Movement - Designing The Future https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/category/movement/ The post-scarcity world can be achieved by designing an advanced environment for both humans and nature. Sun, 20 Apr 2025 09:32:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 /wp-content/uploads/2024/04/pb_logo-site-150x150.png Movement - Designing The Future https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/category/movement/ 32 32 Beyond The Venus Project: How We Started Up Again https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/beyond-the-venus-project-how-we-started-again/ Sat, 19 Apr 2025 11:57:05 +0000 https://designing-the-future.org/?p=8308 Since numerous exposé articles about The Venus Project have emerged, it has become clear: the hope that it will return to its original course is […]

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Since numerous exposé articles about The Venus Project have emerged, it has become clear: the hope that it will return to its original course is rapidly fading. We have found ourselves in an extremely precarious position. On one hand, we want Jacque Fresco’s original ideas to be brought to life. On the other — most of his legacy is still associated with the organization which, as has been repeatedly noted in other articles on this site, has taken a different path.

In such a situation, any promotion of the original ideas inevitably encounters a dual perception. It is difficult for us to approach potential partners or build long-term initiatives without a real and reliable foundation.

This is precisely why the “Earth Renovate” team was created. We decided that the best solution is to gather all the efforts and resources of volunteers to speak about what Jacque Fresco spoke about and to spread his ideas — now without him. In fact, we strive to recreate his materials, significantly expand them — and even go further!

Video from “Earth Renovate” channel in english

Goals of “Earth Renovate”

We want to create as many channels in different languages as possible to speak loudly about existing global problems and real alternatives. Of course, for now we cannot use footage of Jacque Fresco’s cities of the future, as we are constrained by copyright. But we can make videos, talk about current issues, and combine today’s popular topics with the proposals and ideas we aim to promote.

Over time, I’m confident we’ll be able to significantly expand the team and produce more and more content. We’ll reach out to other organizations and create an entire community of people ready to change the world.

We are not limited to Jacque Fresco’s materials. We can use modern scientific research, correct his mistakes, and ultimately promote one simple message: the existing system is no good — and we need a completely new one.

Who are we and how did we come together?

Around the summer of 2024, these thoughts wouldn’t leave my mind. My name is Dima. I’m one of those who helped organize volunteers on the Discord server of the “Designing the Future” organization. I wanted to bring together the most active and ambitious people — those ready to act, not just talk — and start producing content.

In the very beginning, there were only a few of us — just four people. We chose the path of thorough preparation. Before launching the channel, I wanted each member to make a real contribution to the project. By contribution, I mean creating at least a few videos. There’s no point in creating a YouTube channel without content — setting up the channel itself is very simple, but establishing a production process is a whole different art.

How were we able to build such a strong team?

Как As soon as the team was formed, the question of how decisions would be made arose. We didn’t want to follow the path of democracy, where the opinion of the minority is ignored. I also didn’t like the idea of consensus, as it involves long discussions of every proposal by all members.

Thanks to my friend, who had long worked with such teams, we learned about the book “Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness” It became the foundation for how we make decisions now. The method is called “internal consulting.”

“Everyone in the organization can make any decision, but before doing so, the person must ask for advice from all relevant parties and experienced individuals. The initiator of the change is not obligated to consider all the advice received in their decision. The goal is not to make a questionable compromise decision that would satisfy everyone. However, it is necessary to persistently seek advice and seriously consider the information gathered. The larger the decision to be made, the wider the network must be spread to capture all possible sources of information, including, if necessary, SEO or the board of directors. A decision cannot be made if there is a principled objection.”

— Quote from the book Reinventing Organizations.

This is, of course, a simplified description, but you get the idea. We don’t have a “leader.” Anyone who takes on a commitment becomes responsible for their part. I, Dima, as the initiator of the team, have no more power than any other member, although I set the general direction.

I want to emphasize: we hardly use any money within the team. All participants work for free and genuinely believe in the idea. Many have boldly invested their own money in equipment and tools. This doesn’t mean we will always work like this — no, this is not the strategy. I just want to show that the right kind of motivation, where no one orders anyone around and everyone chooses their own role, makes the process lively and engaging.

This was greatly helped by the book Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn — it explains how intrinsic motivation really works.

Another important element is our communication. Here, the book Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg helped me a lot. It teaches how to communicate through feelings and needs. I’m sure it helped me avoid making mistakes, especially at the beginning. Its method is about establishing contact with others through empathy.

What have we achieved?

In almost a year, we have gone through quite a lot of difficulties. To say that everything was easy would be an understatement. We had to do a tremendous amount of work to grow from an ordinary volunteer group into a fully productive team.

Channel statistics

Our first YouTube channel in Russian has already gathered over 500 subscribers. This might seem small, but we achieved this quite quickly.

Thanks to Andrey — a team member who has been involved in launching such channels for a long time — our results are not a coincidence, but the result of a well-thought-out strategy. We are confident that if we increase video production from two to four per month, the results will grow even faster. For now, everything depends on man-hours and how many people are willing to join us.

The secret of our productivity

The main criterion for joining our team is a simple, yet for some, very challenging condition: completing a test task. The deadline and form of the task are determined by the individual, depending on the chosen area. Want to make covers? Make a cover. Want to edit? Edit a video.

I fundamentally do not allow people into the team who are not ready to take action. We are not interested in beautiful words and “correct” thoughts unless they are backed by concrete results. The test task also shows how capable a person is of making agreements — whether they completed the task on time.

Those who want to take action complete the task easily, in hours or days.

Our team

Andrey — his responsibility is to select topics for future videos on the channel.

Dima (myself) — I am responsible for recruiting team members, managing the Telegram channel, writing scripts, and planning the long-term strategy for the whole team.

Kolyan — I’ll note that he’s 17 years old, and I’m very proud that people at such a young age are willing to engage in serious work. He is responsible for video editing.

Kostya — currently on a long-term vacation. He usually worked on video editing.

Vova — responsible for voiceovers and adapting videos into other languages, as well as creating thumbnails. He’s 15 years old, and behaves more rationally than many people over 25.

Seva — handles voiceovers in the studio.

Savva — our host and the face of the channel.

Kostya (editor/programmer) — occasionally edits scripts and will later work on the website, which is in its final stages of development.

Dima (designer) — currently on vacation, but in the past, he created the great design for our future website.

Future plans

We don’t want to limit ourselves to a Russian-speaking audience. An English-language channel has already been launched. There are more opportunities there, but fewer people familiar with Jacque Fresco’s ideas. If we apply our strategy to it, we would achieve even better results, but due to the lack of people willing to help, we have put it on pause.

We plan to create our own organization, website, community, and much more. It’s still too early to talk about it — we’re limited by resources.

Why can’t you do the same?

Building a team is not an easy task. But if you clearly define the goal and follow the path, reading the books I mentioned — everything is possible. Don’t forget Jacque’s words:
“If you do nothing, nothing will happen.”

Contact Yevhen Sliuzko, the head of Designing the Future, with proposals and ideas you are ready to take on personally. Designing the Future is an excellent platform for bringing like-minded individuals together into a team with shared goals and a drive for real change. If the idea is truly good, they will help you take the first steps and even register your own nonprofit organization with further team development.

Join the Designing the Future organization’s Discord or our “Earth Renovate” Telegram channel — that’s where we found almost all the team members. Unite, just like we did.

However, if you can’t find the right people, we will always be happy to welcome you and are eager to expand. We have a whole set of tasks for which we are looking for people. It’s not necessary to already know how to do everything; the most important thing is a willingness to learn, and the rest will follow or we will teach you.

  1. Scriptwriting
  2. Script editing
  3. Video editing
  4. Voiceover
  5. 3D visualization
  6. Video adaptation
  7. Thumbnail creation
  8. Your proposal

Message me on Telegram if you want to join the Earth Renovate team!

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The Choice Is Ours team is making a movie that could change the world https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/the-choice-is-ours-team-is-making-a-movie-that-could-change-the-world/ Fri, 18 Apr 2025 10:59:54 +0000 https://designing-the-future.org/?p=8268 A group of young Ukrainian directors has announced the start of filming a short science fiction film titled “Intelligence Test”. This social drama with elements […]

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A group of young Ukrainian directors has announced the start of filming a short science fiction film titled “Intelligence Test”. This social drama with elements of futurism will serve as a promotional project for an upcoming feature-length film.​

The film will depict a sequence of real, possible events that lead humanity not to catastrophe, but to prosperity. Without revolutions — through evolution. Without violence — through a rational transition. It’s a story about a world without wars, poverty, and crime. About what our tomorrow could be if we make a conscious choice today.​

A movie about our better future

The creators describe the project as the first step toward a new genre — hope-cinema. Its goal is to inspire, awaken hope, and offer realistic paths to a better future.​

If you wish to join the team or support the project, please contact Anatoliy Karpov via Telegram or through other means listed on the Contacts page of the “The Choice is Ours” organization.
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine.​

Previously, we wrote about the launch of the new organization “The Choice is Ours,” whose main goal is to produce the Major motion picture envisioned by Jacque Fresco.

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Jacque Fresco’s archived lectures – promised, but where are they? https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/jacque-frescos-archived-lectures/ Sat, 01 Jun 2024 11:23:43 +0000 https://designing-the-future.org/?p=4895 An article on preserving the legacy of Jacque Fresco turned into an investigation into the cloudy stories of money and corruption at The Venus Project. […]

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An article on preserving the legacy of Jacque Fresco turned into an investigation into the cloudy stories of money and corruption at The Venus Project.

Some of Jacque Fresco’s most memorable lectures for me are his recordings from the 70’s where he covered more topics – I could see the enthusiasm, the belief in a better future, and the desire to use technology to solve problems as quickly as possible. As Jacque got older, he became calmer and more deliberate, repeating calibrated examples and phrases, but it was during those years that his main ideas and suggestions were shaped. That’s why I want to tell you about such an important topic as “transcription and preserving his legacy”.

Earlier I wrote an article about why The Man of Tomorrow, a biographical movie about Jacque Fresco authored by Nathanael Dinwiddie, was not released. And it would seem that one failed project is not proof of his incompetence or irresponsibility in other areas. It wasn’t until I started delving more into Nate’s other projects as a newly minted director that I realized he was treating them the same way he did his Jacque Fresco film project, devouring the reputation and popularity of The Venus Project, which he may well have already permanently destroyed.

Jacque Fresco archives which promised to show on the Jacque Fresco Foundation website, but the website is under perpetual development.
Jacque Fresco archives – the materials we’re talking about

The legacy of Jacque Fresco

Not only do I realize the importance of access to these materials, but young Nate does as well. So in 2011, Nathanael Dinwiddie began researching the biography and work of Jacque Fresco, and now “His Life’s Work,” this research, aimed to create an organized archive, produce a film called “The Man of Tomorrow”, and digitize and transcribe all available materials:

  • 616 audiocassettes
  • 1879 videotapes
  • 195 promotional documents
  • 5500 design sketches
  • 200 schematic designs
  • 400 handmade scale models.
  • 297 books
  • 85 hard disks
  • 113 floppy disks
  • Hundreds of CDs
  • Thousands of photographs and negatives
  • thousands of text documents

And so, from 2014 through 2020, 125 volunteers worked to convert his 864 lectures into transcripts. They managed to transcribe about 14% of them. Wow! That’s a hundred lectures. Where are all those lectures?

Money

I was able to find a fraction of all the materials, about 10 lectures, that were handled by volunteers and are now in the store on the website. Of these, only 1 is free, but you still have to leave personal information to access it – the others sell for $3-5-7 each, depending on the format (plain text, plain audio, white screen video with running captions, and audio). The Venus Project’s YouTube channel offers 2-minute clips of these hour-long lectures, prompting you to buy the full version.

The Venus Project website requires you to pay for Jacque Fresco's lectures.
The Venus Project website requires you to pay for Jacque Fresco’s lectures

I’ve only listened to a small fraction of the recordings, which has been in the public domain for a very long time – and these, again, are just snippets of hour-long lectures where you have to pay for the full ones.

20 Jacque Fresco's "classic lectures from the 70s" will cost you $160 on The Venus Project website
20 Jacque Fresco’s “classic lectures from the 70s” will cost you $160.

In order to launch the full-fledged transcription phase, the newly formed Board of Directors decided to raise money in 2019. Crowdfunding was successful, resulting in a total of 105 thousand dollars (55,068 from supporters and another 50 thousand dollars from the SOUL team), thus starting the “intensive” work on the transcription of the materials.

The Venus Project’s Matching Donation Campaign for the Jacque Fresco Archives

This is not only mentioned on the crowdfunding page, but also in the video (see above). Where next to Roxanne is practically the first time Nate appears in public. He, as an archivist by profession, had to take care of this professionally.

Doubling the amount

For the transcribing itself 25 thousand dollars from the collected amount was allocated. The money was used to hire transcribers from the Fiverr website.

Note that only $25k of that is allocated to transcription!

Plans and deadlines

Now comes the fun part! The Venus Project organization has always had big problems in this, and the new directors have taken it to a whole new level! In 2020, an incredibly important video is released about upcoming plans, stating that the transcription project that money was raised for in 2019 will be finished in 2022. But wait, it’s 2024.

The original video about the plans was hidden… I wonder why.

We still have a copy of it, you can view it above. This is the first time we have heard that “the board of directors have made a decision” and they have promised us:

  • T-shirts
  • lecture transcript
  • a book of 200 Jacques quotes
  • printed 3d building molds on sale
  • website improvement
  • better training for the teams
  • A separate museum site where Jacque Fresco will be exiled and where you can buy a subscription to listen to his lectures, now known as the Jacque Fresco Foundation
  • A podcast from Nate with guest experts

And then on to further plans, with no dates assigned. Publication of a book-collection of selected excerpts from transcriptions, a series of books of selected works, a series of books of collected works sorted by date, whatever that means. Promising critical reviews. Literature reviews. A transdisciplinary research program – I wonder if this is about that pseudoscientific energy research center in Peru we were promised recently? A virtual simulator. Science fiction and a new research center.

Fortuitously, I had two comments left, which I saved just before the video was moved from only by link status to private.

Iwould think The Venus Project to be less capitalistic to sell a t-shirt in the first 20 seconds

Actually, there were a lot of comments under the video with criticism, which I didn’t save. I was interested in specific comments, but not in emotions, for example, like this one.

I left the movement due to inactivity and delution of the message after Jacques death. Sad not much has changed….

Finalizing the transcription work?

In early 2024, the Venus Project’s website publishes a report article “Honoring the Legacy of Jacque Fresco: Transcriptions of His Visionary Lectures Completed” stating clear enough that the transcription of the lectures has been completed. The signed author of the article, Roxanne, writes that they encountered multiple challenges. Of course they have? How could they not!

The article was published on January 27, 2024, 2 weeks after the massive criticism of Designing the Future, as well as an unprecedented discussion of all the failures of The Venus Project. Nate himself was directly involved in these discussions. One of the points of criticism was the lack of reporting and real results from crowdfunding.

Discussion in "The Death of Jacques Fresco's The Venus Project" document on Discord server.
Discussion in “The Death of Jacques Fresco’s The Venus Project” document on Discord server.

While writing this article, I couldn’t get rid of the thought that I didn’t understand the figures given in various sources at all. On the crowdfunding page, 747 lectures were announced. In the reporting article, a figure of 864 lectures (1800 hours) is given. The Jacque Fresco Foundation website lists 840 lectures. Pretty strange for an archivist where everything should be clearly counted.

By the way, for a number of other crowdfunding claims, I couldn’t find any information. Maybe someone knows more and will share?

The report supposedly explained the details of the delay. Seems pretty lame to me though.

Sure, but why couldn’t you ask for a little more money to hire a professional studio, where the sum is estimated to be higher, but the result would be of higher quality? At least for the selected lectures. Or why criticize the choice of people for transcription for whom English is a foreign language.

On the other hand, one could have gone the other way: involving a community that has done excellent translations before, that is completely on the subject, that knows the nuances of Jacques’s speech. At the same time, it is not clear why the material is kept unpublished, with no access for others. Why not publish the material when it’s ready, thereby filling the budget with money from YouTube monetization. Over 13 years, doing it this way, the amount of material could be significant. Is this technically challenging? – No. Well, about 30 lectures have simply become a product on the website, available to very few people.

Jacque Fresco Foundation – the lost Jacque Fresco and the original The Venus Project

So far, the Jacque Fresco Foundation has not published a single lecture or material on its website, even with the promised paid subscription. Well, the directors sent Jacque to the Jacques Fresco Museum, but that’s just lip service – where to really look for him now? Where to listen to lectures? Who is even working on that? Or if they decided to retire the original ” The Venus Project” – where can you read the original program, accomplishments, explanations, FAQs? – Nowhere.

All of this, including Jacque and the original The Venus Project, has been removed from The Venus Project’s resources without providing any platform, any chance to utilize all of the developments and achievements of the original course for those who wish to continue. The directors are now using the name, resources, and the platforms for a completely different direction, without even explaining the details of what is happening. And since Jacques’ lectures, original films and books are the main “assets” of The Venus Project organization, we, and others, are threatened with copyright for further use and promotion, burying all these ideas, and Jacques himself, in an even deeper grave. This, I’m sorry to say, already looks like a goal, not an oversight.

After Nathanael Dinwiddie crossed the doorstep of the archive, no one is allowed to use it, no one is allowed to listen/work on it, create a movie, a video, a review – not even us, with a million and a half subscribers YouTube channel of thematic content, promoting Jacque Fresco’s original ideas, and a more than a decade of our collaboration. Contrary to all the good statements about preserving the legacy of Jacque Fresco – it looks the exact opposite.

Jacque Fresco Foundation website is under perpetual development.
Jacque Fresco Foundation website is under perpetual development.

It’s been almost half a year since the Jan. 27 article claiming the end of transcription. Could it not have been possible to put up at least some of the material? Maybe the transcription project, in fact, is not yet complete, and this was purely a formalized message of “leave us alone”, “here’s the report”?

With such success, it was possible to announce the completion of the transcription even in 2019. After all, the publication is a separate project! Do we need to raise crowdfunding for that too?

The article was prepared in co-authorship with Yevhen Sliuzko.

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“The Great Simplification” in The Venus Project https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/the-great-simplification-in-the-venus-project/ Mon, 06 May 2024 09:26:18 +0000 https://designing-the-future.org/?p=3848 The Venus Project has already begun to teach about the “Overshoot” of humanity. I don’t know how to describe the term, but it means, “We’ve […]

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The Venus Project has already begun to teach about the “Overshoot” of humanity. I don’t know how to describe the term, but it means, “We’ve overdeveloped to the point where the planet can’t take it.” What’s the solution, you might ask. – a return to a more simpler way of life, past technology, eco-villages and so on. That’s what’s being promoted on that podcast channel appropriately titled “The Great Simplification”.

The framing of the question and the very term suggests keeping things the way they are, but going backwards in many ways (including population numbers, by the way) instead of optimizing with technology, AI, and the evolution of the social system that The Venus Project had previously proposed, which the directors abandoned after convincing Roxanne to do so, largely by getting her hooked on podcasts and literature from the preppers and eco-village community.

https://youtu.be/o1vX03h7w9c?si=PF-CLdRdxUqVKf9W
An eye-opening exploration into the complexities of human overshoot. This podcast delves deep into the pressing issues facing our planet today. A must-listen for anyone passionate about sustainability and the future of our world

From a Facebook post

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Why hasn’t the movie about Jacques Fresco, The Man of Tomorrow, by Nathanael Dinwiddie come out? https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/man-of-tomorrow-film-about-jacque-fresco-by-nathanael-dinwiddie/ Mon, 29 Apr 2024 17:08:49 +0000 https://designing-the-future.org/?p=3722 One of the key Board of Directors for The Venus Project organization is now Nathanael Dinwiddie, who got his seat back in 2018. Were you […]

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One of the key Board of Directors for The Venus Project organization is now Nathanael Dinwiddie, who got his seat back in 2018. Were you aware of this? He had been researching Jacques Fresco’s biography and had the opportunity to work in depth with The Venus Project’s archives, going through and structuring them over the years.

His work was supposed to be culminating in a documentary, Man of Tomorrow, about Jacque Fresco’s life – however, for some reason we never got to see the movie. Why would that be?

Nathanael Dinwiddie

I was surfing the internet a while back, and I came across a mention of this movie. I was extremely fascinated by the concept. After all, I had only heard about Jacque from himself, and it would be much more interesting to look at his life through the perspective of other people. I started researching: – When was this movie planned? – and when approximately it will be released? The head of the organization “Designing The Future”, Yevhen Sliuzko, helped me to find the necessary links.

When I checked out the Facebook page for the movie Man of Tomorrow, I discovered that production started back in 2013.

This begins as a two man team. Production on a budget entails using Canon Mark III DSLR cameras. Dylan Snyder assists.

In one of the first pictures I immediately recognize Nate (he’s on the right). You can see his enthusiasm before an exciting endeavor – I wish I were in his shoes. Nathanael managed to get a grant and the necessary resources from the University of Kansas, the Center for Undergraduate Research, the School of the Arts, and the Department of Film where he was studying at the time to make the film. This was written on one of the Facebook Page’s posts.

The proposal for Man of Tomorrow was enthusiastically approved. The Center for Undergraduate Research, the School of the Arts, and the Department of Film and Media Studies at the University of Kansas have provided grants and resources to begin production.

The resources have been found, production has begun! Here are the photos from the page below. The number of invited interviewees is more than 24 people: those who were in any way related to Jacque Fresco.

Our 21st interview features futurist-transhumanist, Zoltan Istvan. Zoltan spoke about Jacque Fresco’s relation to transhumanism. Zoltan is also running for governor of California under the Libertarian Party.
Our 23rd interview features George Newman. George knew Jacque Fresco during the 1960s. George became a psychologist and journalist. He wrote a book called, “Things I Know Now That I Wish I’d Known Then.” George dedicated the book to Fresco and a section to one of Fresco’s ideas.
Our 23rd interview features George Newman. George knew Jacque Fresco during the 1960s. George became a psychologist and journalist. He wrote a book called, “Things I Know Now That I Wish I’d Known Then.” George dedicated the book to Fresco and a section to one of Fresco’s ideas.
Our 23rd interview features George Newman. George knew Jacque Fresco during the 1960s. George became a psychologist and journalist. He wrote a book called, “Things I Know Now That I Wish I’d Known Then.” George dedicated the book to Fresco and a section to one of Fresco’s ideas.
Our 24th interview again features Karl Geissler as a followup to his previous. Karl began attending Jacque Fresco’s lectures in 1971, at the founding of Sociocyberneering. Karl was an avid reader of Fresco’s booklist and beyond. If you have heard audio of Fresco’s Classic Lectures, Karl is best recognized by his warm German accent. He has proven himself especially well versed in Fresco’s proposals. To this day, Karl remains a close friend to Fresco.
Our 23rd interview features George Newman. George knew Jacque Fresco during the 1960s. George became a psychologist and journalist. He wrote a book called, “Things I Know Now That I Wish I’d Known Then.” George dedicated the book to Fresco and a section to one of Fresco’s ideas.

A website was created for the movie, frescofuture.com, which is now available only through the Web Archive.

You can see Nate in the shots: he is acting as cameraman and possibly interviewer.

Our 22nd interview features Pat McCord. Pat authored the book “Rings of Venus,” set in a Fresconian universe.
Our 20th interview features Lionel Rolfe. As a child, Lionel attended drafting lessons at Jacque Fresco‘s Scientific Research Laboratories in Los Angeles during the 1950s. Lionel is a member of the Menuhin family and became a journalist. By coincidence, Lionel later met Fresco’s lifelong friend, Jack Catran, and publicized their mutual relation to Fresco and Catran’s book “Is There Intelligent Life On Earth?” The article was entitled, “Unpopular Science,” published in the Los Angeles Reader. Lionel later republished this article in his book called, “Fat Man on the Left.”
Our eighteenth interview features Eli Catran. Eli is younger brother to Jacque Fresco‘s lifelong friend, Jack Catran. Eli assisted Fresco in the development of the Trend Home in 1947. Eli remains the last friend from Fresco’s Brooklyn origins.

What’s more, the page is filled with photos of trips to key places from Jacque Fresco’s life. Oh, I would love to see this movie!

The prisons that Fresco suffered in childhood.
КоOnce a thriving airport, the Floyd Bennett Field was where Fresco, 12 years old, marveled at the impossible feat of human flight.

Everything seems to be working out more than marvelously. Based on the screenshots and presumably filmed footage, the movie is already shaping up to be the movie that was promised. However, in 2015, there’s this post that says the director of the movie, Nathanael Dinwiddie, has been brought on to another project, and the work on the movie will be delayed for a few more months.

Update: To all those interested in seeing Man of Tomorrow, sorry for the delay of progress. The director of this film was recruited by TVP for editing a section of The Choice Is Ours, and has since been recruited for another large project by TVP. Therefore, progress on Man of Tomorrow will be delayed some months more. However, it was always expected that Man of Tomorrow would take a few years due to financing and the long process of assembling materials from archives to use in the film.

After that, there will be some more posts referring to the movie before 2019. Some ads for The Venus Project itself… and then silence, until one interesting moment…..

That moment was the day I found out about this whole situation. I asked an friend of mine who runs a blog called JacqueFrescoEducation on The Venus Project to write about it all, providing material and links. Undeterred by the information he received, he made a post on his website on February 26, 2024, describing the whole situation to an English-speaking audience. Immediately someone created a thread with a link to this article, posted on the public Discord server where all The Venus Project board members are on, thus starting a public discussion.

MISSING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE FUNDS, MISSED DEADLINES, AND DEAD PROJECTS: NATHANAEL DINWIDDIE’S “MAN OF TOMORROW” MOVIE SCAM

A lot of people who support The Venus Project have begun to discuss the situation. I have also tagged Nathanael Dinwiddie without waiting for him to find the discussion himself. According to my observations, Nate is often online and has chatted a number of times on other topics.

Except, we never got an answer. Why hasn’t the movie that was started back in 2013 still haven’t been made? It’s already 2024 – 11 years have passed. Wasn’t it possible during this long time to find other filmmakers, video editors or a bit of money, something to finish the movie, based on the resources, footage and other things that have already been done. At the very least, he could publicly voice the problems he was facing and ask for help. The material has been filmed and there is a whole archive. An excerpt from the brochure:

“The film will contain much of the recently organized archival materials, consisting of more than 2,000 audio and video recordings, 2,500 photographic images, 3,500 design renderings, 300 physical models, and hundreds of documents.”

After 5 years of silence on the Facebook Page, suddenly a series of posts appear saying that there will be a 7-part autobiographical interview on Jacques’ biography.

Jacque Fresco was born March 13, 1916, 108 years ago. In memory of Fresco’s work, a 7 hour biographical interview that explores his life and work will premier in 7 separate parts on the Jacque Fresco Youtube channel on March 31st. Each additional part will be posted each subsequent day until April 6th. Be sure to subscribe to the Jacque Fresco Youtube channel. To access all videos, see the following playlist.

Indeed, a series of interviews was released on the Jacque Fresco channel in occasion of his birthday on March 13th. But it can’t be called an autobiographical movie: it’s just a 7-part interview with Jacque where he solely talks about his life. How strange why haven’t they published it earlier, instead of a few months after a hot discussion on Discord. – What a Coincidence!

To summarize, we see that Nathanael, taking the resources of a number of institutions, including the grant, began work on a film that he couldn’t finish in 11 years, with more than enough footage already shot.

And that’s where the questions come in. Why is Nathaniel Dinwiddie keeping silent? What will happen to this undoubtedly valuable, already filmed material? And most importantly, where is the actual Movie?!

I see a simple and straightforward solution: talk about the problem, tell us what’s missing. In such a time I would have learned video editing myself and edited everything into one movie, or, a series of interviews could have been made accessible, and enthusiasts would have found a use for it. This should have been done a long time ago – interest in Jacque Fresco and his ideas is declining, and The Venus Project organization, and its director, Nathaniel Dinwiddie, have clearly not been working in this direction since at least the day he was appointed, in 2018.

PS: I’ve been trying hard to find an excuse for this. Things happen to everyone, well something doesn’t get finished, and it wasn’t just Nate who was working on the project, maybe he had lost the interest. But when I started digging further, I realized that this was not the only project he had taken on and never finished. The budgets for the following projects were way bigger than the University grant.

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New NGO for Jacque Fresco’s major motion picture and virtual reality city https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/new-ngo-for-jacque-frescos-major-motion-picture/ Fri, 12 Apr 2024 08:19:17 +0000 https://designing-the-future.org/?p=1016 Non-profit organization “The Choice Is Ours” has an ambitious goal – to make a full-length sci-fi feature film about humanity’s transition to the resource-based economy […]

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Non-profit organization “The Choice Is Ours” has an ambitious goal – to make a full-length sci-fi feature film about humanity’s transition to the resource-based economy described by Jacque Fresco.

The film

The film will show the way out of the current world situation and what humanity can come to by cooperating. It will show a chain of constructive events, which in the near future will allow us to achieve and surpass the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The events will be beneficial to everyone – both those in power and ordinary people.

Virtual model of the first city

To demonstrate the standard of living in a resource-based economy, we plan to develop a virtual BIM model of the first city and subsequently the world as a whole. BIM (Building Information Model) is an information model of a building object.

To develop the city, we plan to invite experienced engineers, designers, landscape designers, architects, builders, manufacturers of various building materials, as well as developers of computer video games. So that everyone can visit the city via the Internet and familiarize themselves with the functionality in detail. Learn how his housing, kindergartens, schools will look like, how the autonomous transportation system will work, how water will be purified, electricity will be generated, where environmentally friendly products will be grown, garbage will be recycled and how all this beauty will be kept clean, and much more.

The interactive virtual model of the city will not only demonstrate comfort, technology and functionality, but will also allow you to calculate the necessary resources for construction and logistics.

Knowing the amount of materials and resources needed, the cost can be predicted. Knowing the cost, funding can be secured. With information on available resources, it is possible to calculate where and how many such cities can be built. This will gradually provide comfortable housing for all people in need.

About

This is a project by one of our long-time team members and a successful entrepreneur from the Ukraine – Anatoly Karpov.

  • The website is planned to be translated into the most popular languages;
  • The nearest plans are to get Google Ad Grants for advertising the project;
  • Negotiations with a Ukrainian producer and director are underway.

We would be grateful for your support and feedback regarding the content of the website and the new project: thechoiceisours.org

Get in touch with Anatoly Karpov:

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Your support matters https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/your-support-matters/ Sun, 07 Apr 2024 13:13:51 +0000 https://designing-the-future.org/?p=962 Do you like our content and would like to see more? Do you support the ideas of Jacque Fresco and the original The Venus Project […]

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Do you like our content and would like to see more? Do you support the ideas of Jacque Fresco and the original The Venus Project and would like to see further development towards implementation, while The Venus Project organization has already refused to go down that path?

Help our team continue the work, and do much more! In addition to The Venus Project’s dramatic change of course, the main challenge over the past couple of years has been the decrease in our budget. Whereas we used to rely on standard YouTube monetization (we don’t do integrations or paid placements), now our main source of funds comes from your contributions.

We have to pay for studios, devote time and run many areas at once because of the lack of hired people, and moreover, if it goes on like this – we won’t be able to do it as our main job anymore. But we don’t need to lay people off – we need to grow our team so we can do more.

If everyone who cares can give up the extra “coffee”, and donate $2-5/month – that will allow us to move forward. If you are able to do more – this period looks to determine the future of the direction. We are doing what we can, but it’s not enough. We need your help, and today more than ever.

Thank you to everyone who is already supporting us. Join in!

Make your contribution: designing-the-future.org/support

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Why create a new movement? What about The Venus Project Movement? https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/why-create-a-new-movement-what-about-the-venus-project-movement/ Mon, 19 Feb 2024 11:18:06 +0000 https://designing-the-future.org/?p=422 The Venus Project movement completely dissolved in 2023, in secrecy, without announcing to the public, like so much else (see screenshot below). And by the […]

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The Venus Project movement completely dissolved in 2023, in secrecy, without announcing to the public, like so much else (see screenshot below). And by the fact, the movement was transformed to just a supporters in 2016, with new naming “TVP Support”, as you can read in the “First Director” chapter of the main research.

So no more country coordinators, no more regional points of contact (POCs), no more individual groups, no more private initiatives or team/organizations – now all surviving international team members work directly for the board of directors (as volunteers, under a rather strict non-disclosure agreement and transfer of all rights to the results of their work). And now, they must instead of developing the movement in their own country – find a task from the directors, and launching private initiatives turns into bureaucracy and insurmountable obstacle. There probably won’t be many people left to do that.

The movement has not been supported and developed in any way, and judging by the results themselves – it was not part of the plans of the board of directors from the moment of their appointment (current directors in 2018).

And even more so, despite the fact that the movement has helped to keep The Venus Project alive, to get The Venus Project Research Center off the market, to become visible and globally recognized, to be supported by voluntary contributions, crowdfunding and volunteer work, to bring many opportunities on a plate – the movement is directly compared by Nate (main TVP director) to the chaos and disorder that they are trying to clean up in order to make “real change” in the organization and its direction. Well now that there’s almost nothing left – changing course, and changing dramatically (as seen in previous posts).


What is your opinion? If you do not agree with this, and wish to join the efforts, to continue working to achieve the goals and proposals set by Jacques Fresco – write to us, have skills – join the team.

We will not give up and will continue to do our best.

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Organizing a successful movement https://dtf.azurewebsites.net/experience/ Fri, 16 Feb 2024 12:00:41 +0000 https://designing-the-future.org/?p=297 Our team was formed in 2011 and at the peak there were more than 60 groups in cities in more than 8 countries, and each […]

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Our team was formed in 2011 and at the peak there were more than 60 groups in cities in more than 8 countries, and each group was quite decentralized and had its own initiatives. In order to handle all this, the NGO “Designing the Future” has been registered in 2013. Our job was to bring opportunities and people together as a team, to support, guide, and of course to set a personal example of how to do things.

In just 3 years of activity, a large PR campaign was launched, efforts were gathered and many offline and online events of various levels were held, we were able to find serious investors from the world of venture capital and IT that are interested in the development of smart cities to the level described by Jacques Fresco. This achieves the main goal of Movement.

We have always focused on reputation, official institutions, media, criticism, high-level networking, and professionalism in content creation, subscriber outreach, public education, and so much more.

We had no funding other than our own contributions and voluntary donations. Lack of finances and difficulties with The Venus Project in 2016, when the emerging directors began to shut down the movement – prevented us from growing into a professional organization with all the work we had done.

So we focused on translations, media, YouTube and online community development, and personal contacts to lay the groundwork for larger projects. Our biggest YouTube channel numbered 1.5 million subscribers. In 2021 we had established work with several top studios and narrators, hired up to 5 people on salary and a few more were freelancing, along the way having a volunteer team and several independent groups. At this time, we started organizing a Work Hub in Turkey, which was to develop into the construction of a tourist-oriented research center where team members could live and work. We have already moved 3 people to Turkey.

Then there was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine… That pretty much wiped out our source of funding in the form of revenue from our YouTube channel and also scattered our team further around the world, became refugees moving to other countries with their families with nothing.

We tried to adapt to these changes as well. But we did not expect The Venus Project’s own program to change dramatically. I (Yevgen Sliuzko) was able to live at The Venus Project research center for 2 weeks a year ago, and during that time I learned about The Venus Project’s new program and noticed a lot of inconsistencies and problems in perception and decision making. There was a strong desire on behalf of the directors to hide all of this from their audience and even the team. And it still is, as a lot of people won’t like it – but they continue to have people’s support, which is looking more and more like deliberate misleading.

By the end of 2023, more details began to be revealed, and all that had been hidden behind non-disclosure agreements and secretly worked out in a tight circle of a few people, based on highly questionable claims and views. Simon Michaux has revealed the secret details, and now we can talk to the public about them. This is where the research “The END of Jacques Fresco’s The Venus Project” began, which you can read on this site or in document. And now we need to see what can be done in this situation to at least preserve some of the reputation of Jacque Fresco’s original ideas and proposals, and to clearly distinguish between the Original and New The Venus Project and the concepts of resource-based economy, since they use all the same names.

We will be able to transform our approach once more while maintaining the direction, again adapting to the new reality. And this time without the artificial boundaries and limitations that were dictated by our previous partnership.

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