First of them is the well known TED Conference. The annual conference  brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). TEDs website is packed with great inspirationa speeches made by interesting personalities from all walks of life. And you can get lost on the site for hours and days. Definitely worth checking if you dont know about it already.

www.ted.com

Second of them is a similar annual project held in Amsterdam.

“PICNIC brings together and disseminates the ideas and knowledge of the world’s best creators and innovators, through a top-class conference, a broad selection of participative sessions, interactive experiences, matchmaking events wrapped in a festival experience.”

Again, the website is just bursting of great content and positive energy.

www.picnicnetwork.org

I got to say I really like the idea of this kind of branded conferences/festivals, which are in the end of the day inspiring not only the participants that are present in the conference hall, but thousands ( and hopefully millions) of people around the world. I hope there will be more stuff like that coming in the near future. One for every significant town and the city on this planet.

www.worldchanging.com

It is now clear, that with the Montreal Protocol (The first ever international protocol on regulation of chemical pollutants) we did save our children and grand-children from very unpleasant future.

But the real message of Montreal Protocol is simply that: “It Can Be Done!”  We can join our forces and agree on common action, when facing really disastrous outcomes.  As stated in the original article Montreal Protocol is a  “remarkable international agreement that should be studied by those involved with global warming and the attempts to reach international agreement on that topic.”

I remember the times when the media was full of environmental activists calling for action on regulating the mentioned chemicals and it was looking equally hopeless as today’s fight(s) to regulate plastic pollutants, global warming or even increasing poverty levels and political destabilization.  I think Montreal Protocol should be consider a “seed of hope “  and a template for many other following, positive, common actions.

You can check the original article on Universe Today: Here

It all started with a groundbreaking book of Marshal T.Savage “The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps”,which marked the beginning of the first “Millennial Project”. The Millennial Project (TMP)  is a comprehensive plan for space development, beginning with the terrestrial cultivation of an environmentally sustainable civilization and Post-Industrial culture and culminating, far in the future, in the colonization of our immediate stellar neighborhood. The book itself was by far the most comprehensive study of all the requirements necessary to begin with a real colonization of  space by then.  And it still is one of the most inspiring reading concerning the subject out-there. TMP does no only consider technological blueprints of  the actual space-fares and space habitats as it was done by then by most of the “space programmes”. Rather than that it is considering  all the socio-political and cultural aspects of such an endeavour.

Savage proposed to build sustainable floating cities on sea, that could serve as a massive training centers for future space colonists.A foundation to accomplish this mighty goal was established.

“Foundation is the starting phase of the The Millennial Project. It’s objective is to establish a social and economic infrastructure upon which subsequent phases are based by communicating TMPs vision of the future to the global society, rallying those inspired by it to concerted action, developing the financial and industrial systems needed to accomplish it, and establishing the initial physical communities and facilities to host them. It is also the starting point of a cultural transformation intended to evolve the current dominant western culture and civilization into something more functionally suited to the concerted development of space and a more sustainable way of life on Earth.”

But the first Millennial Project was based on building sustainable habitats on sea shores first. The project developers found themselves competing with the leisure industry developers for the most expensive estate on earth and the programme eventually failed. Abandoned by Savage himself.

The Second Phase

The TMP2 project is  a project of the Living Universe Foundation community to continually update and revise the content of the original plan as described by Marshal T. Savage in his book The Millennial Project. It is based on foundations Wiki and I think this is exactly what Wikis should be about. A massive collaboration environment to achieve complex goals. I think the Wiki is not very populated in the moment, but with a little promotion it can change in the close future. So we’ve build the encyclopedia and now we have to colonize the space.Check the link and find out more on:  TMP 2.0

Even-thou you may think, that the modular tower on the picture above  is looking like from another planet, it is not the planet Venus which gave name to the Venus project. It is  actually Venus, Florida. A 21.5-acre research center from where the Venus Project NGO operates. I came across the “Future by Design” movie on YouTube a two weeks ago and I became fascinated. First I thought that Jacques Frescos work (American Futurologist,Philosopher and Architect Jacque Fresco is the Mastermind behind the whole project)  is just a futuristic  architectural and designer vision and somehow I lacked the political dimension of the whole endeavour, but the more I investigate the more I believe, that the Venus project has something to offer. Not only a viable scientific alternative to the outdated technological processes  used by most of the industry and society as whole today, but also an economical alternative to our chronically ill monetary economic system.

As soon as I found out, that the Venus project is also behind the popular “Zeitgeist” documentary, there was no doubt that Mr.Fresco does have a clear vision on “How to move from our collapsing monetary economy to his Utopian alternative”.

I also find out that there is a second part of the movie “Zeitgeist:Addendum”, which features some interviews with Fresco himself. You can find both of those movies in my documentary section.

Personally I find the political and sociological  dimension of the Venus Project a bit underestimated, (I am not satisfied with the claim that political leadership will be not necessary in resource-based, high-tech, cybernated and automated society) but I’m pretty  sure that there is a lot more happening behind the curtain, than you can learn from the official website.  And as the documentary started a whole movement already, there is a door open for further development of the general ideas of  resource-based economy proposed by the project. I am definitely sympathetic with the idea of all resources available for everybody, but it looks too much like communism for me.  And as I grew up in communist country I know that the corruption will always find its ways. In other words; We can be all equal, but some will be always more equal than the others. I think that the idea of completely getting rid of the monetary system is a bit obsolete and too much utopian, and that we shut better look for some transitional hybrid economy. Where Frescian resource-based cities and communities, still produce and trade with the outside “old” world on basis of  state controlled currencies. Some other forms of alternative currencies could be also developed on the way.

I am also not very sympathetic with Frescos vision of  religion.  If you embark on such a monumental journey as Jacque Fresco did with his Venus Project, you would be better off looking for allies  rather than for enemies. Even-thou I agree with the bottom-line and with the statement that religion is false, I can see no problem why should religious communities not prosper in Frescos futuristic cities.

Check the links on the bottom of this article and enter into the brave new world of Mr.Jacque Fresco, as he truly is a present day DaVinci.

http://www.thevenusproject.com

http://thezeitgeistmovement.com/DesigningtheFuture.pdf

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacque_Fresco

You can also check this Facebook groups devoted to Zeitgeist movement promotion:

THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT

ZEITGEIST-DOCUMENTARY OF LIFETIME

“A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.”

Oscar Wilde

When I was starting my blog a month ago  I was pretty sure what is it going to be about. I was going around the idea for years, but only few weeks ago I got the concept right to start with actual writing and pulling the content together. Without any doubt, there is still a long way to go for me.  In the moment I am trying to add some valuable content to my blog; like links to existing sites and Web 2.0 services, that I believe have (or could have) a positive influence on our understanding of global society and consequently on our actions. As I am too concentrated to work on this kind of content in the moment I somehow omitted one of my initial ideas. To write about those intentional communities all around the world that tried, with less or more success, to construct a small living utopias in our bad-bad world already. That’s why it’s nice to see that somebody did at-least part of that job for me.

So if you came on my site looking for that kind of information do not hesitate and follow the link at the bottom of this article. Chris Coates’ website “Utopia Britannica”  reveals around his book of the same name and it is a great resource on Utopian experiments and communities that emerged during  the curse of the history on British Isles, but also on more general issues concerning the concepts of Utopia.

Don’t miss the comprehensive “further reading” section and links to existing on-line forums and initiatives.

Thanks Chris. You’ve done a good job

http://www.utopia-britannica.org.uk/

http://www.usnowfilm.com/

For centuries humanity has been trapped in the centralized forms of thinking. First we were listening to our tribal leaders and their shamans and druids. That to the kings and their priests. And finally to the politicians and their propaganda machinery. Today We are living in a technocratic society. Democratic in theory, but full of little dictatorships hidden inside the all powerful corporations, criminal gangs with great political influence and strange political realities. Where our democratic western societies depends too much on fragile dictatorships and their natural resources elsewhere. Where our “perfect” consumerist “way of life”  depends too much of slave-work and suffering of others.

This blog is about Utopia. The idea of perfect society free of suffering and hatred. A society where every human life can be developed to its absolute potential. No I do not believe I will see this happening in my lifetime, as I am looking around, but I keep my right to believe that it is the only way to go in long terms.  And I believe, that even-thou the current state of the society doesn’t look like we are going to achieve anything like utopia any soon, we can still discuss, hope and try to see pieces of future utopia in our world today.

Our complete knowledge as civilization is immense. Technically thinking; We have  all the means to put an end to poverty, environmental pollution, social injustice and the moral decadence of humanity. We have advanced agricultural technologies supported by our transportation systems. We have progressive  medicine and social care services.We have cutting edge information technology capable of educate millions for next to zero costs (in government terms). We developed a great number of green technologies and practices. What differs us from our ascensores is the fact, that we have all the technical means to build a working Utopia.  We have our worshiped science!

The idea of  “Green Stage Thinking”, that I am developing on this sites is based in the business practice of Brainstorming. Brainstorm is a group creativity technique designed to generate ideas to a solution to a problem.It consists of two stages. Green stage  : Where any ideas (whatever crazy) are welcome. And a Red stage: Where you have to further develop the best ideas to a viable solutions. Please check the wikipedia for further info on brainsorming if you are not familiar with it.(Wikipedia about Brainstorming)

Marshall McLuhan, the great American media  theorist once said;”Every new technology is being used the same way as the old one.”  I red the book in Czech, so please  do not ask me how is the phrase going  in English, but the idea is that human society doesn’t recognize instantly the full potential of new technologies. The first TV presenters were sitting in their old style radio studios, reading essays from a  piece of paper to their public. They still didn’t transcended the paradigm of radio. And in the end of the day, neither the one of  newspaper.

Social Media and Internet, are more and less in the same situation. We already posses a technology, that can completely change the mechanics of society. Values and opinions can be created by crowds of people united by an virtual environment. Yet We still use them to support our “old way of doing things.”  In other worlds; “We use the Internet, to communicate the (real world) realities, but not to create a new ones. Thinking about the term “Virtual Reality”; We still think more “Virtual” than “Reality”.  As you will see this is not completely true, as there are many initiatives and technologies, that allow and execute those new forms of interactions already.

During the last decade we saw a great boom of free or low-cost services, applications and on-line projects. The open-source movement proved the fact  that real values (like for example the very software I’m using to write this article), can be created by people who are doing it free of charge. Just for their passion to the subject.

Two technologies in particular are summing up to the equation of  “Green Stage Thinking” idea. Wikis and Social forums. This two technologies, are obviously already being used together with great success (not only by open-source community) , but  I would like to focus on consequences of their usage to the practice of Brainstorming. This are some of the main differences.

• In traditional “real world” brainstorming, you come up with a set of ideas (the Green Stage) and than you cut the worst ideas off to further develop “the good ones”, while in crowd brainstorming all the ideas (whatever crazy and naive) can be developed further. The complexity of green stage ideas is much wider.
• In virtual environment (free of company pressures) will a greater number of ideas stay on the table as viable.

• And finally the most important. Companies do know what are their resources and they have to consider them while moving from Green to Red stage, while open brainstorming lack this knowledge and so it’s “doomed” to believe that it’s resources are absolute and trust the crowd.

To summarize all the above; What is not a viable and realistic idea for a small group of “brainstormers”, can be absolutely viable for large groups of thousands or millions of people. That is changing the equation completely.

So my message is: “Be Creative. Be serious with ideas you considered impossible until now. Go out-there and meet people like You. Use the free tools available to create values.And mainly; Do it free! (I’m sure once You get seriously involved in something you will find a way to monetize on your  efforts as well)”

Once there will will be enough “Complex Green Stage Ideas” on the table, anybody can come and take the “Red Stage Actions”. Turning the virtual realities into physical ones.

(Please stay tuned. Soon I will come with some practical examples and links to existing services, that can be used in such ways…)

The rejection of masses

I remember the first time I looked up the word “Nirvana” in the thesaurus: “The unification with the essence of being.  Inner transformation to a state of mind,   free of all passions and suffering.”

I was a young  boy fascinated about the idea. But soon I found out that the world is not a friendly place for another young messiah.  The western society rejects all the spiritual and supernatural, as naïve and primitive.

Once you start talking about Utopia, people usually respond with the same negative reaction.  Generally you will be considered an immature and dreamy person, loser with unrealistic goals, with childish vision of the world.
But there is something  about the utopia that many people do not realize. Utopia is just a perfect state of society, where everybody is contributing to it’s growth and development.  Nothing less, but nothing more neither. Utopia is not promising  eternal life, nor  miracles. Utopia is essentially agnostic. It is not a faith to believe in, but a template to follow.

If we look  at the physical world , material or organic, we can see one common feature for all things. All things are related, self organizing and evolving to always more and more sophisticated forms. If humanity survives the current age of moral decline, ecological catastrophe and its atomic self-destruction ability, there is only one path for it. Utopia and the Stars !

Utopia is a logical outcome of human history, if this one will not come to an end following the other 3 tragic alternatives:
-Nuclear Apocalypse
- Biological or chemical apocalypse
-Complete disintegration of natural environment (before we can run away to the stars)

Seriously! Looking at the other options, ”Is it really so naïve to hope in Utopia?”

In the fabulous book of Roger Penrose, “The road to reality”, the author is talking about  the three realms of reality. The Platonic mathematical world, the physical world and the mental world.

Last 200 years brought an immense increase in our understanding of the first two of them, but in the same time we witnessed a terrible degeneration of traditional moral values and social  institutions. The propaganda, tool used by emperors and rulers for millennia, acquired a new weapon in form of mass media. Only radio and movie propaganda allowed the rise of  the National democratic party in Germany (and other parts of  Europe)  in the 30’s of 20th century. The first experience of mankind with mass media finished with its biggest tragedy; The Holocaust and the 2nd world war.

Communist parties around the world also used media of all kinds to manipulate the masses. So did the capitalist corporations. The Century of education (that was predicted after the invention of  radio and mainly television), sadly became a century of lies, propaganda, mass manipulation and death.

I believe social media and other “democratic” Web 2.0 technologies have the power to re-define our beliefs and our understanding of what is possible and ethical. As soon as We move beyond the MySpace whores, desperate girlfriend finders and crazy Emos uploading their tacky photos, we will find out that there are other truly incredible opportunities hidden in that new fantastic tool we’ve got. Now we have the power to dream together, to shape the world to come and to create the virtual templates for future Real World Utopias.

“The new hope”

Social Media may have the same role in history of society, as Gutenberg’s printing machines had for history of science. Gutenberg allowed information to be reproduced in great numbers, and thus elevate the general level of education.  He allowed the information to multiply in great numbers and flow for the first time in history.It rocket-started the quick advance in natural sciences and our understanding of the physical world.

Social  Media will start the same revolution in field of social sciences. Now there is no authority to censure and distribute the printed material. There is no hierarchy distributing the copies of  always the same content to the masses. The content is created by the masses. The new media is creating opinion, instead of imposing it, (yet again) for the first time in history.
The Bloggosphere  is organizing itself and it is organizing the chaotic data all over internet with it . Education is slowly liberating itself from rigorous, centralized influence of establishment and it follows a new model: Citizen to Citizen.

As the technology becomes increasingly user friendly, more and more individuals are becoming capable of expressing their opinion and share it with thousands if not millions “internauts”  out there.  New alliances are formed and a widespread popular creativity is growing on unprecedented scale.
This may be a beginning of Humanity 2.0, if we just understand that the frontiers of “naïve” and “impossible” have been pushed to the stars already.