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Jacque Fresco's vision for
the future may seem farfetched, but we are, in fact, capable of most of his
dreams. We currently have the resources and knowledge to build one of the
cities he has painstakingly designed—all it takes is the commitment to see it
through. The fact of the matter is that we need alternatives to the current
model of wasteful, haphazard design that is nowhere near conducive to creating
any kind of comunication within the community.
Imagine a city that is
dedicated, through design, to providing for the needs of all of its
inhabitants. Fresco's idea is that of a circular city, which houses a main nervous
system in its center. This central monolithic structure accommodates facilities
providing services such as health care and education. Surrounding this central
hub, which Fresco has designated to be a large dome, are eight smaller domes
that offer conference centers, science centers, art galleries, music halls, and
numerous types of entertainment, which all work together to keep the city
running efficiently. Encircling these two inner circles are  research facilities
and apartments. Then, keeping with the circular design, follows a ring of
recreation areas and beyond that is a ring for a low-density residential area.
The agricultural ring would be on the outside of the residential area and it is
surrounded by an irrigation ring. Parks, golf courses, and the surrounding
rural and wild areas are then left to encompass this circular city of
concentric civilization . A series of conveyors and other automated transportation
systems then connect the different rings of the city each other.
The agricultural ring is setup
to be as automated as possible, like much of the city—Fresco wants to see repetitive
jobs phased out of the human workforce: "We feel machines ought to do the
filthy or repetitious jobs or the boring jobs, that man has to be free to do
the higher things, [to attain] the higher possibilities of man."
 The low-density residential
area is designed so that one cannot see one house from another and is surrounded
by ponds, small paths, and engendered landscaping to provide a maximum amount
of shelter while also mitigating temperature fluctuations.
The houses, in particular, provide
for their residents' needs. Each residential structure is under a small amount
of constant pressure in order to keep dust and pollutants out of the house. Fresco's
bathroom is a single piece of molded polymer and it recycles the water used in
the sink for toilet-flushing. And each building is complete with sensors, which
monitor everything from temperature to humidity inside it. Already we see that,
while Jacque Fresco's vision for the future may seem farfetched, we are capable
of erecting this kind of city—again, all it will take is a commitment to do so.
Within Fresco's cities are
schools for people of all ages. He envisions constant self-research, with aims
to improve each aspect of a city's structure, the results of which are then
used in teaching others. Technologies that do nothing to improve human lives are,
after all, not worth anything, especially when, as Fresco argues, "all
people need clean air, clean water, and arable land." We can use such technologies
to provide these basic rights for everyone.
I honestly believe we, as a
society, are capable of creating and maintaining cities such as Fresco imagines
them, and the time to start is now. We need to set an example, to prove that
people can live this way and live this way well. To do so, however, we need to
build a city. Of course, as the first of its kind, it will not be perfect, but
it will serve as a prototype. In undertaking such an endeavor, there are almost
too many things to count that need doing, but the number one concern is this:
obtaining a property for its development. I have estimated that such a property much be
at least one square kilometer—a lot of land, true, but not when we consider
that it is designed to accommodate over five thousand people. With rising
housing costs and the economy failing as it is, now is the perfect time to
abandon the failing edifices of yesterday and step into the future with a bold
step and to decree that "we will live in a way the helps all those around
us, and yet to come!"
Go to part one
References
The Future By Design by Willam Gazecki DVD 2008
http://en.wi kipedia.org/wiki/Jacque_Fresco 2008
http://thevenusproject.com
The Best that Money Can't Buy Jacque Fresco 2002
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