RBE10K/Sources of inspiration

The RBE10K Project derives inspiration from a number of projects and movements. As the project progresses, it will be influenced by a greater number of projects, movements and philosophies. This page serves the purpose of acknowledging those influential and inspirational projects that make this one possible.

The Venus Project and the Zeitgeist films trilogy

This project would not be possible if it had not by the vision and creativity of Jacque Fresco of The Venus Project, and the clarity and professionalim of Peter Joseph in communicating why a RBEM is needed and its main notions. It would also not be possible without the millions of people who have seen the films and are already participating of The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project.

Biology

The inspiration for devising a system that could have a chance to start small and have any chance to be successful in changing the world came from biology, specifically from the effectiveness of DNA and bacteria for their capability to grow very rapidly from a minuscule unit to colonising the world. Using the DNA and the bacterium of metaphors, a centralised knowledge-base system (currently this knowledgebase) would be the DNA, and a community of 10,000 people would be a bacterium.

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)

The hope for the success of this project comes from the knowledge about the success of FOSS projects like the Linux operating system, the GNU compilers and tools, the PostgreSQL database, or the MediaWiki wiki system, all of which are not only essential for running this particular knowledgebase for free, but also and most importantly knowing that such quality, complex and immensely popular software have been developed by enthusiasts for fun, pleasure, interest and passion alone, without expecting getting any monetary gain in exchange. If projects like these exist, project like RBE10K has to have a chance of success.

Wikipedia and other successful Crowdsourcing enterprises

Today the greatest and most trusted source of information comes from the informally and democratically built Wikipedia, the most sucessful, popular and respected crowdsourcing project. Despite this project being not for profit and relying only on volunteers to introduce information in it, who like FOSS developers participate without a monetary gain incentive, the project grew in just than a decade from a crazy dream into a massive encyclopaedia with articles written in 275+ languages, 35 million registered contributors, and 23 million articles, most of which have such a high degree of quality that commercial encyclopaedias like Encyclopaedia Britannica see their business incrisingly difficult and soon probably totally redundant. If they could create such quality crowdsourced material without pyramidal power structues, so surely can this knowledgebase.

Google and other zero-cost service providers

Even in capitalism, some companies have become immensely successful by giving away for free what can be given for free for having a negligible cost, even when there is a market for it and customers who would gladly pay for such service. A company like Google would provide the same quality of products and services entirely for free in a non-monetary system, and they wouldn't have a shortage of volunteers to help develop or improve their products also entirely for free, provided their basic needs are covered for, just because working for Google is incredibly fun and fulfilling!

Runescape and other similar MMORG fantasy games

The MMORG game Runescape was a higly significant source of inspiration, not only because it provides countless hours of fun entirely for free for non-member gamers, but because of the notions of abundance of resources, the freedom experienced within the game, in which there is work that can result in a pay off, but there are no jobs, and the in-game life becomes very fulfilling in terms of the great variety of fun things to do. Despite the fact that these games make use of trade (e.g. the Grand Exchange) and money (gold coins), there is no property (other than personal belongings), no loans, no interest, for every type of in-game-object there is an abundance that enables enough for everybody to access them, and there are no power structures or out-of-game monetary incentives. Yet many players spend countless hours in these games, for they provide a kind of freedom and fulfillment that could not be achieved in any system in real life other than a RBE.

Freecycling, squatting and freeganism

Freecycling, squatting and freeganism are great examples of the degree to which it is possible to live with minimal or no money at all, even in a monetary system, just by refusing to participate in consumerism. People who have any experience participating in any of these lifestyles are likely to enjoy participating of a the first settlement of the RBE10K project, because of their already achieved sense of satisfying their needs without taxing their freedom.