LAKE PLACID JOURNAL Vol. 28, No. 51 Thursday, Sept. 8, 1988; p. 1, 3B LOCAL PAIR AT WORK ON THEIR CONCEPT OF A BETTER WORLD by Bob McKay There are folks in this world who have the vision to foresee our culture and environmental status many years into the future. Galileo was one. He determined that the earth must be round when all about him said that it was flat. And, closer to home, our modern day science fiction writers who, back in the late forties wrote about men flying with nothing more than rocketbelts, ala Buck Rogers. People then said they were crazy, but today it's a reality. And today—even closer to home—there is a man and a woman who are quietly working on a project they hope will better explain their vision of a far better world in which man can live in total peace and comfort. They are Roxanne Meadows, an architectural design artist, and Jacque Fresco, an industrial designer who has designed various types of equipment from prefabricated houses to automobiles, medical equipment and human factor systems. They live in Venus on 24 acres of nicely landscaped surroundings in a futuristic home. The project on which they're working now is 30 minute " trailer " for an eventually longer movie about the futuristic city they hope to build between Highlands County and Ft. Myers. Jacque Fresco, a man who exhibits a great deal of talent and considerable modesty, says he has found it "very difficult to describe verbally to the public exactly what (his) goals are" for his futuristic city, which will be complete with a culture and an environment that is free of crime and pollution and affords a perfect setting for creative expressions. Through the trailer and its subsequent movie, he feels he can show and explain the various functions of the society so the average person will be able to better comprehend. He estimates the cost of the "trailer" at $60,000. He and Meadows have built many of the sets that will be used. In order to sustain the project and their life on the 24 acres, Meadows sells their design and model-building services to advertising agencies and other businesses. In his planning of what he feels the future holds in store Fresco has designed a train that will transport people about the country at speeds up to two thousand miles per hour. It contains passenger-compartments that will be lifted out at stations as the train slows to speeds of approximately 100 miles per hour. At the same time compartments with passengers already aboard will be lowered into the train (or trips to their eventual destinations. In addition to the design of such transportation Fresco says he has researched and cataloged the construction of this futuristic train. The futuristic city he someday hopes to build would resemble, to some extent, the city portrayed in the animated television series of the Jetsons; the one with automatic people-movers. Fresco's city would be circular with the various functions of the community built into the rings that go to make it up. It will be approximately two miles in diameter, according to Fresco, and will be completely pollution and crime free. "There will be no money used or jobs performed, at least as we know it," Fresco says. "The world's basic problems — war and famine — are caused by fear and greed, and, "according to Fresco, "when we solve them we will have a much better life." Fresco agreed that his futuristic visions would eventually happen with normal evolution of man, "but I'm not sure we can wait that long; we all may be dead from a nuclear holocaust." |