1 00:00:04,254 --> 00:00:07,802 How will you prevent the Venus Project from becoming corrupt 2 00:00:07,942 --> 00:00:11,200 if people put up money to build the first city 3 00:00:11,340 --> 00:00:14,424 and try to dictate the policy of the city? 4 00:00:14,900 --> 00:00:19,056 First of all, the Venus Project would not be sponsored by people 5 00:00:19,196 --> 00:00:21,792 who believe that this system will work. 6 00:00:21,932 --> 00:00:25,574 It's the failure of this system that enables people 7 00:00:25,714 --> 00:00:28,783 to put up money for an experimental system. 8 00:00:28,923 --> 00:00:32,978 If doctors want to build a new hospital to operate differently 9 00:00:33,118 --> 00:00:36,653 they build an experimental hospital and they check it out 10 00:00:36,793 --> 00:00:40,239 see if it works. If it doesn't work, they go back to the other system. 11 00:00:40,379 --> 00:00:44,432 If the Venus Project designs a city and it doesn't work 12 00:00:44,572 --> 00:00:47,340 we'll change the design until it does 13 00:00:47,480 --> 00:00:49,900 just like all research programs. 14 00:00:50,050 --> 00:00:53,724 There's a lot of things in research that don't work. 15 00:00:53,864 --> 00:00:56,312 You don't stop doing research. 16 00:00:56,452 --> 00:01:00,051 You have to continue doing research until it does work. 17 00:01:00,191 --> 00:01:04,211 Will it work perfectly? No, every year it'll get better 18 00:01:04,351 --> 00:01:06,633 if you keep at it. 19 00:01:06,773 --> 00:01:10,354 I see all things changing, always. 20 00:01:10,494 --> 00:01:16,054 I see no final frontiers, no utopias, and the basis for corruption... 21 00:01:16,194 --> 00:01:19,065 If you were to have a man finance a city 22 00:01:19,205 --> 00:01:22,439 and he tries to steer it in the monetary direction 23 00:01:22,579 --> 00:01:25,910 it'll fail, just like the monetary system. 24 00:01:26,050 --> 00:01:30,375 We'll have a city which we can use 25 00:01:30,515 --> 00:01:34,348 but the guy that runs the city will be out. 26 00:01:34,488 --> 00:01:38,116 His business will be out because people don't have purchasing power 27 00:01:38,256 --> 00:01:40,810 to keep him going. 28 00:01:40,950 --> 00:01:46,744 As I said before, if wealthy people all buy big yachts 29 00:01:46,884 --> 00:01:50,492 and they keep them loaded, ready to leave, with food 30 00:01:50,632 --> 00:01:54,379 sea piracy will grow. There will be more pirates in the sea 31 00:01:54,519 --> 00:01:56,783 grabbing yachts 32 00:01:56,923 --> 00:02:01,261 because they can't sail indefinitely without fuel. 33 00:02:01,401 --> 00:02:06,212 They all go out to the West Indies and they can occupy an island 34 00:02:06,352 --> 00:02:09,510 (all these wonderful yachts with millionaires) 35 00:02:09,650 --> 00:02:12,278 and if the people on the other islands are starving 36 00:02:12,418 --> 00:02:15,702 they'll invade that island. Do you understand that? 37 00:02:15,842 --> 00:02:19,547 You can't live to yourself, is the message I'm talking about. 38 00:02:19,687 --> 00:02:24,293 If we don't take care of everybody, including ourselves 39 00:02:24,433 --> 00:02:29,598 we cannot build a world free of war, poverty and hunger. 40 00:02:29,738 --> 00:02:32,961 It's been said in religion, all these things 41 00:02:33,101 --> 00:02:36,587 but they didn't know how to attain it. 42 00:02:36,727 --> 00:02:40,216 They thought: If only people would be decent and fair. 43 00:02:40,356 --> 00:02:43,466 They can't in a competitive world! 44 00:02:43,606 --> 00:02:46,256 If you manufacture stockings 45 00:02:46,396 --> 00:02:50,247 that have runs in them, people have to buy new stockings 46 00:02:50,387 --> 00:02:53,623 but if Larry invents stockings that don't get a run 47 00:02:53,763 --> 00:02:56,489 he'll put you out of business or you'll buy his patent 48 00:02:56,629 --> 00:03:00,013 and don't produce them because you want to sell stockings. 49 00:03:00,153 --> 00:03:05,053 How can you be decent and ethical in a competitive world? 50 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:09,260 How can you love your brother if you take advantage of him 51 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:13,141 by owning a patent which stops him from making something 52 00:03:13,281 --> 00:03:15,489 that will benefit other people? 53 00:03:15,629 --> 00:03:19,910 If you take a patent out on crutches or your wheelchair 54 00:03:20,050 --> 00:03:22,924 people can't use it unless they pay you. 55 00:03:23,064 --> 00:03:27,970 All patents and private property deprive other people. 56 00:03:28,110 --> 00:03:33,249 When a guy is very wealthy, if he owns 4,000 acres of land 57 00:03:33,389 --> 00:03:36,252 I would say he's kind of a selfish individual. 58 00:03:36,392 --> 00:03:38,714 You don't need 4,000 acres 59 00:03:38,854 --> 00:03:42,476 unless he gave it to some charity, then I'd say 60 00:03:42,616 --> 00:03:45,438 the man is truly religious. 61 00:03:45,578 --> 00:03:49,345 Doctors Without Borders to me are more religious 62 00:03:49,485 --> 00:03:53,279 than most church-attending people. 63 00:03:54,034 --> 00:03:58,217 People that do good without reward. 64 00:03:58,357 --> 00:04:03,071 The only reward you get is seeing less poverty and hunger 65 00:04:03,211 --> 00:04:08,399 starvation and deprivation, kids with swollen bellies, all gone! 66 00:04:08,539 --> 00:04:10,824 If that doesn't give you incentive 67 00:04:10,964 --> 00:04:13,543 if your only incentive is the money system 68 00:04:13,683 --> 00:04:17,040 then you don't understand human beings. 69 00:04:17,180 --> 00:04:22,325 Because you owe your own life to the advances made by Edison 70 00:04:22,465 --> 00:04:26,679 Louis Pasteur and all the other people. You're alive because of them! 71 00:04:26,819 --> 00:04:29,709 If you don't feel that you want to put anything back into the Earth 72 00:04:29,849 --> 00:04:33,353 to make it a better place, I would say you're harmful 73 00:04:33,493 --> 00:04:36,550 to yourself and to society. 74 00:04:36,690 --> 00:04:39,021 Should we kill those people? No. 75 00:04:39,161 --> 00:04:43,679 Send them back to school to learn or show them evidence 76 00:04:43,819 --> 00:04:48,584 of the system you believe in and have them produce counterarguments. 77 00:04:48,724 --> 00:04:50,946 Don't stop them! If they say 78 00:04:51,086 --> 00:04:53,335 "Well, this system kills incentive" 79 00:04:53,475 --> 00:04:57,137 You ask "What is your evidence for that?" 80 00:04:57,277 --> 00:04:59,706 Don't kill them. 81 00:04:59,846 --> 00:05:04,392 If you start killing people, you'll always have people you want to kill. 82 00:05:04,532 --> 00:05:07,165 You know what I mean? People say "All those bastards 83 00:05:07,305 --> 00:05:10,138 don't care about anybody but themselves!" 84 00:05:10,278 --> 00:05:15,414 I would say that they need bits of information 85 00:05:15,554 --> 00:05:19,970 to be able to do the things that are better for people. 86 00:05:20,110 --> 00:05:22,522 Who decides which is better for people? 87 00:05:22,662 --> 00:05:26,718 Eventually, the majority of people will decide that. 88 00:05:26,858 --> 00:05:30,950 If the system doesn't work, they won't operate it 89 00:05:31,294 --> 00:05:33,702 or they'll find a system that does work. 90 00:05:33,842 --> 00:05:35,810 You know, when I was a kid 91 00:05:35,950 --> 00:05:39,843 cops used to blow a whistle to stop traffic 92 00:05:39,983 --> 00:05:44,072 and I remember talking about a system. 93 00:05:44,212 --> 00:05:48,800 It was a red light and a section of the pavement went up 94 00:05:48,940 --> 00:05:52,813 and it stopped the cars, so they couldn't violate the law. 95 00:05:52,953 --> 00:05:57,208 Even if there is a red light and the guy is talking to somebody in the car 96 00:05:57,348 --> 00:05:59,491 he can go through a red light. 97 00:05:59,631 --> 00:06:03,646 But we don't want elevators that 'might' stop 98 00:06:03,786 --> 00:06:06,123 on the floor you want it to stop at. 99 00:06:06,263 --> 00:06:09,749 We want elevators to stop at the floor you want it to stop at. 100 00:06:09,889 --> 00:06:14,624 We don't want traffic controlled by a light if the guy isn't watching it. 101 00:06:14,764 --> 00:06:18,713 We want traffic controlled by a mechanism in the car. 102 00:06:18,853 --> 00:06:21,582 Instead of the red light, the car stops 103 00:06:21,722 --> 00:06:23,816 while the other cars are passing 104 00:06:23,956 --> 00:06:28,672 and when they cease to pass, then you get the go sign. 105 00:06:28,812 --> 00:06:33,262 But don't leave anything up to people. It won't work! 106 00:06:33,402 --> 00:06:36,200 Even on an aircraft carrier today 107 00:06:36,340 --> 00:06:39,557 there's a guy that signals the planes to come in. 108 00:06:39,697 --> 00:06:44,609 If a plane has a landing gear problem, he's given priority. 109 00:06:44,749 --> 00:06:47,021 They tell the other planes to fly around 110 00:06:47,161 --> 00:06:50,917 until this damaged airplane lands. 111 00:06:51,057 --> 00:06:56,109 Nobody makes that decision except the conditions that prevail. 112 00:06:56,249 --> 00:06:58,667 Do you understand what that means? 113 00:06:58,807 --> 00:07:03,097 If we begin to run out of farmland and the wealthy people 114 00:07:03,237 --> 00:07:06,523 or the middle class have difficulty getting food 115 00:07:06,663 --> 00:07:11,410 then a lot of research will be done in hydroponics and ocean farming. 116 00:07:11,550 --> 00:07:16,064 But right now, you can't get a nickel for ocean farming 117 00:07:16,204 --> 00:07:18,477 because it's not that necessary. 118 00:07:18,617 --> 00:07:21,850 As long as they are eating, that's your problem 119 00:07:21,990 --> 00:07:24,340 and if you make it your problem 120 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:28,799 you might kill the wealthy guy for his bank account 121 00:07:28,939 --> 00:07:34,239 or kidnap his wife for ransom, so that you too, can eat. 122 00:07:36,578 --> 00:07:41,386 This system generates predatory behavior 123 00:07:42,018 --> 00:07:45,624 where we take advantage of other people. 124 00:07:45,764 --> 00:07:47,833 You say "Well, that's human nature!" 125 00:07:47,973 --> 00:07:51,623 [because] that's the way things are today and there's always been scarcity. 126 00:07:51,763 --> 00:07:55,046 So most people are out to take care of themselves, and say 127 00:07:55,186 --> 00:07:59,150 "If you don't take care of yourself, no one is going to take care of you" 128 00:07:59,290 --> 00:08:04,161 and so they make us predatory; the system is like that. 129 00:08:05,498 --> 00:08:08,830 If you say "Well, I think it's up to each individual..." 130 00:08:08,970 --> 00:08:13,107 If you really study it, you'll find that each individual 131 00:08:13,247 --> 00:08:18,115 is made to conform to the social institutions that exist. 132 00:08:18,255 --> 00:08:23,030 If they don't conform, they wind up as vagrants in prison 133 00:08:23,170 --> 00:08:27,310 or they have difficulty getting a job if they don't conform. 134 00:08:27,450 --> 00:08:32,261 You are pressed by many different forces to conform. 135 00:08:32,861 --> 00:08:35,163 If you walked around without any clothing 136 00:08:35,303 --> 00:08:37,356 because you don't believe in clothing 137 00:08:37,496 --> 00:08:40,779 you'd be picked up and arrested, put in jail. 138 00:08:40,919 --> 00:08:45,418 If you continue to do that, you might be put in a mental hospital. 139 00:08:46,281 --> 00:08:50,720 It isn't a free country; nothing is free! 140 00:08:51,267 --> 00:08:54,393 In a free country, you are free to make your own decisions. 141 00:08:54,533 --> 00:08:56,752 You never make your own decisions! 142 00:08:56,892 --> 00:09:00,583 If you live in any culture, they will work on you 143 00:09:00,723 --> 00:09:05,295 so that you correspond to the values of that culture.