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 | This is a Knowledgebase in the form of a Wiki, NOT a discussion forum. Please refrain from making personal remarks, opinions or preferences. The Talk pages are also not to vent personal opinion but to challenge the accuracy of information published employing valid references. All edits must be written in English, based on facts, with appropriate references, and informative. Edits violating these policies will be promptly removed and their contributors may be banned. |
 | This Wiki does not formally represent The Zeitgeist Movement or The Venus Project, however intends to become useful as a reliable knowledge-base for relevant information to these and other movements and projects committed to the development of a Resource-Based Economy. |
Contents |
Mission
The mission of this Knowledgebase is to:
- Define clearly what is a Resource-Based Economy for the various groups that support the idea
- Document what are the similarities and differences between the various groups supporting an RBE
- Provide a common space for recording relevant non-transient information about each group, such as structure, mission, links, codes of conduct, contact details, etc
- Provide a Wikipedia-like space for material that is very relevant for an RBE but which is not adequate material for Wikipedia for not being academic, based on proposals and projects instead of facts, or not being popular or significative enough for the general public.
For information about how to contribute to this knowledgebase you may want consult the following:
- User's Guide: information on using the wiki software.
- Configuration settings list
- MediaWiki FAQ
- MediaWiki release mailing list
About this Knowledgebase
This knowledge-base is inspired by the success of the Wikipedia, and the need to bring accuracy and concerted information regarding the crucial topic of a Resource-Based Economy, a concept that may play a decisive role in the future of mankind. At the time of this writing and early stages of this knowledge-base, the information about a RBE has been found to be:
- fragmented
- plagued with opinons about the current system
- substantially explained through metaphorical speech
- inconsistent and even contradictory when explained by different people
- lacking in referencing and academic quality
- having information of dubious origin or accuracy
- polluted with personal opinion presented as fact
- biased and representative only of specific situated knowledges
- mostly subjective and vague
The purpose of this Wiki is primarily resolve with its proper use, all the issues listed above.
Continuous Growth in a Finite Planet
The basic common denominator mission of movements and projects of the likes of The Zeitgeist Movement, The Venus Project, The Free World Charter, The RBE10K Project, is to prevent the collapse of Human society, and that of the Earth's natural environment as we have known it since the beginnings of Human History, resulting from continuous growth in s finite planet.
In the Natural world continuous growth always reaches a point of saturation, usually followed by a collapse. A simple example is a malign tumor, which grows without stopping until it severely interferes with the metabolism of the organism that hosts it, causing its death. Another example is herds of buffalo in Africa, which tend to grow until the savannahs they live on cannot sustain them all equally, causing the individuals to starve more or less equally, sometimes leading to mass famine.
Exponential trends
Naturally for many people, in the knowledge of the impossibility of continuous growth, they experience a tendency to want to avoid such fate for Humanity, even if it is not absolutely certain, when they realise that business as usuall is very likely to reach such saturation and consequent collapse. Examples of current exponential trends within the last 200 years are:
- population growth[citation needed]
- deforestation[citation needed]
- carbonisation of the atmosphere[citation needed]
- rise in average temperatures[citation needed]
- acidification of oceans[citation needed]
- loss of habitat and species diversity[citation needed]
- collapse of fisheries[citation needed]
- depletion of petroleum reserves[citation needed]
- loss or salinisation of topsoil[citation needed]
- exhaustion of nutrients in crop land[citation needed]
- risk of a pandemic[citation needed]
- risk of a devastating world war[citation needed]
With these and many other trends that seem to be exponential (a telltale signature of continuous growth) is not difficult to conclude that our species is accelerating toward a catastrophic end, of our very own, and possibly every other species with it.
Sustainability
The heart of the solution to continuous growth is Sustainability, and unlike the many organisations that that promote Sustainability as an important issue where we have to make progress being less wasteful and achieve it someday somehow, all of the projects and movements which promote a Resource-Based Economy consider that Sustainability is paramount, is the only way we can hope to survive in the long term, and that it is critical that we globally adopt systems and behaviours to ensure Sustainability from the head go, as a matter of non-negotiable top priority.
Resource-Based Economy
The social engineer and inventor Jacque Fresco coined a group of social and economic guidelines with the name of Resource-Based Economy, or Resource-Based Economic Model, or simply RBE. These social and economic guidelines cannot be derived from the meaning of the words Resource-Based Economy, so the name must be thought of just as an identifier, very loosely related to the actual concept. A Resource-Based Economy is not (that the editor of this page is aware of) described with any accuracy so as to know exactly what makes part of an RBE and what doesn't. However the are a number of premises that seem to be agreed by all those who actively support the idea of an RBE:
- Every action or endeavour Humanity takes must be sustainable, i.e. must ensure the feasibility of an age-long continuity of such action or endeavour
- Technology must be expanded and used in any and all areas in which it can be used to allow for, or increase efficiency of, a capacity for full freedom for any and every person, provided that Sustainability is maintained
- There is not recognition or protection of any individual's claims to physical or intellectual property
From those understandings, a great deal of principles and values can be derived, such as the replacement of authority with systems, the equality of all people on Earth, physical and psychological health (personal Sustainability) becomes a top priority, property makes no sense anymore, etc.
Supporting technology
This knowledge-base is supported by the following open-source software technologies:
- MediaWiki wiki software (the same that Wikipedia uses), version 1.21alpha (for more information see Special:Version)
- Apache2 web server
- PostgreSQL 9.1 database
- Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 64-bit Linux operating system
- OpenVZ hardware virtualisation
The website is being hosted on Ziggy's account at an Exigent shared virtual server hosted in the vicinity of Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
FAQ
Why not use Wikipedia for this?
The Wikipedia is concerned with what's factual, and requires very stringent referencing in as much an academic fashion as possible, which is great because it ensures the greatest quality in its crowd-sourced information. Unlike Wikipedia, this knowledge-base is concerned with the development of a set of ideas, evaluating proposals, and discussing approaches for action. For more information see what Wikipedia is not, especially regarding speculative content.
Those articles which achieve the quality required by Wikipedia (e.g. factual, objective, neutral, well-referenced) could (and probably should) be transported into the Wikipedia. Once the wiki reaches a sizeable number of good quality articles, it might be possible have the wiki make part of the MediaWiki Interwiki network.
This website was conceived and initially registered as part of a chapter project within The Zeitgeist Movement to document information about TZM specifically, and RBE in general. However that original intention has been superseded by the one stated in the Mission. The website name will probably change into RBE Wiki in the future.
This website honours Jacque Fresco in that he devoted half of his life to develop and promote his idea of a Resource-Based Economy. However this wiki does not devote to The Venus Project's specific idea of an RBE or its plans to implement an RBE worldwide. Activists of TVP are very welcome to participate in this Wiki by helping define and document aspects of an RBE, and also to document some of their own information in this wiki.
They were both created by the same activist, and The RBE10K Project intends on using heavily this website to document most of the progress it will make during 2014 and 2015, and possibly after that too. However any activists for an RBE or compatible objectives is welcome to use this website to store, structure and share its information through this Wiki.
Who funds this website?
It only costs $10 per month to run, plus around $10 per year for the domain. The cost is currently covered by User:Ziggy.
