The Choice is Ours (2015) Parts I & II trailer

The Choice is Ours parts 1 & 2 is part of a 3 part series. Interviews by a variety of scientists, media professionals, and other thinkers explores a variety of issues that are of social, economic, and technical interest. As a species we presently command a vast arsenal of technologies that few of us can comprehend. We hope that these episodes are informative and compels the viewer the rethink what's possible in our world.

For the first time

we have the capability,

the technology

and the knowledge

to achieve a global society of abundance

for all.

The question is

What kind of world do we want to live in?

If we continue as we are

the consequences will surely be dire.

We're presently depleting
natural resources

50% faster than the planet can renew.

Are we incapable of anticipating

and planning for our future?

Are politicians competent

to manage the world around us?

Are we innately flawed in ways
we can’t change?

We often hear that our worst qualities
are inborn.

“Only human nature”.

The culture doesn’t know any better.

They don’t know what forces are involved

in shaping human behavior.

Therefore they say "that’s human nature".

That’s where they’re wrong.

[The Determinants of Behavior]

So the science of behavior needs
to be applied

like the sciences of

physics, chemistry, and biology have been.

That’s the one missing, you know,

ingredient in our culture.

And that’s the toughest one

because it opposes

the way that most people

think about themselves.

If the surroundings
that establish our values

remain unaltered,

the same behaviors will persist.

If you made a movie

about the present day culture,

in the future, it would be a horror film.

Savage? Savage!

Saving the planet?

They want their money!

Every institution that we live in is corrupted

by money.

It’s a fiat system that we operate under
and

it’s actually someone punching numbers
on the computer somewhere.

That is how we manufacture money today.

You have what is effectively
a criminal enterprise

based on the manipulation
of people’s attention,

resources, and time

in order to extract value from them.

They’re stealing money from us that way.

They’re stealing
the results of our efforts

and our labor.

The media’s morphed into just

peddling the corporate interest of

the money masters that control the
political establishment.

Those interests
are going to be served first

and everything is going to be secondary.

And that’s the sad reality of it.

Up to 40 to 50 percent of the people

in our criminal justice system
are black men.

And black men make up roughly

five percent of our nations population.

And I think people can discuss and debate

the causes for that

and this goes for everything from

institutional racism, policing practices,

and that.
But I think at the end of the day

it all boils down to class.

Cause I think that the reason that racial
minorities are disproportionally

incarcerated is because they’re also

disproportionally poor.

[What are the Real Costs?]

The current energy infrastructure

which has been going on for a long time

has resulted in the accumulation

of greenhouse gasses and particles that

cause warming of

the earth’s climate.

And the earth’s climate is warming at

a rate faster than any time

since deglaciation from the last ice age.

We’re seeing this environmental damage

on the earth

created by humans,

but we see it from a cosmic perspective,

means that it’s just not something that
we can ignore.

The planet is responding

to the presence of humanity.

If you were to integrate

the cost of war,

the cost of pollution,

the cost of environmental disruption,

a gallon of gasoline

would cost between
15 and 20 dollars a gallon.

We have to realize our planet does have a
certain amount of

regenerative power.

There is a limiting
carrying capacity though.

There’s no end to the possibilities

of the civilized world

It hasn’t even begun yet.

There’s no limit to the possibilities

of science and technology

in the near future.

We have to reclaim the environment,

and human beings as well.

That’s what The Venus Project is about.