"What will be my life like?" "What could I do?"

[Introduction]

and answering to that question:

and because it is hard to understand now, we propose it by stimulating readers' fantasy

[The Zeitgeist Movement Italy]

[in collaboration with]

[Il Movimento Umanista]

[presents]

[Federico Pistono]

[Daniele Mancinelli]

[2nd International Symposium "Foundation of the New Civilization" - Parchi di Studio e di Riflessione, 29–31 October 2010]

Let's proceed with the lecture in area 2: science and technology with Federico Pistono

He's film-maker, blogger, and IT expert. In 2002 He wins a <b>scholarship</b> for an international college,

in 2007 funds "Grilli biellesi", a nonprofit association of volounteers.

from 2008 he starts working in a media farm in Verona as a film director and web programmer,

in 2009 graduates with a degree in computer science and wins an international contest of bloggers and journalists.

Since May 2009 He's the italian coordinator of The Zeitgeist Movement

a social movement counting half a million members all over the world considered the activist arm of the Venus project.

In this report also collaborates Daniele Mancinelli for the technical part,

He has a degree in chemistry and pharmaceutical technology and worked on his master in molecular biology in Norway,

currently he's a research manager in the nutraceutical field.

The title of the lecture is: The Venus Project and The Zeitgeist Movement.

I'd like to thank the Human Centre for having invited us here

and for the opportunity to talk about our project

and our idea of society.

I also thank the previous speakers,

and in particular Professor Baracca for having pointed out a few problems in our society.

I'll try not to sin of pride

presenting a possible solution

to the problems identified earlier.

Technology advances at an exponential rate,

and yet our living conditions don't seem to improve accordingly.

Society seems to be paralysed by something that restrain and divert it.

So, how can a normal person, like me or you, contribute for the betterment of society and everyone's life?

How can we solve the problems that affect the human species

that we talked about before?

Let's have a quick look of the future of the human species and how you can help.

I want to say that the current economic system

kills true innovation and the development of human culture,

and that we have to learn to base our activities on the resources of the planet,

living in harmony with it, rather than destroying it.

That's all. We can all go home now...

OK, I'm here to share with you some very simple thoughts,

which too often are forgotten or misunderstood.

[Exponential graph]

This chart represents the exponential growth of technology through time.

There are no numbers because the purpose is just to show a concept.

[X Axis: "Time", Y axis: "Technological Progress"]

What does "exponential growth" mean?

A linear growth is when you add up the same relative amount through time,

but when you multiply a positive amount by itself, that's an exponential growth.

People confuse this idea with Moore's Law,

which predicts that CPU performance and the number of transistors,

double every 18 months.

It's an error.

The human species has increased its technological knowledge

which constantly doubles every 14 months for over 100 years.

The exponential growth started long before Gordon Moore was even born.

From the industrial revolution to mass production,

from punch cards to the **thermionic valves**

not only transistors, but DNA sequencing,

the reverse-engineering of the human brain,

number of inventions and discoveries, nanotechnologies,

mass communications, the ability to store information.

all these and many other aspect have risen exponentially.

It's hard to think in terms of exponential growth because our brain doesn't work that way,

it didn't evolve with that goal.

Try to imagine: 30 thousand years ago, in the savannah.

We're fleeing from a tiger that wants to eat you.

What's more useful to our survival?

Being able to think in linear terms, where the tiger will be 10 seconds

I mean, the tiger starts to run, 30-40km/h

or in exponential terms?

maybe those who think linearly will survive more.

Otherwise we start running to early, we get tired and the tiger... "gnam"!

So only the ones that made linear projections in the near future survived.

What does it mean reason in exponential terms?

This evolutionary heritage doesn't help much when we want to project ourselves into the future.

Here's an example: suppose I want to make reproduce a bacterial colony in this glass,

I now go to the lab and let it reproduce

so I feed it and every minute the colony reproduces.

Please, those who already know the story, don't spoil it

OK, every minute, this colony doubles in size, eating up all the resources

After 60 minutes the colony has filled the glass completely and all bacteria die.

Now, imagine the glass is empty. I put the bacterial colony, doubles every, after 60 minutes the glass is full.

The question is: after 55 minutes, what percentage of the glass the colony has filled?

Half? Less than half?

3.125%.

3.125% after 55 minutes. 6.250% a minute later, then 12, 24...

In 6 doubling we reach 120% and... all dead.

Now imagine this anthropomorphic bacteria.

They live and multiply for 55 minutes, they have meetings, then suddenly one comes out and says: "guys, we need a bigger glass!"

And they say: are you nuts?

"It's been 55 minutes, and we're only at 3%! Shut up, dude, we've still got hours left..."

4-5 minutes and they're all dead. That's exponential growth.

We're like the bacteria. 5 minutes on evolutionary scale and... we're all done!

But nobody explains that in these terms. It seems too simple, but it is that simple.

The economic system is based on exponential growth, in technology

but also in the trade of goods and services for profit.

We have to buy stuff that we don't need with money that we don't have.

Something doesn't work!

Thanks to this wonderful exponential growth, we can now enjoy all the comfort of modern life.

Medicine, computers, mobile phones, Internet, movies, airplanes, power plants!

Everything.

Technology allows us to do incredible things.

In the end, however, I need to ask myself a question. What makes my life meaningful?

Technology?

All the wonders of science and technology are nothing but thousands of tons of junk,

unless they serve to improve people's life.

Technology should free people from hard, monotonous, dangerous and repetitive jobs; and also degrading

to elevate them in a way that they can finally achieve their potential.

Sure, in our civilised world technological progress grows at an exponential rate, just look at the numbers

but I believe this chart is incomplete, and we need to draw another line.

[exponential and linear chart]

Here it is. This is the Zeitgeist line.

Zeitgeist is a German word literally meaning "spirit of time"

that is "the defining spirit or mood of society through time".

And we see that the Zeitgeist can't catch up. It's a linear trend.

Because we are not used to think exponentially

Our educational system is based on linear projections, linear way of teaching.

We don't update our knowledge at exponential rate.

The gap between the two lines become wider and wider.

This is a problem.

The culture, the Zeitgeist, can't catch up with technology. We see that every day!

Infinite economic growth is not only unsustainable but also ecologically deleterious.

The market system is not based on the intelligent management of the limited earth's resources

but on their constant exploitation for profit.

Infinite growth on one hand, finite resources on the other.

That doesn't work, sooner or later either of them must end.

An economist and all his theories... bullshit! It's that simple!

Don't think that because an argument is simple than there must be something wrong with it.

It's really that simple!

We have finite resources and seemingly infinite desires.

That's want you to believe it's true. But it's not. Something has to change.

Everyday we pollute lands, rivers, oceans, and most important people's minds.

There's only one reason.

I've been thinking about that and I've arrived at this conclusion:

we have forgotten what is relevant.

The only economic model that has a chance to succeed, in any society

is based on the management and preservation of the natural resources, not on money for sure, which is an invention.

Resources, on the contrary, are real.

This is what I've learned from the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project,

and that's the reason why I decided to become the Italian coordinator

and dedicate my spare time to this project.

So the question is: How do we bring this line [the Zeitgeist]

to the step of the technology? avoiding so the collapse.

I think the answer is right before a simple word:

(the word is simple, but resolution is difficult)

"Education".

Education is the only thing can save us.

and here the Zeitgeist movement comes in his rule.

It is a social movement that points to a radical change of our values on global scale,

to raise the zeitgeist, or the spiritual culture of the society,

to a more human and sane level, based on earth resources,

on our scientific and technological knowledge,

and on freedom of people, that will finally dedicate to something

they feel more important for their lives, elevating their potential.

That's it. This is relevant.

Almost all problems that humanity is facing

are at the range of a technical solution.

no doubt about this, You can ask to any scientist that has done a minimum

a tiny bit of true research, on this subject.

Nobody will tell you that problems won't have a technical solution.

energetic problems would be irrelevant if we did not use a paralyzing system

That has to invest on non renewable resources.

We have solar nano photovoltaic cells that are efficient and economic too,

the production of solar energy has been doubling every 24 months since last 20 years.

Google and Kurzweil have forecast we're only 8 steps behind,

this means that with the trend of the last 20 years applied to the next 16, we will have achieved the whole earth production,

only by solar energy.

The offshore wind farm installations are increasingly a reality, and costs are repaid in few years

every week there are news of some new nation or corporation that has installed 50, 100 wind farms, more and more bigger.

They are more and more efficient, they repay costs in lesser time and produce more and more energy.

It's so obvious.

Portugal and the UK are already installing tidal power plants.

A form of energy which is not even mentioned, during energy conferences.

Free energy, from the sea.

A 2006 MIT study has shown that with today's technology, not therefore with speculative prototypes,

only with the geothermal energy, we could produce enough power to satisfy all of man's needs

several times, for thousand years.

The geothermal is an energy with very low environmental impact, and with the next generation can be reduced to almost zero,

and is now available everywhere. Italy is a country rich in geothermal energy

and we are not using it at all. It is simple: who makes money if it is an energy that doesn't cost anything?

Who's going to pay for that? Who makes profit?

When you create abundance, the profit disappears. Then the abundance is the enemy of profit.

Many say to me: "OK, energy... but we are too many on this planet!

We are almost 7 billion, and shortly 8, 9, 10 in 2050. How can we produce food for all?

We are already exploiting every part of the planet with a heavy subsistence farming,

there's no more space, no more food".

Do not believe this, that's not true!

OK, if we stopped eating like pigs every day maybe we'd solve the problem...

Jokes aside, a healthier diet would benefit us, eat less meat -like some decades ago-

Anyway.

Technically that's not a problem. A synergy of aeroponics, hydroponics and aquaponics

made in a controlled environment on vertical buildings

drastically reduce the ecological footprint and the demand of water:

we would save 90% of water and 80% of space if we compare it to traditional methods.

It would require no pesticides at all.

Pesticides and weed-killers are made with petrol. Don't believe to anyone saying that there's no space. That's not true.

[A question from the audience] "What's the name of these cultures you talked about?"

Hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics. These cultures do not need earth.

On the water, on air using water vapour, the roots absorb it

or you can have an integrated system, where fish and plants live in symbiosis

plants will commute their waste as a nutrient for fishes and vice-versa:

it's an integrated cycle. It works perfectly nothing is wasted.

No need for pesticides, oil. Abundance for all...

But why should we do it? Where is the profit?

I could go on with these examples, but you can find many free books, videos, publications about this technology

on our site: www.zeitgeistitalia.org you can find the links

to new scientist, nature, science, physorg, all detailed scientific publications wit the names of the authors

there's the singularity university at Stanford, that's working on these projects

on zeitgeistitalia.org you can find all references, at the end of the presentation I'll show the links, and a PDF will be available on the site

The problem is that people don't even know that these solutions actually exist.

All these technologies are here, at hand, in 2010, not in 2200!

But then, how's possible that even with these technologies our society is falling down?

According to a UN report of 2010, every 5 seconds a child die from starvation.

Another one is dead.

Think about what it means.

Today, we could provide food to everyone and more, but we do not do this.

Why?

For profit?

A question comes back to my mind: "What's does really matter? What makes my life meaningful?"

There are multinationals like Monsanto that actually patented life forms.

They sell infertile seeds to farmers, and these people find themselves to be trapped between lawyers and patents

and if they don't follow the rules, they're over.

These are the things that people must know.

To solve a problem, there are some basic and necessary conditions:

1. First of all, you must understand that there's a problem.

Otherwise you would think that everything's alright and if someone gives you a solution,

the reaction could be "A solution to what? I'm fine, what do you want from me?"

2. You must find a solution

Otherwise, you would just keep talking without doing nothing.

3. You must find an adequate number of people concerned about it.

Then you can start doing things for real.

Forgive my "quotation marks".

The first step is to get through mental scarcity,

and this is achieved with education.
Broadly speaking.

Education is not only learn by heart the Euclid's and Pytagora's theorems

Education is about all your life.

Education is to know how to talk to people, how to be empathic.

Education is to know how to raise a child, know how to teach, know how to listen to what others have to say.

Education is all our life.

Don't be tricked by how they distorted words in the last years:

science = atomic bomb, education = go to school and take good grades

Nothing like that.

Many people ask to me: "So, the Zeitgeist Movement is only about education?

Why don't you start making something more practical? The first experimental city? When will you start gather some funds

to make the perfect city, where everything is recycled and people just come there and robots make everything?..."

When do you do something practical?

Asking questions like this just proves a person didn't understand a single word.

Imagine to take a native Australian

Let's make a "thought experiment" just like Einstein

Take this native Australian and "throw" him in the center of Manhattan, in Times Square.

Try to imagine how he could feel. Probably he will go crazy after 2 or 3 days.

Alright, now take a person who believes in the current economic system based on profit

and put him into a sustainable city, where everything is recycled, where people help each other

and he will go crazy after 3 days.

"Where is the police? Why aren't doors locked? Safety... ahhhh!"

Be serious. Before doing something

you need to understand why you are doing it.

From my point of view, we've got two options.

Option Number zero: maintain the status quo.

Keep things the way they are.

What is the world going to be like?

If we look at the trends, we can make predictions for the next 10, 20, 30 years.

I see a world dominated by a handful of corporations.

They will hold patents on everything: new ideas, inventions, technologies, medicines.

And life.

Technology will grow at a rate so fast...

(this is only the beginning and there's a significant increase. I didn't mark the next steps otherwise you wouldn't even see the blue line,

you wouldn't notice the difference with the X axis, while the other goes straight up, almost vertically)

Exponential growth doesn't seem relevant when you consider small numbers, but it goes out of control as numbers get bigger. It's unimaginable.

The gap between the two lines will be so wide that the average person will not have a clue of what's happening

"Oh God! I don't understand anything... ahhh!"

and will search an authority figure who would give security. More locks, more police, complete scan even on the train

Ah, yes! More locks on our doors.

More police.

Yes! Full body scan. Not just on airports, but also on train stations,

even in the public offices, if you have gobble a clip, they shot you 'cause they think you have a bomb...

Relax, relax.

In 20 year we'll have microchip small as a cell, and it will cost less than waste paper.

We'll have power to alter material at molecular level, at very low cost.

That means possibility to replicate anything only having basic information.

The question is: who control these technologies?

That's an handful of corporations?

Whose aim - i would remember it - is profit?

That's the army?

All knowledge is shared, in good science. If it isn't, it's bad science, and it's a kind of tyranny.

I don't like that: centralized power, minds ruined, resources destroyed.

all because of the profit mechanism and for not taking into account what is really relevant.

Finally, I'm sorry to say that, the possible extinction of the human species because of its inability to live in dynamic equilibrium with the environment.

I'm not a doomsday guy, but that's a realistic possibility, according to the past trends.

That was option number zero.

Now I'd like to introduce option number one, at least I'll try. I'm not saying it's an easy one or the right one, or the best one,

but surely it's better than option number zero.

We begin a process of cultural evolution that is up to date with our technological understandings.

Applying the scientific method, we gradually get rid of all the irrelevant beliefs and paralysing dogmas,

and base our activities on what the planet can provide,

not on what somebody arbitrarily wants.

All knowledge is shared, everything is crystal clear, everyone has access to resources

and available information.

Open source: free access, shared knowledge, well informed people.

In my opinion, it's impossible to prevent war, terrorism, crime,

without addressing the root causes that generates them.

Abundant resources, healthy planet, high quality education, high standard of living for everyone, not one human being excluded.

Not one excluded!

Not only 350 million Europeans, 330 million Americans, 130 million Japanese... no.

7 billion people today, 10 billion in 2060... everybody, the same high standard of living

I'm very positive about the future. Why? Because I'm a crazy idealist?

Maybe... the truth is I don't see any other options.

As far as I'm concerned, the only option truly valid in number one.

Actually I'm positive because I've got a memory.

Yep, I'm young but I wasn't born the other day, and I remember what happened in the past

and what I've seen, the change in our culture

Let's step back. Imagine. Imagine I go back to my professor of economy at college,

Simon Folley, English, 8 years ago, saying: "Professor, I've got an extraordinary idea for a new economic model.

Here's how it works: you take a bunch of people around the world with a highly qualified job,

and they work on a project for free, 20 or 30 hours a week".

At this point Simon looks a little bit skeptical.

"Wait, I'm not done!

what they create, they give it way to the world,

for free, instead of selling it. It's going to be a huge success!"

He would have thought I was crazy. Nevertheless, today we have Linux and BSD, free operating systems

running on almost every server in the world;

Apache, the most popular web server in the world, Wikipedia, the largest encyclopedia in history,

even more accurate than the British Encyclopedia and Microsoft Encarta, which both have paid teams of experts working on them

and the articles are less than one tenth compared to Wikipedia.

What's happening? Why these people, who already have a job, the technical skills,

during their limited spare time are willing to do another job, even more difficult,

not for their clients, but for somebody else, FOR FREE!

It's a rather weird economic behaviour, don't you think so?

In just one year, the Zeitgeist Movement has reached half a million members all over the world,

has produced two movies, a third one is coming out soon, two books, tens of recorded conferences all over the world.

There are hundreds of activist groups scattered in 100 countries, who translate material to their language,

organise meetings, movie screenings, discussions, create podcast, articles, music, art.

All shared for free on the internet, under a Creative Common license. All done by volunteers.

The Italian chapter has now 10,000 contacts and keep rising every day.

Then, the old concept that people only work for profit, and without the money incentive nobody does anything

maybe it's not true.

It's hard to break the old schemes, because we're prisoners of common sense.

It's difficult to realise that something we take for granted is actually wrong, and that reason is...

... that we take it for granted!

For example, we are used to believe that for one's life is meaningful you need to have a job and make money.

When you meet someone you say: "How do you do? I'm Federico. What do you do in life?"

Meaning: "What's your job?"

Because it's not: "What's your job", it's "Who are you?"

How many times you really like your job and you wouldn't do anything else

and if they tell you: "You can do anything you want" you'd answer "I want to do what I do!"?

How many times?

One in 10, 20, 100?

Or the belief that some people are born evil, or competitive,

and that it's "human nature" to fight to survive.

I think that's not true.

and I say this because the latest scientific studies lead to just that conclusion.

In our brain, there are mirror neurons: we feel emotions and empathic stress in response to what we see in others.

It's part of our biology. I'm not making stuff up, guys.

We're programmed by natural selection to be empathic, cooperative, curious;

and not competitive, destructive and lazy.

But we have forgotten that.

We have to broaden our sense of identity, to all human beings and all the other living creature

that are part of our evolutionary family, and the biosphere as our community.

In the words of the great Carl Sagan: "We are one planet".

What we're celebrating with this lecture is the gift of human imagination,

the ability to imagine a different future.

As Sir Ken Robinson said, we have to careful and use this gift wisely,

to avoid some of the scenarios we have talked about.

And that's possible only if we realise the real value of our creativeness.

If we really are an empathic society, let's show our true nature.

Unless we leave our creativity to be repressed by the education system and the establishment,

we can open a discussion, from here, the foundation for a new civilization.

Let's start rethinking the role of the human species on this planet, a collaborative society is far too efficient than a competitive one.

Together we can lay the foundations for a new civilization

empathic

sustainable

evolving

humane.

Thank you

Any questions?

I really like the name of the Movement... Zeitgeist... spirit of time

in particular the word spirit

because it's in some way connected with spirituality, with something deeper.

I agree with everything you said,

the door is already open,

but I'd like to know, how do you see the spiritual aspect?

Thank you

Well, the movement has the aim to provide the social foundations

to give every human being the opportunity to flourish, in all their aspects,

education, social relationships, and also spirituality

and our priority is to make sure that everyone can realise their potential

and when one has access to the resources he needs, and no longer need to work to make a living,

because we can, through automation and advanced technologies, without any problem,

provide clean water, houses, energy and food for everyone;

if you were born in a reality that offers you, as one of your rights, all these resources

you could begin exploring your spirituality without being stressed because of work or because of people,

and when education will make you understand how to live in a proactive way,

how to think and call into question nature, life, everything you will learn, your spirituality, your world, the stars

when finally you will have the time for yourself, then you will be able to think to your spirituality too, and in a much efficient way than you could do today.

Today you have to "dematerialize" yourself from what actually makes you sad or stress in your everyday life

like work, for example

you have to meditate in order to push away your problems and, finally, be in contact with your spirituality

if you wouldn't have to use time and energy trying to eliminate stress, don't you think it would be easier?

What we actually think is that it is much more important to educate people about what we could do and how to do it:

Venus Project is not the end, but just the beginning of our path.

We don't see our society as a civilization,

a civilized society, indeed, will exist when everyone will have access to the resources they need

and when productions will be an automated process,

when someone will take care of his kitchen-garden because it is a passion, not because he would otherwise die of starvation,

when someone will have the chance to work as a artisan because he enjoys it,

He makes his sculpture, and then, since not to sell for a living

and maybe he will not be forced to sell his work, but he could even give it for free, as a gift

and making gift will give you much more satisfaction than keeping everything just for yourself

and that's why this is the only future we have, together.

People usually think of a dualism in our society: rich and poor.

The poor hates the rich,

and the rich fears the poor.

Thats's just wrong,

we need rich people too, and make them understand that the only way they have to be happy

is giving something, help other

and not because some strange mistic theory says that,

it's a scientific fact:

making a FMRI scan we can see how our brain responds to an action made for ourself and our profit

or when we do something for others.

The satisfaction you receive when you do something altruistic is much more deep

and we have to make people understand this.

If you look at rich people,

you will see that among them there is the highest percentage of suicides or the highest usage of antidepressants

because, since they were young, they were educated

to think that the most relevant thing is to make money, and that acquiring more goods will make them happy.

At the age of 30, 40, 50, 60 years

they see that their life is empty, and the only thing that they are able to do leads them to be even more unhappy.

So, why shouldn't we make them understand

concepts like sharing and cooperations, from now?

I think that this is spirituality too,

this is what we call "social therapy"

real education is an education of our spirit too,

an education on how to relate with others,

how to relate with nature,

with other species,

that we actually abuse like they were objects,

That's spirituality too!

Do you have any other question?

When will Zeitgeist's next film be released?

The next Zeitgeist's film, which is named "Moving Forward", will be released during January, in 2011,

it will be released in more than 20 languages and in more than 60 countries,

we will try to make it visible in some selected cinemas,

an event that Zeitgeist's member will organize in their cities.

Here you can find something about our project, everything is free

there are some DvDs of Zeitgeist Addendum and a multimedial introduction to the movement

and even some copies of the "Orientation guide for the activist"

and if someone is really interested I can give them for free, even if they are for my personal use

by the way, you can download them from the site in .pdf to print the book or buy it

at its cost price, we don't have profit from it.

I'd like to make a question to Daniele

"Hi, Daniele. I was wondering about

how your position in a big multinational affects your participation in Zeitgest Movement

I think you probably try to bring this "spirit of the times" in your company.

Well, other than the social therapy Federico was talking about,

it is really important that we educate scientists too

so what I wanted to ask you is how this can happen, and if you don't mind we'd like to hear something about your life?

"What lead me to join Zetigest Movement, was indeed my experience

because my "high" position at work

give me the opportunity to observe all detrimental effects that our system based profit and competitions between corporations brought to people

and my work associates are an example of this.

They are wonderful people,

great family men, and so on...

But nowadays they are forced to take horrible decisions

to "salve" the corporation they work for,

because they and many other workers depend from it,

so from this situation, I can understand that is not about evilness of people,

but the global design of a system based on profit

that generates the conditions for what companies are so selective, competitive and live and dominate without remorses, imposing their rules

because in a competitive system, who wins can decide rules of the game

and the winner is always the one lacking restraint

I saw many fair companies leaded by wonderful people going bankruptcy because they cannot sustain that type of market

our distorted view make us believe that people are selfish

but the reality is that our system only choose the most selfish and make them winners,

so we just see that minority

without seeing who doesn't win because he just wanted to do something for others.

But I can assure you that it's not like that

I work in this corporation and I'm always in competition with other researchers

and even when I tried to share something with them, like the Venus Project,

they didn't trust me,

because they thought it was just a way to "eliminate" them

but this way of thinking went against them

they expelled theirselves from "the game" by keeping the distances from me,

while I advanced from my researcher position to manager.

"So, you are the living being that collaborating is essential?"

Yes! The collaboration is the most efficient thing

and it's what I had to do to reach my actual position. To "fight" against other multinationals

I brought in Norway with me teo Italians,

we already trusted one another,

so we created a team

of just three people collaborating for the same objective.

That's the main difference with other multinationals that keep their 100 workers in competition

so everyone just work for himself, creating as a result, a 1%

against our 100% percent

because we work sharing our knowledge, we do not keep them for ourselves,

and that's something everyone can do,

it's just a matter of sensitiveness.

"Ok, another question"

"Did you thought about proposing something in schools, that most of the time kinda deform new generations minds?

Thank you, a very good question!

Yes, of course!

One of our GdL (workgroups) is "Education"

it's working on projects to realise a mini-guide for students and teachers,

so teachers can teach in a different way

and for primary schools' students.

starting from comics or something like that

becoming more complex

to explain concepts like collaboration

looking at nature, animals, stars

collaborating with each other in the discoveries

and also give lectures in schools are our priorities.

Even though the movement is relatively young it has been growing exponentially

now we have to understand what are the foundations to start from,

create workgroups able to work in different areas

for example, Video and Graphics workgroups for making flyers, stickers, PDF charts, T-shirts, and videos

The translations workgroup is in charge to translate material from English to Italian

and than we have the Formation workgroup who is developing a project called "My life in the Venus Project"

until now we have written two episodes and we're working on the third one

we have another editorial project, which is still under development, that should be published once every two months

it will be a selection of our stories, science articles and about argumenting and communicating.

In these episodes we imagine the future we are building. It could not be perfect, but it's surely better than the present.

Imagine that five years after the transition passt

in a world that is not perfect, but better than the current

We try to answer some questions like:

We will focus on how our life will be like without work, without the use of money

bringing people to say:

Imagine that you have to work. You need pasta, pomedori, we have them!

What do you do?

"I never thought about it, you know?"

"You just have one life. When would you think about this? In the next one?"

Our aim is to make people think how they would live and what they could do in a system not based on money.

one of many, of how a family could live, or a researcher or an artist.

How people would live in the venus project, in everyday life?

Exactly. First here (the head) and then the rest.

[I am very happy that the motto of the revolution of the 69 "imagination to power" we are still very active in 2011. Thank you.]

Thank you.