A Look at Venus Evolution - A Plan for Aranta

 

 

A view of the future

Introduction

The Venus Project / Thorium Network has done something interesting. They have released a design for a city called "Venus Evolution - A Plan for Aranta" (VE) by Simon Michaux (actually released in 2024 but I have only just come across it). Jacque Fresco (JF) had a city idea and had built models of such a city but there was never much in the way of an actual design or plan for how it would work. So this is quite an interesting step and hopefully it will lead to something being realised. I thought I would have a look at the document and compare it to the plans we have in EOS. I’ll start off with a look at how the city is actually governed.

Governance

The City, or each city in the long run, is self governing. So the structure is a network with each city as a node in the network. The City itself is governed through a type of consensus, with public engagement and a leadership. When there is a “gap” detected between the direction the leaders have decided and the current reality, a change is proposed and consensus is sort after:

“Public engagement of all members of society in assessing that change is the most effective system that can adapt to change in the most efficient way possible.”

The leaders are not specifically defined but the document does mention that staff will be given a mandate to develop such things as “suitable systems of high-density energy generation” or “new methodology to sustainably grow food” or “full value chain from commodities to manufacture to application”. This suggests that leaders emerge based on tasks and those tasks are based on needs / “gaps” (although I feel it is not really clear).

There is also a Council of Elders, which are experienced community members who serve for five years and help to resolve disputes.

This has a lot of similarities but some differences to the Design. In Design the system is also distributed but instead of networking it is holonic in structure. However, the idea of forming groups to work on tasks in VE fits in with the holonic structure and that follows much the same ideas presented in the Design. The idea of gaps also fits in with holonic structures. Although not stated in the Design, “gaps” are similar to the idea of “tensions” in Holocracy by Brian J. Robertson and, therefore, would fit in with a holonic structure. So, although cities would form networks, the internal structure of a city would fit with EOS’ Design.

Expert Teams

In the Design, society is divided into a technical side and a people side. The technical side is managed by teams of experts who have the authority to make decisions within their domain. Thus, in the Design, power is distributed in a holonic structure. We find something similar in VE with the staff having a mandate, although it is not stated if these “staff” are actually experts in the area they have a mandate in but I imagine hat would be the case.

There is an innovation hub in VE that generates new products. These products are then tested by the people. This suggests to me that new ideas are generated even if there isn’t a demand. In the Design, there is research and development and new ideas explored but new ideas are implemented according to demand from the people. So, people drive what is produced rather than producing then getting the people to decide if it works or not or they will have it or not.

Production

In keeping with the holonic design, communities have production capabilities so they can produce what they need in terms of food and power as well as managing waste. Communities can then work together to form larger holons to produce items that are needed by all the communities but are not economical (in energy or material terms) for just one holon to produce.

There is something similar in VE. VE has “manufacturing hubs”, which are a bit like the communities with production capability in the Design. There is then a material tracking system used through out the system so the system can adapt based on feedback from the tracking system. The Design has a system of expert management. Those expert management teams would monitor production and adjust as needed. The exact technique used is not really developed in the Design as it is up to the experts to decide how to control production rather than enforcing one method such as in VE.

The People

VE doesn’t seem to explicitly make a distinction between the people side and the technological side of a society as in the Design. However, there does appear to be some division in VE. For example, there is a social contract where individuals have a responsibility for their own actions and a respect for others. There is no hierarchical leadership but the council of elders helps to resolve conflicts. VE encourages openness, collaboration, and critical thinking as well as “growing communities”.

On the people side, the Design has a system of direct democracy for the people to decide on new laws etc. The exact form of the government of the people side is up to the people in each community. They could, for example, have elected leaders or a system where anyone can propose a new law and the community decides on if it is enacted. VE starts with a private company owning the City but sees the City evolving with the community of people living in the city. In the end, the people decide how the city is run through a process of collaboration. So, the system in VE would fit in with the design.

VE has a social contract but the Design only has the basic set of Human Rights with is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (with the exception of “nation” as there are no nations within the Design). VE’s social contract could be seen as part of the people side. From the Design’s perspective, each community on the people side can have whatever social contract it wishes so long as it doesn’t violate the basic set of Human Rights thus VE’s social contract would fit in with the Design.

Resource Management

Resources such as food, water, transport and power are allocated to people within the City as needed. So there is no money used within the City, in keeping with the moneyless ideas of JF. The resources are managed in a circular fashion, outputs of one process feeds into the inputs of another.

"A cluster of industrial process plants in one site is proposed, where the output products of one plant are the input feedstocks to another plant. All industrial plants would operate in a symbiotic fashion, similar to how an organic farm would operate."

Materials are tracked (using blockchain) and AI is used to optimise the system. So, there is no hierarchical decision making. It is the data in the system that determines the decisions made (I assume that is done to optimise a goal). That means the system is computerised and, I suppose, could run without human involvement beyond receivers of goods and innovators of new products. The use of goods is monitored for helping in the control of the resource allocation.

In the Design, we have teams of experts who manage the resources. Of coarse, that means using AI and the need for monitoring material flows etc. Monitoring and control of materials and production in the Design is done using a system of energy accounting. People allocate energy to production, so the system in the Design is demand driven not centrally planned. The teams of experts that run the system act as problem solvers, supervisors, designers, and managers of the system so the system is not completely under computer control. There is some overlap with VE in that respect as the central innovation hub does fill some of the functions the teams of experts have in the Design.

One difference between the Design and VE it that in the Design, automation and AI is used to reduce and minimise work so people have, as we say “more time to be human”. But work seems to be important in VE. For example, if people want money to interact with the outside world, they have to work and get paid.

Outside the City

There will be a transition time between now and a fully moneyless society planet around. As such, each city or community would need to interact with the money world. In VE a person would have to work to get currency to be able to interact with the outside world. In the Design, that would not be the case as the Design aims to minimise work. In VE, there would be The Prometheus Institute (the innovation hub), which would generate ideas that are sold to produce income. In the Design, we aim to have a number of companies to provide income into the system. These companies would be dispensed with as the system grows. This does mean that people are needed to work in those companies but the money they use for dealing with the outside world isn’t dependent on the work they do.

Science

VE talks of taking a scientific approach to solving problems. However, VE also talks about the corruption of science due to the involvement of money. As one who has worked in research I can understand that problem. When you see research grants tieds to “how many companies would be set up” and “how many people will be employed as a result of the research”, then you realise the “research” is really product development. The corruption then leaves people not being able to trust the science. Is this what the science really says or is it what the money interests want? Breaking away from money would solve that problem but then VE adds in its own corruption;

“We will assemble a large number of unorthodox ideas into one place and support their development with appropriate resources.”

“ The objective is to assemble into one place as many existing unorthodox ideas that are related to the fundamental nature of what energy is and test them …”

VE comes over to me as a bit fixated on anything “unorthodox”, without really specifying what “unorthodox” is. Are we talking “crystal energy” and other such woo?

In the Design, it is the experts that make the decisions. In the case of research, that means the research scientist decide what is researched. That may mean researching something that is “unorthodox”, but that is not imposed from the start.

This idea of deciding before does conflict a bit with what VE says in other places. In the same paragraph in the Prometheus Institute section where it talks about “unorthodox” ideas is the part about staff having a mandate, which suggest the staff can decide what to research.

In Conclusion

There are similarities and overlaps between VE and the Design. Both are distributed and decentralised, for example, but VE isn’t quite holonic but it could fit into a holonic model.

There are, however, a few differences. The Design aims to reduce work but VE doesn’t appear to do that. However, I’m mainly concerned about the decision regarding “unorthodox” ideas as I feel that is forcing a solution on the system. It may well be the case that those ideas will be investigated and implemented but that should be up to the scientist to decide and not forced on the City from the start.