Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday December 26 2017, @05:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the ideas-merit-discussion dept.

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Jacque Fresco spent decades building a life-sized model of his ideal city. The central idea? If we want the Western world to overcome war, avarice, and poverty, all we need to do is redesign the culture.

[...] This civilization would be created through "sociocyberneering," a radical form of social engineering where automation and technology would bring about "a way of life worthy of man." 171391-02-223

Throughout the interview, Fresco brandished full-color sketches of the future: white domes perched on the surface of the ocean and arranged in concentric circles so as to resemble the structure of an atom. Serving as the city's nucleus was a central computer, which would monitor the ecology of the region—measuring crop yields in farmland, controlling irrigation, and overseeing hydroelectric power grids. Expanding outward were civic centers, museums, and universities, all of which would operate like public libraries in that any cultural artifact would be available for temporary loan. The next largest ring of the city consisted of a residential area, where denizens would dwell amid opulent gardens and manicured parks, in built-to-suit developments. These elliptical abodes would contain every amenity imaginable (at one point, Fresco predicts the invention of entertainment software that sounds breathtakingly similar to Netflix). The city's enclosure—the crust of the circle—would house a massive recycling center to which all trash would be ferried via underground conveyor belts. Once there, automated machines would sort the refuse for proper salvaging.

Fresco was gruff and humorless throughout the interview, wholly immune to King's attempts at playful banter. At one point, he pronounced, "Sociocyberneering is an organization that is probably the boldest organization ever conceived of, and we're undertaking the most ambitious project in the history of mankind."

Source: https://psmag.com/magazine/waiting-for-fresco-social-engineering-technology


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @07:48AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @07:48AM (#614239)

    Obligatory reading of 'Brave New World' at this point.
    I want my soma. Now.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @02:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @02:26PM (#614293)

    What makes you think you an Alpha, Delta boi?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @02:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @02:45PM (#614302)

    There was an article on the amanita muscaria and santa and christmas a few days back. That's your Soma; if you don't take so much that you are made ill (or unable to function because of the visions), then you are doing it right.

    It is a fantastic tonic, so to speak... similarly to how some people say that a little weed can do so much, while the people getting high are just disappointed when they aren't getting high, amanita muscaria can at times make life seem like worth living--provided you don't take so much you can't function... people are often focused too strongly on the high or disapproving of something due to the same high. Just don't take it to get high all the time and you'll see why Santa was happy despite his workload!