Isn't this Utopia? by Jonathan Bird (Translated by Spirit Pony)

Many people think that the Venus Project talks about utopia. A perfect, unattainable world. No. These cities can be built with what we already know today. It'll take approximately 10 years to transform Earth onto what most people would consider to be heaven.

If you're having difficulty grasping that notion, take into consideration the following: the Arabs used to have tales of flying carpets, but they'd never tell you what would happen if you had to visit the toilet while you're on the flying carpet, or what would you do if it's raining and you're freezing out there, on the carpet. Nowadays we have airplanes with air conditioning, toilets, Internet. In other words, even the flying carpet used to be considered "too far to ever reach"... nothing is ever too far to reach! The point is that we must learn to lay down our egos, and when we are asked "do you think that man will ever reach the moon?", answer honestly: "listen man, I'm a truck driver, I don't know anything about propeller technology, rocketry, space travel... I really can't answer that question. I simply don't know. "In the 1960's, many people, when asked that question, would simply say "no... not even within a thousand years." Well, 9 years later, we reached the moon.

In other words, people genuinely believe that they have the technical ability required to assess and evaluate everything, when they actually don't. When they hear about some new idea, they usually reject it instantly. If someone comes up with an idea for a wingless aircraft, they immediately say "what's this? This doesn't have any wings! It'll never fly!". In the future, people might react very differently from that. When they see a wingless aircraft, they'll ask "I see that this aircraft doesn't have any wings, how do you suggest to make it fly without any wings?", because that's a question that's required here. Not "Ha! This doesn't have any wings, it simply won't fly!"

Therefore, the change that the Venus Project talks about isn't just a technological change. Many people believe the Venus Project is simply about futuristic cities, architecture, technology - it's not. It's about a change in our whole way of thinking, a change in ourselves. One of the biggest problems with man is that he doesn't acknowledge the fact that he's always a victim of culture.

If we take your grandmother to the beach, and she'll witness all the girls in bikinis with their asses out, she'll say "they went too far!", which is true where she comes from, but not today. In other words, we are entering a new evolutionary phase in the history of humanity. A period of vast, fast changes, in technology, in social norms. In just 150 years we have gone from a chauvinistic, homophobic society, where children are enslaved in factories without any employee's rights, to today's society. The world had changed beyond recognition. If we had asked people 150 years ago, whether we could ever reach the kind of society we have today, where people watch videos hosted on computers on the other side of the planet, from a wireless device that's smaller than a shoe sole, they'd say THAT was utopia. In fact, their idea of utopia back then, would have probably been something far more conservative. The point is that we have to learn to adapt to the changes we face, if we don't want to become that old man on the porch who misses "the good old days" and rejects everything on sight.

The truth is, if you think about it... there's no such thing as a utopia. Nothing is perfect. The word "perfect" in itself is stupid. If we build the best and fastest computer we can build today, it'll be the best and fastest computer today. In a year from now, it'll be old and outdated, because computers will have become faster, smaller, lighter, and capable of doing more things. It is impossible to design the best camera ever. It is only possible to design the best camera we can have today. There is no "best society", "perfect society". People say: "you speak of a perfect society, an ideal society". These expressions are meaningless. The cities we propose today will be looked upon as prisons by future generations. They'll design their own cities.

There are no utopias, and no limitations."