, although he later left to pursue his other ideas, working variously in aerospace research and development, architecture, efficient automobile design, bare-eye 3D cinematic projection methods and medical equipment design where he developed a three dimensional X-ray unit amongst other things.

Jacque lives in Florida on a 25 acre research centre populated with various domed buildings of his design with his assistant Roxanne Meadows where they write books and produce films with intricately built models to demonstrate his concepts and ideas.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Looking Forward (1969) co-authored with Kenneth Keyes
  • Introduction to Sociocyberneering (1977)
  • Sociocyberneering Presents Cities in Transition (1978)
  • Sociocyberneering Presents the Determinants of Behavior (1978)
  • Structural Systems and Systems of Structure (1979)
  • The Venus Project: The Redesign of a Culture (1995) (World Future Society best seller)
  • And The World Will Be One (1997)
  • The Best That Money Can’t Buy: Beyond Politics, Poverty & War (2002)

[edit] 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)

Film clips from the Venus Project website can be views here

[edit] See also

  • Technocratic movement - Jacque Fresco was a member of the movement for a number of years. The movement has some similar ideas in terms of what is possible with automation and resources of the planet, but there are important differences between Jacque's ideas and that of the technocratic movement. Jacque is not in favour of the concept of energy credits for example, and he does not consider himself a 'technocrat'.

[edit] External links

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