Daniel Schmachtenberger and Liv Boeree discuss the concept of Moloch on the Win-Win podcast. https://youtu.be/KCSsKV5F4xc?si=ZLLOIhHCG6VA3elo&t=181

Moloch is the personification of the forces that coerce competing individuals to take actions which, although locally optimal, ultimately lead to situations where everyone is worse off. Moreover, no individual is able to unilaterally break out of the dynamic. The situation is a bad Nash equilibrium. A trap.

It happens when "In some competition optimizing for X, the opportunity arises to throw some other value under the bus for improved X. Those who take it prosper. Those who don’t take it die out. Eventually, everyone’s relative status is about the same as before, but everyone’s absolute status is worse than before. The process continues until all other values that can be traded off have been – in other words, until human ingenuity cannot possibly figure out a way to make things any worse." - Scott Alexander

Pollution, environmental degradation, accelerated extinction, resource depletion, overpopulation, population collapse, and war are all symptoms of the fundamental species-level disorder known as ‘overshoot’. How does The Venus Project meet this challenge?

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/problems-predicaments/

Daniel Schmachtenberger summarizes the Metacrisis and Polycrisis concepts, both of which refer to the entangled, interdependent, complexity of global systemic problems.
https://youtu.be/v0ow2kBeMog

What is energy contraction?

If new energy technologies are not innovated as oil reserves deplete in the next decades, global civilization can expect a contraction of its energy resources. Society will undergo extensive simplification as infrastructure decays, transportation distances decrease, and supply chains shrink. The consequences could include food insecurity and a potential digital dark age, regressing humanity back to the traditions of history. How does The Venus Project meet this challenge?

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/problems-predicaments/

Nate Hagens introduces the concept of 'energy blindness' and explains the causes and consequences of energy contraction in this short film, The Great Simplification.
https://youtu.be/-xr9rIQxwj4

How does The Venus Project remedy these problems?

The prevailing response to energy contraction prompts industries to invest in acquiring minerals to build the next generation of energy technologies. In the next decades, the global system will face supply chain complexification and what might be called ‘mining mayhem’ in which the Earth's crust is 'turned inside out'. How does The Venus Project meet this challenge?

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/problems-predicaments/

Observation of the quantity of copper required for the next generation of energy technology.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/k2vPddlbepw

Simon Michaux and Nate Hagens discuss minerals and materials blindness. How do we source enough minerals to construct the next generation of energy technology?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0pt3ioQuNc

Catastrophic shocks to the global system remain the persistent blindspot excluded from all sustainability models. Such shocks could follow from an object impact event, solar event, geological event, anthropogenic event (technological, nuclear war), biological event (pandemic, superbug), or unknown ‘black swans.’ Such an event striking in the next two decades will severely setback the capacity for the global system to undergo an already daunting energy, materials, and climate transition. How does The Venus Project mitigate these risks?

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/problems-predicaments/

Issues of Global Catastrophic Risk now constitutes an entire field of inquiry consisting of scientists and engineers who develop stategies to prevent, intervene, and adapt to the collapse of civilization. This presentation, primarily given by David Denkenberger, reveals how humanity might remain resilient in the event of catastrophic events. Do watch if you wish to understand the additional layers added to The Venus Project's design priorities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYWHBoQ9gM

Growing global complexity introduces rapid change and information overload, including waves of disinformation and misinformation and many communication and sense-making challenges. The emergence of a time window for the energy, materials, and climate transition further increases the difficulty of accomplishing effective change. How does The Venus Project meet this challenge?

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/problems-predicaments/

"Anything explicit will be gamed" according to Dave Snowden who in this short clip highlights some of the challenges of navigating complexity.

https://youtu.be/a2aoonjxbVY

In this presentation, Dave Snowden unpacks the dynamics of complexity as part of his widely acclaimed Cynefin model. He shows that complexity is not what most people think it is and distinguishes it from the more familiar realm of 'complicatedness'. Such has vast ramification for how to think about the design of systems.

https://youtu.be/N7oz366X0-8

For anyone on Whatsapp not yet following The Venus Project, we have opened a channel there too.

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VanXPhFLdQecAtEzkL2b

Jacque Fresco's incredible humility should be a guide to us all. Might we all aspire to be so open!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ44sWkAHR4

Which problems and predicaments facing the world are most daunting? Read more about the fundamental issues that The Venus Project is tasked with addressing, such as:
• The Human Condition
• Moloch
• Polycrisis / Metacrisis
• Energy Contraction
• Minerals Shortfall
• Global Catastrophic Risk
• Complexity

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/problems-predicaments/

Are you familiar with The Venus Project's design methodology? If not, read more about:

• Designing for a global context
• Designing according to local constraints
• Layering the functionality of design
• Developing mulitple hypotheses in parallel
• Biomiimicry, Ecomimicry, and Evomimicry
• Growing or shrinking a system according to fractal scaling
• Vertical integration of functions and processes
• Incremental improvement
• Minimum viable system

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/approaches-responses/

The global context shapes what solutions we can put on the ground today. A general survey of global conditions, constraints, and capacities enables us to discern a trajectory of risks and opportunities. Shifting trends in energy, minerals, climate, and geopolitics can radically alter the design decisions that affect both today and tomorrow. Seeing ahead by extrapolating trends helps prevent solutions that either won't last or won't be relevant to the future.

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/approaches-responses/

Local constraints place a final edit on all plans and designs. What is available and appropriate to the region constrains or enables what is possible for a design. Exact accounting of context-specific conditions enables us to discern preexisting system structure and functions to be harnessed and accommodated. Respecting the local constraints assures the design is a good fit where it is applied.

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/approaches-responses/

Multiple levels of functionality through a complex integration of supply chains that coexist interoperable but not interdependent. This assures system stability despite fluctuations in climate or energy and materials throughput, including backup and fallback capacities. Layered design is vital for assuring that the systems 'works no matter what'.

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/approaches-responses/

To mitigate risk of 'all eggs in one basket' and consistent with diversifying investments, multiple isolated lines of development are permitted to proceed in parallel, each of which may be based on different assumptions.

https://www.thevenusproject.com/concepts/knowledge/approaches-responses/