What the RojaDirectaTV? Symposium with Federico PIstono ( w / subs)

[The Zeitgeist Movement Italy] [in collaboration with] [The Humanist Movement] [presents] [Federico Pistono] [Daniele Mancinelli] [2nd International Symposium "Foundation of the New Civilization" - Parchi di Studio e di Riflessione, 29-31 October 2010] Let us proceed with the lecture in area 2: science and technology with Federico Pistono. He is a film director and blogger. In 2002 he wins a scholarship for an international college, in 2007 he funds "Grilli biellesi", a non-profit association of volunteers. from 2008 he starts working in a media farm in Verona as a film director and web programmer, in 2009 he graduates with a degree in computer science and wins an international contest of bloggers and journalists. Since may 2009 he has been the Italian coordinator of the Zeitgeist Movement, an international movement counting about half a million members all over the world. The movement considers itself the activist arm of the Venus Project. Daniele Mancinelli also contributes to this lecture for the technical part. He has a degree in chemistry and pharmaceutical technology and worked on his masters degree in molecular biology in Norway. Currently he is a research manager in the Nutraceutical field. The title of the lecture is: The Venus Project and The Zeitgeist Movement. I would like to thank the Humanistic Centre for having invited us here and for the opportunity to talk about our project and our idea of society. I would also like to thank the previous lecturers, and in particular Professor Baracca for having pointed out a few problems in our society. I will try not to sin of pride presenting a possible solution to the problems identified earlier. Technology advances at an exponential rate, and yet our living conditions don't seem to improve accordingly. Society seems to be paralysed by something that restrain and divert it. So, how can a normal person, like me or you, contribute for the betterment of society and everyone's life? How can we solve the problems affecting the human species? Let's have a quick look at the future of the human species and how you could influence it. I want to say that the current economic system kills true innovation and the development of human culture, and that we have to learn to base our activities on the resources of the planet, living in harmony with it, rather than destroying it. That's all. We can all go home now... OK, I'm here to share with you some very simple thoughts, which too often are forgotten or misunderstood. [Exponential chart] This chart represents the exponential growth of technology through time. There are no numbers because the purpose is just to show a concept. [X Axis: "Time", Y axis: "Technological Progress"] What does "exponential growth" mean? A linear growth is when you add up the same relative amount through time, but when you multiply a positive amount by itself, that's an exponential growth. People confuse this idea with Moore's Law, which predicts that performance and the number of transistors integrated in a CPU, double every 18 months. It's a mistake. The human species has increased it's technological knowledge which constantly has doubled every 14 months for over 100 years. The exponential growth started long before Gordon Moore was born. From the industrial revolution to mass production, from the punch cards to the vacuum tubes, not only transistors, but DNA sequencing, reverse-engineering of the human brain, number of inventions and discoveries, nanotechnologies, mass media, capacity to store information, all of them and many other aspects have undergone exponential growth. It's hard to think in terms of exponential growth because our brain doesn't work that way, it didn't evolve with that goal. Now imagine our life 30,000 years ago, in the savannah. We're fleeing from a tiger that wants to eat us. What's more useful to our survival? Being able to think in linear terms, where the tiger will be in 10 seconds or in exponential terms? Most likely who thinks in linear terms Otherwise we start running too early, we get tired and the tiger... "gnam!" So only the ones that made linear projections in the near future had survived. What does it mean to reason in exponential terms? This evolutionary heritage doesn't help much when we want to project ourselves into the future. Here's an example: suppose I want to grow a bacterial colony in this glass; I feed it and every minute the colony doubles. (Who already knows this story please don't comment.) The colony doubles every minute. After 60 minutes the colony has filled the glass completely and all the bacteria die. Now, imagine that the glass is empty. After 60 minutes it's full. After 55 minutes, what percentage of the glass has the colony filled? Half? Less than half? 3.125%. 3.125% after 55 minutes. 6.250% a minute later... In the last 5 minutes the colony fills the remaining 96% and all the bacteria die. Now let's sort of anthropomorphize these bacteria. They live, they multiply... fiftyfive minutes of life etc., but suddenly one says: "guys, we need a bigger glass!" "What? It's been 55 minutes and we're just at 3%, we've still got hours left..." 4 or 5 minutes and they're all dead. That's the meaning of exponential growth. We're like those bacteria. 5 minutes on evolutionary scale is nothing and then... we're all done! Nobody explains that in these terms. It seems too simple, but it is that simple. The economic system is based upon exponential growth, not only when it comes to technology, but also when it comes to the trade of goods and services for profit. We have to buy stuff that we don't need with money that we don't have. Something doesn't work here! Thanks to this wonderful exponential growth, we can now enjoy all the comfort of modern life. Medicine, computers, mobile phones, internet, movies, airplanes, power plants! Everything. Technology allows us to do incredible things. In the end, however, I need to ask myself a question. What makes my life meaningful? Technology? All the wonders of science and technology are nothing but thousands of tons of junk, unless they serve to improve people's lives. Technology should free people from hard, monotonous, dangerous and repetitive jobs; jobs that can even be degrading. It should elevate them in a way that makes them able to achieve their potential. Sure, in our civilised world technological progress grows at an exponential rate, True, just look at the numbers; but I believe this chart is incomplete, and we need to consider another line. Here it is. This is the Zeitgeist line. Zeitgeist is a German word literally meaning "spirit of time" that is "the defining spirit or mood of society through time". And we see that the Zeitgeist can't catch up. It's a linear trend. Because we are not used to think in an exponential way, our educational system is based upon linear projections and a linear way of teaching. We don't update our knowledge at exponential rate. Therefore the gap between the two lines becomes wider and wider. This is a problem. The culture, the Zeitgeist, can't catch up with the technology. We see that every day! Infinite economic growth is not only unsustainable, but also ecologically detrimental. The market system is not based upon the intelligent management of the earth's limited resources, but on their constant exploitation for profit. Infinite growth on one hand, finite resources on the other. That doesn't work, sooner or later one of the two will end. Economists and all their theories... load of crap! It's that simple! Don't think that just because an argument is simple, there has to be something wrong with it. It really is that simple! They want us to believe that we have finite resources and at the same time seemingly infinite desires. But it's not like that. Something has to change. Everyday we pollute lands, rivers, oceans, and, most important, people's minds. There's only one reason. I've been thinking about that and I've arrived at this conclusion: we have forgotten what is relevant. The only economic model that has a chance to succeed, in any society is based upon the management and preservation of the resources not on money for sure, which is an invention. Resources, on the contrary, are real. This is what I've learned from the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project, and that's the reason why I decided to become the Italian coordinator and dedicate my spare time to this project. So the question is: How do we bring this line [the Zeitgeist] up to the level of the technology? And by doing so, preventing the collapse. I think the answer is held in a simple word: The word is simple, but achieving the resolution is difficult "Education". Education is the only thing that can save us. and here the Zeitgeist Movement comes into play It is a social movement that points to a radical change of our values on a global scale to elevate the zeitgeist, the cultural level of the society, to a more humane and sane level, based on the earth's resources, on our scientific and technological knowledge, and on freedom of people, that can finally dedicate themselves to what they feel is most important for their lives, and by doing so, elevate their potential. That's it. That is what is relevant. For almost all the problems that humanity is facing a technical solution can be found. No doubt about this. You can ask any scientist that has done a minimum of real research, on this argument. Nobody will tell you that problems can't have a technical solution. Energy problems would not exist if we did not use a paralyzing system that has to invest in non-renewable energy. We have nano photovoltaic solar cells that are efficient and at the same time economic; the production of solar energy has been doubling every 24 months over the last 20 years. Google and Kurzweil predicted that we are only at eight doubling of distance This means that if the trend we have seen the last 20 years continues the next 16 we can soon cover the worldwide energy need only by solar energy. The offshore wind farm installations are becoming a reality, and the investments are repaid in a few years. Every week there are news of some nation or Corporation that has installed 50, 100 wind farms, and they are growing larger and larger. They are becoming increasingly efficient, they repay costs in shorter time and produce more and more energy. It's so obvious. Portugal and the UK are already installing wave-power plants. A form of energy which is not even mentioned during energy conferences. Free energy, from the sea. A 2006 MIT study has shown that with today's technology, we are not talking about prototypes or speculations but about technology from 2006, we could produce enough power to satisfy all of our needs using only geothermal energy for several thousands of years. The geothermal energy has very low environmental impact and with the newest generations it can be reduced to almost zero. This energy is available right now and everywhere. Geothermal energy is easily accessible in Italy, and we are not using it at all. It is simple... Who makes money from energy that doesn't cost anything? Who's going to pay for that? Who makes profit? When you create abundance, the profit disappears Therefore abundance is the enemy of profit. Many say to me: "Energy ok ok... but we are too many on this planet! We are almost 7 billion, and shortly 8, 9... maybe 10 in 2050. How can we produce food for all? There's not enough food. We are already exploiting most of the available land with heavy subsidized farming, addition of herbicides , pesticides... We have no more space! There is no more food! Do not believe this, it's not true! Sure, if we stop eating like pigs it would help ha ha... No seriously, a healthier diet would benefit us, eat less meat like some decades ago. However, that is a different discussion. In any case, technically providing food for everyone is not a problem. Combining aeroponics, hydroponics and aquaponics in food cultivation in a controlled environment and vertical buildings drastically reduce the ecological footprint and the water demand: we would save 90% water and 80% space if we compare it to traditional methods. It would require no pesticides at all. Pesticides and weed-killers are made from petroleum derivates in most cases. Don't believe anyone saying there's no space. That's not true. Nonsense! [A question from the audience] "What's the name of these cultivation methods you talked about?" Hydroponics, Aquaponics and Aeroponics. These methods doesn't need earth. What's used is water, air (water vapor absorbed by the roots or the leaves) Otherwise you can use an integrated system where fish and plants live in symbiosis, the plants works as fish food and the organic residues from the fish works as nutrients for the plants. A continuous cycle, integrated, it works fine No waste, no need for herbicides, pesticides or other petroleum derivates. It creates abundance for everyone. But where is the profit? I could go on with these examples, but you can find many free books, videos and links to scientific publications, just go on our website and you find the links to New Scientist, Nature, Science, PhysOrg and there's also the Singularity University which is working on some projects at Stanford On www.zeitgeistitalia.org you can find all the references, at the end of the presentation you'll find the links, the PDF available on the website will contain all the details with the links. The problem is that the people don't have the slightest idea that these solutions actually exist. All these technologies are here, possible in 2010 in 2010, no speculations about 2200 when we'll be like Star Trek! We have all this available... how is it possible that even though we have these technologies, our society is moving towards a precipice? According to a UN report of 2010, every 5 seconds a child die from starvation. Another child is dead. Think about what it means. Today, we could provide food for everyone and many more but we don't do that Why? For profit? A question comes back to my mind What is relevant? What makes my life meaningful? There are multinational corporations like Monsanto that actually patented life forms. They sell infertile seeds to farmers and these people find themselves trapped between lawyers and patents and if they don't obey the rules, they're over. These are the things that people must know. To solve a problem, there are some basic and necessary conditions: 1. First of all, you must be aware that there is a problem. Otherwise you would think that everything's alright and if someone gives you a solution, the reaction could be: "A solution to what? I'm fine, what do you want from me?" 2. You must find a solution. Otherwise, you would just keep talking without doing anything. 3. You must find an appropriate number of people dedicated to solve it. Then you can start doing practical things. The first step is to get through mental scarcity, and this is achieved only through education. Broadly speaking Not by memorizing details. But education regarding all the areas of our lives. Education is how to talk with people how to be empathetic, to know how to raise a child, to know how to teach, learning how to hear what others have to say. Education is all our life. Don't get fooled by how words have been deformed during the last years: science = atomic bomb, education = go to school and get good grades Nothing like that! Many people ask me: "So, is Zeitgeist Movement just about educating other people? Why don't you start by doing something more practical? The first pilot city? When will you start gathering some funds to make the perfect city, where everything is recycled and people just come and they are all served by machines that do everything for them?" Who asks these type of questions didn't understand what we are talking about. Imagine placing an Australian aborigine in the centre of Manhattan, in Times Square. Try to imagine how he could feel. Probably he would go crazy after 3 or 4 days. Now picture placing a person who strongly believes in the current economic and political system based on profit, and place them into a sustainable city, where everything is recycled and people help each other They will go crazy after 2 days Where is the police? Where are the door locks? The security? Seriously, before attempting to do anything, you must understand why you are doing it! From my point of view, we've got two options. Option Number zero: maintain the status quo. What is the world going to be like? If we look at the trends, we can make predictions for the next 10, 20, 30 years. I see a world dominated by an oligopoly of corporations. They will hold patents on everything: new ideas, inventions, technology, medicines... and life. Technology will grow at a rate so fast... This is only the beginning and there's a significant increase I didn't mark the next steps otherwise you wouldn't even see the blue line, you wouldn't notice the difference between the blue line and the X axis, as the other line goes straight up, almost vertically. Exponential growth doesn't seem relevant when you consider small numbers but it goes out of control as numbers get bigger. It's difficult to understand what's happening. The gap between the 2 lines will be so huge that the average person will not have a clue of what's happening and will search an authority figure who would give security More locks on our houses, more police, full body scan, even on the train, even in the public offices. If you eat a paper clip, they'll shot you because they think you have a bomb... (joking) Relax, relax. In 20 years a microchip will be at the size of a singular cell and it will cost the same as cheap paper. Trough nanotechnology we'll have the ability to alter materials at molecular level, at very low cost. That means having the possibility to replicate anything, only having the basic structure's information. The question is: who controls these technologies? A handful of corporations? Whose aim, let's not forget it, is profit! The military? All knowledge is shared in good science. If it's not, it's bad science and that's a kind of tyranny. I don't like that. Centralized power, destroyed resources, ruined minds; all because of the profit mechanism and for the lack of perspective on what is truely relevant. Finally, I'm sorry to say, but... It is possible that the human race will be extinct because of its inability to live in dynamic equilibrium with the environment. I'm not a catastrophist, but that's a realistic possibility according to the past trends. That was option number zero. Now I'd like to introduce option number one, at least I'll try. I'm not saying it's an easy one or the right one, or the best one, but I surely think is better than option number zero. We begin a process of cultural evolution that is up to date with our technological understandings. Applying the scientific method we gradually get rid of all the irrelevant beliefs and paralyzing dogmas, and reorient our activities on what the planet can provide, not on what we arbitrarily would want to take. All knowledge is shared, everything is crystal clear, everyone has access to resources and available information. Open source: free access, shared knowledge, well informed people. In my opinion, it's impossible to prevent war, terrorism, crime, without addressing the root causes that generates them. Abundant resources, healthy planet, high quality education, and high standard of living for everyone, with no exceptions. No exceptions! Not only 350 million Europeans, 330 million Americans, 130 million Japanese... no. 7 billion people today, 10 billion in 2060... everybody - the same high standard of living. I'm very positive about the future Why? Because I'm a crazy idealist? Maybe... the truth is I don't see any other options. As far as I'm concerned, the only option truly valid is number one. Actually I'm positive because I've got a memory. Yep, I'm young but I wasn't born the other day I remember what happened in the past and what I've seen, the change in our culture. Let's step back. Imagine... Imagine that I went back to my professor of economy at college, Simon Folley, an Englishman, 8 years ago, saying: "Professor!" "I've got an extraordinary idea for a new economic model." Here's how it works: you take a bunch of people around the world with a highly qualified job, and they work on a project for free, 20 or 30 hours a week". At this point Simon looks a little bit skeptical "Wait, I'm not finished yet! What they create is given to the world, for free, instead of selling it. It's going to be a huge success!" He would have thought I was a nuthead to immediately imprison! Nevertheless, today we have Linux and BSD completly free operating systems running on almost every server in the world; Apache, the most popular web server in the world, Wikipedia, the largest encyclopedia in the history of humanity, even more accurate than the British Encyclopedia and Microsoft Encarta which both have paid teams of experts to work on them and the articles are less than one tenth compared to Wikipedia. What's happening? Why are these people, who already have a job, the technical skills, people who have a sophisticated and technical job and yet, during their limited spare time they're willing to do another job, even more difficult and sophisticated not for their clients, but for somebody else, for free! It's a rather weird economic behavior, don't you think? In just one year the Zeitgeist movement has reached half a million members all over the world. It has produced two movies a third one is coming out soon, two books and hundreds of recorded conferences all over the world. There are hundreds of activist groups scattered across 100 countries who translate material to their language, organise meetings, movie screenings, discussions create podcast, articles, music, art. All shared for free on the internet, under a Creative Common License. All done by volunteers. The Italian chapter now has 10,000 contacts and keep growing every day. Then, the old concept according to which people only work for profit and without the money incentive nobody will do anything, maybe it's not true. It's hard to break the old schemes because we're prisoners of common sense. It's difficult to realise that something we take for granted, right? And the reason is... well, that we take it for granted! That's it! For example, we are used to believe that for our lives to be meaningful, we need to have a job and make money. When you meet someone you say: "How do you do? I'm Federico. What do you do for living?" Meaning: "What's your job?" It doesn't really mean "what's your job" but "who are you?" How common is it that we really like our job and that we wouldn't consider doing anything else? How many times did you hear that sentence? One out of 10, 20, 100? What about the belief that some people are born evil, or competitive, and that it is " the human nature" to fight to survive. I think that's not true. And the most recent scientific research lead us to this conclusion. In our brain, there are mirror neurons we feel emotions and empathic stress in response to what we see in others. It's part of our biology. We are programmed by natural selection to be empathic cooperative curious and not competitive, destructive and lazy. But we have forgotten that. We have to broaden our sense of identity to all human beings and all the other living creatures that belong to our evolutionary family and the biosphere as our community. Quoting Carl Sagan: "We are one planet" What we are celebrating with this conference is the gift of human imagination, the ability to imagine a different future. As Sir Ken Robinson said: "We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely, and that we avert some of the scenarios that we've talked about. And the only way we’ll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are." If we really are an empathic society, let's show our true nature. If we don't allow our creativity to get repressed by the educational system and the establishment, we can open a dialogue, from here, to lay the foundations for a new civilization. Let's start rethinking the role of the human species on this planet. A collaborative society is far more efficient than a competitive one. Together we can lay the foundations for a new civilization, empathic sustainable evolved, humane. Thank you Any questions? I really like the name of the movement... Zeitgeist... the spirit of the time in particular the word "spirit" because it's in some way connected with spirituality, with something deeper. I agree with everything you said, I was already aware of it, but I'd like to know, how do you see the spiritual aspect? Thank you Well, the movement has the aim to provide the social foundations to give every human being the opportunity to flourish, in all their aspects, education, social relationships, and also spirituality. Our priority is to make sure that everyone can realize their potential and when one has access to the resources one needs and no longer need to work to make a living, because we can, through automation and advanced technologies, without any problem, provide clean water, houses, energy and food for everyone. When we can meet these conditions, and you as a birthright have access those resources, then you can begin to discover your spirituality without being stressed from work, from impositions. When the education will be able to teach you to be proactive, to be critical thinker, to discuss about nature, life... things that teaches you stuff, your spirituality, the world, the stars... finally you'll have the time to dedicate to your interests and you can think about spirituality in a much more efficient way than you are able to do now. Now, you need to first separate from the material world you are so stressed from many things you need to practice meditation in order to finally enter in deeper contact with your spirituality and your reasoning capabilities. If you didn't have to wash off the daily stress of the capitalism, of the profit, of the sell & buy thing... without all the worries wouldn't everything be easier? So our primary focus at the moment is to educate people on what we could do and on how we can build the foundations. The Venus Project is not the end, it is the beginning of the path. The way we see it, the society where we live is not civilized yet. A society will be civilized when everyone has access to the resources when production will be automated. One can cultivate vegetables as a hobby, not because he or she wants to avoid dying of starvation, a man that is an artisan can continue to work because he likes it and his craft, since he doesn't have to sell it to live, perhaps can be donated to someone. Then we realize that doing something for others, to donate, gives much more satisfaction than producing something for yourself and that's why the moving forward will be together! Many think to the dualism rich and poor, the poor hate the rich and the rich is scared from the poor. That's it and that's wrong! We need also the rich people on board and we must to allow them to understand that the best way to be happy is to give something... to help each other. Not just for a sort of mystic reason, it is just scientifically true. fMRI scanning tests showed the reactions of peoples brains under a neurochemical point of view when they perform an action for self interest and when they do something which is good also for the others. The satisfaction that you receive when you do something for the others is much, much greater and this is what we need to understand. If you look at the "rich" people, they are the social category with the highest rate of suicides and use of antidepressant drugs, they often are depressed because they have been educated and instructed since young age to do one thing: to think that the most important thing in life is to make money and that the acquisition of material wealth will give them happiness. But getting older 30-40-55-70 years old they begin realizing that their lives have been useless and that they have learned to do just things that make them unhappy. So why don't we try to help them to realize, beginning right now, the importance of concepts like sharing and cooperation? I believe that this is also a kind of spirituality what we define as "Social Therapy". True education also involves education in spirituality. Education about communication with other people, about our relationship with nature, with other species that at times, we mistreat or treat worse than we treat objects. This is spirituality as well. Do you have other questions? When will the new Zeitgeist movie be released? The global release will be January 2011. The name of the new movie will be "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward". It will be released around mid January 2011. It should be released with more than 20 languages in over 60 countries. We will try to release it also in some selected movie theatres in an event organized from local Chapters of the Zeitgeist Movement. Here there are some materials that we provide for free: we have some DVD's of Zeitgeist Addendum and the Activist Guide for the movement, video version, then we have copies of the "Activist Guide" written version. They are my private copies, but if there are people very interested about the subject I'll donate them gladly. By the way you can download it from our website as PDF file and print it or buy it as a book at the production cost, no profit, we use an external service. The cost you pay is what you get at home, no extra charge. I would like to ask only a question... to Daniele. Hello Daniele, I am very interested on your experience for your double "face". You work for a big Corporation, one of the most important in their sector, and at the same time you are a member of the Zeitgeist Movement. Certainly you are trying to bring the "Spirit of the new time" also inside that company you work with. Within the education of the society, previously mentioned by Federico, it's very important the education of the other scientists. I wanted to ask you how it is going, could you talk about it? What about your life? It was actually my working experience that drew me torward the Zeitgeist Movement. Because my position, I would define it as a "favorite" position, which allows me to observe the detrimental effects that the profit based system and the competition that the Corporation must constantly reinforce produces on people. Many of my colleges are a fantastic people, great family fathers and so on, but every day some of them find themselves obliged to take horrible choices, taken in order to "save" the Corporation they work within, from which they depend and upon which many people depend. From my experience i can observe that the problem is not that people are bad, but it is the global design of the profit based system that generates the conditions that allows only companies which are strongly competitive and without inhibiting brakes, to survive and to dominate and impose the game's rules. Because the design of a competitive system is: who wins set the game's rules. Who wins is nearly always who has the least inhibiting brakes. I also observed many companies, honest and guided by fantastic people that went bankrupt because they couldn't sustain the competition. We have the wrong feeling that the people are bad and selfish. The reality is that the system by design selects just the people that are most selfish and without inhibitions, elevating them to the positions of the winners. It appears like we can only see who wins, but we are unable to understand that most of the people who lose instead were the people that wanted to do something for the common good. So we highlight only the 5% of the people who wins that has no inhibitions and we believe that the whole society is like that, but that's a bias. I can witness this from the inside, I work in one of these Corporations. I am in constant competition with other scientists, I constantly try to share what i know and what is funny is that I can observe how what you have inside is manifested into the reality, because when I try to share my knowledge with the others, like I'd do living in a Venus Project, often the other refuse to receive what i want to share, because they were afraid that this is a trap of my competitive system to eliminate them! Basically one by one lost their positions in the company, thus in only five years I progressed from simple foreigner research scientist in a Norwegian Corporation, to research manager, because one after the other, all the people that didn't want to cooperate with me, got themselves out of job. [Background: so you are the living prove that cooperation is useful!] Exactly! The cooperation is the most efficient. What i did to allow my department to work properly and win against the competition of Corporations like bip, bip and other Corporations, was to employ two Italians, bring them with me to Norway, guys that I can trust and that trust me. We created a team, and what happened? That three scientist produce better results than a hundred scientists from Bip, because a hundred scientists of bip are competing with each other, thus Bip can only utilize the best idea of the best scientist of the hundred available, so its statistical probability of technological advancement is equal to best of the hundred scientists, while we are three but synergic scientists. So three normal people can beat a hundred competing with each other, because we cooperate and we share our knowledge, this is what we can do at all levels. This is just a cultural issue! [Yes, another question] I was wondering if you have thought about preparing similar type of conferences prepared to be presented at schools. These environments of "mental deformation" of the next generations [Note: she refers to the scolar environment] Thank you for the great question. Yes, we certainly did. One of our project is called GDL (educational work group). The basic idea is to prepare some sort of mini-guides dedicated to teachers and others to students, so one for the teachers to help them to update their way of teaching to their students. We could produce material for first grade students or even from kindergarden, maybe using pictures, then comics and progressively increasing the complexity. Create maybe instead of the typical stupid comics, where there is a good guy killing the bad guy, but one where people are cooperating and discover something about nature, look at the stars and ask a question and another answer the question explaining what is a star is and shows the importance of information sharing. So these type of projects are one of our priorities We have to consider that our movement is very young, because we basically started to actually operate from January now we are at October, so in this brief time period we grew at an incredible rate, so..., well yes exponential, so... Now we should try to understand how solid the structure is from which we begin, and create working groups that can operate in various sectors. We have the working group "Video and Graphics" that produced flyers, videoes and various graphics. They also produce stickers, illustrative PDF files, infographics and so on. Then we have the "Translations" workgroup that translates from English to Italian. then we have "Formation" workgroup We have an interesting project called: "My life in the Venus Project". we wrote two episodes and we are going to write the third. We also have as a project to release a bimonthly magazine with some self produced stories, scientific articles, articles about critical thinking, how to communicate with our own kids, how the kids could talk with their parents. For example in those episodes "My life in the Venus Project", we are telling about a possible future. Let's try to picture ourselves five years after the "transition" torward this world, which is not perfect, but it's better, ok? So how will I live? What am I going to do? Because many wonder about it! Sometimes I ask people: Image that you didn't have to work to live and people begin already to stare at me and think: What does he mean? No really, don't worry, just try to picture that you don't need to work to live! Don't worry, you need a tomato? You've got it. Pasta or other stuff? no problem! What would you do? The answer is: "Oh, I never thought about it." I mean... we have only one life! Am I wrong? When will you live? In the next one? Well... we are trying to do this. We try to describe a possible life experience, one of the many, how a family father could live, a teenager, a scientist, an artist or any other person in a Venus Project, their daily life. Exactly, first here (in the mind) then... (in the reality!) [I am very glad to observe that motive of the revolution of the '69] [consisting on the "emargination of the Power" is alive, kicking] [and very active also now in the 2011]. Yes certainly, thanks to everyone!