Venus Project

The Venus Project is a blueprint for a new society that is based on Artificial Intelligence and automated processes to reach a post-scarcity world.

The project wants to take over governments and corporations and unite them in one-world government that is ruled by engineers who would take up 5% of the population. In its activist guide, it states humans are not capable enough to make decisions. Instead algorhythms could be designed to do this for us. "It is doubtful that in the latter part of the twenty-first century people will play any significant role in decision-making. Eventually, the installation of AI and machine decision-making will manage all resources serving the common good." 

The Venus Project "would replace politicians with a cybernated society in which all of the physical entities would as quickly as possible be managed and operated by computerized systems." 

The project is a serious proposal. The "communication and activist arm" Zeitgeist Movement, has many followers in the world. It became more known because of a movie called Zeitgeist: the Movie, a 2007 conspiracy theory based documentary film. After that movie was released, which puts a high emphasis on the role of the banking system and money, support for the movement increased. Followers are not allowed to alter the ideology of the Venus Project.

The Venus Project calls for the destruction and rebuilding of current cities ("We must start anew and not concern ourselves with the chore of 'patching' the old cities"), the return of the "integrity of the family", and a complete technocratic problem-solving approach for all human needs.

Dystopia
Its ideas resemble a lot those that Kurt Vonnegut describes in its dystopian novel Player Piano, a story that takes place in a near-future society that is almost totally mechanized, eliminating the need for human laborers.

Scientism
The Zeitgeist movement is characterised, perhaps above all else, by its extolling of the "scientific method". More specifically, it advocates the application of the scientific method for "social concern". An obvious problem with this attitude is that the term "social concern" is dangerously vague. All sorts of insidious agendas can be furthered under this banner - compulsory schooling, curfews, the upholding of conservative and repressive values, or whatever the powerful's myopic vision of the future entails.

The other problem is the notion that the scientific method is somehow the panacea for the human predicament, which is misleading at best. The task of building a free and fair society doesn't just boil down to logic and science. It comes down to values. As human beings, we have to choose the axioms. But that isn't "science" - it's ethics.

More info

 * The Venus Project F.A.Q.
 * Conspiracy Science on Zeitgeist
 * Anticultist Blog
 * Cultwiki
 * Discussion on Open Manufacturing List
 * Notes on the Zeitgeist Movement