Source: Unsplash
I was raised in a poor, working-class family. We lived in a small town where we all knew each other. Most of the men were farmers or worked in nearby factories. There were some craftsmen. Most of the women stayed at home and spent days in the field, in the stable, or behind the stove.
No one really stood out from the average, not by education or wealth. We possessed very little… and we had everything. Because we didn’t know what we were missing, we were happy with what was available.
This is how children probably look at the world. Because they do not burden themselves with who has a better-quality toy – or clothes of a more recognized brand – they enjoy socializing, playing and creating.
Then I grew up and two things happen. The first is personality development and desire to stand out. The second is the development of technology and innovation that create new products and opportunities.
This is it. Here we are, searching for happiness. Through technology…
Technology as a driving force of development
The combination of these two elements – the desire to be someone, to have more, and to stand out from the average, plus the progress and expansion of technology – forms the guiding principle for development. We are looking for ways and tools to make life easier, to live better and longer, to be healthier, and to replace challenging, dangerous and less rewarding jobs with technology.
This approach also penetrated into an intimate, personal world. In the age of social media and virtual life, we value and fight for social impressions. Sooner or later, however, we discover that these cannot replace genuine contact with another human being. All the likes, shares, comments, views and so on can give us a sense of appreciation and popularity, but this journey has a dead end. When we need a real friend to be with us when it’s the hardest, social impressions won´t help much.
In other words, social impressions give us a false incentive to feel safe. (This is the essence of everything: we want to feel safe, loved and want to be sure that we are taken care of.)
The same applies to technology. The goal is not to make people increasingly free of work by increasing spare time, full of idleness. The goal is to offer people real opportunities to express themselves creatively in areas where they have talents, contribute to society, and feel great about it.
Technology development does not necessarily support this path… but it should. When we find out that the development is not based on the hockey-stick graph, but on the Gaussian curve, it might be too late.
Source: Forbes
Source: fppt.com
In other words, even technology has a limit somewhere. If we disregard it, it may turn against us. Some argue that this is the reason why some extremely advanced civilization, like Atlantis, collapsed.
Whether you believe it existed or not, there is something else worth considering: think of some great civilizations that have lived so far. Aztecs, Mayan, Inca, Druids, Indus Valley Civilization… – they all disappeared. Did they not survive due to lack of technology? Hmmm.
We cannot fight nature. What’s more, the technology that works against natural laws can have massive revenge on us.
Even the best things have their dark spots
It is sometimes difficult to see that the development of technology brings us not only benefits but limitations or even barriers as well. This is also happening in such obvious areas where you would never think it was possible.
Take, for example, autonomous vehicles. When we think of them, we immediately recognize tremendous benefits that will come to us: the possibility of personal transportation for all people, regardless of driving skills… a centralized database that enables coordinated action without blockages, obstacles and failures… elimination of the key link that causes 94 % of accidents (human factor)… and so on.
Can we ever imagine the downside of driverless vehicles? Well, one definitely exists… and this one is huge. Car accidents, however tragic and sad, also bring something very positive: organ donors. Twenty percent of all organs we need for transplantation come from donors who have lost their lives in car accidents. “Will Self-Driving Cars Save Lives, But Will They Cause Organ Shortages?” Asks Kristin Houser of Futurama.com.
Will self-sufficient communities ever be really self-sufficient?
We face a similar problem in the area of self-sufficient communities. Although their tendency is on the rise, it is good to look at the other side and a few steps forward.
It is clear to everyone that a community that can act autonomously has greater independence and therefore the potential of internal development in the desired direction. Theoretically, a self-sufficient community could once become a “community in the community”; or even a country in a country.
However, we rarely talk openly about real limitations. For example, is it realistic to expect that self-sufficient communities will ever be fully autonomous? If this were to happen, the community would need to carry out all the procedures and activities by themselves. Well, this could be very expensive.
Making its own food, water, and generating electricity is one thing. It is great to have these, by the way. But taking care of all the other procedures that are usually aimed at much larger communities – that could be quite a challenge.
Source: Unsplash
Until yesterday, one of the biggest problems would probably be their own currency. Today, in a time of digital currencies – like Facebook’s Libra, the accelerated development of China’s digital currency, Walmart’s quest for its own digital currency and the like – having your own currency is probably not that much of a problem.
One of the bottlenecks that remains, and will not be solved by the blockchain and digitalization of the world, is waste management. It is likely utopian to expect that we will no longer produce waste; given that we are producing more and more of it and only 20% is recycled.
If a smaller community wanted to organize waste management for themselves – and this would be a real step towards self-sufficiency – it would be costly. Of course, there is always another option: they can transport the waste elsewhere or “make it disappear” some other way. By burying it under the ground, for example.
However, self-sufficient communities are usually also very advanced, responsible, and operate according to environmentally friendly principles. So waste management feels like a Gordian knot to conscious, green-aware communities.
Actually, the situation is not that dark anymore… There is the light at the end of the tunnel.
The Solution for Self-Sufficient Communities´ Waste Problem: Project Phoenix8
Maybe we are not very far away from effectively dealing with that problem. UK company, PP8 Corporation Limited, and its parent company PatentReal, Hong Kong, developed state-of-the-art technology for waste management. It transforms more than 98% of scrap plastic and worn-out tires into sellable goods, totally greenway.
The technology is called Product Reincarnation Technology™ and was already recognized by big names from academic and business circles. Blogs of University of Oxford, Harvard University, Nature.com, Academia.edu … These are just a small portion of websites where this technology was exposed and discussed, always very supportive and positive way.
Source: PatentReal
So how can this new technology – PRT in short – help self-sufficient communities become even more independent? On one side, the technology takes care of garbage. But here is the other thing. It is not like that waste vanishes into a thin ear. It is transformed into money. That is, into fuel or electricity.
The community can even choose what would like to have as an end product: a high-quality fuel and carbon black or electricity.
Alternatively, if the community decided to make some money out of garbage, it can hook the technology to cryptocurrency mining gigs – or some other high-added-value process – up and literally produce big money out of garbage.
Another good news is that PRT technology is already made, tested and verified by leading testing and inspecting company, Bureau Veritas from Switzerland.
“We worked on it for eight years,” says Roberto Hroval, the founder and chairman of PatentReal Corporation and PP8 Company Ltd., “and we successfully passed the alpha and beta stages. Now, technology is prepared for implementing into the industry. It is easily scalable as well. We are rapidly getting ready to launch our first factory in Europe later this year.”
The technology is, of course, self-sufficient. It provides way more energy than it is required for operating. “Product reincarnation Technology™ is more than 85% energetically efficient,” explained Roberto Hroval who also revealed that the name of the factory will be Project Phoenix8.
“We are about to patent three main parts of the plant. After that, we will be officially and legally the first and only company to offer Product Reincarnation Technology™,” added the founder.
He also explained how the company would deal with such a big project. After all, they are doing many projects, worldwide.
“Yes, PatentReal Corporation does a lot of edge science projects. But I have very skilled and experienced teams who work on selected projects. With saying that, I would like to emphasize that Project Phoenix8 will be supervised by me exclusively. This is a project worth more than 1,5 billion dollars that will reach 22 billion shortly. So I will not leave it to chance. I am ready to outsource every other project, if needed, just to have time and other resources for building PP8,” confesses Roberto Hroval.
He also explained the numbers. The company will get input material fairly cheaply and produce great products that will be monetized. “This is our business model: buying cheap waste – or getting it for free – and transforming it into fuel or electricity. If some communities will build a plant for themselves, the end products – either fuel or electricity – can be also consumed on the spot, of course.”
Source: PatentReal
The other important fact is that the production process is fairly cheap due to low temperatures. “PRT technology produces goods of the highest quality. For example, our fuel doesn’t need any additional processing that would cost money. This is yet another reason why this technology is so awesome – cheap input material, low-cost process due to low temperatures, HQ end products, and no emissions whatsoever,” Hroval summarized.
“All the guessing is taken out of the equation. The market interest for our technology confirms that we are at the right time at the right place. We have signed contracts with the input material providers and with the buyers of end-products. We can´t wait to get started and contribute greatly to the brightest future,” concluded the founder.