and the society that he'd like to see.

(Jacque Fresco) The reason we emphasize machines and technology

is to free man to pursue the higher things.

Machines ought to do the filthy, repetitious, or the boring jobs.

It would take ten years to change the surface of the Earth.

To save our environment, [considering] our stupidity, our conflict,

we've got to reorganize our way of thinking and reconsider our social aims.

We must put our mind to this as we do to put a man on the moon.

[Jeff Hoffman, retired NASA astronaut] Like many kids, when I was 6 years old

I dreamed of flying in space. I'm old enough that,

back then, the only astronauts were Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

I went on and became a professional astronomer.

I was lucky enough to get selected in the first group of shuttle astronauts.

We trained for a long time.

Of course, you go through many different types of simulators.

But when you're actually sitting up there on the rocket,

you realize that "Hey, this is not the simulator!"

The whole vehicle is shaking a little bit on the pad.

Then, you hear this roar down beneath you.

The whole shuttle tilts forward a little bit.

Then, as it comes back to the vertical position,

all of a sudden, Wham! The solid boosters ignite.

There's an incredible vibration and noise.

For the next two minutes, there is just so much power

that you're sitting on top of.

I was just holding on, thinking to myself

"Whoa! I hope this whole thing holds together."

Sure enough, it did.

By that time, we're looking out the window.

The blue sky has already turned to the blackness of space.

And I can see in the distance the coast of Africa coming up into view.

I always remember that feeling on my first flight when I realized:

Wow, you're in space!

You see from orbit the sunrises and sunsets

16 times every 24 hours.

Flying over the Earth at night, in particular

gives you a real sense of human civilization.

During the day, you look down and you see the colors of the Earth.

You see the forms of the landmass, of the continents.

There's a lot of beautiful things to see during the day.

There's also the view of the impact

that humans have had on our planet, and that can be pretty scary.

Over the course of 11 years of flying

I watched as the Amazon jungle was continually being deforested.

[Rondônia, Brazil 2010 24 years of deforestation]

At night, you'd constantly see agricultural burning

all over the world.

You could see harbors being silted up.

You could see, in Africa, how the tree line would go up every year.

We know about global warming and what we're doing to the atmosphere.

That's the other thing you really get a sense of from space

is how thin our atmosphere is.

Basically, the idea that 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.

[Carl Sagan, "Pale Blue Dot", 1994] The Earth is a very small stage

in a vast cosmic arena.

Think of the rivers of blood

spilled by all those generals and emperors

so that in glory and triumph

they can become the momentary masters

of a fraction of a dot. [Earth from 3.7 billion miles]

Think of the endless cruelties visited

by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel

on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner.

How eager they are to kill one another,

how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings,

our imagined self-importance,

the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe

are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck

in the great enveloping cosmic dark.

In all this vastness, there is no hint

that help will come from elsewhere

to save us

from ourselves.

The Venus Project presents

THE CHOICE IS OURS

Documentary film by Roxanne Meadows, Joel Holt Original score by Kat Epple

PART I

(Narrator) For the first time, we have the capability, the technology,

and the knowledge to achieve a global society of abundance for all.

We cannot continue as we are

or the consequences will surely be dire.

A 2012 UN report states that a global population growth

from 7 billion to almost 9 billion is expected by 2040.

Demands for resources will rise exponentially.

By 2030, requirements for food are projected to rise by 50%,

energy by 45%,

and water by 30%.

We are presently depleting natural resources

50% faster than the planet can renew.

At this rate, it is estimated that we'll need 3 more planet Earths

to keep up with resource needs as they are today.

What is the sixth extinction?

Is it happening right now? What's the cause of it?

What we, as human beings, are doing to the planet

is changing the basic conditions of life

very dramatically and very rapidly.

(Narrator) And yet, from environmental disaster to war,

our obsolete value systems perpetuate insanity,

threatening us on many fronts.

Is it the best we can do to just clean up after the fact?

Are politicians capable or even competent to manage the world around us?

(Gordon Brown) Let me explain.

Order! The prime minister.

(Narrator) Are we simply incapable of anticipating

and planning for our future?

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

(Journalist) Why not just use firing squads? - Aim!

(Narrator) We often hear that human nature is fixed...

It's only human nature!

...and our worst qualities are inborn.

- How are they gonna stop being criminals? - Oh, nonsense!

They were born that way and there is no use trying to change them.

THE DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR

[Henry Schlinger Jr., PhD] I think it's difficult to talk about a specific human nature

like we talk about fixed or modal action patterns in nonhuman species.

But clearly in humans, learning plays the major role.

In fact, I refer to humans as 'the learning animal',

because humans learn more than any other animal.

(Narrator) And yet, considering our history of aggression,

warlike tendencies,

jealousies and hatred...

(US soldier) Keep shootin'

(Narrator) ...we still have much to learn.

One would think it impossible to simply overlook

the conditions we're immersed in.

(Jacque) The culture doesn't know any better.

They don't know what forces are involved in shaping human behavior.

Therefore, they invent their own concept

and project their own values into human behavior

and say that's human nature.

That's where they're wrong.

(Henry) Right now we have an explosion of technologies in our culture.

I think many people think that technology is going to save us.

Certainly technology has made our lives easier in many respects.

- Find parking space. - Parking space found.

Sometimes it's good; sometimes it's not so good.

(Journalist) Drones armed with Hellfire missiles...

How would you like to get paid to spy on your neighbors?

There's one technology that we don't have, that we sorely need

if we're going to really change, and that's the technology of behavior.

The science of behavior needs to be applied like the sciences of physics,

chemistry, and biology have been.

That's that one missing ingredient in our culture.

And that's the toughest one because

it opposes the way that most people think about themselves.

(Narrator) Examining human behavior in the same manner

as any other physical phenomenon

will enable us to understand the factors responsible for shaping

our attitudes and our conduct.

(Henry) All natural scientists assume that their subject matters

are lawful and orderly. If they're not, then you can't do science.

Behavioral scientists assume that human behavior and

the behavior of other organisms is also lawful and orderly.

To not assume that means that you accept that

human behavior is somehow separate from the rest of nature.

We don't make that assumption. We make the assumption

that human behavior is part of nature.

(Narrator) Human behavior is just as lawful as everything else.

(Jacque) The sunflower does not turn to the sun.

The sun makes it turn

by pulling in membranes.

A sailboat cannot sail. The wind moves it.

Plants can't grow. They are shoved

by sunshine, soil, temperature, all kinds of things.

All things are shoved by something else.

All people are acted upon by other things.

Remember, your mother said "cup, table, light

papa, mama" over and over again until you did the same thing.

Even race hatred is learned.

(Announcer) ... as the ideals of intolerance and racial superiority

are taught to succeeding generations.

You could be brought up to hate Afro-Americans.

You could be brought up to hate Jews, Swedes, all kinds of people.

- I hate Philippinos,

I hate Mexicans,

I hate them all!

We could raise a Jewish boy in a Nazi culture.

He becomes a good Nazi.

A PRIME EFFECTOR ?

(Narrator) Mechanical processes are based upon many interacting systems.

- What you got there, son? - A plane.

What makes it fly? Is it the propeller?

- The propeller is not going to turn unless you have the motor, right?

- So, it's the motor? - But the motor needs fuel.

- So I'm guessing it's the fuel that makes it fly.

- Almost, but if you don't have the spark plugs,

and the oxygen, the fuel's not going to burn.

- So it's spark plugs and oxygen?

- You would think so, but actually, even with all that working,

if you don't have the wings and control surfaces to give it lift

it will never get off the ground.

- So it's the wings and control surfaces that make it fly?

- Actually, it's all the above, son. It's a complicated machine.

It needs all these things working together to make the plane fly.

That's a lot like other technologies and even human behavior.

- So it's all those things that make it fly. - Exactly, kiddo!

(Narrator) Just like mechanical systems, our behavior

has no single cause.

- God gives people good blood and bad blood, and there's an end to it.

(Narrator) Our behavior is generated by the many interacting variables

that we encounter.

(Henry) The environment can never be the same for any two individuals.

That really counters claims that people make when they say

"I have three children. They were all raised

in the same environment, but they all turned out so different."

Well, by that definition, the same environment

refers to the house they lived in or the parents they had.

(Jacque) There's no such thing as 'the same environment'.

If you have two kids, one is 4 years old and you play with him,

and the 7 year old is standing there with that lower lip sticking out.

You say "What's the matter?" and the kid goes like that.

You're making jealousy and envy. That's where it comes from.

(Henry) But from a scientific perspective, the environment really consists

of the moment to moment interactions between your behavior

and those events both inside and outside you.

So, the environment is in constant flux.

(Jacque) You put the young kid on your lap and the older kid.

You say "I love you both."

You never play with any one kid or have a favorite.

If you say "You can go to the movie

but you can't because you didn't do your homework",

when she falls down the stairs, you have a grin on your face.

It's not that you're bad, but you feel you've been mistreated.

(Narrator) Even our concepts of aesthetics and beauty

are often attributed to an intrinsic quality,