We're getting to the fun part: The Transition. Let's do this!

Yeah! [Applause]

OK. If it were only so simple as to speak it.

When we think about transition, it's important to remind ourselves

what it is we are transitioning to, exactly.

A move from the scarcity-driven market economy,

to a system of direct resource management and scientific application

to meet the needs of the human species and secure the habitat,

is a transition of values at its root.

It's a transition to reinforce and reward balance,

social contribution and ecological respect,

rather than what we reinforce today,

which is selfishness, competition and exploitation.

At the core of our current model is really an anti-society ethic.

This disposition has proven deeply destructive in the long run.

How to move to such a social model from where we are today?

It is, of course, naive to assume we can predict the future,

given the pressures that keep the current system in place.

All of us are forced into this caustic market psychology

in order to maintain survival for ourselves and our family,

and hence our values are deeply associated to these methods,

whether we like it or not. As we engage the environment,

our brains wire themselves in a very literal way,

being reinforced by our actions.

And just as a person can learn a skill, and have that skill become second nature

without much direct conscious thought to execute once learned,

we humans perform actions on a day-to-day level

with the same kind of learned mindlock.

In fact, we often don't even know

we are behaving in so-called selfish ways at times,

since everything around us appears to be working the exact same way,

creating perceived normality.

Therefore, The Zeitgeist Movement

sees the shifting of peoples' values as the most important necessity.

How this is done, is related to education

while also attempting to create conditions, which again,

hopefully reinforce these new sustainable values,

inching out change.

There are two ways to think about a social transition,

into a Natural Law, Resource-Based Economy.

First, a step-by-step scenario,

which then lays out a framework for a second scenario.

However, the first scenario is really a fantasy. It assumes there is agreement

of the political economic power structure, and the community,

that the human species has decided to do this move in a step-by-step manner.

Of course, we all know it would likely never happen this way.

The train of thought is still important to express

with respect to how we think about the logic of a transition.

Concluding this introduction, it is important to point out

that many who criticize The Zeitgeist Movement

do so not because they disagree with the direction,

but because they do not understand how to get there.

The best analogy to counter this is the argument [that]

a very sick person seeking to get well, will do whatever he or she has to,

even if, at a given point in time,

the solution to their illness is not readily apparent.

The difficulty in implementing a new social system

does not remove the necessity for it.

The fact is, we humans can change the world quite easily

if we can find a unified common ground to do so.

Again, this isn't the intent of the global Zeitgeist Movement.

Furthermore, it's also important to note

that we are always in transition. There are no Utopias,

and even if we accomplish 40% of the move

to a Natural-Law, Resource-Based Economy as we define it in theory,

it will be worth it.

A systematic move from the capitalist market economy

to a Natural-Law, Resource-Based Economy

could theoretically occur through a step-by- step socialization

of the core attributes of the societal infrastructure.

Essentially, we dismantle one layer

while implementing a new one in the most fluid way we can.

This term socialization is appropriate to use here.

It simply means that the necessity of money

and the market mechanism, as we know it,

will no longer apply to the given social attribute.

The four core societal layers of food production, utilities, basic goods

and transportation will be discussed further.

To summarize the approach, the task would be accomplished

through the strategic application of technology

and efficiency waste removing strategies,

along with an adjustment of wages to compensate for job losses,

along with the shortening and sharing of the work day,

to also compensate for job losses.

A critical component that enables the capacity of the new social model

to produce our basic standard of living

is the liberal application of modern technology

and a systems approach to social organization.

Since the current model is literally based on a technical inefficiency

to keep the system going, the more efficient the system becomes,

the less traditional labor is required.

Therefore, in transition, starting within a market economy,

measures to compensate for this loss are required.

The four core societal layers are obviously fragments

with synergistic relationships

which require other types of technical evaluation.

However, for the sake of reasoning here,

these core attributes of our day-to-day lives

are essentially what maintain our general health and basic standard of living,

so it should be suffice for the sake of exemplification.

The first core societal layer is food production.

The technology for high-efficiency, automated food systems

is a reality today, with vertical farm technology and

low energy and low impact fertilization methods,

such as hydroponics and aeroponics.

Desalinization processes could enable the building of these facilities

along most major coastlines, producing organic food

in quantities to meet the needs of the population regionally and locally.

In short, if such advanced methods were implemented,

the need for purchasing basic food staples would no longer be required.

Even today, the world produces enough food to feed the planet

many times over.

This shows that the need to place restrictive monetary value

on basic food stuff is not required.

There's no legitimate technical reason, even within a monetary economy,

[that] grocery stores today cannot provide the same type of food stuff

to a given regional population without the need for financial exchange.

The second core societal layer is utilities.

The hydrocarbon economy continues to cause turmoil,

not only on the environmental level,

but also due to the inevitable scarcity of the resource itself.

There is no debate as to the fact that oil is finite,

and its combustion is detrimental to the environment.

Given solar, tide, wind, geothermal and other means of renewable energy,

there is no reason that any of us would need to pay for energy

if properly localized and interconnected.

Advanced solar panels alone, applied to every house with sun exposure,

feeding excess energy back into the community grid

would eliminate electricity needs immediately,

based on current statistics and capacities.

Electricity can be used to replace gas for heating and most other uses.

While [with] water (a nominal financial expense even today in the west),

further improvements can be made in industrial efficiency

to recede pollution and maintain a regional surplus.

Those who have had water shortages in the world,

have had technical resolutions for years

via desalinization and other purification systems.

It has been, again, the lack of financial resources of these regions

which has caused problems, not the lack of technical ability.

So once an advanced system approach is taken to resource management,

the marketization of these commodities and services is no longer necessary.

Before I go further, this question arises:

If we create systems which eliminate the vast majority of employment

due to the high level of technical efficiency,

don't we need people to service and supervise these systems?

The answer of course is yes.

This is not a utopia where no one needs to do anything.

Imagine if we can have 5% of society,

in terms of traditional labor time, serve to operate these systems.

It would be to everyone's advantage to donate a certain amount of time

in a type of rotational fashion.

After all, they are only helping themselves directly.

Given the amount of relative free time, working for the whole of society

would be the highest form of social contribution,

once these systems are in place.

Would you work for free if you only had to work 5% of the time you do today

to maintain a high standard of living?

[Audience answers "Yes".] That was a resounding "Yes".

The third societal layer is basic good production.

The spectrum of basic good production is wide,

ranging from core staples such as household items,

clothes and communication technology,

to specific tools for specialized tasks, such as musical instruments,

and other increasingly less demanded items.

The best way to think about this is as a spectrum of demand,

with common needs on one side, and specialized,

or luxury type goods, on the other.

While the advancement of science and technology

will likely facilitate a vast amount of variation for production,

for the sake of transition in the immediate future, we can simplify.

Overall, each industry/sub-industry needs to unify in its operations

to enable the highest level of production and output efficiency possible.

The corporate structures would combine based on genre,

using that collaborative capacity to increase efficiency,

while reducing waste and competitive multiplicity.

This would set the stage for the creation of

a fully synergistic, industrial system,

applying advanced automation to remove human labor

and inevitably, increase efficiency.

In this transitional proposal,

hours worked would shift in proportion to job losses

coupled with hourly wage rates shifting. In other words,

insuming an initial average workday need of eight hours per person,

incurring a loss of growth jobs by 50%,

the workday then would be cut by 50% as well.

So if we have a hypothetical economy with 1000 people,

and 50% of them were displaced by technological employment,

the day is then divided between them,

so everyone now works four hours instead of eight.

Again, the fact that goods and services are becoming free in the economy

means that there is less need for prior levels of purchasing power.

So a 50% cut in wages is directly compensated for.

We are phasing the monetary system out in this process.

In cases where this isn't feasible,

there would be an increase in hourly wage rates

in the same basic proportion, compensating for the average loss.

Transportation. The production of vehicles

which is largely automated today isn't much of a problem.

The issue here is access, application and necessity.

All of us who travel to centralized offices,

usually participating in occupations with questionable relevance,

would be amazed at the inefficiency.

[Laughter]

There are very few occupations today

which really require direct location interaction anymore.

Even industrial production facilities, once further automated,

would only require a small number of people on location,

with most processes administered remotely.

So a strategic move to stop the wasteful nine-to-five,

traditional, travel to work and back would need to be made.

Everyone would have the option to be equipped by whatever means

to operate their business operations from their home.

The amount of saved energy and lives would be enormous

given the nature of travel and accidents.

Beyond that, as far as infrastructure,

systems of sharing, such as they have now with bicycles in Europe,

should be applied to vehicles and everything else we can find,

coupled with incorporation of mass transit.

This, again, is to be a step-by-step process of improvement

where different regions are purposefully reorganized

to favor the highest level of technical travel efficiency possible.

Localizing labor, locations remote access to limit travel needs,

sharing systems for vehicles, and liberal mass transit

would profoundly change the nature of transport infrastructure,

reduce energy use, increase safety

and allow for further changes as the transition continues.

While other examples of the step-by-step could be given here,

I hope the logic is clear.