Imagine a world without money, with a resource-based economy and technology created for positive purposes and not war. That's what social engineer, industrial designer and creator of The Venus Project, 94-year-old Jacques Fresco, has been doing since the stock market crash of 1929.

"It was a time people united because banks failed and … people lost faith in political office," said Fresco, on the phone from Montreal. He and his associate Roxanne Meadows have been on a seven-month speaking tour, which makes its way to London on October 9 at the London City Music Hall.

The Venus Project centers around a new "social design (that's) not communism, socialism or anything that's gone before," said Meadows. There's a focus on using science and technology to the benefit of people and society and using machines to "free people, not to downsize them," said Fresco.

The society would also have a resource-based economy where "everything is available without bartering," added Meadows. The absence of politics and money from this vision is for good reason, according to Fresco and Meadows.

"The government really does not care about people," said Meadows. "It cares about wealth, power."

And money serves as an "interference factor," she added. "It creates elitism and greed … As long as money is in the equation, you can sell drugs, buy off politicians..."

Essentially The Venus Project advocates equal opportunity for all. "With our economy today we can create abundance all around the world, good medical care for everyone."

The project is based in Venus, Florida, on 21 and a half acres. Ten buildings house all of Meadows and Fresco's research on this new social design. They make models of what future cities would be like, host tours and have guests stay to learn more about their advocacy.

They have funded the entire project themselves. They did receive some donations from Peter Joseph's film Zeitgeist, The Movie, but that has since run out.

Zeitgeist is the activist portion of the project. The film marked the moment when these ideals were introduced globally, said Meadows. "Then it just took off like crazy." The film, which featured different theories on the parties responsible for 9/11 among other topics, garnered a lot of support for The Venus Project.

Meadows chalked up the interest in the film to society's need for something new.

"People are starving for some real answers in a different direction," she said.

But none of what the two are working towards can be achieved without others' support.

"People have to know about this direction," said Meadows. "There's a lot of studying to understand it. They have to be able to talk to others about it."

There would also have to be an uprooting of the current system.

"A resource-based economy cannot be implemented in a monetary- based system," she added.

However, there is some resistance from individuals as most don't want to "rock the boat" and need their current paychecks.

"It takes them losing their jobs and losing their houses to say, 'There's got to be another way,'" said Meadows.

Currently Meadows and Fresco are working on developing the first city, although Meadows couldn't disclose when it would be completed.

The idea would be to have access centres where citizens could get all the goods and services they would need. "When you have access to the necessities of life, (people) don't steal," said Fresco. They used the example of a camera centre where someone could sign out a camera if they wanted, and when they brought it back, could learn more about it. There would be no need to keep things, said Meadows. "Keeping things is a burden."

As the two tour 20 countries to present The Venus Project to different cities, they're out to educate the masses and, most importantly, find people to carry on the legacy Fresco created.

"Jacques and I have no money and no power and it's up to what people do," said Meadows. "It's up to a lot of people to understand it and carry it on or else it won't be done."

Fanshawe student, and member of the Zeitgeist Movement London chapter and Fanshawe club, Kevin Labonte is one of those individuals they're talking about.

He first became interested in The Venus Project after seeing the first Zeitgeist film, which initially made him skeptical. However, after watching the second film which offered solutions to societal problems, he joined the London group.

"When you got into the idea of sharing resources, it just kind of made sense," he said.

But he also looks at The Venus Project more practically in that while the futuristic buildings and images of a city underwater could happen, the ideals behind the project are equally important.

"The idea of The Venus Project doesn't have to come to fruition," he said, adding that if society lives less materialistically and evolves in that direction, that progress is as relevant as building elaborate cities.

"It's a change in values. You have something (to) work towards and present something better than what's currently used," he said. "It's a slow value change."

For more information on The Venus Project, visit http://www.thevenusproject.com.