Peritia school/Presentation

The following is a work in progress draft and notes for the presentation at ZDay in Brisbane in March 2017.

Off-grid (1.4'-1.8')

Off-grid (slide: word in capitals). Many of us have dreamed with this. Earthship and strawbale buildings (pic slide), solar and wind power (pic slide), growing our own food (pic slide). Many of us associate NL/RBE with off-grid (word slide). However, it has been a defining feature of The Zeitgeist Movement to argue for staying in the cities and raising awareness from our current homes and within our current lifestyles. It is argued that if we leave the cities to protect ourselves from an impending collapse of the system, instead of being safe our homesteads will be the hungry mobs' first target. I personally can't agree more.

However, the situation is not that simple. The system has been collapsing for thirty years, and although it may be argued that it is accelerating, people are also adapting and adjusting at an accelerating rate to keep up with technology. By the looks of it, it seems like disasters due to climate change will happen sooner than the total collapse of system, which might actually help the system survive rather than challenge it.

Circular city (1-1.3')

(slide: circular city). Who here hasn't been inspired by this very image? Who of us would say "no" if we were invited to one? (slide: TVP city close-up image) How much would we be willing to work, or to compromise, for the opportunity to inhabit in a city like this? (slide: TVP science-fictiony image) These designs spark our imagination, but how viable are they? How feasible, especially if built with resources obtained in the monetary system?

(slide: circular city again) If we can't have something like this because it would be too expensive, and we can't rely on the system collapsing soon enough, what are our options other than painfully keep dreaming, and raising awareness among people that are mostly sceptical of the alternative socio-economic system we promote? Can't we have something similar in essence, but within our reach?

I think we can, and also that we must. Not to escape this system, not for our own personal sake, but rather to have something in concrete to show when promoting our alternative, and most importantly, to experiment with, and to develop from an empirical standpoint, from evidence and in practice, rather than philosophy alone.

The RBE10K Project

(slide: RBE10K logo) RBE ten thousand is a project that aims at creating the blueprints for self-sufficient, sustainable, affordable, viable and realistic types of settlement, adopting the core tenets of NL/RBE. The RBE ten thousand project is defined by these goals and constraints, along with a gradual implementation strategy for global adoption in fourty years.

• (slide: M-RBE bullet point) To implement NL/RBE we must first define it well. This is a vastly complex topic, since it requires designing a whole socioeconomic system, when all other socioeconomic systems emerged naturally, like language. MRBE aims at being a small, simplified, practical and experimental form of NL/RBE, aimed at a small-to-medium community of volunteers to live in an experimental setting, and with minimal resources. Some essential characteristics would include defining clearly the goals and values of the community, privileging the providing for needs, access rather than ownership, cooperation, automated production, management and coordination where possible, intelligent and goals-focused decision-making, non-violent communication, non-blaming, no privileges other than technical ones needed for fulfilling on the agreed needs of the community, and of course, no money or commerce or the pursuit of profit.
• (slide: self-sufficiency bullet point) How can a city be self-sufficient in today's globalised world? Self-sufficiency is an ideal that can only be achieved to a certain degree. So the project must define an acceptable degree of self-sufficiency, such as producing its own energy and water, sufficiently nourishing food, and the ability to repair, reuse and recycle most of its goods and resources. This would require a population large and varied in skills enough to support itself.
• (slide: sustainability bullet point) By sustainability we refer to the capacity to endure: achieving dynamic equilibrium with the environment. Also, sustainability here is meant in all of its forms: personal, interpersonal, social and environmental.
• (slide: affordability bullet point) The resources for a settlement like this, including the human resources to populate it, must be obtained in the world we live in, i.e. the monetary market. Even if a multibillionaire donated enough resources to get one going, that would be limited to one, and would make an implementation dependent on some crazy super-rich agent. So to have this project being viable, it must be financed by the very people inhabiting it, initially to a degree average activists in rich nations can afford, and with a view to gradually reducing this cost in subsequent implementations, so that new settlements are increasingly more affordable.
• (slide: viability bullet point) A settlement like this would require complying with local and regional laws and regulations for housing and social arrangements, have legal and health protections, all while being allowed to exist but without participating in the monetary economy or producing wealth. This is probably the most difficult requirement to achieve. It would also require that its population is small enough to be manageable and to not be seen as a health hazard or a legal or social threat by the local government.
• (slide: realistic bullet point) All in all, a settlement like this must be realistic in terms of providing a lifestyle that is, in practice, more desirable for those who can afford implementing this one when compared with what the monetary market can offer them. Perhaps trading convenience for freedom, comfort for greater human interaction, sophistication for engagement.