Visionary Thinking - The Venus Project
fo012010 the Utopia issueFO/futureorientation#1 2010Copenhagen Institute for Futures StudiesInstituttet for FremtidsforskningVisionarythinkingOrwell Was aPessimistNudging utopiaThe World According to FrescoUtopian Spaces
Designed by Jacque Fresco, www.thevenusproject.com
A vision is to a business as a lighthouse is to aship at sea – a signpost and a guideline for future direction. A utopia can be roughly the samething, albeit on quite another scale. A utopiadescribes a future society that is substantiallydifferent from the present. Thus, it distinguishesitself from a vision in its magnitude and in itsradical naturePage 10
Designed by Jacque Fresco, www.thevenusproject.comfo#01 2010 www.iff.dk/FO
EDITORIALUtopiaUtopia comes from Greek. U ‘no’ topos ‘place’, so‘utopia’ means a non-existing place.1 ”This is utopian,” wesay, meaning that something is farfetched and unrealis tic. In this way, the concept of utopia has become part ofour daily language and influences the way we think.However, it is worth noting that utopias are not alwaysunrealistic, nor does the original meaning of the wordimply they should be. On occasion, they could easily berealized, if we could just agree to do so. In his article“The Difference Between Utopias and Visions – and theFear of the Totalitarian Nature of the Utopia”, on page9, Martin Kruse writes about the realistic utopia, and inparticular the origin of the utopia in the history of ideas.Read it to learn more about what a utopia really is.Perhaps the modern interpretation of the word ‘uto pia’ is to blame when the Renaissance man and futuristJacque Fresco says in the article on page 15 that hedoesn’t want to call his life work, The Venus Project, autopia. However, this visionary idea of a future societyhas many characteristics in common with the utopia. AsNikolina Olsen-Rude points out in her article, page 37,the word utopia carries a double meaning, since in Greekit can mean both the good place (eutopia) and the nonexisting place (outopia). A good place is precisely whatFresco has devoted his life to describing and fightingfor. Read more about his ideas in the article and see thefuturistic photos of the project that Fresco and his wife,Roxanne Meadows, have kindly allowed us to print.The flip side of the utopia is the dystopia. One of thebest-known fictional dystopias is the classic GeorgeOrwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, written in 1948.Klaus Æ. Mogensen deals with this novel in two articlesin this FO, ”Orwell Was a Pessimist” and ”Orwell Wasan Optimist”. As the sharp reader may have figured out,you can – depending on your viewpoint – argue that ourpresent-day society is both far better and far worse thanthe future society Orwell describes in his book. Has thenightmare of Big Brother from the novel become a rea lity today? Has the surveillance society won? Read thearticles and decide for yourself.The relationship between utopias and dystopias is inte resting. What is a paradise to some will be hell to others.History has taught us that people are simply differentand that we can’t formulate a single, universal idea of‘the good society’ or ‘the good life’ that will satidfy every body. It is hence interesting when the three philosophersKyle Whyte, Evan Selinger and Søren Riis, the latter anassociated researcher at CIFS, discuss the phenomenonof nudging in their article Nudging Utopia (page 29).fo#01 2010 www.iff.dk/FONudging is a matter of providing “small, gentle nudges”in the right direction without making us really notice it.This is achieved by designing and organizing our sur roundings to influence our behaviour in a certain way. Itis worth learning about this method regardless of whichmedium you want to influence behaviour through e.g.design. However, as usual, the question remains: Whatis the ‘right’ direction? What is the right behaviour?Here, too, the readers must decide for themselves. For,as with surveillance technologies, it is the intended goalwhen using nudging that must be debated.There is much more about utopias in this issue of FO,which also offers a number of interesting contributi ons outside of the theme. Read, for instance, the firstpart of an article series by CIFS’s Nestor, Johan PeterPaludan, about future strategy in the present (page 53).Or read the business philosopher Morten Paustian’sarticle “Visionary Thinking”, page 61, which uses HansChristian Andersen’s character Clumsy Hans to take uson a philosophical trip to recreate “the fairy tale in ourlives”. Happy reading!In conclusion, I can inform you that right now you arereading the last issue of FO/Futureorientation in its oldform. We are on the street again in May with a big dou ble issue (#2-3), marking the shift to a brand new FO.Among other things, the magazine will get a new design,and we will move from publishing thematic issues towriting about different themes and subjects in eachissue under the headingsDEVELOPMENT · VISIONS · IDEAS · TRENDS.I am looking forward to presenting you with the newformat.Morten Grønborg,Editornotes1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia5
contentsThEMe: UTOPIaeditorialby morten grønborg.5The Difference Between Utopias and Visions – andthe Fear of the Totalitarian Nature of the Utopiaby Martin Kruse.9What is the difference between a utopia and a vision? What is theorigin of the utopia in the history of ideas? And what role doesfutures studies play in it all? Take the time to read Martin Kruse’sarticle and get wiserThe World According to Frescoby morten grønborg.15With The Venus Project, 93-year-old Jacque Fresco, a multi-disciplinarian and futurist, has created an all-encompassing alternative tothe society we live in today. Fresco recently visited Copenhagen aspart of the event COP Kreativ, where he talked about designing thefuture. If you weren’t near Copenhagen, or if you happened to misshis lecture, you can read here about his ideas of how we can createa better worldOrwell Was an Optimistby Klaus Æ Mogensen:.20“Big Brother is watching.” This is how George Orwell describedthe surveillance society in Nineteen Eighty-Four. The novel depictsa dystopian society where the state closely watches everyone andstrikes down hard on any activity that can be viewed as subversive.‘Big Brother’ often shows up as a grim spectre in contemporarydebates about surveillance, but reality is actually surpassing fiction:We are under surveillance everywhere, often without being aware ofit, and the information collected about us is kept for years and maybe used against us. Hence, Orwell could be seen as an optimistOrwell Was a Pessimistby Klaus Æ Mogensen:.24“Big Brother is watching.” This is how George Orwell describedthe surveillance society in Nineteen Eighty-Four. The novel depictsa dystopian society where the state closely watches everyone andstrikes down hard on any activity that can be viewed as subversive.‘Big Brother’ often shows up as a grim spectre in contemporarydebates about surveillance, but reality isn’t as bad as the fiction: Wemay be watched everywhere, but we can remain calm, because thesurveillance is there to protect us. Orwell was a pessimistNudging Utopiaby Søren Riis.29The Nudge technology can lead to better design, more desirablebehaviour and a better world all without your noticing it. Themethod is based on the fact that human beings are far less rationaland intelligent than we like to think. Hence, we can benefit fromsmall, gentle, imperceptible nudges in the right directionUtopian Spacesby Nikolina Olsen-Rule.37In order to understand the more philosophical ideas behind the utopia phenomenon, a more concrete approach may be necessary. Forthis purpose, a society’s physical organization is an obvious thing towatch. Take a look at three perfect citiesFaith in the Future in a World of Dystopiasby Sara Jönsson.43Utopias are big words and thoughts. But in a world increasingly6characterized by complex structures and globalization, it is easier tospeak of individual responsibility than of a common dream, whichwe all must struggle to realizeUtopians - our closest colleagues?by Johan Peter Paludan.46outside of theme:Nine trends and nine inventions that will shapethe face of the 21st centuryby Marcel Bullinga.49Nine trends and nine inventions will shape the face of the 21st century. They will have a similar impact on our lives as the car, the TVand the airplane had on the lives of our parents. Take a sneak peakat Marcel Bullingas upcoming book FuturecheckFuture Strategy in the Present – Part 1by Johan Peter Paludan.53The historian and the futurist can be said to study two sides of thesame matter, specifically the present, writes Johan Peter Paludan inthis first article about the phenomenon of futures studies and its rolein organizational and strategic planningVisionary thinking– A philosophical trip with Clumsy Hansby Morten Paustian.61Thoughts aren’t just isolated in the human skull, but contain impulses with ideas that fly around among other people. The thoughtsvibrate out in the world and attempt to guide people forward toeach other, so that encounters and events can become inspiringtransactionsFO/futureorientation is published by Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies(CIFS), Norre Farimagsgade 65, DK-1364 Copenhagen K. Tel. 45 33117176, cifs@cifs.dk, www.cifs.dk, www.fo-online.dkEditor: Morten Grønborg (responsible under Danish press law), mgr@cifs.dkInternational Editor: Klaus Æ. Mogensen, klm@cifs.dkSecretariat: Ellen Mauri, ema@cifs.dkEnglish adaptation: Klaus Æ. Mogensen, klm@cifs.dklayout: Karina BjerregaardILLUSTRATIons: Jacque Fresco, www.thevenusproject.comCOVER: Portrait of Jacque Fresco. www.thevenusproject.com and KarinaBjerregaardSubscription 2010: 270 EURO plus shipping (20 EURO in Europe and30 EURO in the rest of the world). The price includes two printed copies andonline access. Published six times a year.Circulation: 4500ISSN: 1901-452X online ISSN: 1903-8194Member of Danske Specialmedier (Danish Trade Press Association). Theopinions expressed. in articles are those of the authors. Textual contents maybe republished as long as the original author and publication are cited.Printed by: ATM ArktrykCopenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CIFS) is an independent researchorganization founded in 1970 by professor Thorkil Kristensen, a former OECDSecretary-General. CIFS analyzes the trends that shape the future. CIFSexamines the present and the future, and publishes what it finds. CIFS is anon-profit association with 100 members.fo#01 2010 www.iff.dk/FO
Designed by Jacque Fresco, www.thevenusproject.com
Designed by Jacque Fresco, www.thevenusproject.com
By Martin KruseThe Difference BetweenUtopias and Visions – andthe Fear of the TotalitarianNature of the UtopiaWhat is the difference between a utopia and a vi sion? What is the origin of the utopia in the historyof ideas? And what role does futures studies play init all? Take the time to read Martin Kruse’s articleand get wiserfo#01 2010 www.iff.dk/FO9
The Difference Between Utopias and Visions - By Martin Kruseu In the sociologist Anthony Giddens’ most recent book,The Politics of Climate Change (2009), Giddens focuseson the realistic utopia as a method to change the world.From a different perspective, a wide range of currentmanagement books stress the importance of visions. Avision is to a business as a lighthouse is to a ship at sea –a signpost and a guideline for future direction. A utopiacan be roughly the same thing, albeit on quite anotherscale. A utopia describes a future society that is substan tially different from the present. Thus, it distinguishesitself from a vision in its magnitude and in its radicalnature. Historically, the utopia is intimately connectedto the understanding of progress and hence to historicalresearch, sociological history, and normative futuresstudies.The idea of an ideal society has taken different shapesthrough the ages and has been used for different pur poses. When Thomas More (1477-1535) wrote his bookUtopia, it was – as so many other works of the time were– a way to bypass censorship and a way to criticize thosein power.The original description of Utopia differs from thedescriptions of Elysium and Eden in the Greek and theChristian-Judean traditions, respectively, by placing theideal society on Earth, but at the same time making it anon-existent place. In many of the descriptions that follo wed, the realistic Utopia is described as the end point ofhistory – a tradition in the history of ideas of which theAmerican writer Francis Fukuyama’s The End of Historyand the Last Man is a part.The idea of Utopia is thus also connected with changesin the understanding of progress; in particular phasestudies, which explain the linear progression from a bar baric phase to a developed society: a viewpoint that hasdominated historic understanding up to our time.Plato, Aristotle and Protagoras all viewed progress as agradual development towards a higher, final state. In theChristian tradition, the Greek and the Judean traditionsare united, and the medieval thinkers Roger Bacon (12151294) and Bernard de Chartres (1130-1160) thus see pro gress as an accumulative gathering of knowledge leadingto Utopia.With the Age on Enlightenment, this final stage ischanged. For Auguste Comte (1798-1857), who can beseen as the father of sociology, the final stage is under stood as the world entering a state of true positivism, inwhich rationalism is consummated and a society basedon principles of natural science can be realized.Like John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), Comte sees progressas an absolute trend, which according to Mill is anchoredin the human drive to vie for greater material wealth.Comte’s positivist position is founded in his convictionthat one can, with a basis in the past and through general10laws, predict the future (prévision rationelle). Comte’sdesire was to transfer the positivist approach from natu ral science to sociology. Modern simulations and datamodels of societal economy are rooted in this conviction.Karl vs. KarlIn his book The Open Society and its Enemies, publishedin 1945, the philosopher of science Karl Popper (19021994) attacks the idea of progress as it manifested itselffrom the Age of Enlightenment forward. The criticism isdirected mainly at the idea of Utopia and in particular atKarl Marx.Popper’s main argument is that the idea of progress, asmanifest in Marx and others, has totalitarian elements.The book is a defence of liberal democracy and contri buted to a debate that was central in the post-War years.Popper’s criticism of deterministic holism, which charac terizes the macro-historical view often termed historicism,is closely tied to his contempt for the anti-democraticform of government, of which he sees Communism asone example.Popper’s criticism of historicism must hence be viewedin light of the totalitarian form of government, whichduring his time was seen as a threat by many, particu larly by Popper himself. Popper viewed the idea of aCommunist future, in which the world population isunified in an equal community, and in which the meansof production is common property, simply as a propagan dist attempt to control the populace.Popper’s distinction between the concepts of holisticsocial engineering and piecemeal social engineeringexpresses the ideological difference between changebrought about in totalitarian and democratic forms ofgovernment respectively. At the same time, it expressesthe difference between visions and realistic utopias onthe one hand, and the utopias that lead to totalitarianismand oppression on the other hand.Holistic social engineering aims to transform soci ety as a whole. The goal is to realize what is seen as arealistic utopia. Clear parallels can be drawn with theChinese Cultural Revolution. Sartre’s lectures from hislater period also express a desire for such a change insociety. Unfortunately, some of Sartre’s students took hisideological outbursts seriously and went to Cambodiawith their newly gained ideology. More than one millionpeople were killed in Cambodia in the attempt to achievea particular societal model. According to Popper, it isunrealistic to think that an entire society can be recon structed according to pre-made plans. Such an attemptcannot be made without an ideological basis, whichnecessarily seems oppressive to people with a differentview.fo#01 2010 www.iff.dk/FO
The Difference Between Utopias and Visions - By Martin KruseThe realistic Utopia is described as the end point ofhistory – a tradition in the history of ideas of whichthe American writer Francis Fukuyama’s The End ofHistory and the Last Man is a partA vision is to a business as alighthouse is to a ship at sea– a signpost and a guideline forfuture directionHence, Popper concludes that this kind of utopian ism is a societal viewpoint that naturally leads tototalitarianism1.Instead, Popper advocates what he calls piecemealsocial engineering - a concept that denotes a gradualdevelopment of society. This means that one oughtto establish visions for particular areas of the existingsociety and work to achieve these visions – rather thanoverthrowing the entire social structure. Piecemeal socialengineering is the goal that we in futures studies aimto achieve through formulating and realizing normativescenarios.Normative futures studiesUnlike explorative scenarios, normative scenarios don’task the question “what could happen?” but rather thequestion “how do we achieve our goal?” The COP15negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 were anexample of this. Here, the world’s nations gathered toagree on a climate treaty.Normative scenarios are strategic. Futures studies inthe United States are most commonly used in connectionwith strategic development of companies, helping to findnew markets or assess the risks of company strategy. Incontrast, the French futurist tradition in particular hastraditionally been strongest within politics, where thesystematic study of future political scenarios is common ly used.In this sense, the French tradition comes closest towhat Popper criticizes as anti-democratic. Since the 4thFrench National Plan was constructed for the years 19601965, the normative method has spread2, not least becau se of Pierre Masse, who led national economic planningfo#01 2010 www.iff.dk/FOin France. The method was (and is) used in planning edu cation, the environment, urbanization, regional planning,and more.The basic premise of the French tradition is that aso ciety consists of powerful actors in groups with diffe rent motives, who influence each other and the politicalprocess in society. When politicians must consider thelong-term political and social future of a nation, the lob bying and general influence of these actors can becomedecisive for the nation’s future.The famous futurist Bertrand de Jouvenel (1903-1987)hence thought it important to create ideal images orrealistic utopias for the nation’s future and show a wayto reach these futures, which could improve life for thenation’s populace as a whole, not just for a few powerfulinterest groups.The French tradition is thus characterized by succes sfully using the realistic utopia for society as a wholewhile conducting piecemeal social engineering. Som
Visionary thinking Nudging utopia Orwell Was a Pessimist The World According to Fresco Utopian Spaces. DesigneD by Jacque Fresco, www.thevenusproJect.com. A vision is to a business as a lighthouse is to a . The Venus Project, a utopia. However, this visionary idea of a future society
The 2nd House, Taurus, and Venus 1 The 7th House, Libra, and Venus 4 The 12th House, Pisces, and Neptune 6 2 THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF VENUS 11 A Note on Venus Retrograde 13 3 VENUS THROUGH THE SIGNS 19 Venus in Aries 19 Venus in Taurus 22 Venus in Gemini 26 Venus in Cancer 30 Venus in Leo 34 Venu
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