Why Jacque is not dead

Since I found out about Jacque and TVP I knew in the back of my head that this day will come. I will be around to hear that Jacque has died. That day has come and although not a surprising news considering Jacque’s age, it still gave me chills.

Just a little background: I found out about Jacque and TVP around 2006 or so (I think it was the Future by Design documentary) and my first reaction was (I remember so clearly): “Wow this old dude is exactly like me.” The way he talked, the things he talked about, everything was so “like me”. That’s how I felt. But then I forgot about him or TVP. I rediscovered him in Zeitgeist Addendum a few years later and then I went through some intense watching/listening/reading about him and TVP. Without exaggeration, I felt at that time that he was the only human in the world that I could look up to. I never had any “role models” or appreciated people really, but I always looked at ideas. Well, with Jacque it was a bit different because he seemed so sharp and giving no fucks about the establishment or what people think. I came across other people criticizing the world we live in but they never went far enough and that was so frustrating to me. Jacque did that. He ripped apart the monetary system and human values. I loved him. He was, in a way, confirming my worldviews.

This is an article I made in 2010 on my personal blog about him – http://www.teoretic.com/?p=12250 (it is in Romanian) – and I mentioned his work many times on my blog.

He inspired me to make TROM Documentary because he was all about the solutions and I loved that aspect. A huge part of TROM Documentary is based on his work and revolves around videos/audios with him. I was dreaming at that time to meet him and talk to him. I wasn’t fanatic at all about this, but I would have loved to meet him and talk to him.

Later on, after making TROM, I ended up collaborating with TVP and talking indirectly to him through my articles for TVPMagazine that he read/reviewed. I didn’t change my views about Jacque, only my enthusiasm after I grew up (mentally) and realized that the world is bigger than any man, and that there are many hard working people with brilliant ideas out there. And so I questioned Jacque’s views, something I wasn’t able to do before because the enthusiasm blinded me. Interestingly even after looking with a critical eye on Jacque, I still find his work and views on the world valid and important. I may slightly disagree with him here and there (maybe), but I think that what he created is wonderful. It is a very simply explained worldview that anyone can understand.

You see there are many people who have similar (in a way) ideas about the future, but Jacque managed to showcase this vision through his designs. This, I think, was what made TVP popular because people could imagine how such a world might look like. Plus his style of delivering the message – he had the charm/charisma. He knew how to deliver the message. Perhaps that will be missed the most.

But I said: “Why Jacque is not dead”. Well, interestingly enough this was the title of a google document that I made 2 years ago whilst still managing TVPM, because I knew this day would come and I thought I would make an article for TVPM about this.

I never made that article of course, but now that this moment came and I no longer collaborate with TVP, I’ll make a shorter version of that article here, on my blog. The name of the article was to point out something people may be missing.

Let me explain briefly:

One summer day when I was about 12 I’ve noticed something that made my skin crawl. I noticed that I was laughing exactly like a “cool kid” that came to our town for the holidays. This may seem like a nothing thing to you but to me it was super creepy to realize that I copied that frickin’ laughing style without noticing. Then this kinda obsessed me to pay attention to, about copying other people’s behavior, and I paid special attention to it. I’ve noticed it about others, I’ve noticed it about me. I’ve noticed others copying me as well. It wasn’t only about facial expressions and stuff like that though, but also about ideas and ways of thinking. Later on in my life, after being Jacqued’ some years ago, I noticed how I involuntarily copied some of his ideas and talking ‘ticks’ or ways of expression when I was explaining/writing to/for others about the world, monetary system, human values. A part of Jacque was part of me. Like a tiny ghost breathing from inside me. This is not an exaggeration if you think that what we are is a combination of ideas, and similar ideas (worldviews) in different brains make us more like one brain. If Jacque’s brain was 90% about explaining why the monetary system is the fault of most problems, and how a worldwide society based on abundance can solve that, then if at least half of your brain is about and dedicated to that, then you are part Jacque Fresco and Fresco is part you. And this is not a Jacque’s measure, this works both ways. Jacque copied information from others too, so a bit of others lived through Jacque as well.

Something mind blowing to realize about humans is that they are carriers of ideas. I have digital photos and videos since 2003 on my hard drive right now. They moved from one hard drive to another – big hard drives, solid state hard drives, flash drives, cds and dvds – but they are still the same. What moved was information. The hard drives and cds/dvds are all gone. The information remained. Humans, for sure, are more than just hard drives and dvds: they have feelings and relationships, aspirations, goals, hobbies, that are uniquely theirs. But when it comes to ideas – like for example ideas that Jacque had – then they indeed are like those photos and videos that I moved from one hard drive to another.

Therefore as cheesy as this may sound, Jacque is not entirely dead. He lives through me, you, and so many others out there. The question is how much of the info you copied on your hard drive from him, and how motivated are you to make others copy it on their hard drives?

But then understand that this is bigger than one man, or a bunch of. If indeed you pretend to understand how the world works and what we can do to change it, then you’ll install a firewall on your system and review the stuff you copy on your hard drive (change, remove, improve). Jacque or any other out there cannot hold on information like a CD. Their info changes as well. The information in any of our heads changes all the time. But if you want to truly be immortal make sure the info that you have in your brain is as valuable as to make others copy it further and to be resilient in front of firewalls and big edits (change, remove, improve) over time. Einstein’s ideas are such ideas that remained with us until now. They were valid and strong. Firewalls and edits made little impact on his ideas of relativity. Whatever percentage of his science work was Einstein’s brain, that copied to many of people’s brains and is still carried on. I am a bit of Einstein, others are a lot more. I may be a bit more of a Jacque Fresco, but these two people are bits of others as well. And so we all are a soup of others, a mix that is mutating almost like a creature without a physical form.

If Jacque was a robust piece of data, then Jacque will live for a long time. Good and verifiable ideas can stand up time.

I never wanted a photo with Jacque or a signed book, or anything like that, because I realized that if I want something from him then I can just copy it to my brain. Fortunately, there is no copyright issue in that (at least for now). It is free, so go ahead and pirate this shit like crazy! 🙂 Jacque was not an athlete, singer, Hollywood star and so on to want to take a photo with him like a proof of meeting him or whatever, he was not about the ‘looks’, he was about ideas, so if you ever wanted to meet him, then listen to him, and copy him in your brain.

And if you don’t make this about Jacque, but about ideas, then these ideas can be immortal. If you mingle these ideas in original ways in your brain and then they spread to other brains, then part of you will live a lot longer than your body. You are ideas, and ideas will live longer than you. 🙂

So if you want to live for hundreds or thousands of years, or more, grow your brain, copy ideas, mix them in your head, think, develop original ideas, spread them to others.